Stirring Things Up?

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text this morning is a portion of the second reading where we begin reading at verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some. But encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. These are the words of our text. Stirring things up. Wednesday was a good night for soup. Today is an even better day for soup, isn't it? And as Miss Tara said, we need to stir it up so that things don't scorch on the bottom of the pot. In one of my congregations, one of the ladies stirred on cookies, like one of the children said. She'd mix up peanut butter cookies by hand. It was her way of dealing with things that made her angry.

So, she'd come to Bible class and she'd bring about five dozen peanut butter cookies. And she said the first time, "Pastor I made these myself, I stir them up. And by the time I'm done stirring them up, whatever I'm angry at, I've kind of got out of my system." We didn't really want her to be angry all that often, but we sure did enjoy the peanut butter cookies when she was upset with something. Stirring things up. I'll admit that there are times when we stir things up in a rather negative way like, oh, there is a time or two or I'd stir up my younger brother to get him into trouble. Now, that wasn't a very good thing to do. And sometimes, we stir up people because we'll know that we'll get a rise out of them. Their buttons will be pushed, and they'll be upset. And some people, unfortunately, take joy in stirring things up like that. In our reading from the letter to the Hebrews, we're asked to consider how we might stir one another up to good works and love. And to continue to meet with one another, not neglecting the gathering together, as some are in the habit of doing.

And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, in our Gospel reading, Jesus explained to Peter and Andrew and James and John, the signs of the end of time coming. And those events, they were taking place long before Jesus sat down with those four disciples to explain the end of the world, and they've continued ever since, up to our own day. Wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, droughts, earthquakes.

Signs of the day drawing near are all around us. And the day is drawing ever near. Now, it's drawing near in many ways. Certainly, the day of our Lord's return to bring this world of sin and death to an end and ushers people into their eternal home, that day is certainly drawing near. But so also is that final day of yours and mine in this world, either because our Lord Jesus is come or because God's chosen that the fulfillment of our days has come and we pass away. We pass out of this time and space and enter into eternity, awaiting that day. The day is drawing near. So let us encourage one another in how we might stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some. You see, neglecting to gather together as God's people, that was already happening in the early church. It's nothing new to our day. It's been something the church has had to deal with since its inception.

And why is it that some neglect to gather together?

Well, I suppose, maybe toes were stepped on, or feathers ruffled. And someone got upset and just decided they weren't going to show up anymore. Or other things come up. After all, there's only so much time in a week, and I'm busy the whole rest of the week, so this is my one day for myself. Sound familiar?

Maybe you're thought that a time or two. Maybe you, at one point, were neglecting gathering together and maybe somebody stirred you up to get back in the habit of meeting together. I believe that to be an even greater challenge in our day since, or in the midst of COVID. You go on the synod's website, and you can look at any church, and you can see what their attendance was before COVID and what it's been in the past year. And many are only at a half or a third of what their attendance was. One individual, Tom Rainer, says that 30% of pre-COVID church attendance, that 30% are never going to return back to church. They probably weren't really part of the gathering of God's people to begin with. You might say, Pastor, that's a harsh thing to say. But it's a reality. Even Jesus says, "Many will call on me and say 'Lord, Lord, we knew you' and He will say, 'Assuredly, I do not know who you are.'"

So 30% of pre-COVID attendance, membership, never going to come back again. It's true for Immanuel, true for St. John, true for any congregation. And that kind of reminds me of my first orientation day of college. I was sitting in the student auditorium in old Simpson Hall, Winona State University. And the dean of students was saying, "Now, I want you to take a look around to your left and your right." And he said, "within four years, only one of you will still be sititing here. Or still be on campus." And I thought, well, I'll be one of those four. And then, guess what? Suddenly, I left.

I transferred to a different college. I was one of those that wasn't going to be there in the end. Well, I did graduate after two years. But at the time, it's like, well, what does he know? Well, I guess he knew an awful lot. I could say look to your left and your right, and maybe someday, I mean, we know someday eventually, one of those people isn't going to be here, cuz they may have passed away. But maybe there's already somebody that isn't sitting in your neighborhood that used to be sitting in your neighborhood. And it's not to say that those watching online are not important. But we need you here. We need you in person, because we can't encourage you when you're not here. And you can't encourage us when you're not here.

That same individual said that 30% of pre-COVID membership will be nominally involved. You know, they'll come a couple times a month. Maybe they were regulars, but now they're only going to come a couple times a month. And the last 40%, well, those are the die-hard, core members who will always be there - pardon the language - come hell or high water. And so we see the challenge of encouraging one another to gather together. And some of the things that we are seeing as blessings with technology have become a hinderance to gathering together.

We're asked to consider how we might stir one another up to love and good works. To stir things up in a good way, in a positive way. And there's going to be some stirring up here at Immanuel, because we now have a Strategic Plan that we're going to be following. And one of those points is to get the members more involved, more ownership in the congregation, and part of that's going to be looking at that membership list. And believe me, that stirs things up, does't it? Well, who do they think they are, saying that they're removing me from membership? Well, you moved away five or ten years ago. You're out of the area. We can't really minister to you. You aren't involved in the ministry of our congregation. You should probably find a congregation closer to where you're living. And then there are those that are closer by that, you know, they just haven't been coming. And the reason to say, hey, we'd like to encourage you to be more involved, to consider coming back to worship, to activating your membership isn't because we dislike you, but because we love you.

And really, on that day, one of two things is going to happen when the Lord returns. Either we're going to enter into everlasting blessedness, or we're going to be cast down into everlasting shame. And believe me, I would much rather enter into everlasting blessedness than everlasting contempt and shame. And if I were being neglectful of my spiritual well-being, I sure hope somebody cared enough for me to come and say "hey, you know, we haven't seen you much in church lately. How's your spiritual life? We'd like to see you so that you can be fed and nourished on that Word of God and receive that sacrement to strengthen you in your faith, because hey, life isn't going to get any easier."

And you can't go on the assumption that, well, when the time comes, I'll have plenty of time to get right with the Lord. May not be the case. Just may not be the case.

So, membership is one of the things that are going to be looked at. And maybe somebody that you know gets one of those letters. And they'll stir things up. Believe me, they stir things up. And people get offended. And some don't even open the letter, because there can't be anything good coming from church in an envelope. When all it is, is encouragement to be part of the Body, part of the family that you're a part of. We don't want to just see you at funerals or weddings or baptisms. We want to see you all the time.

I've been here long enough to know you all sit in the same place every Sunday. And you've probably been doing that for as long as you've been a member here at Immanuel, I bet. Or at least you're in the same region. And there are people that used to sit with you. Now, not including those that have passed on to be with the Lord, but are there people that are still very much alive that aren't sitting with you? That are not in your neighborhood anymore?

I've said this every congregation I've served, and I've yet to see anybody take action. So I'm hoping that maybe you'll be different. That you'll say, hey Pastor Ader, we took you up on your word, and guess what?

How many of you would be willing to call the person or persons who are no longer sitting with you anymore? Maybe they haven't sat with you for years. And would be willing to say "hey, I'm just wondering how you're doing. I haven't seen you, and my worship just isn't the same without you in the pew with me. Just calling to see if things are okay, and invite you back to worship with me."

Would you do that? Would you be so bold to do that? "Well, isn't that what the pastor and the elders are supposed to do?" somebody will say. Well, partly. But, you see, people expect that from the elders and the pastor. And with caller ID, "oh, it's the pastor calling. I don't think I'll answer." "Oh, it's the elder from church. I don't think I'll answer."

I had one elder that said, "you know, you know there are people home, cuz you go to visit and it's like 6:30, so Wheel of Fortune is on. You can hear Wheel of Fortune through the window or the door, and you see a little wiggle in the curtain cuz they're checking to see if you're still there or not."

They know why you're there. Or at least they think they know why you're there. "They're just going to tell me I ought to be in church more often. Or I need to give more." It's like they really want to just encourage you to live the faith that God's wanting to work in you.

Encouraging one another. Stirring one another up. There's going to be a lot of stirring up around here. And you know who doesn't like things getting stirred up? Even moreso than Lutherans - because we don't like change, and stirring up things means change. The devil doesn't like things getting stirred up. So he'll do his own thing to kind of thwart the positive stirrings that God is wanting to accomplish here. He doesn't want those members to be sitting in the pew, hearing God's Word. Hearing the sins of their past week have been forgiven. Or being fed on the Body and Blood of Christ for the strengthening of their faith, the assurance of the forgiveness of their sins, and the grace to please Him with a God-pleasing life. No, he doesn't want that, and so he'll raise his ugly head here. And you always know you're on God's track when the devil starts throwing roadblocks in your way.

There's going to be a call for more active involvement in Bible study, in discipleship. What? It isn't enough for me just to be here in church? Now, I have to become a disciple? Well, that's part of our soul care for the members of our family. Yes, God's going to stir things up. He might use the pastor, He might use the staff, He may even use some of you. But one of two things will result. People will either be upset and they won't come to church, they won't be active in their membership (and they're already doing that, aren't they), or the other thing is that they come and they are strengthened in their faith, and in the day of our Lord's coming, they will enter into that everlasting blessedness. Because they'll call out to the Lord and He'll know them. Because they've grown in their faith and trust in Him as their Savior.

Let us then hold fast to the assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as has a habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. That day is drawing near.

And God has stirred us up to works of love and good works and to meet together. To be together as our family.

May God grant that encouragement to us that we may be both the one who is bold enough to go forth, to encourage others who have kind of departed from the neighborhood, so to speak. But then also to be such that if we're the one needing to be encouraged, we're the one needing to be reminded, encouraged by another brother or sister in the faith, that we receive that encouragement as it is meant. Out of loving care for our eternal soul.

And when we're all stirred up and meeting together, the devil won't like it. But God will be mighty at work in our midst. And may He grant that, not only for this generation, but for those that come, to His glory and to the comfort of many souls. Amen.

And now, may the peace of God, which surpasses our understanding, keep our hearts and our minds in faith in Christ Jesus onto life everlasting. Amen.