AUGUST 29,2010 SERMON, 14TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
One saint is remembered by the church this week.
Thursday, September 2, the church remembers Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, Bishop, and renewer of the church who died in 1872.
He was one of 2 principal Danish theologians of the 19th century-the other being Soren Kierkegaasrd.
He was the son of a Lutheran pastor and was brought up in a very religious household.
Grundtvig’s ministry as a parish pastor had a difficult start.
He was officially censured after his first sermon!
In the sermon he had boldly denounced the leaders of the city!
However, in spite of this, one year later he was approved for ordination.
He then served with his father for 2 years but was unable to receive a call for 7 years after that!
He firmly believed that Christianity was God’s revelation made known to us in Christ and through word and sacrament.
He wrote many books and had many articles published.
Her spent his last 33 years as chaplain at a home for elderly women.
He preached every Sunday right up until a few days before his death.
He lived to be 99 years old.
An interesting fact about him was that he was married 3 times, the last time when he was 76 years old!
Today marks the end of a full 5 years at St. Mark with me as your pastor!
Let me be the first to say, these 5 years have gone by extremely fast!
Together and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit we have achieved a great deal in just 5 short years!
Written off as dead by many, St. Mark has returned to life!
One thing I am grateful for is that for all 5 of these years we have had a very strong church council!
During the 5 years we have started the practice of having communion every service, we now have new service books, the Wednesday night service for those who miss on Sunday, has been added.
We built and paid for what many said was impossible!
An addition to the church making it handicapped accessible!
When the ELCA decided last August to quite following the Bible, the people of St. Mark responded in a big way!
By votes of 27-1 and 45-1 we voted to leave the ELCA.
Our numbers for average weekly worship have gone from 18 to 75!
Now we look ahead knowing the Holy Spirit will guide and direct us!
As God’s people we must remain united!
I truly believe the Riverdale Community needs St. Mark Lutheran Church!
My hope and my dream is that we can build a second addition to the church!
Classroom space which will expand our ministry!
It is a challenge but we have met bigger challenges!
After we built the first addition, our numbers grew!
They will grow again after a 2nd addition!
5 years ago I told you that Jesus has said the fields are truly ripe for the harvest!
I believe that as much today as I did 5 years ago!
God has given us the mission of winning and nourishing souls for His kingdom!
Let us be about it until God calls us to our heavenly home!
My one big regret of the past 5 years is that I still have not convinced so many of you of the vital importance of worshipping God regularly!
Worshipping God needs to be a high priority for all of us, not just something we do when there is nothing else to do!
But I will keep working on it and hope the Holy Spirit leads more of you to regular worship!
Our second reading for today was from the New Testament book of Hebrews.
Hebrews was most likely written by either Barnabus or Apollos.
The key verse of today’s reading says ‘JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, AND TODAY AND FOREVER!”
Christ does not change!
Mankind may change but Christ does not!
Today you and I are literally being bombarded by people telling us Christ has changed!
They tell us homosexuality is fine, they say the church should bless same sex marriages!
But God destroyed the city of Sodom and their most glaring sin was homosexuality!
The writer of Hebrews also tell us to show hospitality to strangers.
He says some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Two of those who entertained angels without knowing it were Abraham and Gideon.
Our gospel reading for today was from Luke.
Jesus is talking about being humble!
Oh my, it is so tough to be humble!
We want to be exalted, not humbled!
But Jesus says FOR ALL THOSE WHO EXALT THEMSELVES WILL B E HUMBLED, AND THOSE WHO HUMBLE THEMSELVES WILL BE EXALTED!
Jesus tells of a banquet where a man goes to the front of the table and is asked to move and thus disgraced!
But if you take a seat far from the head of the table and are asked to move us, then you are honored!
Jesus tells his host, and he tells us today, that when we give a dinner don’t just invite friends and relatives who we expect will in turn invite us to their dinners!
No, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind!
Jesus says if we do this we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous!
Who are the righteous?
I was asked this question recently.
The righteous are those who have been pronounced so by God on the basis of Christ’s atonement and who have evidenced their faith by their actions.
Because of statements like this another references in the Bible, I am absolutely convinced that there will be degrees of rewards in heaven!
Some people will play it so close they will actually get into heaven with smoke smelling on them!
I tell you today that I have a great concern for so many who make worshipping God a very low priority!
We have given you two choices at St. Mark, Sunday morning or Wednesday evening!
We will even give you a meal on Wednesday evening!
I simply can’t understand what more we can do to get people to worship God on a regular basis!
Others will get huge rewards!
Remember Christ has told us not to build up treasure on earth but rather build up treasure in heaven!
Because the heavenly treasure lasts forever!
The earthly treasure is soon gone!
Far too many people are only concerned about today!
We need to be focused on eternity in heaven because nothing is more important than that!
Jesus said what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?
Think about that one for awhile!
We all know full well what Christ wants us to do!
Christ wants us to be telling the story!
Christ wants us to be worshiping him regularly!
You know that as well as I know that!
Arabella Katherine Hankey (1834–1911) was an English evangelist who is best known for being the author of a poem from which the hymns, Tell me the old, old story and I love to tell the story, were derived.[1][2]
She was born in 1834, the daughter of a prosperous banker in London. Her family were devout Anglicans.
She was inspired by the Methodist revival of John Wesley and organized and taught in Sunday schools in London. She then did missionary work as a nurse in Africa, assisting her brother.[1]
In 1866, she had a serious illness and was bedridden for a long convalescence.[2] During this time, she wrote her long poem of 100 verses in two parts - The Story Wanted and The Story Told.[1]
She recovered from the illness and lived to the age of 77, dying in 1911.
Is it not amazing that some of the best hymns are written when the author is in great distress?
I am thinking of the captain of slave ship who is saved from a horrible storm and writes AMAZING GRACE,HOW SWEET THE SOUND!
Or a businessman who loses his daughters in a ship wreck and yet can write IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!
Then Katherine Hankey, suffering from a long and serious illness, writes the poems from which the hymns TELL ME THE OLD, OLD STORY AND I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY are written!
Can it be that when we face adversity, we are more aware of Christ’s presence in our lives than at other times?
We all have a story to tell!
From the youngest to the oldest among us!
The story of Jesus and his glory!
The story of Jesus and his love!
The tremendous story of unseen things above!
The more we tell it the more sweet it becomes!
Remember this –there are still some who have not heard the story!
But even those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest!
But then someday soon we will be glory and there we will sing a new, new song!
But we will also be singing the old, old story that we have loved so long!
Yes, tell the story of how God sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross so that we who believe in him and follow him might have forgiveness of all our sins and have eternal life with him in heaven!
Heaven where we walk streets paved with gold!
Heaven where we will drink living water and eat fruit from the tree of life!
Heaven where we will be with Christ in a perfect world for all of eternity!
Five years as your pastor have now passed!
Now we begin a 6th year!
What we can achieve for God is viritually unlimited!
With God nothing is impossible!
I truly believe that!
Hopefully you believe that!
5 years ago when many feared St. Mark Lutheran Church might die, we all came together and made it stronger!
Now I see some of that zeal dying!
It is critical that all of us remain passionate about worshipping!
All of us need to be passionate about serving God!
All of us need to be passionate about winning and nourishing souls for God’s eternal kingdom!
We all know how the story will end!
God wins and wins big!
Satan loses and loses big!
I want to be on that winning side!
What about you?
AMEN