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Him We Proclaim!

Pastor Jeremy Schultz
August 8, 2010

In the year 1872, Rev. George Speckhard was called to be pastor of the first Lutheran church in Royal Oak. Since that time, 15 additional pastors have been called over the nearly 140 year history of St. Paul. I've often thought that it would be really neat to have a photo record of them all! The first vicar was assigned in 1945 and since that time there have been an additional 35 student pastors who have prepared for the Holy Ministry here at St. Paul. Truly this is a special church and so are the institutions of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that prepare men for ministry. Concordia Seminary in St. Louis exists to prepare men for the noble task of preaching God's Word, delivering the sacraments, instructing young and old in the faith and preparing God's people for works of service. Today we celebrate those very gifts in our midst, our new Vicar's installation and the ongoing work that God has given to you and me and to His entire church...Him we Proclaim!

Listen to these words from Colossians 1. "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him...Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me" (Colossians 1:21-22, 28-29)

Rebellion One way of viewing those opening words is to acknowledge that from the moment of conception, we were in rebellion against God according to our sinful nature. King David writes, "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). Each of us is born with self-will and a desire to go our own way even from birth. The Bible says that all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to His own way" (Isaiah 53:6). And there are no exceptions.

Now what happens is that God has given us the Law. In fact, He has placed it on our hearts. And this law, with all of its demands, arouses our hostility toward God. For example, God's law says, "love your neighbor." But you and I might already have agendas of our own. So instead of loving our neighbor and drawing close to God, we follow our own path and grow in hostility toward Him. God's law further arouses our hostility by prohibiting the things that our sinful nature wishes to do. For example, think about last week's topic of greed and coveting. According to my sinful nature, I might want to simply hoard and store up treasures for myself. God's word warns me to be on guard against all kinds of covetousness – say that a man's life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions. But I want to say wrong – it's all mine, mine, mine.

This is not a fault of the law. The law is good. But the law reveals our evil deeds. Our sinful nature is constantly in rebellion this side of heaven. That's why when we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done", we're actually praying for the death of our own will that left unchecked would oppose God at every turn. But the preaching of the Word proclaims to us clearly that all this has been changed. And while rebellion might reflect our nature; reconciliation reflects HIS!

Reconciliation During the Civil War, James Longstreet fought for the Confederacy from Manassas to Appomattox, rising to the rank of Lieutenant General, second in command only to General Robert E. Lee. Lee called Longstreet his "Old War Horse," and historians have ranked him one of the finest, if not the finest, commanders on either side of the conflict. All the more amazing, then, that this stalwart confederate converted to the other side after the war, embracing equal rights for blacks and supporting reconstruction efforts to bring the former Confederacy back into the Union. Longstreet is an example of a rebel that has been reworked, restored – maybe even reconciled. And so are you!

Reconciliation is a relationship word. Reconciliation is the restoration of the original friendly relationship between God and man. Though we from conception had only known alienation from God, the relationship between God and man wasn't always that way. Man was created to be God's friend, to know His will and delight in it, and Adam and Eve had actually enjoyed that relationship prior to their falling into sin. Reconciliation is walking and talking with and knowing God again.

And reconciliation has come from God Himself. In a unilateral move, Jesus reconciled us to Himself. He did it in His flesh when He went to the cross. And this reconciliation with God is complete through Christ without any works of the Law. This reconciliation had its way with St. Paul, who was once an active enemy of God. It had its way with St. Augustine who, when he was young, was an openly sinful man, and this reconciliation has had its way with you and with me.

Proclamation What a joy it is to know God compared with fearing Him! What a joy it is to go through life being assured that you are His rather than being uncertain about His feelings toward you. This is because of the reconciliation of Jesus Christ through His death on the cross. And the purpose is so that we may be presented holy and blameless and above reproach before Him on the Last Day.

Being holy and blameless and above reproach are not qualities we are striving to attain, but a new status we have already been given by Christ in Holy Baptism. We are now called to maintain this status, not by works of the law, but by continuing faith in the Gospel.

This is the Gospel that has been proclaimed by pastors and vicars and people in this place for nearly 140 years. It's the task to which Vicar Sutton is directing his whole life! Just think, friend, over the course of a ministry career, you will deliver more than 10,000 sermons; baptize 1000 babies; confirm 1000 kids and 1600 adults; you will marry perhaps 500 couples and officiate at the burial of 600 saints. This is just an estimate, of course, it may be far more. But the really great thing is that all other reconciled rebels that you will get to work with...that you will proclaim to...they themselves in the process of God's Work through your ministry will themselves become proclaimers of Christ. For that's the task...that's why we're all here. Amen.