The Word of God at the Center of Life

Mountain tops can be important places, such as the place where God delivers the Ten Commandments to Moses, or the place where Moses went to view the land of promise from afar.

The other possibility is that mountain-tops can also be dangerous to the faith, for they are the places where the worship of all the gods of the nations around them takes place, the worship of the sun and moon, the fruitful earth, or the capricious wind..

Do we look to any of them for help?

Our tendency is to hedge our bets, to pay attention to the gods of the world, just in case the Lord God should need some assistance.

The Psalmist turns away from them all in order to heed the Lord God, the one who creates, the one who stands above all creation as both its origin and its goal.

The final image used by the Psalmist is most comforting: The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in from this time forth, forevermore.

With this word of God's steady intent, then we can move on to think about how we shall respond to it.

After all, we are a community of people who are formed by the Word, corrected by the Word, sent forth by the Word.

God is never content to leave us alone; he is forever trying to do something with us and through us.

So the first admonition is – we should put ourselves in places where God can work on us most easily:

times of common worship, and times of study of the word, together.

As Paul says, “...so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” [2Tim 3:17]

Too many are still under the mistaken notion that at Confirmation or some other specific time, one graduates from the need for study , reflection, and “equipping.”

The enthusiasm of those who have participated in the past and/or are now involved in The Way is a wonderful recognition that we all need again and again to come back to the sources, to think together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit about what is important.

Is it work? Yes, of course, but it is some of the most stimulating, thoughtful, prayerful, and ultimately useful work that we can do.

And of course all of it leads us to be guided by the Holy Spirit to get on with the job of helping one another unpack this gift we call “salvation,” God's promises.

Paul says, “I solemnly urge you to proclaim the message, be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable. Convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.

It is the job for the youth who were confirmed a month ago and for the most senior adult here...and for everyone in between.

Each of us is a learner, and each of us is a teacher; our example is needed just as much as the example of any Christian of years past.

--I'm thinking of those is generation now past who agreed to shape this building into the stirring and beautiful place it is.

--I'm thinking of those who came to this land for the possibility of worshiping without fear.

--I'm thinking of Johann Christian Friedrich Heyer, who, in 1869, at age 79 left the comfort of Pennsylvania retirement for a second tour of duty as a missionary organizer in India, and returned two years later to still more activity in the Philadelphia Seminary before he died.

--I'm thinking of those who saw the truth about what Luther was proclaiming and recognized that it was the same truth that St. Augustine had proclaimed 1,100 year earlier, which was the same truth as St. Paul had written 400 years before Augustine.[3^rd window on the south side]

--I'm thinking of Johannes Gutenberg and those who invented movable type and printing press [2^nd window on the north side] and whose first book to be printed in movable type was a beautiful edition of the Bible.

--I'm thinking of those craftsmen who in the Middle Ages learned how to tell the story of Jesus in the blazing colors of stained glass.

--I'm thinking of the brave persons who carried the gospel to the wild forests of Germany, England, Ireland, and a host of other places in the 5^th and 6^th centuries.

--I'm thinking of those Christians in the 4^th century who adapted the form of a Roman public building or courthouse called the basilica into a model of a place for Christian worship.

--I'm thinking of those many more as are represented in the figures clad in white in the 3^rd window on the south side, the proclaimers from today all the way back to the disciples who were the first to experience the Good News and to share it.

Each of us is a learner of the Word, and each of us is a teacher of the Word; our example is needed just as much as the example of any Christian of years past.

We often lament all the electronic gadgetry that is around these days.

There are many games and applications that are destructive to community, when they become ways to avoid real conversations, or when they demean others and stir up hate and violent feelings within us.

Let's not let those misuses overshadow the good that can come to us through those machines.

I saw an ad that claimed to list 205 online Bible editions in 72 languages, in addition to the hundreds in print in innumerable languages.

In this regard, things have certainly changed since Luther's day.

He made use of the very first Hebrew dictionary that was printed just a few years before he started his German translation of the Bible.

Now there are Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference works, commentaries, devotional writings in hard copy and online; there is so much information available at a moment's recall.

We have access to education for any career one can imagine, and new careers and resources for them seem to be invented all the time.

We have job search engines, counselors, personnel officers, and so much more as we plan our work.

But the wisdom in how to make use of these resources, and, even more important, the wisdom to discern the center of life, however, is in as short a supply as ever.

What we need to become are people of the Word, people who speak and write, plan and do because those promises of God are at the center of what we think and who we are.

It would be easy to say that these kinds of tasks should be left to the pastors or other professionals.

We might notice that Jesus did not call a single orator-type of person to be among the 12 disciples.

They were 12 ordinary folks who were being called and equipped for extraordinary tasks to go along with fishing, tent-making, or whatever other jobs they might have.

Paul ends this passage: “As for you...do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”

To be a gospel-bearer is the privilege granted to all of us

Tomorrow I'm off to Spain, and begin the time there with about a 100 mile section of the Camino Santiago that I have not yet traversed.

When I first started on these adventures, I thought it would be just walking and sight-seeing, and finding a place to eat and sleep.

But I have discovered that opportunities for significant conversations pop up most unexpectedly.

I need to be ready to talk gently about the faith most any time, sometimes superficially, sometimes in depth.

Several members of the congregation have told me about similar opportunities at work, at school, in leisure time, and elsewhere.

We are “people of the Word,” indeed.

Our hymn reminds us

The Church from you dear Master,

Received the gift, Word incarnate.

It is the chart and compass

That guides, O Christ, to you.

Oh, teach your wandering pilgrims

By this their path to trace. [LBW#231.2&3]

Let all who hear this gladly, say Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.