The Rev. Paul J Cain
John 15:9-17
I Have Chosen You
LCMS Wyoming District Convention Opening Service of Prayer
and Preaching
10 May 2012
10 May 2012
While serving as Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church,
Sheridan, WY
In the Name of Jesus.
Amen.
We Believe, Teach,
and Confess the Office of the Holy Ministry. Was ist das? What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in
God above all things. This is most certainly true.
We are to listen first, for “Our Lord speaks and we listen.
His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard
acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise…Saying back
to Him what He has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true
and sure is His Name, which He put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We
are His. This we acknowledge at the beginning of the Divine Service. Where His
Name is, there is He.” So wrote Dr. Nagel.
Ours is Lord that
allows Himself to be rejected. Such is the case even late in the Gospel according
to St. Matthew.
16 Now
the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had
directed them. 17 And
when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
It’s like saying, “They disbelieved for joy.” O Lord,
preserve us from double-mindedness! The disciples went to Galilee as the Lord
had directed. And they hear Him speak: 18 And
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me.
Jesus’ authority is a delegated, “given to,” authority.
Politics speaks of a “power grab,” but no one ever speaks of an “authority
grab.” Authority is given by the Author, capital A. And Jesus has been given
all authority in heaven and on earth. And
under that authority, what does Jesus say?
19 Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Disciples are made by means of baptizing and teaching.
Jesus’ own words and the underlying Greek (and English) grammar teach us this
clearly. One of the most enjoyable parts of being a headmaster of a Classical
Lutheran school is seeing first and second graders analyze and destroy a sentence
on a white markerboard with a red marker. They divide the complete subject from
the complete predicate and diagram the sentence completely, showing the obvious
grammatical connection between “make disciples” and both “baptizing” and
“teaching.”
Leave baptizing off, and you have merely an educated sinner.
Faith does not reject the gift of the washing of rebirth and renewal by the
Holy Spirit.
Baptize without teaching, and you have the error of “cheap
grace” condemned by Bohnhoeffer. Parents taking their newborn children home
from the hospital know they need to feed, clothe, change, nurture, protect, and
educate them. If they didn’t, someone, likely the State, would have a problem
with that.
Fathers in particular are given to bring up children in the
discipline and instruction of the Lord. Unfed faith can die. The God-given
faith which trusts the Word of God in the baptismal water needs the food that
is God’s Word, for, as Jesus says, “whoever does not believe will be
condemned,” baptized or not.
Faithfully and boldly proclaiming God’s Word is not a
popular or an easy task. Just ask Daniel in the lion’s den, who obeyed the Lord
rather than men, even King Darius.
It is challenging and rewarding work to faithfully teach the
Six Chief Parts of Luther’s Small Catechism
to young and old, guide families through baptisms, confirmation, weddings,
various crises, and funerals, visit the sick, shut-in, or wandering sheep of a
congregation, warn the flock of false teaching and false teachers, extol
regular use of Word and Sacrament, the Gifts Christ freely gives, and lead the
congregation at worship.
It is given to pastors, the undershepherds of Christ, to
proclaim God’s No and God’s Yes, His Law and Gospel from the Holy Scriptures.
Pastors are to proclaim the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but God’s truth,
for souls are at stake. Faithful undershepherds always point to Christ, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, He who is with us always, even
the end of the age. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus .
Amen.
