LCMSU Witness Conference - Opening Service
Acts 1:1-11; Hebrews 12:1-2; St John 5:30-39
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They were ordered not to depart, but to stay where they were and await the promise of the Father. For they would be His witnesses, His martyrs, as the etymology of the Greek indicates. They would be clothed with power from on high. And though they are a small band, but Eleven, soon to be Twelve again, they are not alone. All the company of heaven is with them, even Jesus Christ, who has gone away, but has not left them nor forsaken them, but is present with them and for them in the very Scriptures which they proclaim, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, will be carried along to write for your sake.
This is the promise and witness of our Lord Jesus Christ to those men who held His Apostolic Office of the Holy Ministry. This promise was for them. It is not for you.
As the Father who witnessed to Jesus and sent Him, so the Son would apostle His men, placing into their mouths the Holy Absolution spoken in His stead and by His command. The falling of His Holy Spirit upon them would seal them in this Office. His descent was the witness of our Lord Christ. These few, this motley band, were ordained for martyrdom in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Empowered from on high, boldly they went. Centrifugally from Jerusalem, down the roads, through the mountains, over the seas, to Corinth and Rome and India. To Macedonia and Patmos and Beirut. To the Caspian Sea and the Black Forest and Bavaria. To St Louis and Frankenmuth and Fort Wayne. There and back again, an Apostles’ Journey. A witnesses’ journey.
Indeed we give thanks this day, the 9th Day of Christmas, for the life and ministry of 19th Century Lutheran Pastor, J.K. Wilhelm Löhe. It would be a stretch to say that the whole Church commemorates this father-from-afar of the LCMS, but it is indeed the true, visible Church on earth which gives thanks to God for this confessional, liturgical, missional, charitable, catechetical, sacramental man of God. Though he never left his country parish of Neuendettlesau, the mission and ministry of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod would be inconceivable without Löhe.
Heeding the call of Wyneken’s letter, Löhe supported German-Lutheran immigrants to the United States. Between 1841 and his death in 1872, Löhe had inspired over 1,000 missionaries to go to at least three continents. He sent 185 “emergency pastors” to the hinterlands of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. He personally trained and sent, out of his own pocket, 22 pastors for work in the United States.
When the Missouri Synod was formed in 1847, half of the pastors who signed the founded constitution were Löhe's men. He helped to establish and finance Concordia Theological Seminary right here in Ft Wayne as well as two other seminaries. He established a deaconess institution in Bavaria and is credited with being the father of the Deaconess Program in the LCMS. We give thanks to God for the Löhe. His steadfastness for the confessional integrity of the Gospel and the Sacraments is heartening. His passion for care for the needy and mission is unsurpassed.
But what about you? You are not an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are not a 19th Century fire-brand preacher and catechist of the fledgling confessional revival of the Lutheran Church. Not many of you are pastors. Even less are deaconesses. Although, I would exhort you, men and women alike, who love theology and come to beautiful Ft Wayne in January during vacation to study and pray and sing, that maybe you are suited to become a Pastor or Deaconness, respectively. Every Christian ought to consider the possibility that our Lord is calling them into these vocations.
But for the time being, what about you? Where has our Lord placed you? To what vocation has He called you? Are you a son, daughter, brother, sister, student, or worker?
Do you stay where you are? Or do you desire to be elsewhere? Do you find it hard to witness to your Lord Jesus Christ while you have LSATs and MCATs for which to prepare? Projects to complete? Portfolios to assemble? Even now are you thinking of the next next semester?
Does fear silence you, as it did for the Apostles themselves that first Easter morn? Are you overwhelmed at the prospect of boldly confessing, of being a witness, that you are left staring blankly into space?
For though you are indeed surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, the Apostles holy band, patriarchs and prophets, martyrs and confessors, international missionaries and local saints, you do not see them with your eyes. Rather you behold those who are enemies of our Lord’s Gospel. Those who would mock you, ridicule you, malign and reject you. In the face of such opposition, dear Christians, it is truly easier to remain silent, keep your head down, and concentrate on yourself.
Indeed in and of yourself your confession is the first line of our Lord Jesus from the Gospel text, but with a different intent: I can do nothing on my own.
But the Holy Spirit has called you by the faithful witness of the Gospel, enlightened you with the gifts from above in water and word, bread and wine, sanctifies and keeps you with Jesus Christ, the Founder and Perfecter, in the one, true faith.
In this Christian Church He daily and riches forgives all your sins which cling so closely and the sins of all believers.
All this is done only out of the fatherly, divine goodness and mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent His only-begotten Son, to be the Instantiation of the Witness of all of Holy Scripture. St John the Baptist, the totality of the Holy Scriptures, God the Father Almighty, all three of these testify and bear witness to the reality that Jesus is the Christ, who has come to do the great work of His Father, that is, His mission is your everlasting salvation.
For the joy of your eternal life He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Likewise, He ascended on high and He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Eph 4:8, 11-12). This host of captive is the cloud of witnesses which surrounds you. Not only in heaven, but here on earth as well. That coming here, meeting one another, studying, singing, and praying together you remark as Wyneken upon meeting Löhe’s men in Ft Wayne, “There are other Lutherans! Thank God!”
And on top of the “mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren,” you have the apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and they all bear witness to you together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you are forgiven, baptized with water and the Spirit, joined to the Word Made Flesh, in fellowship with the Father.
His voice you have not heard, His form you have never seen. But you have seen and heard the form and voice of His only Son our Lord. Seeing and hearing Jesus you have seen and heard the Father. His Word abides in you, for you believe the One whom He has sent.
And you bear witness to what you have seen and heard, as you just sang, wherever the Lord places you, within your particular vocation, according to the Word of His own testimony.
You are not an Apostle, you may not be placed into the Office of the Holy Gospel, but the truth is you were martyred in your Baptism. You died with Christ. You are raised with Him. You are clothed from on high with His righteousness. All the company of heaven is with you. And you join together with them in the Divine Service of our Lord’s Preaching and our Lord’s Supper.
As the Apostles were sent out from Jerusalem, so too for you. Your life in Christ is lived to and from the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, which Christ Jesus brings down to earth in His Body and Blood. Wherever you are - Bavaria or Ft Wayne or the ends of the earth - whoever you are - pastor, deaconess, student - the center of your life is here, in the Sacrament of the Altar, in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. For the Scriptures point to Christ, and the whole of them are distilled in the new testament in His Blood.
Löhe would agree. He worked tirelessly, catechizing and moving toward a faithful liturgy and a frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper. For as often as you eat the Bread and drink the Cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor 11:26). In the Lord’s Supper you witness He to whom the Father bore witness, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, together with the witness of the Holy Spirit. In this, dear saints, you are equipped for witness and built up into the Body of Christ to run with endurance the race with is set before you, looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who with the Father and + the Holy Spirit, be glory now in the Church and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Acts 1:1-11; Hebrews 12:1-2; St John 5:30-39
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They were ordered not to depart, but to stay where they were and await the promise of the Father. For they would be His witnesses, His martyrs, as the etymology of the Greek indicates. They would be clothed with power from on high. And though they are a small band, but Eleven, soon to be Twelve again, they are not alone. All the company of heaven is with them, even Jesus Christ, who has gone away, but has not left them nor forsaken them, but is present with them and for them in the very Scriptures which they proclaim, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, will be carried along to write for your sake.
This is the promise and witness of our Lord Jesus Christ to those men who held His Apostolic Office of the Holy Ministry. This promise was for them. It is not for you.
As the Father who witnessed to Jesus and sent Him, so the Son would apostle His men, placing into their mouths the Holy Absolution spoken in His stead and by His command. The falling of His Holy Spirit upon them would seal them in this Office. His descent was the witness of our Lord Christ. These few, this motley band, were ordained for martyrdom in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Empowered from on high, boldly they went. Centrifugally from Jerusalem, down the roads, through the mountains, over the seas, to Corinth and Rome and India. To Macedonia and Patmos and Beirut. To the Caspian Sea and the Black Forest and Bavaria. To St Louis and Frankenmuth and Fort Wayne. There and back again, an Apostles’ Journey. A witnesses’ journey.
Indeed we give thanks this day, the 9th Day of Christmas, for the life and ministry of 19th Century Lutheran Pastor, J.K. Wilhelm Löhe. It would be a stretch to say that the whole Church commemorates this father-from-afar of the LCMS, but it is indeed the true, visible Church on earth which gives thanks to God for this confessional, liturgical, missional, charitable, catechetical, sacramental man of God. Though he never left his country parish of Neuendettlesau, the mission and ministry of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod would be inconceivable without Löhe.
Heeding the call of Wyneken’s letter, Löhe supported German-Lutheran immigrants to the United States. Between 1841 and his death in 1872, Löhe had inspired over 1,000 missionaries to go to at least three continents. He sent 185 “emergency pastors” to the hinterlands of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. He personally trained and sent, out of his own pocket, 22 pastors for work in the United States.
When the Missouri Synod was formed in 1847, half of the pastors who signed the founded constitution were Löhe's men. He helped to establish and finance Concordia Theological Seminary right here in Ft Wayne as well as two other seminaries. He established a deaconess institution in Bavaria and is credited with being the father of the Deaconess Program in the LCMS. We give thanks to God for the Löhe. His steadfastness for the confessional integrity of the Gospel and the Sacraments is heartening. His passion for care for the needy and mission is unsurpassed.
But what about you? You are not an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are not a 19th Century fire-brand preacher and catechist of the fledgling confessional revival of the Lutheran Church. Not many of you are pastors. Even less are deaconesses. Although, I would exhort you, men and women alike, who love theology and come to beautiful Ft Wayne in January during vacation to study and pray and sing, that maybe you are suited to become a Pastor or Deaconness, respectively. Every Christian ought to consider the possibility that our Lord is calling them into these vocations.
But for the time being, what about you? Where has our Lord placed you? To what vocation has He called you? Are you a son, daughter, brother, sister, student, or worker?
Do you stay where you are? Or do you desire to be elsewhere? Do you find it hard to witness to your Lord Jesus Christ while you have LSATs and MCATs for which to prepare? Projects to complete? Portfolios to assemble? Even now are you thinking of the next next semester?
Does fear silence you, as it did for the Apostles themselves that first Easter morn? Are you overwhelmed at the prospect of boldly confessing, of being a witness, that you are left staring blankly into space?
For though you are indeed surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, the Apostles holy band, patriarchs and prophets, martyrs and confessors, international missionaries and local saints, you do not see them with your eyes. Rather you behold those who are enemies of our Lord’s Gospel. Those who would mock you, ridicule you, malign and reject you. In the face of such opposition, dear Christians, it is truly easier to remain silent, keep your head down, and concentrate on yourself.
Indeed in and of yourself your confession is the first line of our Lord Jesus from the Gospel text, but with a different intent: I can do nothing on my own.
But the Holy Spirit has called you by the faithful witness of the Gospel, enlightened you with the gifts from above in water and word, bread and wine, sanctifies and keeps you with Jesus Christ, the Founder and Perfecter, in the one, true faith.
In this Christian Church He daily and riches forgives all your sins which cling so closely and the sins of all believers.
All this is done only out of the fatherly, divine goodness and mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent His only-begotten Son, to be the Instantiation of the Witness of all of Holy Scripture. St John the Baptist, the totality of the Holy Scriptures, God the Father Almighty, all three of these testify and bear witness to the reality that Jesus is the Christ, who has come to do the great work of His Father, that is, His mission is your everlasting salvation.
For the joy of your eternal life He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Likewise, He ascended on high and He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Eph 4:8, 11-12). This host of captive is the cloud of witnesses which surrounds you. Not only in heaven, but here on earth as well. That coming here, meeting one another, studying, singing, and praying together you remark as Wyneken upon meeting Löhe’s men in Ft Wayne, “There are other Lutherans! Thank God!”
And on top of the “mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren,” you have the apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and they all bear witness to you together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you are forgiven, baptized with water and the Spirit, joined to the Word Made Flesh, in fellowship with the Father.
His voice you have not heard, His form you have never seen. But you have seen and heard the form and voice of His only Son our Lord. Seeing and hearing Jesus you have seen and heard the Father. His Word abides in you, for you believe the One whom He has sent.
And you bear witness to what you have seen and heard, as you just sang, wherever the Lord places you, within your particular vocation, according to the Word of His own testimony.
You are not an Apostle, you may not be placed into the Office of the Holy Gospel, but the truth is you were martyred in your Baptism. You died with Christ. You are raised with Him. You are clothed from on high with His righteousness. All the company of heaven is with you. And you join together with them in the Divine Service of our Lord’s Preaching and our Lord’s Supper.
As the Apostles were sent out from Jerusalem, so too for you. Your life in Christ is lived to and from the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, which Christ Jesus brings down to earth in His Body and Blood. Wherever you are - Bavaria or Ft Wayne or the ends of the earth - whoever you are - pastor, deaconess, student - the center of your life is here, in the Sacrament of the Altar, in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. For the Scriptures point to Christ, and the whole of them are distilled in the new testament in His Blood.
Löhe would agree. He worked tirelessly, catechizing and moving toward a faithful liturgy and a frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper. For as often as you eat the Bread and drink the Cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor 11:26). In the Lord’s Supper you witness He to whom the Father bore witness, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, together with the witness of the Holy Spirit. In this, dear saints, you are equipped for witness and built up into the Body of Christ to run with endurance the race with is set before you, looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who with the Father and + the Holy Spirit, be glory now in the Church and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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