Sunday
Sermon at St. Paul Lutheran Church
Wonderful
Surprise John 16:12-15
Pentecost
Sunday
June
8, 2003
What now? What next?
After
last Sunday’s 125th Anniversary celebration, after a number of
people asked me if I was pretty worn out Sunday night, I took a little time off
Monday. I saw a few people in the hospital Monday morning but then went fishing
with our youngest daughter Monday afternoon, and later that day we had our whole
family together for supper. When I
got up early Tuesday morning and came over to the office I was very thankful for
the way things had gone with the Anniversary celebration and I was ready to
start sifting through all the things that had accumulated on my desk. That’s
when the thought came to me. What now? What
next?
Serving a congregation that’s now 125 years old; in the 34th
year of my ministry, 29 years the
pastor of St. Paul Lutheran, beginning now my 30th year, what now?
What next?
These are two of life’s more persistent questions, aren’t they? What
now? What next?
Nineteen months ago after 9/11, President Bush declared war on terrorism.
Since then there’s been war in Afghanistan; war in Iraq; yet the
questions persist. What now?
What next?
Recent rains have brought welcome relief to farmers & much-needed
moisture for new crops in central & eastern Nebraska, yet farmers and
ranchers and bankers and irrigators know that could change ever so quickly.
What now? What next?
When there’s been a nice wedding; when the honeymoon is over; when two
people romantically in love begin to discover the reality of who they are really
married to; what now? What next?
When the kids are grown; when the house is quiet; when the nest is empty,
when a beloved, life-long partner dies; what now?
What next?
When a job is terminated; when it’s time to retire; when someone has a
chronic disease, when it gets harder and harder for a person to take care of
themselves, what now? What next?
The one I watch with great hope and yet great sadness in my heart is what
goes on with people and the church. When
a baby is baptized but is never brought for pre-school or Sunday School; when a
Junior High Student is confirmed but views confirmation as a graduation; when
people wave a friendly wave but are too busy for regular Sunday worship or feel
too guilty about coming back to church, then what? What now?
What next?
The Rev. Earl Feddersen, a mission executive in our Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod edits a weekly e-mail called “Edit-O-Earl”.
Recently he wrote, “In some congregations, Pentecost is
Confirmation Day. Some-times I used to imagine that Confirmation would have
great impact on the lives of the confirmands. I would picture some newly confirmed member of the church
pounding on the bedroom door of his or her parents the next Sunday proclaiming:
‘Get up! I’m a responsible member of the church now and I want
to go every Sunday from now on.’” That’s
quite a thing to imagine, isn’t it?
The Rev. Feddersen goes on, “My major
goal in Confirmation instruction was to awaken in the students a hunger and
thirst for knowledge and growth in the Word of the Lord. But
they would get so caught up in learning answers to questions that it often
became more of a chore than an opportunity or awakening. Their goal was
different – the kids & their parents just wanted to get through it, get
finished with it.”
Too
often, he says, Confirmation is viewed as a pile of religious
knowledge and bits & pieces of the Bible that can become a roadblock on
one’s journey to discovering and rejoicing in God as the one, true, living,
loving, redeeming, merciful, personal God that God has revealed Himself to be in
the person & work of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 37 for this Pentecost
Sunday, Israel, God’s people, is depicted, described as a pile of dead bones,
dried up and hopeless. Yet bleak as
this picture is, as dry & hopeless as this picture looks to God’s prophet,
God doesn’t leave it at that but speaks to the bones and says,
I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall
know that I am the Lord.”
That’s the message the prophet was given to declare to God’s people.
The Spirit of God would give His people new life.
Imagine how hopeful & excited the preaching of Ezekiel must have been
after he saw that valley of dry, dead bones become a vast, living multitude. Yet
as it turned out, that did not happen to Ezekiel’s immediate audience.
Instead of living, animated, rejuvenated bodies, the disbelieving
children of Israel remained the same dead heads & dry bones that the prophet
had talked to before.
Yet none-the-less, the message of Ezekiel’s vision is a powerful
message that is fulfilled in what Jesus Christ said to his disciples and still
says to us this Pentecost Sunday, 2003. The
message is - that wherever the Word of God is
proclaimed – wherever the justice & mercy of God; wherever both the wrath
of God for sin, and the great, great love of God for sinners is made known to
people – that’s where & when the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit can
reach people – come to them – gather them – enlighten them – raise them
up to new life in Jesus Christ.
And that includes congregations who celebrate their 125th
anni-versary, long pastorates, aging members, new confirmands, families who have
drifted away from church, couples who are hungry & thirsty for that which
the world cannot give – but comes only in Christ & from Christ – namely
forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.
In Jesus’ day, souls
were parched by the dryness of laws & legalism that portrayed God as
loveless and made religion lifeless. Today,
souls are parched & die of thirst drinking from the wrong wells. People thirst for riches, power, fame, whatever and, like
alcoholics, draw deeply from the very source of their problems.
Robert Frost in a poem titled Death of the Hired Man,
describes lives without God, lives without the vision and refreshment of the
Holy Spirit as lives having “Nothing to look
backward to with pride. And nothing
to look forward to with hope.”
What does Jesus say? Wherever
& whenever we poor sinners face these questions: what now? What next? To
all of us, Jesus says, “Come to me and drink . . Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest . . Rivers of living
water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me. Christ’s
abundant supply of forgiveness from all sins, eternal life, salvation, courage,
hope, peace is freely & abundantly available to all who come and drink –
not just when we get to heaven – but now!
Now! Now!
At our Nebraska District Convention held in Seward which ended yesterday,
at the beginning of yesterday’s morning session, the pastor leading a short
Bible Study pointed out to all of us pastoral & lay delegates that a word
when it is repeated again & again in Scripture must be an important word. He
was referring to God’s promise to His people in Deuteronomy 31 when the people
were poised to enter the promised land standing on the banks of the Jordan
river.
7 times in the first six verses of chap. 31, the word “will” occurs -
The Lord Himself will cross over before you - He will destroy - Joshua
also will cross over before you - The Lord will deal with the Cannanites - He
will defeat them -The Lord will give them over to you - Be strong and bold; have
no fear or dread - because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will
not fail you or forsake you. When
a word like “will” occurs 7 times in 6 verses that means it’s an important
word.
That set me to thinking about those two questions: what now?
What next?
If the word “will” used 7 times in 6 verses is an important witness
to the power of God, how about the word “now” used 19 times in one long
verse of a hymn as in important witness to the power of God’s Spirit working
in us that which is pleasing in God’s sight through God’s Word and
Sacraments.
What now? What next?
How I love these words; how I need this affirmation of the power &
presence of Holy Spirit working in my life, my ministry, my call, and my
everyday Christian witness & service to others.
For Christians, this is what’s now, this is what’s next, this is
what’s coming, this is what’s already here.
Now the silence
Now the peace Now the empty hands uplifted
Now the kneeling Now the plea
Now the Father’s arms in welcome
Now the hearing Now the pow’r Now
the vessel brimmed for pouring
Now the Body Now the blood Now
the joyful celebration
Now the wedding Now the songs Now
the heart forgiven leaping
What now?
What next?
Now the Spirit’s visitation
Now the Son’s epiphany
Now the Father’s blessing Now!
Now! Now!
This Pentecost Sunday 2003, this first Sunday
after our 125th Anniversary celebration, this Sunday & next
Sunday & every Sunday that we gather together in Christ’s name, may God
grant us this wonderful surprise, this wonder all increasing.
Now
the Spirit’s visitation
Now the Son’s epiphany
Now the Father’s blessing Now! Now! Now!
Amen