“Rekindled”
December 10, 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
As mentioned earlier, this coming Thursday, the 14th, will be the twentieth anniversary of the day on which, only and entirely by the grace of God, I was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. Now, December 14th, 2003, also happened to be the day Saddam Hussein was captured during the Invasion of Iraq. Coincidence? You be the judge. Anyway, I would be lying if I said that the last twenty years of ordained ministry been smooth sailing all the way: within that twenty years, I’ve already had to endure a wide and dizzying variety of changes, challenges, and conflicts; and even periods where I’ve wondered, often aloud, what my real purpose as a pastor or minister is. And, after twenty years, the answer actually seems to be quite simple:
Give people Jesus. That’s it. A minister, by definition, is someone who attends to the needs of someone. And that is basically the job description in a nutshell: meet people’s needs by giving them Jesus. Again, the official title for an ordained pastor is Minister of Word and Sacrament. And both preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion have one purpose: to give Jesus to people. Preaching the Word meets people’s needs both by encouraging repentance from straying away from God’s will, as well as promising comfort to everyone who believes in Him. The Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion also provide this same assurance by being physical reminders and channels of the power and presence of God in our lives. I also want to emphasize that my ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in no way implies that I possess greater spiritual power than any of us who are baptized, because each of us are giving the same Holy Spirit at Baptism, and are fed with the same spiritual power – the power of Jesus – through His body and blood in Holy Communion. While being a pastor also carries a certain amount of authority, that authority is only to be used to carry out the will of Jesus towards other people – that is, as Isaiah says in today’s First Reading, to feed the flock like a shepherd, especially with comfort; gather the lambs in his arms with love, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance; carry them close to the heart, because we are all close to Jesus’ heart; and gently lead those who have young and are young. Being a pastor is being a friend and companion, walking alongside every person, both inside and outside the congregation, to, again according to the admonition of Isaiah, provide comfort to everyone, to let people know that God is with them, is on their side, and has saved them. Indeed, that is God, speaking through Isaiah, promises: that our hard service has been completed, and our sin has been paid for, by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, shedding His blood to cleanse us of our sins, dying and rising again so we may live forever. We have indeed received from the Lord’s hand double for all our sins, because we have received grace beyond measure and expectation, and all of our sins, past, present, and future, have been fully forgiven. It is because of this that we have the promise, the security, of knowing and believing that in every struggle, challenge, trouble, or conflict, we are never alone: God is always with us, fighting for us, winning victory for us.
Also, each of us not only have this promise, but we are called to testify to this promise to everyone. Even though my job involves preparing a sermon every Sunday, mainly to explain what God is telling us in His Word each week, each one of us have the calling to testify. God says to us, “Cry out!” and we may very well ask, “What shall I cry?” Simple, actually: just as my calling is to proclaim the Word of God, each one of us also have the same calling – to proclaim the Word of God. We are to tell, and show, everyone, “Here is your God!” Here is your one true God, who has existed since before the beginning of time; who created, saves, and sustains everything; and who has revealed Himself in His Son. It is only through Jesus, the Son of God, that we can really know the one true God, and be saved through believing in Him. Here is also the one true God who reaches out to help and rescue all people in their time of need, whose love and acceptance is unconditional, and who never abandons or turns away anyone who asks Him for help. That is the unchanging truth we are to proclaim. Even despite all the other changes that have happened over the years, one thing has remained the same:
As Isaiah 40:8 says, “The word of our God stands forever.” Even in the midst of everything else that has changed and evolved, God’s Word has remained unchanged. The promises He offers in His Word also remain unchanged: that everyone who believes in Him, and in His Son as Lord, God, and Savior, has comfort, peace, forgiveness, security, assurance, and true love. If you want to have all these things today, then you are invited to invite Jesus into your heart again. Jesus Himself is the unchanging Word of God, unchanging because He is immortal, and He is the very expression of God’s unchanging nature: God is love, Jesus loves each of us, and that is something that will never change. He is the Word of God made flesh, who came to earth to carry out all the promises God made through the prophets; to fulfill the demands of the Law by living a perfect life; and to offer Himself as a spotless sacrifice to save all people from the power of sin and death. He is also the Word of God made flesh in that He demonstrates God’s will towards all people: a loving relationship - which, again, is the same purpose of ministry.
To kind of parse out a little bit more what we mean when we say, “ministry,” here are some helpful definitions, courtesy of a presentation found on Google Images:
- Ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith.
- Ministry is from the Greek word “diakoneo,” meaning “to serve.”
- Ministry is service to God and to other people in His name.
To simplify it a bit, according to this definition of Ministry which was also found on Google,
“Ministry is meeting another’s needs with the resources that God has given to you.” The main resource we have been given is the Word of God. We are also encouraged to study God’s Word daily and deeply, and find in it the promise of peace God gives to everyone who comes to Him looking for their needs to be met. And then, we are to give that peace from God by meeting the needs with the resources we have been given. This can be praying with someone; giving food to the hungry; clothing to those who need it; or even simply and kind and encouraging word to someone who needs to have their spirits lifted.
But what we are also doing, as Ministers, is not only bringing Jesus to people, but bringing people to Jesus. We are doing so because people need to be saved. Whether or not anyone chooses to accept it, God is the only one true God, He desires everyone to believe in Him and be saved, and He has planned for everything to head to a certain destiny.
Someday, as Peter reminds us in our Second Reading, the earth as we know it is going to be consumed by fire, and everything we see around us will come to an end. But the reason is because Jesus is going to be clearing aside this world, doing a complete demolition job, if you will, to make everything perfect. He will be uniting heaven and earth as one realm for His eternal Kingdom, and will bring an end to war, suffering, sickness, violence, hatred, and division, establishing love the foundation of His rule. Even though we are living in His Kingdom now, we are still waiting for the complete, perfect place, the new heaven and earth, the home of the righteous, which will be our eternal home. And, we want others to enjoy that same wonderful destiny with us, but it can only happen by believing in and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. So we are to bring people to faith in Jesus, and have that same promise of being saved.
If you want to have the assurance that when that day comes, when the world as we know it ends and is consumed by fire, and that you will have a place in the home of the righteous, then you are invited, once again, to ask Jesus into your heart, to rekindle your heart with love for Him. Jesus will give you that comfort and assurance, letting you know that you are destined to live with Him in His Kingdom, by reminding you that He died and rose again for you; you are baptized into His death and resurrection; and so you are saved. Jesus has already saved you, because He has already done all the work necessary or you to be saved. I will also tell all of you that, even after a period of struggle, my own heart for the ministry God has called me to has been rekindled, and, as I have been able to discern what my purpose as a minister is, my desire to carry out that ministry has been rekindled. It is my hope and prayer, indeed, it ought to be our hope and prayer, that God will rekindle our own desire and passion to carry out His ministry to our communities and beyond. Like John the Baptist, we are called to prepare the way for Jesus, so let’s be prepared to be sent out into the wilderness – the world outside our walls – to get people ready to receive Jesus. Let’s be rekindled – and be recommitted – for our true calling, the one we all have in common: to bring Jesus to people, and bring people to Jesus.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
