LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 86

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precious than silver or gold. Believing the Gospel will
save you—and it alone. By the Holy Spirit, preach Christ
crucified and risen!

“Accept me, Lord, into Thy School, and graduate me as
Your FOOL” (Martin Franzmann, “The Marks of the
Theologian,” Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. XXIV, no.
2, [February 1953]: 86) Yes, I am a fool for Christ. Amen
and Shalom!

There Is No Distinction; We ALL Are Saved by Grace
ROMANS 3:21–26

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Associate Professor Rev. Dr. Ely Prieto
68th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • August 2, 2023 • Matins
When Rev. Christian Broders arrived in South Brazil,
March 28, 1900, he probably never imagined that a
moment like this would happen in an LCMS convention.
Rev. Broders was commissioned by the Board of
International Missions of the Synod to go to Brazil and
assess mission opportunities in the country. Mission to
the heathen (Heidenmission) was bred in the bone of
Missouri since its inception. Of course, the primary
interest was mission outreach to the German diaspora
(Carl S. Meyer, Moving Frontiers [Concordia Publishing
House, 1986], 294, 303). The goal was to bring the Gospel
to German immigrants and help them to grow in their
faith, in a biblical and solid Lutheran foundation.
What initially started as a mission assessment among
German immigrants, three months later led to the
foundation of the first LCMS congregation on Brazilian
soil (July 1, 1900)—St. John Lutheran Church, established
only with 17 families (Walter O. Steyer, Os Imigrantes

Alemães no Rio Grande do Sul e o Luteranismo [Editora
Singular, Porto Alegre, RS, 1999], 35).
But now, 123 years have passed since Pastor Broders
arrived in Brazil, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Brazil (IELB) is now a partner church of the LCMS, and it
has 245,097 baptized members, 59 districts, 529 parishes,
1,937 congregations and mission stations, 933 pastors
(https://www.ielb.org.br/institucional, 06-02-23). And your
preacher this morning is a man born in Brazil. Indeed,
however, his last name is not, Schüler, Müller,
Scheunemann or Schultz, but Prieto!
SOUTH, WEST … NORTH & EAST
While in the early 1900s, the Missouri Synod is eager to
share the Gospel in the South, in Brazil, the apostle Paul
wants the Gospel to go West, go to Rome. And the main
reason we engage in an endeavor like this, is just one …
“… For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22–23).
It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Greek, living in Rome.
If you are a German immigrant living in South Brazil. Or
if you are Anglo, Hispanic, African American, Asian, living
in America. It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is, what
language you speak, or where you live in the world. There
is no distinction! It doesn’t make any difference—we, WE
ALL fall short of the glory of God!
It doesn’t matter how hard we try, we fail, we always fail!
We all have sinned! And what makes things worse is not
that we have sinned once, and then we are done with it!
No! It is a continual action (present indicative)! We don’t
stop doing it! And though we try, and we try again, every
single time, we fall short! We sin, again, again, and again!
And consequently, we—all of us, no distinction—we are
under the wrath of God!
We are in the pit; we have fallen into the hole that we have
made for ourselves (Psalm 8:15). We are under sin, we all
have turned aside from God, and we delight in deceiving,
cursing; and wherever we walk, we leave behind us a path

86 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

Convention Sermons