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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 76

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

A wise pastor said to a young seminary student eager to bring change to the church, “Beware of loving
the fight.” Conventions and debates are necessary;
but the moment we love winning more than we love
each other as saints and faithful brothers, we’ve lost
even if we win.
This is what St. Paul wants for us: “May you be
strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col.
1:11–12).
Compare that with the man who said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance
with me” (Luke 12:13). The inheritance is shared;
it is not mine or yours, something we can divide up
or hoard for ourselves. It is the inheritance of the
saints—and that only by virtue of being in Christ,
the true Saint, the true Holy One. Jesus said to Peter
in the Upper Room, “Unless I wash you, you have no
share—no part, no portion of the inheritance—with
Me.” Jesus does this. Jesus acts, Jesus performs,
Jesus gives us the share of His inheritance.
Which is to say, our congregations, our districts, our
Synod, our families, our own calling as disciples of
Jesus—none of it is our own doing. The Father has
qualified us, delivered us, transferred us to the Son’s
kingdom—for He has redeemed us.
St. Paul continues this theme in the next chapter of
Colossians, where everything is grounded in our new
identity in Jesus:

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off
the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of
Christ, having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through
faith in the powerful working of God, who
raised him from the dead. And you, who were
dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, God made alive together with
him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. (Col.
2:11–13)
“In him,” “with him,” “with him,” “with him”: Circumcised in Him, buried with Him, raised with Him,
made alive with Him—all things are with Him and in
Him and through Him.
The Father has delivered us from wars, strife, and
contention. He has transferred us to Christ’s kingdom,
where forgiven brothers and sisters forgive each other.
This is why St. Paul can call us saints, holy ones—because Jesus takes sinners and calls them saints. We
are faithful brothers, loyal to each other, for we have
one Brother from whom we derive our brotherhood.
“We know that we have passed out of death into
life,” St. John says, “because we love the brothers”
(1 John 3:14). Over this week, we may disagree on
some things. May it not be as sons of thunder, calling
down fire or jockeying for positions of greatness. We
are saints, made holy by the blood of the Lamb. We
are faithful brothers because we have a Brother who
was faithful unto death. In Him will we live, in Him
will we die—and His will we be forever.
+INJ+

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Sermon

“Saints and Faithful Brothers”