LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 59

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16. We have disaster work in the name of Christ that just won’t stop.
17. We are blessed by the LCMS Foundation, the Lutheran Church
Extension Fund, Concordia Plans, and Concordia Publishing
House.
18. We are blessed by nearly 6,200 congregations on the front
lines of mission.
19. And we are blessed by some 1,568 delegates.
And it’s all gift, all grace. “Remember your leaders, those who
spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome [and what an
outcome!] of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7).
“I will remember the deeds of the Lord” (Ps. 77:11). “What do you
have that you did not receive?” we say with St. Paul (1 Cor. 4:7).
But as we all know, we face severe challenges as a church:
• One in three people under 30 in this country are religiously
unaffiliated. And I am shocked by how many of these I meet
who tell me, “I used to be LCMS.”
• We are deeply affected by the decline in the birth rate and the
decline of marriage as an institution.
• The culture is on the attack.
• Thus far, our best efforts at mission have not been able to stem
the slow, 40-year decline.
• And if I were to talk to each one of you, with a little time, you’d
tell me and I’d tell you about our challenges in the ministry,
our personal struggles, our weaknesses, our need for prayer and
strength.
Today I say to you: Take heart! You are like the paralytic who was
let down through the roof by his friends. Jesus says to you, “Take
heart! Your sins are forgiven!” (Luke 5:20). “But so that you might
know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I
say to you, here today, rise! Take up your mat and go!” (Luke 5:24).
Take heart! You are baptized.
Today I say to you: Take heart! What Jesus told His apostles applies
directly to you today, this moment: “I have said these things to
you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have
tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Buried with Christ by Baptism into His death (Rom. 6:4), Jesus has
overcome the world in you. Take heart! You are baptized.
Today I say to you: You are like blind Bartimaeus sitting by the
road. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” “Jesus, Son of
David! This congregation is driving me mad. Jesus, Son of David,
I’m tired, I’m depressed, I’m paralyzed. I’m working myself to
death. I’m not seeing the fruit. Lord, have mercy!”
“And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart. Get up;
He is calling you.’ … Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want Me to
do for you?’ ‘Rabbi! I want to see!’ ” (Mark 10:46–49). Take heart!
The Lord delights in reducing us to nothing. And then when we are
nothing, He calls, Take heart! You have a vocation in your Baptism.
Today I say to you: Take heart! Jesus has placed this good ship
Missouri out on the high seas. The stakes are high. The waves are
higher. The culture is wretched. The hatred of the world is palpable.
But the Lord doesn’t want us safely secluded away from the world
in a tranquil haven. He wants us out among sinners, just like us,
who need Him. Facing these challenges is enough to make us lose
RE P ORT O F T H E P RESIDENT

our courage and our confidence in God’s Word. Take heart! Jesus
wants us out in the waves, out in the storm, out in the world, but
not of the world (cf. John 17:11, 16). And He is here with us in that
storm. “For they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately
He spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid’ ”
(Mark 6:50). Take heart! You are baptized. That tiny bit of water
will stand down all the oceans of tribulation on earth.
Today I say to you: Take heart! Perhaps you’ve come to this convention with apprehension, concern, anger, sinful thoughts, all
mixed with faith and the best intentions. On a humorous note,
and for those particularly worried about the coming week, I quote
for you the words of St. Paul in the Book of Acts, “I urge you to
take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of
the ship” (Acts 27:22). God help us! “Wait for the Lord; be strong,
and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Ps. 27:14).
My dear friends in Christ, this truly is a remarkable moment for
us. I believe that as America goes the way of Europe, the Church
will actually be attacked more violently on this continent because
we do not have the tradition of state churches. I also believe that
as we “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) and as our constitutional guarantees of the free exercise of religion face constant
infringement and infraction, the Lord will work good among us,
perhaps even bringing the greater unity among us that has often
eluded us. Luther says in the Large Catechism that “spiritual fathers”
are entitled to honor but seldom receive it. “For the world’s way
of honoring them is to harry them out of the country and grudge
them as much as a piece of bread. In short, as St. Paul says, they
must be the refuse of the world, and every man’s footrag” (LC I 160).
So it has always been. So it will be. An American Catholic bishop,
Cardinal George, got it right, I think, when he said, “I expect to
die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will
die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the
shards of a ruined society … as the church has done so often in
human history.” Take heart! The Lord promised it would be so in
the end times.
The Lord humbles those whom He would elevate. And even as
we are being humbled and sifted and driven to repentance, the
Lord is putting before us a moment like no other in our lifetimes.
In fact, we are witnessing a tectonic shift in world Lutheranism.
Lutheran churches in Africa—such as the Ethiopian Mekane Yesus
with 6.2 million members, the Malagasy Lutheran Church with
more than 4 million, and increasingly the Tanzanian Lutherans
and many others—are coming to us not asking for money. They
want our teaching, our biblical and Lutheran fidelity, which has
become so eroded in the European and American Lutheran world
because of historical criticism and its effects. And in this moment
of vast migration of peoples, we need our African Lutheran brothers and sisters more than they need us. Frankly, they are much
better at mission than we are. And thousands upon thousands of
their church members and their countrymen have emigrated to
America and to other places in the world. And they need Christ
and the Lutheran Church.
The mission of the Church is now more than ever translocal. It is
“glocal,” if you will. The world and its people are migrating like
nothing seen since the great migrations of peoples into the Roman
Empire during the third and fourth centuries. While they are
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