(Audio)
Luke 24:1-12, 36-49; Romans 10:9-17; Isaiah 62:1-7
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s Gospel is the account of the faithful women arriving at Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning. What I think we tend to forget, however, is that the women did not expect to find the tomb empty, the stone rolled away, and their Lord Jesus’ body gone. They did not come in hopeful expectation of Jesus’ resurrection, but they came to complete the unfinished work of preparing his dead body for burial. They did not come seeking the living but the dead. However, they were greeted by two angels, holy messengers of God’s Word, who proclaimed to them, “He is not here, but has risen!” The messengers called them to remember Jesus’ words, that “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” At their word they did remember, and they ran at once to the eleven and to all the others to tell them the Good News!
All four of the Gospels record the account of the women at the tomb, and all four accounts agree that the women did not initially believe that Jesus would rise. But that is not a slight on the women uniquely, for no one believed, hoped, or anticipated that Jesus would rise. Apart from the life-giving and faith-creating Word of God we are all like Lazarus, spiritually dead and unable to believe. However, once that Word has been proclaimed to us, the Lord willing, we are resurrected to faith and life, and our all-consuming desire and passion is to go and tell anyone who will listen to the Good News!
The Scriptures attest to this in numerous places. For example, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, some Pharisees wanted Jesus to rebuke his disciples for praising him with the Messianic titles, “Hosanna, Son of David” and “Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD.” But Jesus answered them saying, “If they remain silent, the very stones will cry out!” Often when Jesus healed people, he exhorted them to remain silent and to not tell, yet they could not contain their joy and went and told everyone they could. When the man born blind was healed, he went and told everyone how Jesus had restored his sight. The ostracized Samaritan woman at the well went and told everyone in her village about the man she had spoken with, and she proclaimed that he could be the Christ. You see, faith is never silent, but it is always active, speaking, singing, praising, serving, confessing the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus.
We often wrongly think of mission work as sort of a vocational specialization that only certain people having certain skills and abilities are called to do, while the rest of us support them financially and with our prayers. While it is a wonderful gift and blessing that the Lord has raised up such missionaries in his church, it is not true that mission work is, can, or should be done only by such professionals. All who have received the gift of faith are bound, blessed, equipped, and sent to share what the Lord has done to the glory of God. St. Paul has written, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Similarly, Jesus has said, “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.” Every Christian is a missionary, indeed a little Christ, proclaiming the Good News of what the Lord has done in word and deed. “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news!”
So, the women came to the tomb that Easter morning seeking the dead, spiritually dead in terms of their faithful hope and living joy. But after hearing the Word of the holy messengers, they ran, their hearts full of fear, love, and trust, and perplexed hope and joy, to tell the others! Truly, it was not only their Lord who was raised, just as he said, but they too were resurrected, and their mission became that joyful message in their lives, words, and deeds! This is the mission to which you have been called, my Christian brothers and sisters! And that is the mission of Immanuel Lutheran Church of St. Ansgar, Iowa today, even as it has been your mission these past 150 years. You have been blessed, and you ARE blessed to be a blessing! “Thank the Lord and sing his praise; tell everyone what he has done!”
Now, I was asked to speak to you this day concerning the service of Christian women in the Church. The reason I am here specifically is because I am the senior pastoral counselor for the Iowa East District of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. I was elected pastoral counselor back in 2022 and have served the District LWML two full years and am now in my third year. I will confess that I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into back then. Sure, I knew about the work of the LWML and have worked with my congregations’ local societies and zones, but what I have experienced the past two-plus years has been nothing short of revelatory and a great blessing to me personally. The LWML is truly a mission society. What I mean is that the entire organization in its mission and vision, organization, and service is mission-minded through and through.
Here’s some boilerplate background for you: The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) is an official auxiliary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Since 1942, the LWML has focused on affirming each woman’s relationship with Christ, encouraging and equipping women to live out their Christian lives in active mission ministries and to support global missions. Mission Statement: As Lutheran Women in Mission, we joyfully proclaim Christ, support missions, and equip women to honor God by serving others. Vision Statement: The LWML is the leading group for LCMS women where each woman is welcomed and encouraged to use her unique God-given gifts as she supports global missions and serves the Lord with gladness. Now, if this sounds a bit corporate, well, that’s ok, it is. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty good guiding position statement that serves to keep the organization grounded and centered in the Gospel nationally, district-wide, and locally in both zones and congregation societies.
I suspect that most everyone knows about the LWML’s chief fundraising program, the Mite. LWML Mite Boxes are inspired, of course, by the Gospel account of the poor widow who put her two last pennies (mites) into the offering box. Jesus praised her for her faith and trust in the Lord in giving, out of her poverty, want, and need, everything she had. Now, it is of course true that the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that typically find their way into a mite box are rarely anyone’s last two pennies, but they are more likely the change left in our pockets at the end of the day or week. Nevertheless, those mites, when combined with hundreds and thousands of other gifts from zone, district, and national LWML offerings provide hundreds of thousands of dollars which serve to support vocational missionaries and mission work, to provide scholarships for Lutheran pastors, deaconesses, DCEs, teachers, and other church workers, along with missionary efforts in our districts, zones, and congregations.
However, it’s not just the mites and the money, but women in the LWML regularly serve with their hands, hearts, voices, and prayers by collecting needed items for food pantries, schools, pro-life women’s support organizations, and much, much more. They also make quilts, shawls, and other useful items, they write letters of encouragement, make crafts that proclaim the Good News of Jesus to others and encourage them to share their faith, and, it goes without saying, prepare countless meals for funerals and congregation celebrations throughout our Synod. In the Iowa East District, our LWML has pledged to support thirteen unique mission endeavors along with several scholarships and grants totaling $90,000 over the next biennium. One of those mission grants supports the campus ministry that I and my congregation at St. John provide to students attending Wartburg College in Waverly. Others include Lutheran Family Services, Lutheran Disaster Relief, Mission Central, Lutherans for Life, and Word of Hope Suicide Prevention for Post-Abortive Women, among others.
Here at Immanuel, your Lutheran Ladies Society was first organized in 1917 under the pastorate of Rev. Paul Brammer. In 1947 your society joined the LWML. Over the years the Immanuel Lutheran Ladies Society has cared for altar paraments, banners, and vestments, altar flowers, the church kitchen and its appointments, and much, much more. Members of the society regularly visit church members, particularly shut-ins, and provide for the welfare of church members in need. A church history book ends its section on the LWML with these words: “What is the LWML all about? Being missionaries where we are! We pray the Lord’s blessings attend our efforts for Him and His church as we continue to Serve the Lord with Gladness.”
Two thousand years later, your missionary work is not really all that different than those women who ministered to Jesus and supported his ministry, the same women who sought to care for his body that first Easter morning. Those women have come to be known in Christendom as the Holy Myrrhbearers for bringing myrrh and aloes to anoint Jesus’ body in loving service and devotion. The Myrrhbearers were women who followed Jesus, served him, and witnessed his crucifixion. They were with him throughout his ministry and accompanied his body to the tomb. The Myrrhbearers represent the good and holy in the Christian faith. In loving devotion, thanksgiving, and fear, love, and trust they served their Lord in life and in death. After the angels’ announcement they served the Lord and glorified him by telling all that he was risen and all that he had done. This remains the mission of God’s people until he comes again on the Last Day.
“For Zion's sake we cannot keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake we cannot be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory” […] “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.” Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And Christ is present with his words and wounds to forgive you anew, to strengthen your faith, to equip you for every good work, and to send you forth as his hands, feet, mouth, and voice, as little Christ’s, serving your neighbor and glorifying his name until he comes. The tomb is empty, the stone forever rolled away. Death has died and life lives, and you get to be the messengers of Jesus’ victory in your lives, words, and deeds. God bless you saints of Immanuel Lutheran Church, and the LORD continue to make you a blessing.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment