LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 105

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CONVENTION BIBLE STUDIES
passing the Good News along effectively to those who sit
with you on a Sunday?
It’s been my privilege to serve as an interim pastor in a
wonderful congregation. As such, it was my custom to go
through the church directory, pick up the phone, and say
“hello” to the people of the parish.
It was a Wednesday in Lent when I placed the call.
“Good morning. This is Tom Zehnder, your Interim Pastor.
Just wanted to call, say hello”—so the conversation began.
I was getting a less than warm vibe from the person on the
other end and then the story began to spill out.
Anger at the church for not caring enough after the
sudden death of a spouse only some months ago. Don’t
ask me to do anything for a church that doesn’t do anything for me. Haven’t been there for a long time and
don’t know that I will come back.

Even with all that, I wrangled an invitation to stop by
the house and discuss personally these things. It was a surprise, given the conversation on the phone, to walk into a
home with the aroma of a freshly baked pie, and perking
coffee. A pleasant place.
Small talk ensued and then more direct conversation
about the previous phone call. “I am sorry we weren’t able
to give you the support you really needed. How did we fail
you?” The tears came as the words flowed, without a stop
along the way:
“When he died he left me without any instructions
about any financial matters. He did the checkbook, and
all that. I didn’t know where anything was, where the
paperwork was relating to his military pension, so I
went through his stuff at the computer desk. I found
files. Oh, what files. Stuffed with pictures of pornography, and incestual poses. I am so angry. I loved him and
I hate him. I hated him and I love him.”

How does one speak the Gospel to that situation, how do
you move the conversation into a situation which becomes
the “critical event” when one speaks the Gospel to another
person in need. There was an attempt, and evidently the
Lord used it to some good, for the person is on the way at
least to reentrance into the fellowship.
One point of this story is that we are called to share the
Gospel with all people, and that includes also the people of
our own parish. You are all members of LCMS congregations and I am assuming that because you are here, you are
seen as a leader, a mover and shaker in your congregation
and circuit. People have elevated you by your election to be
a delegate at this national convention. As you are on the
front line of the decision-makers of the church, you will also
want to be the first ones who remember the necessity of
sharing the Good News of the Gospel also with the people of
your congregation. If you are a lay person, then consider
also your privilege of sharing the Gospel with your pastor.
They are in need of hearing from another the Gospel they
share with you.
This phone call stunned me:
The faithful elder was calling on a late Saturday
night, hardly able to speak, but as he did, between the
sobbing came the words, “We found our pastor in his
study tonight. He was dead. Shot himself with a shotgun. It’s terrible.”
It was so terrible, beyond words, walking into that
study and seeing the evidence of what had happened,
the red stains on the walls, the floor, and even on
Luther’s Works which fit nicely on the shelves.

107

His earthly remains had been removed by the funeral home, but everything else was there, just as it
was when he pulled the trigger. There was his neverto-be-preached sermon for the Sunday on his desk, his
Bible open to the text.
There were birthday cards with greetings from me—
sent to him for five successive years, lined up neatly on
the shelf behind the desk. That haunted me, for I wondered if he were looking at those and wishing that I had
talked more with him about his life and ministry.

We just never know who is in need of hearing the Good
News of the Gospel, and it may very well be the person you
think needs it least. And so we speak up as the opportunity
unfolds—and really, when does it not unfold?
In the midnineties, en route to somewhere, all of us in
the cheap seats saw Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay, sitting
in First Class. I watched him as he quietly passed out his
autograph to people who were asking—everyone. He politely handed people an autographed tract advertising the
Muslim faith.
When he got off the plane, the large gathered crowd also
took his tracts. We give grudging compliment to the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons for their zealousness in
spreading their rumors, half-truths, and downright falsehoods regarding the Lord God. Rather than hang our head
in shame, let’s light the fire and set the world ablaze with
the light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Missionary Elmer Bergt
The man I name now may be known by some here:
Elmer Bergt, an intriguing man of God who graduated in
1939 from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. There
were few calls available in the just passing depression era.
His heart was set on foreign missionary work, and he felt
especially called to India. However he was not married—
and then, one could not serve overseas as a single man.
Eventually a call came to him from Zion Lutheran
Church, Tampa, Florida. He and his dear wife, Elvira
served that congregation faithfully. Zion celebrated its
100th anniversary in the late 1990s, and at that point in
her life, this beautiful veteran church turned herself into a
mission to the poor and downtrodden of the area. I believe
it is still alive and well today.
In 1951, Elmer Bergt received a call from the Mission
Board of our church to become a missionary to Japan.
Elmer and Elvira packed up their belongings. Off they went
to the Land of the Rising Sun, children in tow.
Pastor Bergt was truly a brilliant man. He sported a delightful and unique Perry County accent, (for he came from
our church’s founding families). He dug into the Japanese
language, learning it more or less on his own, a formidable
task, also mastering Kangi, the Chinese characters the
Japanese people also use for writing.
At first, of course, he was not able to use the language at
all, so he spoke through interpreters and such. He carried
with him, at all times, tracts presenting the Christian
Gospel in the Japanese language. Stamping them with his
name and address in English and Japanese, he left them
everywhere. On every train he rode, every streetcar, every
bus—there, on the seats, he left behind Christian tracts in
the Japanese language.
2004 Convention Proceedings