LWML Sunday

1 Peter 2:4-10

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today we are observing LWML Sunday, which is a Sunday on which we recognize one of the organizations that has stood alongside our Church Body for decades with the goal and purpose of sharing the Kingdom of God with all the world. They do so with the joyful expectation of the King of Kings coming into the world to establish His Kingdom where we shall dwell with him for all eternity. They go about their work with this in mind and glorify Him who has brought them out of darkness to light.

The Living Stone

Jesus is the stone rejected by men.

This surprises the world, for they think that if God were to walk amongst us that everyone would love him, and cherish him and want to be with him. But Jesus came teaching that all mankind ought to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Instead of saying Amen! They sought to put him to death.

This shows the power of sin.

We often minimize sin and think of it only as the actions that we perform, and that they are not so grievous as the sins of others who commit sins on a grander scale, but what makes sin evil is that creature rejects creator. for when we disobey God’s Word, or hear Christ’s teaching but say I don’t need to listen to that, we despise Christ. and his teaching. This is incredibly dangerous because

In God’s sight, Jesus is precious.

When the creation was lost to sin, the only one who could make it good again was the very same one through whom all things had been made. So the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us that He might serve as the means and the foundation by which creation would be made new and restore us to our creator, the Father in heaven.

Christ is the Cornerstone

Being the Cornerstone, Jesus is the most important person in history.

There is no person greater, no leader or president, soul that is equal to who Jesus is. His name is the name that is above every name at the name of Jesus every knee in creation will bow. It is why people flocked to our nation to be able to worship without fear of persecution and it is one of the rights that has been safeguarded by veterans for almost 250 years.

He is King over all creation.

That means all things are subject to him. Even kings, dictators, presidents, everyone will have to give an account of themselves to Him for all creation belongs to Him and He had entrusted portions of it to his care. That is why we are blessed to be in a country that protects and defends these inalienable rights. The Scriptures also tell us that

Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

This is key, for His work was not just for one group of people, in a certain nation, or in a certain time, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus came for all. He didn’t just come for the children of abraham but all those around the world. We are to be going out into the world to share the message of salvation with everyone. For Christ died for all.

So why is Jesus called...?

A stone of stumbling, and rock of offense?

We witness this ourselves when we share the gospel, when we invite people to church, when they say they will come, but don’t, for even if they have complaints about the church, or christians they have encountered in the past what Christ offers is greater than all of that.

Jesus’ work shows that man isn’t good.

When Jesus proclaims repent, He is saying that to everyone, doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how well you known you are, you aren’t good enough and must lay aside everything that the world treasures and instead cling to Him. This is what it means when we say that

We are poor, miserable sinners.

We are spiritual poor, and have nothing that God should regard us, we do not measure up, and cannot stand before the throne of God by our own merits, but instead have to admit that we have failed in thought, word, and deed and have despised God

Man’s pride says, No!

There must be something worthwhile, I have it in me to be great, to be spectacular, and to move the world and to be someone. Perhaps in the eyes of men, you have that ability, but it doesn’t matter in the eyes of God. That is why many end walk away because they would rather be praised by the world than be found in Christ.

We are like living Stones

We are being built up as a spiritual house.

With him as the chief cornerstone, which is guiding and shaping all of us, for He is God in the flesh, and we find our purpose and identity through Him. So we are being setup as a holy priesthood, as priests

We offer up sacrifices.

That is to say we give of what God has given to us for the benefit of the Kingdom of Christ. Our desire is that the kingdom of God grows and is strengthened by the Word and Sacraments as more people are brought together day by day.

This has been the work of the LWML.

This is what has motivated their mission for over 75 years as their mites are brought out into the world to not only care for those who are in need, but also to make sure that this message of salvation goes out. For they cannot visit every person, but they can help support those who go out into the field.

The Sacrifices Offered

Everyone is a priest. (Not a pastor)

I only bring this up because there is some confusion about these two different roles, the priests were entrusted with offering sacrifices and had lives that were set apart from the rest of Israel, and that is what all Christians are compared to, whereas Pastors have a different function than priest, but they are included in the priesthood.

These sacrifices include our time, our offerings, and even lesiure.

Out of everything we have been given we set aside time for the work of God’s kingdom that the people of God. For the priests helped care for the temple. That is what we do here on earth to spread the message of the gospel abroad. Consider yesterday we had many give up a few hours yesterday to lend a hand with the pizzas, or today on a sunday morning, that we set aside time to gather together around the Word and to be united with each other, and with Christ.

That we might proclaim what Jesus has done.

For how else do the message of the Gospel spread? It has always been through the Word. It is that word that we want to share with each and every person. Even those we think might not be interested. Let God worry about who converts, but we have the chance to bring the light.

The World in Darkness

Everyone was in darkness and disobeyed the Word.

That was the power of sin, and indeed we knwo that temptation for we ourselves fall into the darkness of sin as well and disobey the word. God willing not willfully for that is to fall away from the faith, but we trip and stumble for we are still of the flesh. We know from being in that darkness how much people need the light, the hope, comfort, and mercy that comes from Christ.

We have now received mercy and are God’s people.

For God did not have to save us, He didn’t have to call us his children, He didn’t have to send Jesus to wash away our sins by His blood, but He did. He did it for you, while you were yet still a sinner. It was the gospel that freed you from sin. That is why

You are called to share the Gospel.

It is a bit nerve-wracking, but think about the freedoms we have, and the freedoms that our veterans have secured for our founding fathers knew the importance of faithful Christians in a nation. They wrote those Word that the faith might be safe, and our soldiers have fought to maintain that right for us today, so what are we going to let it pass us by? The number of neighbors that aren’t connected to any church is huge. We have the chance to share Christ with them.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have been given a wonderful chance to sahre this message with the world. God has secured this through the efforts of our veterans who have defended these rights. We have seen how that work might be accomplished. May we not let these chances go to waste for the harvest is plentiful, we just need to bring the Word into the midst of the people.