LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 76

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absolved and spotless. His chastisement brought you peace, and
by His stripes you are completely healed.
As we cry out our confession, it is our intent to do “good works,
which are the fruits of repentance, which we are bound to follow”
(AC XII 6). As John the Baptizer cried out, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). As Jesus mercifully addressed the
sinful woman—“Neither do I condemn you of your sin. Go and
sin no more” (John 8:11). As St. Paul teaches, “But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; … Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:22–24) and
put on Christ with these very fruit of the Spirit.
Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
What builds our life together as we come here today? What is the
DNA of our Christian koinonia? What defines “fellowship” among
us in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod?
St. Luke writes in Acts, “So those who received his Word were
baptized” (Acts 2:41). Those who received God’s Word, His Logos
in the Greek … Logos, “the Word [Logos] made flesh who comes to
dwell among us and in us, God … full of grace and truth” (John
1:14). To hear and believe the Word, the Logos, is to hear and believe Christ Himself. To be baptized in water and the Word is to
be baptized in Christ Himself—to be released from hell and sin
and eternal death.
Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the Logos, He builds our life together—us with the Father and us with one another. Jesus Christ
is our very DNA. He permeates in and through us even as we eat
His body and drink His blood; His flesh surges through us, and
He serves the world and one another through us. Jesus Christ
defines our fellowship with the Father through His horrid cross
and His triumphant resurrection. And the Son who is forsaken at
the cross, His same Father now receives our spirit unto eternal life.

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2 0 1 3 C o n v e n t io n P r o c e e d i n g s

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is this same Jesus Christ who
is our DNA, who is our koinonia, who is our life together. It is this
same Jesus Christ who defines our fellowship with one another, as
together we are The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Holy
Christian Church, the communion of saints, the Bride of Christ,
the heirs of eternal life.
Oh, how beautiful is our koinonia. Oh, how beautiful is our life
together as Christ lives and moves and breathes with and among
us. In our life together, we now explain everything in the kindest
way. With Christ living in and through us, we now put the best
construction on everything, we are loyal to Christ, and we are loyal
to one another. This is what Baptism does to us. In our koinonia,
we gladly hear God’s Word from the preached voice of our pastor
as He speaks God’s Word into our ear and the Holy Spirit thus
creates faith in us. This is what Baptism does to us. In our fellowship,
we are all confessional. In our fellowship, we are all missional. In
our fellowship, we are all Lutheran. We are the baptized in Christ.
This is who we are!
Our DNA is this: mounting up together a defense, not against one
another, but against Satan and all evil and all darkness and all
ungodly principalities and all sin, even as Jesus Christ is our sure
defense; this is our Baptism in the risen Christ Jesus.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the
fellowship [koinonia], to the breaking of bread and the prayers”
(Acts 2:42). I kind of like the way St. Paul says it to the Galatians
actually: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me” (Gal. 2:20). That’s us! That’s you! That’s me! We are “Baptized
for This Moment” (and the moments to come as we move forward
in the days and weeks and years and the generations ahead). We
are baptized for koinonia. We are baptized for life together. Amen.

C o n v e n t io n se r m o n s