100 years ago yesterday Zion's current building was dedicated.
*"If He Has Called Them, He Indeed Calls Us"*
Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles
St. Matthew 16:13-19
June 29, 2014
*IN NOMINE JESU*
We have come upon a most interesting day on the liturgical
calendar. Normally, when we celebrate a minor festival, we remember one of
the Apostles, Evangelists, or other saints. But today we commemorate two
apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. We remember two men who took
different roads to become apostles of the Lord. Peter was fishing with his
brother, Andrew, when Jesus came and called them. "Follow Me, and I will
make you fishers of men." They immediately left their boats and followed
Him, leaving their nets behind. Paul, on the other hand, was not called as
one of the original Twelve. Rather, he became an apostle as one "untimely
born," as if an unborn child was taken from his dead mother's womb. He was
a zealous Jew, defending Judaism feverishly and seeking to obliterate
anything that might pose a threat to this legalistic, and now false,
religion. His zeal knew no bounds. He even went as far as to persecute
followers of "the Way," the term the earliest Christians used to describe
themselves out of fear of persecution. Paul had overseen the persecution
and execution of many Christians, most notably St. Stephen, as we read in
Acts 7. Later, as Paul was headed to Damascus to persecute Christians
there, the Lord struck him blind and came to him in a vision. The Lord
called him through this event to become the greatest missionary the Church
has ever known.
The work of Peter and Paul fills up most of the book of Acts.
Sometimes the Acts of the Apostles is called "The Acts of Peter and Paul."
This is due largely to the fact that the first half of Acts mostly tells of
the words and actions of Peter, while the second half is largely centered
on Paul's ministry. But what St. Luke sought to do in this book is
announce how the Church began her existence, setting the pattern for how
she is to live and grow today.
Another thing different about this morning's observances is
that normally the feast date is set to celebrate the anniversary of that
saint's death. However, we are not sure exactly when Peter and Paul were
martyred. One legend states that Peter and Paul were put to death on
account of their faith on the same day--namely, this day. But the legend
regarding the date is almost too convenient to believe. We do have
documentation to suggest how they died. They were martyred under the Roman
persecution, because Christianity was illegal in the first century, deemed
a threat to the Roman idolatry of worshiping Caesar. Anyone caught
practicing Christianity was guilty of death. It is believed that Peter was
crucified upside down because he said he did not deserve to die in the same
way that his Lord did. It is also believed that Paul was beheaded.
Tradition states that they were both martyred in Rome, and on this date in
the year 258, under yet another persecution, and that some of the faithful
moved the bodies of Peter and Paul in Rome to the catacombs, lest these
bodies fall into the hands of the persecutors. June 29, therefore, has
been since the third century set aside as the date commemorating these two
apostles, the day their remains were moved to be protected from the
persecutors. A fourth-century theologian, St. Ambrose, noted that the
Church had already been observing this day with a vigil.
We as the Church have the divine charge to tell the Good News
about Jesus wherever we go and whatever we do. It seems simple enough for
us to do, but we do not always, or even often, confess Christ outside the
creeds of the Church. We find it difficult to do. One of our biggest
obstacles is we ourselves--us. Rather than listening to our Lord and what
He tells us, we tend to speak for ourselves. Peter had this problem,
speaking for himself, speaking for the sake of speaking, and he often put
his foot, if not a whole shoe store, in his mouth. Peter had moments when
he boldly spoke the truth, such as when he confessed Jesus to be the Christ
and when he preached on Pentecost. But Peter also showed that he did not
fully understand who the Lord was or what Peter was to do: to listen to and
learn from the Lord. Peter, in this text, showed his ignorance when he
rebuked the Lord for speaking of what would happen to the Son of Man on
Good Friday. Peter relied on his own understanding of the Christ, and he
was strongly rebuked for it, being called Satan. We also rely on ourselves
when we seek to speak about the Lord. We let our egos do the talking,
though, and we seek to draw attention to ourselves rather than to Christ.
With open mouths our minds are closed to the Scriptures, as was Peter's
mind. Peter could not comprehend the Scriptures until, as Scripture notes,
the Lord opened Peter's mind, and all the disciples' minds, to understand.
While the Holy Spirit seeks to open our minds to receive what the Lord
teaches us, we keep our minds closed to the Lord's teachings because we do
not want to learn what He would have us believe and because we refuse to
admit that we have been holding to false notions, beliefs rejected by
Scripture. We are afraid we may actually learn something.
While we share in Peter's hard-headedness, we also share in
Paul's misdirected zeal. Paul was a very zealous, religious man. But
Paul's zeal was initially in the persecution of Christians. As a flaming
Jew, he approved the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. Paul, then
a non-believer in Christ, martyred Stephen and persecuted countless other
Christians just because they preached the Gospel and believed in Jesus
Christ. Paul had sought to silence those who confessed Christ. We as a
society have demonized Christians. We accuse confessing Christians of
imposing their so-called morality upon others. We ignore the fact that the
Lord has commanded the Church to make disciples of all nations. We accuse
those who are truly Christians of being unloving and uncaring when it is
the most loving and caring thing to do in spreading the Gospel among people
who do not yet believe in Christ. We have no business running down those
who are called to proclaim the Gospel, demonizing and vilifying those who
preach the Gospel in all its truth, love, and purity. Rather, we should
support them, pray for them, and ask what we can do to assist them in their
God-given callings to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments. Even
though the Lord Himself blinded Paul for his hostility to the Gospel, we
have blinded ourselves, rendering ourselves spiritually blind, dead,
enemies of God, and enemies of the Gospel.
As sinful enemies of the Gospel, we are filled with weaknesses,
thorns in the flesh, just as Paul attested to concerning himself. This
thorn was in place to keep him humble. Paul begged the Lord three times to
remove this unspecified thorn. Paul writes, "But He said to me, 'My grace
is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore
I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of
Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul, following his conversion,
boasted of his own weaknesses so that the Lord would be glorified through
them. Yet we use our weaknesses as excuses to not carry out our Lord's
work. We don't like speaking. We don't know what to say. We can't do
this. We can't do that. If we spent as much time and energy spreading the
Gospel as we do in coming up with excuses, many more people might confess
and live Christ! Yes, we have weaknesses, but these are not excuses to not
witness to others. We have these weaknesses because we are wretched,
sinful people. Even Paul admitted about himself: "Wretched man that I am!"
We are all wretched, despicable creatures because of our fallen, sinful
nature, one that lacks the proper First Commandment relationship with God,
one that does not fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but we
place ourselves above Him and the work He has given us. We are full of the
sinful pride that sank Peter and blinded Paul.
Yet, even in the midst of all our weaknesses, our Lord calls us
to be His witnesses. He uses our weaknesses to His strength and His
glory. Look at the men Jesus called to be His disciples: men with short
tempers, a political zealot, a tax collector, one who refused to believe
the Lord had risen, one who did not think anything good came from Nazareth,
a thief who betrayed the Lord, and one who three times denied the Lord.
The Lord forgave Peter for his denials and restored him as an apostle.
Peter went on to great things by the grace of God. Peter preached to the
first Christians at Pentecost and went elsewhere in his proclamation of the
Gospel, wrote Epistles, and, with St. Mark by his side, put forth the
Second Gospel. Even as God forgave Peter, so He also forgives us. Our
Lord forgives us because He wants us to be with Him eternally and because
He wants us to tell others of His grace, of His love. It does not matter
what our vocation is. Peter was a fisherman; Paul was a tentmaker.
Whatever role we are in at a particular time, it is our God-given vocation,
whether we are a parent, child, spouse, grandparent, or farmer.
The Lord called a tentmaker, whose Jewish name was Saul, the
great persecutor, calling him to be the great missionary that he indeed
became. The Lord blinded him, and the Holy Spirit converted him. The Lord
restored his sight, and this same Lord restores our eyes of faith, for the
Holy Spirit also converts us, bringing us straying sheep back into the fold
of the Good Shepherd. This same Spirit moves us to echo Peter's confession
of Christ, for it is only be the Spirit that we confess Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior. We cannot come to Christ on our own, nor can we confess
Him on our own, for faith is a gift of God. Not only has God given us the
gift of faith by His Holy Spirit, He has given us the greatest gift of all:
the gift of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As Paul writes:
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are
no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal.
4:4-7). And Peter tells us in his First Epistle:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His
great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's
power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as
was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested
genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it
is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love
Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with
joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of
your faith, the salvation of your souls. [1 Peter 1:3-9]
Peter and Paul preached the Gospel. The Lord has given us the Gospel to
read, mark, learn, inwardly digest, and to proclaim to an unbelieving
world. We have the Gospel because Jesus died for our sins and rose for our
justification. In fact, that is the Gospel, the basis for our faith, our
life, our entire being, lived around the Word and Sacraments.
The Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, which we hear each
Lord's Day--and have heard here in this house of the Lord for the past 100
years. He enlightens us with His gifts, equipping us to live godly lives
through the Means of Grace, just as Peter bid his hearers at Pentecost,
that they would repent and become baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of sins. We have been brought to the font, washed with the
water and the Word, and received the promises attached to Holy Baptism. As
Peter reminds us: "...you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For
the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself" (Acts 2:38b-39). The Lord
gives us strength for our task, our living our vocations, by feeding us on
the body and blood of Christ, as He has done here at Zion for 113 years--and
in this very building for the past century. What Paul received from the
Lord he passes on to us, the teaching on the Lord's Supper. What the Lord
said to the Twelve on Maundy Thursday, He taught Paul as one untimely born
His very words: Take, eat. This is My body. This cup is the new covenant
in My blood. Do this in remembrance of Me. Paul adds, "For as often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until
He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). We proclaim the Lord's death for He indeed died,
and just as certainly the Lord rose again--dying and rising for you, for me,
for the life of the world. Had the Lord not risen, our faith would be in
vain, and we would be pitied more than all men. But thanks be to God that
the Incarnate Word has risen from the dead, opening the grave and thus
opening our minds to the Scriptures, that we may testify of Him.
Peter received his teachings from the Lord while one of the
Twelve. The Lord taught Paul through special revelation. They have taken
what they received from the Lord and handed these teachings over to the
Church, and the mother Church has handed these teachings to us through the
preaching and catechesis, as the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church
has done for two millennia, and in this building for the past ten decades.
And we, by the Holy Spirit, continue this apostolic tradition as we
introduce people--friends, relatives, and strangers alike--to the Lord and
bring them here that they too would hear the preaching, receive the
catechesis, and confess the faith, thereby receiving God's gifts in the
Lord's Supper and through regular hearing of the preaching and lifelong
catechesis.
We are truly blessed here at Zion. For 100 years, God has sent
men to preach His Word and administer the Sacraments, pastors who have
preached the same message Peter and Paul faithfully proclaimed, "for [they]
received from the Lord that which [they] also delivered to you" and to your
forebears in the faith. They (and most of you) became members of God's
family through Holy Baptism administered at that font, in keeping with
Peter and Paul's teaching, which they received from the Lord. You and your
ancestors stood before this altar to make confirmation of the faith into
which you all became baptized, making the good confession. Over the years,
generations of your respective families have gathered around this very
altar to eat the Lord's body and drink His blood, the very same body and
blood of which Peter partook, the very Supper that Paul taught the
Corinthians about--and us. Peter, Paul, and the rest of the apostles were
the first to give to the Church the gifts their Lord and ours won when He
died on the cross, gifts still given through men He has sent to be His
undershepherds--pastors--in His Church today. You are the blessed recipients
of this apostolic tradition, of the Gospel that is Christ crucified. Will
we still be here in this building, receiving God's gifts, in 25 years? Ten
years? Next year? Next week? Only the Lord of the Church knows the
answer. Until that day when He calls us to our heavenly home, only Jesus,
the Good Shepherd, can take care of you, His sheep, feeding you on His
Means of Grace, whether you are still here or at a sister congregation.
God remains the primary Actor in the liturgy, handed down through
generations of the Church to this very day, to you and me. He is still the
Do-er of the actions. He still runs the verbs. He still gives the gifts
for your sake. For all this, we, moved by the Holy Spirit, respond in
thanksgiving and song. In a few moments, we will sing the great hymn, the *Te
Deum*, and in this hymn we unite our voices with all of heaven, including
those who once sat in these very pews with you, words that are most fitting
with our remembrance of Saints Peter and Paul and one hundred years of
their teaching and preaching in this building:
We praise You, O God; we acknowledge You to be the Lord.
All the earth now worships You, the Father everlasting.
To You all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the pow'rs therein.
To You cherubim and seraphim continually do cry:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory.
The glorious company of the apostles praise You.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise You.
The noble army of martyrs praise You.
The holy Church throughout all the world does acknowledge You. ...
We therefore pray You to help Your servants,
whom You have redeemed with Your precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with Your saints
in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save Your people and bless Your heritage.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Even as He has done in this building for 100 years, God
continue to grant this in Jesus' Name and for His sake. Amen.
*SOLI DEO GLORIA*
--
The Rev. Mark A. Schlamann, Vacancy Pastor
Zion Lutheran Church (Harbine), Jansen, Nebraska
https://schlamannbloggen.wordpress.com
http://lcmssermons.com/Schlamann
https://facebook.com/ZionLutheranHarbine
"When you are baptized, partake of Holy Communion, receive the absolution,
or listen to a sermon, heaven is open, and we hear the voice of the
Heavenly Father; all these works descend upon us from the open heaven above
us. God converses with us, provides for us; and Christ hovers over us--but
invisibly. And even though there were clouds above us as impervious as iron
or steel, obstructing our view of heaven, this would not matter. Still we
hear God speaking to us from heaven; we call and cry to Him, and He answers
us. Heaven is open, as St. Stephen saw it open (Acts 7:55); and we hear God
when He addresses us in Baptism, in Holy Communion, in confession, and in
His Word as it proceeds from the mouth of the men who proclaim His message
to the people."--Martin Luther (1/19/1538 [LW 22:202])
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