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Grace to you and peace from Christ our risen and ascended and ruling Lord. On this very exciting and happy day, the anniversary of the ordination of your wonderful pastor, Pastor Knuckles, whom I’ve known for many years. And by the way, before I begin, I bring you greetings from your fellow saints up in Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where it finally stopped snowing last month, thank God. It snowed the middle of May, can you believe it? Now, I was born in southern Indiana, down in Evansville, just east of here, I think, somewhere. And it’s good to feel the heat and humidity again. So, maybe you don’t appreciate it, I do. But once again, God’s peace and grace to each one of you.
Please rise for the text. Can everyone in the back here all write? If you can’t, let me know. I’d like to read these words of the Apostle St. Paul in his first letter to Corinth, where he writes… “This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it’s required of stewards that they be found faithful.” This is God’s Word. Please be seated. In Jesus’ blessed name.
I was kidding Pastor Knuckles yesterday. I said, “You want to hear the introduction of my sermon? It’s going to go like this: When he was a student of mine back in Winfield about 30, 40 years ago, whatever it was, I wondered, how is he ever going to be a minister? He flunked all my classes.” But I said, “I don’t think I’ll say that tomorrow.” He was a very good student. Okay. I had him, as I said, about 30 years ago in classes. He was actually a student over at Southwestern College, which was another college in Winfield, Kansas. He told me yesterday the theology there was way left-wing, but he heard that at St. John’s College, they believed something. So he came over to our Missouri Synod College at St. John’s and said, I ended up having him for, I think, four or five different courses. He took Hebrew from me. And by the way, I mentioned in the early service, I used to preach in Oklahoma for vacancies to try to earn a little extra money for my family. And I’d tell these ranchers, you know, “I make my living teaching Hebrew.” And they’d look at each other and say, “How does a guy make his living teaching Hebrew, of all things, in Kansas?”
But anyway, he took Old Testament from me, and I think wisdom literature, and we did a course in Martin Luther, and he got so excited about the Lutheran church he ended up taking instruction from… Carla’s uncle, Pastor Martin Pullman, great friend of mine, and then he got confirmed in the Lutheran Church. Would you know it, pretty soon he goes to the seminary and the rest is history. He is ordained 25 years ago and has served you faithful people here, I think around 10 years. That’s a good round number, and he has been a faithful pastor, and I know you’re thankful for his ministry.
Nothing can be more critical to you or to this congregation than to have a faithful steward of God’s mysteries. As St. Paul writes here, “You should regard us pastors as stewards of the mysteries of God.” And it is nothing more required of a steward than he be found faithful. And you have a faithful pastor. Two of them, actually. Doubly blessed. But today we’re talking about Pastor Knuckles.
You know, what are these mysteries of God that Paul talks about here? Well, the mysteries, of course, include the incarnation of God. That’s a great mystery. That the God of the universe, in the person of his Son, would have taken into himself our human nature, which in itself is something I can’t comprehend. I cannot comprehend, of course, why he would even want to do such a thing. To come and walk like some little worm crawling around on the ground like the rest of us? Why would he do such a thing? Well, the Bible tells us, because he loved the world so much. He loved you, and loved me, of all people.
The mystery includes not just his incarnation, but then his death on the cross, his glorious resurrection on Easter day, his ascension, and now his session back at the right hand of his father. A great mystery. As St. Paul writes, boy, there’s an understatement. That God was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed in the world, and taken back up into glory. By the way, His divine nature did not need to be taken up into glory. We’re talking here about Jesus in the flesh. Yes, as God, he sits at the right hand of the Father, but as true man, he now sits at the right hand of the Father, no longer taking up space or time, as he did for some 30 years, which is, by the way, very critical for us today as we celebrate the Holy Sacrament.
And some may ask, how can the body of Christ be given in many pieces of bread at the same time? We say that is a no-brainer. He no longer takes up space. He fills the universe, not only as God, but as man. Boy, a great mystery indeed, if there were ever one. Included in this mystery, of course, is the mystery that Gentiles, that’d be you Germans and Norwegians and others. You see, how we got in the kingdom of God, I don’t know. Germans are so stubborn and proud and arrogant; I don’t know how they ever got in the kingdom of God. But that is the great mystery of the gospel. As Paul writes to the Jewish readers, that the great mysteries, the Gentiles are now included in this thing called the kingdom of God. He writes, “God made known the mystery of his will that Gentiles are fellow heirs with Abraham and Israel.” There is a great mystery.
And then, of course, the mystery of the Gospel includes an incredible thing. That before this world was even created, God knew who you were and decided he wanted you in his kingdom. Can I use the word? He predestined you, chose you ahead of time to be one of his people. And not only did he do that, he let you know about it in the waters of your baptism. As he called you by your own name, and put on you his own powerful name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, entitling you to all the rights and benefits that you have, having God’s name. One of which, of course, we take for granted, maybe, is to address the Almighty with these beautiful words, “Our Father in Heaven.”
And, of course, included in the mystery would be, of course, the great resurrection of all flesh. And that is a great mystery. Wow. I’ve served my parish currently for a little over 30 years. I’ve been in the ministry 40 years. I’ve stood at the gravesite of many, many Christians. And as we lower that body into the ground and shovel dirt on it, and I read those words about Christ raising all flesh from the dead, that is a mystery. How can that be? In my congregation, which dates back to 1864… There are some bodies buried in our cemetery out in the backyard. There’s not much left anymore, with all due respect. I think most of it has rotted away a long time ago.
And that God will raise those bodies from the dead, that is indeed a great mystery. Listen to Paul. “I tell you a great mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, where the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” No eyeglasses anymore, no gray hair, of which I have a few left, and none of that stuff that old age does to us; we will all be changed.
In his letter to Ephesus, St. Paul urged the Christians that they should pray for him. “Pray for me, that words may be given to me when I open my mouth, so that I may boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel.” The mystery of the gospel, because that is such a valuable, critical thing to God’s people. You see, the gospel is called a mystery because we can’t know of it by nature. Oh, we think we’re so smart over the history of the world. We come up with this philosophical idea and that. We invent this great thing and invent that great thing. But we all, sooner or later, stand at that precipice called death, ready to fall into the grave. And we don’t know by ourselves how to get through that, what is it called, the valley of the shadow of death. And that’s why the gospel is such a valuable mystery. Amen.
In the wisdom of God, Paul writes, “The world did not know God through its wisdom, and so it pleased God through the folly of what we believe to save those who believe.” And there is nothing more critical in your life or in mine than to have a faithful preacher who proclaims the gospel clearly and boldly so that we know who we are, God’s people. We know where we’ve come from, death. We know where we’re going, heaven and eternal life. Unless God reveals to us the gospel, we cannot figure it out ourselves.
We would forever wander around lost and hopeless, as St. Peter puts it, like sheep, wandering around. In the Greek word, “planeo.” You remember that word, Pastor Knuckles? “Planeo.” We get our word, “planets.” Planets. They were wandering around in the heavens, the ancients thought. And Saint Peter uses that word to describe us before we become Christians. “You were like sheep, planeting around, wandering around, not knowing who you are, where you’re going, living in total chaos.”
We need the Gospel. We are by nature children of wrath. We have no hope without the Gospel. We cannot find God. We cannot earn our own salvation. We cannot climb our way into heaven. As those poor folks believe, called the Muslims, and they actually believe that by submission to the will of Allah, they can somehow earn things from God. What a horrible thing. And their idea of God is a God who demands holy jihad from us. But we know the mystery of the gospel. God did a jihad for me. He went to the cross. He died so I wouldn’t have to. There’s the great mystery of the gospel.
What a horrible disaster it would be. And that’s an understatement. Were God to take these mysteries away from us. Were God not to give us faithful pastors to proclaim that holy gospel to us week after week after week. And I again serve a congregation that’s celebrating this year its 150th anniversary. And I see all the pictures of the pastors who have preceded me. And I think to myself, I am merely a manager and steward of these blessings of God, these great mysteries. The church is not mine to play games with it. It is the church of God which he bought with his own blood. My job is to preach the gospel.
What a horrible thing were that to be taken from you. Amos, the Old Testament prophet, whose name means heavy burden. I was going to test your pastor on that. I had him for Hebrew and see if he could recite any Hebrew words. Actually, yesterday he did. He said he remembered the first verse of Genesis. And I said, very good, you learned something. My life wasn’t wasted for four years back there. Amos, the Old Testament prophet, as he sees God’s people in that time wandering away from the word of God, he warns them that they should come back and repent. And he writes, “Behold, days will come, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but a famine of hearing God’s word.”
What a horrible thing to go through your life seeking a word from God or some kind of word to give you hope and purpose in life, and you can’t find it. Again, how thankful and grateful you people can be here that you have two faithful pastors, one who served you for ten years, that’s a good round number, ten commandments, ten years, of faithful pastors preached to you law and gospel and properly administered the sacraments. You want and you need a minister who knows what his business is. Your pastors do. They know their business.
What is their business? To preach the gospel and administer the sacraments. Their business is not to entertain you, although Pastor Knuckles is quite entertaining on his good days. But that’s not his business. His business is not to instruct you in how to, I don’t know, you were an engineer, weren’t you? What did you do? Created things, whatever. That’s not his business anymore. He is now a minister of the gospel.
And their business is not really to give you advice on how to have a good marriage or raise your children, although we do that as pastors. Their business, our business, is to preach the gospel, to prepare you for eternal life, to prepare you for the day of your death. And I hate to say it, but we have to say it, we’re all going to die, sooner or later. My brother-in-law is currently in hospice up in Minneapolis. He is pastor at Glory of Christ Lutheran Church in a suburb near mine. He’s in my circuit. Wonderful pastor. He has cancer.
He’s only 64 years old, which for some of you may seem old. For a lot of us, it seems young. And you know, he, two weeks, our last week, the week of Pentecost, I’ve been going in every morning to have devotions with him and his wife and whoever’s there. And I read the gospel lesson for Pentecost Tuesday from John 10, which talks about Jesus the Good Shepherd. And I said, “Clement, that’s his first name, Clement, you’ve preached on this text for many years.” He’s lying in bed, his eyes closed, his mouth open, looks like he’s not hearing a thing.
I said, “You’ve preached on this your whole ministry. Do you have anything to add, say, to this text?” “Yes, I do. I do. It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.” And went on, by the way, President Harrison, the synodical president, was there that day visiting because they’re good friends. And Clement went on to preach about a nine-minute sermon sharing the gospel and the hope he has in the resurrection. Recited the Apostles’ Creed with me. Prayed the Lord’s Prayer. Exciting thing. Sang the Te Deum, by the way. A little bit different musical setting you had. But we sang the Te Deum Laudamus. We praise you, O God. We acknowledge you to be the Lord.
Do you think he cares at this point in his life about the automobile he bought a few years ago? They just redecorated their home. Do you think he cares about that? They have a cabin up in northern Minnesota in the Northwoods. Do you think he cares about that? There’s only one thing that matters to him right now, and that is that he understands the gospel, that he was called by name in the waters of baptism, and that his pastor has been bringing to him faithfully the body and blood of Jesus to assure him that he has a place at the great heavenly feast. That’s all that matters.
You have two very good pastors, faithful pastors. St. Paul, or the book Bible tells you that you should obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch for your souls. That’s their business. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be of no advantage to you. Wouldn’t it be terrible if you hassled your pastors all the time and they were miserable in their work here? And they didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning, finally left, and you’d be without a pastor to proclaim to you the gospel, to baptize your children, to instruct them in the catechism, to distribute the body and blood of the Lord to you? What a horrible thing that would be.
In his letter to Ephesus, St. Paul writes that God gave his church gifts. First, the apostles, then eventually, of course, pastors and teachers. And why? To build us up in Christ so that we might not be tossed around by all these winds of doctrine. And boy, are there a lot of winds blowing around in the United States today. Whether it’s Islam or whether it’s Hinduism, we have one of the biggest Hindu temples in North America two miles from my parish. And I’ve been to India five times. They believe in some 300 gods. One of which has an elephant head. I’m going to tell you that old story. This is crazy.
Then you’ve got the Jehovah’s Witnesses. You have the Mormons. And then you have some so-called Christian groups who no longer preach the gospel but think that their business is just to bring in people, raise money, and do social ministry of some kind. They don’t preach the gospel. What a horrible thing. I can thank Pastor Knuckles and Pastor Stensing for no greater business you can have than to be a minister of the gospel and to give your people the mysteries of God.
St. Paul writes, “This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of a pastor, he desires the most noble task.” And it was about 30 years ago, I think, Mark, if I may call you that, that you desired this noble task, to be a pastor. I don’t know if when you were five or ten years old you ever suspected you would be a pastor in the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod. You were growing up Methodist at that time. But God had plans for you. And brought you out of Methodism into the Lutheran Church. Got you to this beautiful woman you’re sitting next to and got you married to her. And then got you into seminary. And for now the last 25 years, you have been a faithful pastor in the Word of God. A noble task indeed.
You know, I’ve been a pastor 40 years, and I think back on my ministry, and all the kids I’ve confirmed, the many kids I’ve baptized, the people I’ve worked with in their marriages to get them married, the funerals I’ve done, and I think of people that I am now marrying that I baptized in my parish. I’ve been there 30 years in my congregation. That’s a long time. But what a noble task. To usher people through this life into the glories of eternal life and the great heavenly feast. I can’t think of a better way that I could have spent my life than doing that. What a noble task.
Not that other vocations are not noble. But you know, in a certain sense, once the end of the world comes and we die, all the work that we normally do in this life really doesn’t matter too much anymore. But the work of the ministry, boy, that has repercussions and fruits that last forever. What a great task it is.
I’m told that in France there is an ancient Roman Catholic church with a little placard over the entrance to this church that was encouraging French youth to consider the priesthood. And it had this little word of encouragement: There are just four days in anyone’s life: birth, confirmation, marriage, and death. Would you not like to be one who would be needed on all four of those days? I think that’s kind of a neat thing, encouraging those of us who are in the holy ministry, whether we’re paid well or not, that’s really not the issue, but what a glorious work it is to be needed by people in the most important days of their life.
And some of you, if you’re not regular attendees in church, I don’t know, but if you get sick, or you get close to death, or you’ve had tragedy in your life, your pastors will be there for you. And what a noble task that is. And when you need your pastor, he will be there.
As St. Paul reflected on his own ministry, he cried out, “To me, though, I am the very least of all the saints.” And I think those of us in the ministry, as I look at my life, and sometimes I get very discouraged. I’m not always the best husband. I wasn’t always the best father. I have my sins. You’ve got yours. I wonder why God ever wanted me in the holy ministry. I don’t pray as much as I should sometimes. Sometimes I’m not the best example to the saints.
I will sometimes go to give a devotion to a person in a hospital, and they give a devotion to me. That’s much better than I ever could have prepared. I think to myself, “God, you should have called him.” St. Paul, “Though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the great mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”
And what a great privilege that is to preach that gospel. You know, it’s not to say there are not disappointments and things that bother us in the ministry. Times when we get very discouraged. I confirm 15 or 20 kids a year in my congregation. A few years later, I see maybe six or seven of them still coming to church. Some of them have moved away, I know that, or maybe joined the military. But some of them, they just don’t go to church anymore.
Oh, I have a couple of young people coming in for premarital counseling or instruction. I’ve instructed one of them, and I find out very quickly they’re living together already. I’ll tell them, “Didn’t I tell you in your catechism class this is sin? For crying out loud, what are you thinking?” “Oh, I know, Pastor Brill, you told us that.” Or I have people, they sit in church every Sunday together, holding hands, smiling, singing the hymns. I find out that they’re having horrible marriage problems at home. Those are very discouraging things for a pastor.
Jeremiah was like that. He was pulled into the mystery, screaming and dragging against God. And then today we hear him say, “Oh Lord, you tricked me. I’m a laughing stock all the day. Everybody mocks me for what I do.” And I remember a little devotion I had once where a pastor goes to visit somebody in a hospital, and the person in the next bed says, “You’d have more value to the world if you were a ditch digger.” And he laughed at him. And I think some of us pastors have gone through that from some secular people who think we have wasted our lives and thrown our lives away in talking about things that you can’t touch or feel or hold on to. It doesn’t make you a living or get you a good retirement necessarily. And they laugh at us.
And Jeremiah felt that. He even said, “‘I don’t think I’ll mention God anymore or speak in his name, for his word has become a reproach to me all the day long.'” But like for many of us pastors, when we one day wake up and say, “I just can’t do this anymore,” on a Monday or Tuesday after a Sunday service, we get kind of discouraged maybe. Like Jeremiah, we suddenly say with him, “But your word is burning in my heart, I can’t keep it in.” And next Sunday, we’re back. And we preach the gospel with boldness and fire because we know it is the truth of God and the only hope that our people have for eternal salvation.
Twenty-five years ago, Mark, at your ordination, you were asked something like this: “Do you solemnly promise that you will perform the duties of your office in accordance with the Lutheran confessions, and that all your teaching and administration of the sacraments will be in conformity with those holy scriptures, and will you faithfully instruct both young and old in the chief articles of the Christian doctrine?” And you answered, “I will, with the help of God.”
And then you were sent out into the church. And at that time, you didn’t know where you’d end up, but you were sent out with these words of encouragement: “Go, therefore, be a shepherd of God’s flock. Proclaim the word of God. Administer the holy sacraments. Pray for all God’s people. Instruct them, watch over them, and guide the flock over which the Holy Spirit has placed you. And do it not for earthly gain, but with great joy, for you have not been called to lordship, but to serve his flock. When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”
For 25 years, you have been a faithful shepherd. Again, for 10 years in this congregation. And I could call on anyone and testify what a great pastor you have in Pastor Knuckles and, of course, your other pastor too, both faithful, but today it’s about you.
Hanging in my study back in Minneapolis, I have a cross on the wall, a crucifix, that reminds me what my business is. And under it is hanging a prayer written by Martin Luther, hanging in many sacristies and congregations. Maybe you have one here, I don’t remember. Written by Martin Luther in 1541 in his Genesis commentary, and it goes like this: “Lord God, you have made me a pastor in your church. You see how unfit I am to undertake this great and difficult office. If it were not for your help, I’d have ruined the whole thing a long time ago. Therefore, I plead to you and cry to you for aid. I offer my mouth and my heart to serve you. I desire to teach the people. And for myself, I would continue to learn and diligently meditate on your word. So gracious Lord, use me as your instrument. But don’t forsake me, or if I’m left alone… I shall easily bring everything into total destruction.” In Jesus’ name, he says, amen.
That is your prayer and the prayer of every faithful pastor. For the Lord of the church is not me and you or you. It is our risen and ascended Lord Jesus. He bought it with his own blood. It is his church. May God continue to keep you a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. And may we continue to hold you up in our prayers so that God gives you joy in your ministry as I know he has up to now.
God’s peace and blessing be with you always, Mark. What a privilege it is, by the way, for me to have been invited to do this today. I don’t know why he thought of me. It’s been a long time since we were together. But it is a deep honor to be in your congregation. Beautiful parish you have, by the way. Gorgeous building. More gorgeous than the windows and the altar is the Word of God that’s been preached here. We praise God for that. We wish you God’s continued blessings on your work here at St. Paul Lutheran Church.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
