LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 110

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Giving thanks is not a contradiction to lamentation.
That’s what we can learn from the psalms.
If your hands are totally empty, if all safeguards have
vanished, there is just one place where you can go: Just
one place, where your hands will be filled and where
your thanksgiving will not cease: And that’s the
worship service.
Here your thanksgiving does not depend on your
feelings. Here, the future becomes present, when
heaven and earth become one in the celebration of the
Holy Sacrament. It is such a moving experience for me
every week: Christians, filled with fear and despair,
come to our worship services, kneel at the altar, receive
the holy body and blood of their Savior, thereby
clinging to the only gift that they cannot lose. The
Persian hymns that they sing mostly deal with the topic
of Christ’s presence and comfort amidst sorrow, fear
and pain. Our brothers and sisters know that
superficial worship songs with one or two lines do not
help them in their situation. They know that their only
hope is to look at Christ, at His cross, at His gifts,
looking at Him who is stronger than the Iranian regime
and stronger than the German government.
Our brothers and sisters know: Our worship service is
not a nice event, not an enjoyable show. Here they can
find rescue in a different world, having experienced
how hollow all promises of this world ring, even all
pious human promises.
Give thanks in all circumstances — our brothers and
sisters know that the only place where they are able to
do this is the worship service, in which Christ is
proclaimed and in which the Holy Sacraments are
distributed — a worship service that is not based on
human emotions and feelings. Here they experience
that Christ remains the Lord of the world and the Lord
of the church throughout all ages, despite all resistance
that they are confronted with every day. When they
pray the Nicene Creed they remember that the bishop
of Herat in Afghanistan was one of those bishops who
were present at the Council of Nicaea, that they confess
the faith of their fathers. And at the altar they
experience that Christ alone does everything for them
when they simply open their mouths to receive the holy
body and blood of their Lord. That’s the real basis for
giving thanks in all circumstances!

different countries drink the blood of Christ from the
one chalice. That’s heaven on earth, part of the eternal
Eucharist. And it always fills my heart with special joy
when groups from The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod come to our church, and Americans and Afghans
and Iranians kneel together at the Lord’s table, united
by the same gift of our Lord’s real presence.
As I experience so much pain and fear and despair, so
much injustice and Christianophobia every day, the
worship service has remained the one place where I can
always give thanks in all circumstances. I do not give
thanks for numbers and figures, but rather for brothers
and sisters, in whom Christ has wrought this incredible
miracle of faith. And again and again, I give thanks for
these refugees who have made their way to Germany.
They are such a blessing not only for our church in
Berlin-Steglitz, but in so many congregations of our
Lutheran church. They are such a blessing for us, as
they ask this one question, “How important is Christ to
you, how important is your belief in Christ to you?” Is
Christ so important to you that you would be willing to
give up everything for Him — your home country, your
possessions, your health, your life? Then you have
indeed reason enough to give thanks in all
circumstances.
In heaven we will give thanks to God without end. In
comparison to this our three-hour worship services on
Sunday are short. But they carry us through the turmoil
of our everyday lives, they help us to keep focused on
Christ, on His return in glory which will terminate all
the injustice and persecution that we experience now.
And that’s why we say in all circumstances: Thanks be
to God!
In the name of Jesus! Amen!

When we celebrate our worship service, we experience
a foretaste of heaven here on earth, in the midst of
persecution. In heaven, human beings from all nations
are united before the throne of the Lamb — and that’s
what we experience already now in our worship
services, when brothers and sisters from many
110 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

Convention Essays