May 5 2024 Genesis 18 Series B Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
So last week, I attended the multi-ethnic symposium at the seminary in St. Louis. And I wanted to take some time today and do something a little different, I want to share some of the insights that I gained at this conference. It was such a joy, a blessing, an honor, to be able to attend it, and honestly, it wasn’t what i expected, it was so much more. Never have I been in a room of people who were so encouraging, encouraging toward congregations like St. Paul’s who are trying to reach out to their neighbors from different lands. Everyone there had a passion, a true passion, for the work that St. Paul’s voted to do at our annual voter’s meeting this past winter. A passion to proclaim the gospel to everyone, to work through language and cultural differences in order to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring comfort, peace, and most importantly, forgiveness and salvation to everyone in our community.
Each day opened and closed with a worship service, and each service has readings in different languages, the service in French I thought was pretty neat. The majority of the time was spend in an auditorium where different experts presented their work. And every presentation had challenges, difficulties that we experience and frank observations about the hard work needed to reach out to immigrants and migrants.
But each presentation also was filled with hope and overflowing with joy. Because each presentation always pointed us to Jesus Christ. And each presentation reminded us that this isn’t our church, it’s God’s church. He’s the shepherd. He calls, he gathers. It’s his voice, not ours, that the sheep listen to. It’s his fold.
His building. His programs. His ministry. His Gospel. And what a blessing it is the God so loves us that he gives us all these things freely to us and at the expense of his own life.
The theme of the conference was “catholicity.” That doesn’t mean that we suddenly are catholic. No. It goes back to Latin, because it sounds smart if you say it in Latin. But it means universal or maybe complete, entirety, something like that. The idea being that ultimately there is only 1 church, even though we have many denominations.
Now, let’s be clear. This conference was NOT about getting rid of denominations or saying that denominations don’t matter. No. There was a strong emphasis on embracing our Lutheran heritage, and actually becoming more Lutheran. But this conference challenge us to see all Christians, no matter their background, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
And I don’t know if this was planned or not, but the presenters talked a lot, like a a lot a lot, about hospitality. The presenters made their case that one of the marks of the church, and that means one of the ways you know you are at Christian church, is hospitality toward others, especially other Christians.
And the presenters made there case talking from both the old and New testaments. I don’t have time to go through all the places in the Bible where we are called to be hospitable, but l will share one from the Old Testament, and one from the new. So in your pew Bibles go to page 16. This is Genesis chapter 18. Genesis 18, page 16. Verses 1:8. It says, read it. What did Abaham do? He showed hospitality to the stranger among him. THen we will jump to Romans 16, on page 1209. Romans 16. Vs 1 and 2. Read it. Again this is a passage about hospitality. Welcome here doesn’t mean say hello and put them up in the local super 8. No. It means invite them into your homes. Feed them. Care for them. Provide for their needs. Or as we would say in Spanish, “Mi casa es su casa”
One more example, I’m not going to make you go there, but it’s the story of the good Samaritan. Who is the neighbor? The one who goes out of his way to care for someone else in need.
The one church, the universal church, the catholicity of the church is hospitable. The church is a place of refuge for Christians. A place of welcome and refreshment. That no matter what church you attend, you will find it to be a hospitable place in an inhospitable world. This was a multi-ethnic symposium, so the emphasis became - Christians of all people groups, of every tribe, every language, every nationality, every culture would find every church, even those that aren’t of their culture or nationality, to be a hospitable place in an inhospitable world.
Now why? The why here is super important. Jesus Christ has given you a new identity that supersedes anything else. You are a Christian and no other identity has as much importance. And in this identity we have become a new people group. A holy nation as the Bible would say, a people belonging to God. And this new group has one identity and that is in Jesus Christ.
And this is such good new! Especially for us sinners. There are a lot of sinful identities that resonate with each of us. Things like liar. Cheater. Violent and angry. Jealous. Controlling. Drunkard. Crude and crass. Inhospitable. And there is a temptation to latch onto those things to see that as who you are. But whatever sin calls at you singing its siren song, that’s not who you are. When the lies of sin whisper in your ear - God’s not going to forgive you this time, you’ve gone to far. That’s where the new identity is so powerful.
God has broken the bonds of all of those old ways and given to you something new. Catholocity. Not catholic. He has made you part of his nation, not the United states. But the kingdom of God, the eternal Kingdom which does not end. You have a new identity in Christ. And this unites all of us, brings us together with all the other saints on earth, from every tribe, language, culture, and brings us together under Jesus Christ.
And this conference really made that hit home. From Abrham to St. Paul, to us today. We are one people, one nation. A holy nation in Christ.
As I finish up here, I was asked to share two messages with you from the conference. Messages of encouragement, specifically for St. Paul’s from other pastors at this multi-ethnic symposium. The first word of encouragement comes from Lynn Kansas. It’s a small town, about 400 people. They are the only other congregation in the synod who has sent their pastor to Latin America to learn spanish to bring back home to reach out to their neighborhood. As soon as their pastor returned they started a new service in Spanish, and as off today they have about 12 to 16 regular attendees. That’s 16 more people who hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And this is the message for you. The work that this congregation is seeking to do is unique in the Synod. What you are doing is phenomenal. You are embracing the teachings of Christ, the great commission, to take the gospel to all nations, to all people. There are not a lot of congregations who are so focused on the Gospel, on Christ, that they SEND their pastor to learn another language in order to help their neighbor. To be hospitable. This is how the Lutheran Church got started, by reaching out to German migrants, or Scandinavian migrants in this part of the world.
And the second message, and I’m going to end with this. I could talk way more about this, but we just don’t have time in one sermon. This message comes from Pastor Howard. Pastor Howard is a member of the black clergy caucus of the LCMS and serves at a church plant in inner city Houston, in Texas. If you were to pick two congregations that you would think would be so opposite of each other, it would be our two churches. St. Paul’s? Small town, north Minnesota. 135-ish years old. And then in Houston. Texas is hot. Houston is a big place and the church is in the inner city and it’s just a couple years old.
And to hear from him that we are doing the exact same things. The same challenges, the same joys. From trying to reach out to a changing community. To having such passionate people in the congregation willing to serve and reach out. And so much more. While it may be like 1000 degrees there and the fishing is terrible. They are your brothers and sisters. Part of the same nation of Christ. Working on the same team. Serving the same God, trusting the same savior. Here’s the message: The Holy Spirit is very active in the world. Very active in you as he works through you to call others into the kingdom of Christ, into the church to receive salvation from Jesus.
So let us be hospitable. And may God use us for his kingdom. Amen.
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