LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Sheet 66

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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wo owe te et

Ss ew oDnewRaenn oer”

ast this place, six abreast, one step every second, 8
hours each day, many of us, would never see the end of
the line, for 47 years would be required. It is not an
‘ ‘ble task —at least not mathematically. If one
Christian talked to another and after 6 months that man
became a Christian — and those two in 6 months won
two more — and those four in 6 months four more, etc. —
after 16 years there would be 4 billion, about the
population of the world!

And what of our own land? On Independence Day we
remind ourselves it’s true that a nation is blessed only
when its God is the Lord. We had better take a hard look
at our land. Is there anyone among us who will say that
our country is living in the same spirit as our founding
fathers with a profound faith and trust in God, acknowl-
edging Him to be Head and Lord? Are we a God-fearing
nation, or are we akin to those of whom Moses wrote
when he predicted that in the land of milk and honey
they would wax fat and turn to other gods? Someone has
estimated that 20 million family units have no religious
affiliation at all. Only 2% million don’t have refrigera-
tors, only 17 million no television sets, only 12 million no
automobiles, but 20 million familes no church affiliation.
It is estimated that 40 percent of our elementary school
children have no religious connection, 80 percent of our
high school students do not have an active church life,
and 90 percent of our students on college campuses sleep
in on Sunday. And what is the result? The courage of
Bunker Hill and the valor of the Delaware crossing have
been replaced by another spirit.

That nation alone is great whose God is the Lord. We
have written that affirmation into our Constitution, we
have stamped it on our currency, we have repeated it in
our salute to the flag, sung it in our national anthem,
affirmed it as each President takes office with the words,
“So help me God.” The first prayer in Congress began, “O
Lord, our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of
kings and Lord of lords,” and it concludes with the words,
“In the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, our Savior.”

Jesus Christ is Lord. It’s time for our nation and for
the world and the church to become afraid of Him
perhaps. He has a strange and terrible way of coming
back into a sin-loving world and a cold, indifferent
church and throwing down the candlesticks as He did
2,000 years ago when Jerusalem crumbled into dust and
ashes. Where one cross had stood, now there were
hundreds. Men shouted, “We have no king but Caesar.”
And they had no king but Caesar. America, Jesus Christ
is Lord.

And what prospects! All around us are people restless
and groping and hungry. They don’t know for what.
What is it but a hunger for some real bread of life — the
longing of the exiled to breath his native air —the
psalmist’s quest, “My heart and my flesh cry out for the
living God.”

So reach out! “Go!” Not only with talk but with deeds.
That means social concern. Feed the hungry, give drink
to the thirsty, heal the sick, house the refugees, promote
economic justice, battle racism, wipe out poverty, fight for
social justice, erase world hunger. Go out, as did our

CONVENTION SERMON 67

Lord, to make men whole. “Too much talk.” That was the
answer of a Scottish divine’s son when asked how he
liked his first visit to church.

But more. For Jesus did more. Jesus served people in
a practical way, but He didn’t stop there. Beyond filling
their empty stomachs with bread He filled their empty
lives with meaning. Beyond giving them the Golden Rule
He forgave them for breaking the Golden Rule. The
ministry our Lord committed to the church we call
evangelism. It means to present Christ Jesus in the
power of the Holy Spirit that men should come to put
their trust in Him and to accept Him as their Savior and
serve Him as their Lord in the fellowship of the church.
Perhaps in our time we need to offer our products in
different order. Instead of selling the church in the hope
that, once inside, people will buy the Gospel, we might
try to sell the Gospel in the certainty that once it takes
possession it is the power of God that will draw people to
His church.

The great question before us is: Will we ring it? You
know, out in Philadelphia there’s a crack in the Liberty
Bell; it doesn’t ring anymore. Is that the way it is with
us? Our song isn’t sung? Our bell isn’t ringing? Is it
because we spend all our time diagnosing the sickness of
the church and prescribing the remedy? Is it because we
spend all our time trying to “shore up” this Lord who
really doesn’t need our help? Is it because we have fallen
victim to overintellectualizing the faith? Is it because all
our time is spent clarifying our dogmatic positions? Have
you ever read of the philosopher who was so busy proving
the existence of God he forgot to say his prayers? Is it
because we are so intent on being as straight as an arrow
theologically we have become empty as a gun barrel
spiritually? So often it has been that fundamental and
orthodox Christians became so severe in condemning
false doctrine, gnashing their teeth at every sniff of
heresy, that they end up without love. The same Paul
who wrote: “Though an angel from heaven preach any
other Gospel, let him be adcursed,” also wrote the love
chapter of Corinthians. “If I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels but have not love, | am a noisy gong or
a clanging cymbal.” Do we need to hear Paul scold us as
he did the Corinthians? “You should be ashamed of
yourselves,” he thundered in effect. “Have you no de-
cency that you bring the faith into disrepute by your
disgusting behavior? You have made Christianity the
laughingstock of the world.” Is it because there are
efforts not to bring in, but efforts to cast out? Is it
because we are unconcerned about righting wrongs? Is it
because there’s so little shouting about the One who has
been given a name above every name?

Perhaps then we need to remind ourselves that this
text was really addressed to a concrete case of disunity in
the church. Evidently in this church that Paul loved
there were a few clashes of human temperament that
spoiled the harmony in the household of God. It troubled
Paul; he expected it of some of his other churches, but he
had thought better of the Philippians. That was one of
the main reasons for writing this letter which has been
preserved in the New Testament. “I beseech you, Euodias
and Syntyche, to agree in the Lord”. What the trouble