First Sermon [1 Corinthians 16:5-11] (18-Jun-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, bless us with your grace as we begin a new journey together as your people, and send us the Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

Over a hundred years ago, in America, there was a Lutheran pastor called C.F.W. Walther, who trained pastors in a seminary in St Louis, Missouri. He wanted to encourage these new pastors as they went to their first parishes, and I’d like to read what he said as we think about me coming to this parish. He writes [The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, pp207-209]:

When a place has been assigned to a Lutheran candidate of theology where he is to discharge the office of a Lutheran minister, that place ought to be to him the dearest, most beautiful, and most precious spot on earth. He should be unwilling to exchange it for a kingdom. Whether it is in a metropolis or in a small town, on a bleak prairie or in a clearing in a forest, in a flourishing settlement or in a desert, to him it should be a miniature paradise. Do not the blessed angels descend from heaven with great joy whenever the Father in heaven sends them a minister to those who are to be heirs of salvation? Why, then should we be unwilling to hurry after them with great joy to any place where we can lead other [people], our fellow-sinners, to salvation?

However, though great be the joy of a young, newly called pastor on entering his parish, there should be in him an equally great earnestness and determination to do all he can to save every soul entrusted to him. Frequently it may seem to him that the majority, if not all members, of his congregation are still blind, dead, unconverted people. That observation must not make him morose or discourage him, but rather fill him with an ardent desire to rouse them out of spiritual death through the divine means of grace and make them living Christians. Spite of the devil he should take up his work in the power of faith...Briefly, he must resolve to turn his congregation from a dreary desert into a flourishing garden of God… Blessed is the minister who starts his official work on the very first day with the determination to do everything that the grace of God will enable him to do in order that not a soul in his congregation be lost by his fault. Such a one resolves that by the grace of God he will do all he can, so that, when the day comes for him to put down his shepherd’s staff, he may be able to say, as Christ said to His Father: Here I am and those that [you gave] me, and none of them is lost.

As I begin my time here at Maryborough, I commend these words to you as my own desire for my ministry among you. And as I begin my time here, I also ask that you pray for me, that God would break and hinder every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and [my] sinful nature that wants to get in the road. Let’s get this right upfront: I pray for you, and you pray for me, and together we pray for each other!

So for my first sermon here in Maryborough and Childers, I thought it would be a good idea to choose a text outside of the lectionary which really talks about the relationship between pastors and congregations. In the New Testament, there are many letters which the apostles wrote to congregations, which is where we gather many of our teachings. However, often at the beginning or the end of these letters there’s all kinds of good stuff, that when we first read it almost sounds a bit like chit-chat, as if it’s not very important. In the last chapter of Romans, for example, St Paul spends half the chapter saying hello to this person, and hello to that person! But at the same time, there is often hidden amongst all this stuff a great wisdom and strength, which shows the wonderful love and Christian friendship, between the writer of the letters and those who would receive them.

Now the sermon text I’ve chose today comes from 1 Corinthians, St Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Corinth. Now these Christians at Corinth were a rough bunch—or, as they say up here, they were a mob of “ferals”! But after Paul had written to them about all kinds of issues, he tells them about his travel plans and that he wants to come and see them. And then he tells them that a young pastor Timothy is about to come and see them, and how they should treat him. So today our sermon is going to focus on the first part of our reading where:

I.                   Paul tells us about his life and work as a pastor.

Next week, I plan to preach on the second part of the reading where:

II.                 Paul instructs the congregation how to receive young pastor Timothy.

So let’s go to our first part of the text, where:

I.                   Paul tells us about his life and work as a pastor.

The first thing we read about in this passage is that Paul describes himself as a traveller. He says: I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost.

Paul, being an apostle, has amazing spiritual gifts, and amazing wisdom, and yet, at the same time, he does not know exactly where he is going to end up in life. He has made some plans. But he says, perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter. Perhaps, not for sure. Like every Christian, whether they are a pastor or not, Paul needs to learn from Jesus to trust him each day, and to take him not where Paul wants to go, but where Jesus wants him to go.

And that’s how it is with every Christian, but especially we pastors, and we pastors together with our families. Many of us end up serving and living in places that are a long way from where we grew up. Just last week, I heard about a young pastor who is from Finland, and is now a missionary in Albania. He went from the north of Europe right down to the south, where they have completely different people, in a completely different country, with a completely different language. I grew up in a faraway country called South Australia, where people dahnce, and ahnswer, and take backpacks to school, and now I’ve moved to that country up north, Queensland, where they dance, and answer, and take ports to school. And every year they have these strange rituals where people watch something called the State of Origin! You never know where you’re going to end up! Jesus is the one who knows where he is going to send people.

Jesus prophesies about this in the gospel of John, where he says about all Christians: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Jesus knows where to place all of the members of his own kingdom to that it can be built up and strengthened all throughout the world. But we don’t know, just as we can’t follow the wind. I bet if we worked where everyone in this congregation was born and where we had all come from, we could be quite surprised in seeing how the Holy Spirit has brought us all together.

We also read about a time where someone came to Jesus said: Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The same for us Christians, and especially for pastors—we live in a world that turns itself away from God, and where we never really quite feel at home. But what a wonderful thing it is to be with Jesus, and to walk with him!

Our whole life is a kind of journey, directed toward heaven, but we never know where Jesus is going to lead us on earth on before we get there. On Easter Sunday in the evening, Jesus walked along with two disciples and taught them and broke bread with them. In the same way, Jesus walks along with us, and when we gather together in church, Jesus speaks his words to us, and gives us his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. And the disciples said to each other: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?

But back to our text, where we read where Paul says: I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. There’s a wonderful passage in Mark where Jesus sends out his disciples and they go and do wonderful things. And then they go back and it says: The apostles told Jesus everything that they had done and taught. Isn’t it wonderful to go and tell Jesus everything that we have done! But about the future, we tell Jesus what we would like to do and where we would like to go, but then it is not for us to decide where we go, but it is only as the Lord permits.

We don’t know how long we will be in one place. James says in his letter: Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Sometimes we might think that this is an unsettling thing that we don’t know what’s going to happen. It might make us worry and get anxious. But in Romans we read: We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Even in dark times, we learn to trust that Jesus is still with us, and he will bring us safely through it. Psalm 23 says: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Back to our text, Paul says: I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. What is this door that Paul is talking about? He is talking about the doors of people’s hearts. There is a group of people there who are open to hearing the word of God—and that means for Paul a wide door for effective work. This is like when Jesus says in John’s vision in the book of Revelation: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.

This effective work that Paul is to do is not his work, but it is God’s own work, the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Colossians: Him [Jesus] 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. Do you hear that? It’s not Paul’s energy, it’s not Paul’s ministry, it’s Jesus’ ministry, and it’s Jesus who works all his energy and power in him.

God’s word is the thing that is effective. This is what we pastors are called to do: to preach the word, in season and out of season. We are called to preach, to speak to you the forgiveness of your sins, and to administer the sacraments. This means to baptise people—the power of baptism is once again the same Word of God.  And also, we give people the body and blood of Christ through the bread and wine for people to eat and drink. And once again, the power of the Lord’s Supper is the Word of God. And when we speak God’s word, it’s not us that is doing it, but it is Jesus who does it. He says: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them…and teaching them…and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Do you hear that? Jesus is the one who enters his own church, he is the one who takes care of it, he is the one who rules it and governs it and provides for it, and he is the one who saves it!

And yet at the same time, a pastor’s work isn’t done, simply by speaking the Word any-old-how. We also have apply it, and give people the right-sized portion, and the right food for each person. God’s word is made up of his law and of the Gospel. We have two things to speak: to show to the world their sin, and to show to the world their Saviour. It is the law of God that shows us our sin and finds us out, and it is the Gospel that shows us our Saviour and brings us to meet him and makes us his. When we speak God’s word, we have to take aim—to convict over here, and to comfort over there. Otherwise, it’s like having a loaded gun and just shooting it anywhere into the forest. No—we need to take and fire and shoot something! Whenever we preach the gospel, we take aim and fire at the devil, and get him off your back!

One last thing that Paul says about his effective work. He says: There are many adversaries. Adversaries? Enemies? Why does Paul mention this? Well, the devil only bothers those who don’t belong to him. It is often said, when God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel across the street! At Pentecost, some people listened to Peter, some people thought the disciples were drunk. The same happened when Paul went to Athens, and when he went to Rome. Some people listened to God’s word, and some people closed off their Hihearts, and some even tried to kill Paul and silence him. When the Gospel is preached, the devil loses everything. And when you kick a serpent, it starts to squirm and bite and attack the person who kicked it. But this happens not to discourage us, but to lead us to trust in the wonderful victory that Jesus has won through his blood, his sacrifice, his death, and his resurrection from the dead on Easter Day.

Wide and effective work and many adversaries go together. But they go together to encourage us and to lead us to trust Jesus even where we’re in the dark that he knows where he wants to lead us, and he knows what he is going to do with us. Ultimately, he promises us where he is going to send us and what he’s going to do with us. He says: In my Father’s house are many rooms, and I am going to prepare a place for you.

Next week, we are going to read the second part of this reading, where Paul encourages the Corinthians to receive the young pastor Timothy. In the meantime, what a great thing it is to be gathered by the Holy Spirit himself in God’s house, to receive the free forgiveness of all our sins, to hear the word of God spoken to us from God’s own throne in heaven, [to witness Jesus welcoming a new child into his kingdom], to enter into God’s throne room and to pray to God himself, and to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ together in the Lord’s Supper. This is something great that we have come to be part of today. This is something that all the angels of God rejoice over!

And as your pastor, I say with St Paul from our reading: Perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter [Don’t worry—I want to stay longer than that!], so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, open a wide door for effective work here in Maryborough and Childers. Bless our congregation and all who are part of it, and build it up and strengthen it through your Holy Spirit. Come and work among us and with us and through us to your glory. Amen.