LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 85

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CONVENTION SERMON
“ONE MISSION ABLAZE!—TO THE
ENDS OF THE EARTH”
Isaiah 49:5–6: And now the LORD says—He who formed
me in the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to
Him and gather Israel to Himself, for I am honored in the
eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength—He
says: “It is too small a thing for you to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I
have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that
you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you, from God our Father
and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Dominic Williams’ short life began the same way it
ended. Early. With problems. And needing someone to protect him.
He was born prematurely and discharged from the hospital with drugs to control his seizures. His mother failed to
give him the medication. Soon he was back in the hospital
and suffered neurological damage from pressure on his
brain. His mother never came to see him. His father never
knew him.
Dominic was just as alone last month when he was
found strangled to death, naked, and face down in a trash
bin. He was taken from his mother at age seven months
and lived in eight different foster homes in St. Louis because no one wanted to adopt him. His final foster mother
had reported him missing, but no one claimed him when he
was found. Police identified him through dental records.
Dominic Williams was lost for the 17 short years of his
life and, from all indications, no one ever found him.
Dominic Williams needed somebody to find him. As I
think about this young man, I think about the mission of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I have come to seek and
to save the lost.”
There are many more Dominics in this world. Their stories may not end as tragically, but they are still lost! And
Christ has called us “to seek and to save them.”
That’s what this convention is all about. That’s what
this church is all about. The theme of this convention, One
Mission—Ablaze!, highlights that “seeking and saving” endeavor, even more specifically, by setting before us a goal of
sharing the Gospel with 100 million people around the
world by 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
There are many more to be reached beyond those 100
million. But the mission is not about numbers. It is about
people like Dominic Williams who need to be found—people both near and far away.
In today’s text we hear the importance of bringing the
light of God’s love to the Gentiles, to the ends of the earth.
But we also hear that God’s mission is for His own people,
“To bring Jacob back and gather Israel to Himself.”
This was necessary, as the Old Testament records, because of the checkered history of the Jews, the chosen people of God. They went after false gods. The nation’s allegiance to the true God rose and fell with the faithfulness or
unfaithfulness of a long succession of Israelite kings. This
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produced a nation in exile, from God and country, constantly in need of being called back to the truth. Such was
the task of the prophet Isaiah.
Today, centuries later, we in the LCMS have the multifaceted responsibility of nurturing those already in the
Christian faith and of calling back, restoring, and reclaiming those who have fallen away from the truth. In this regard, a member from Community Lutheran Church, in Flat
Rock, Michigan, recently shared this story.
My neighbor Herb had bugged the heck out of me,
literally, asking if he could take my two sons (ages 6
and 3) to Vacation Bible School at Community
Lutheran Church. When he showed up at my door and I
was up to my elbows in the strawberry jam I was making, I said: “Fine . . . go ahead . . . get them out of my
hair.” I attended parent’s night that week and 22 years
later I’m so grateful to God for sending the Holy Spirit
back into my life, through my neighbor Herb, that hot
summer day.

There are many such people in need of being called back
to the truth. Like Herb, you and I are in a position of knowing such people, of inviting and influencing them to come
back to the truth of God’s love in Jesus Christ. That indeed
is our God-given responsibility as Christians, every one of
us.
C. F. W. Walther, the first President of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod, expressed that responsibility
well to his congregation in an 1842 sermon (about the
priesthood of all believers). Listen to his words:
No one should say, “But I am no pastor, no teacher,
no preacher. Let him (the pastor) teach, admonish, comfort, convert, and bring to Christ. But I will stay in my
vocation.” No, my Christian. You have been baptized
and through Holy Baptism you have already been
called and anointed a priest of God. Through Holy Baptism every Christian is consecrated, ordained, and installed in the office of teaching, admonishing, comforting, and rebuking his neighbor . . . and has received not
only the power, the full authority, and the right but also
the obligation, under penalty of losing divine grace,
himself to watch, care, and help that others may also
be enlightened and brought to Christ, the Bishop of
their souls.

Walther must surely be talking about both the mission
of finding those who once were found, but are now again
lost, and also the mission of Christian outreach to unbelievers, lost people who have never been found and who do
not now confess the name of Jesus.
Indeed, God said to His Servant, “It is too small a thing
for You to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and
bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You
a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to
the ends of the earth.”
The Servant-Messiah, of whom it is written in Isaiah,
has come to this earth “to restore the tribes of Jacob and
bring back those of Israel.” Jesus Christ, the very Son of
God, took on human flesh and is the “Light for the Gentiles.” Through His perfect life, His all-atoning sacrifice,
and His glorious resurrection, He has brought “salvation to
the ends of the earth.” As the apostle reminds us, “He died
. . . for the sins of the whole world.”
2004 Convention Proceedings