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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’m sure that we can all visualize the caricature, that wild-eyed doomsday preacher wearing a sign around his neck, probably ratty, stinky clothes, fire in his eyes, standing on that street corner shouting out at passers-by that the end is near. Amen. Now normally we can very easily dismiss or poke fun at just such a character, but not so much today. Today, Jesus himself plays that role of wild-eyed preacher. And today, I think we have to admit, things like times of trouble, rumors of wars, and nations rising up against nations are undeniable realities, reminding us that indeed we are living in a world that in many ways is falling apart.
We live in a world and among a people in need of salvation. Now, of course, for us Christians, our Lord’s return is a welcomed day of salvation. We know that he comes to give eternal life to those who call upon his name. We stand eager and ready to greet him. We stand prepared to shine like the brightness of the sky above and like the stars forever and ever, as the prophet Daniel envisioned. But for Christians who have been drawn into the very heart of God, we are not enough. We desire all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We desire the return of our Lord to be a day of salvation, not just for ourselves, but for all people.
Therefore, we are a church on a mission these last days, a mission to see every last one of God’s elect calling upon the name of the Lord. For as St. Paul promises in Romans chapter 10, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
Indeed, dear Christian friends, people have to be sent. Sent ones have to preach. Preachers have to be heard. And hearers have to believe. If they are going to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. That, dear Christian friends, is the chain of necessary events leading up to a person’s salvation. And it’s a beautiful thing to see play out.
For me, personally, the very first sent one was Pastor Dave Schroeder of Redeemer Lutheran Church right here in Austin, Texas. The message that he preached to me, that second link in the chain, the message the sent one preached to me was a rather short and simple message, yet at the same time quite profound. I still remember it. The message was this: Dwayne Paul Meissner, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How’s that for a sermon? A short one, but a good one. Because we know as Christians what is packed behind those words. Dwayne Paul Meissner, from this day forward, you are God’s child forever. Dwayne Paul Meissner, all of your sins—past sins, current sins, future sins, big sins, little sins, every single one of them—on account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who comes to you today, are absolutely and completely forgiven. No strings attached. Dwayne Paul Meissner, no matter what, no matter what you’ve been through in life, no matter how anybody else treats you, you are loved by God forever.
Well, my barely one-week-old heart at the time heard that message that the sent one preached to me. By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that little heart believed. So that on that day and every day since, I have been one who, by the grace of God, calls upon the name of the Lord and is saved, ready to greet our Lord upon his return.
And of course, God has been sending sent ones to me all along. It’s not just a one-time event. God has been sending faithful pastors to me, your own Pastor Knuckles being one of them. God has sent faithful parents to me and faithful friends, feeding that good news of my salvation in Jesus Christ into my ears and into my heart so that it could spill out through my lips day after day after day.
Now, your settings and your timing and your people have certainly been different throughout your lives, but the process that God used for each and every one of you has been the exact same, the exact same chain of events, one link after another. For you, someone was sent. For you, that sent one preached. For you, you heard that preacher; you heard those preached messages. And by the grace of God, you believed them. So that all of us believing Christians sitting between these four walls today, we all call upon the name of the Lord for our salvation and this very day stand ready to greet our Lord upon his return. Mission accomplished. Thanks be to God.
But dear friends, what happens when there is a missing link along the way? In the book of Romans, Romans chapter 10, Paul tells us about a particular group of Jews in Jesus’ day, 2,000 years ago. In talking about them, Paul says, you know, people have been sent for this group of Jews. God sends prophet after prophet after prophet, one after another. And indeed, these sent ones preached. They stood right there in their temples and in their synagogues and preached of the Christ who would suffer and on the third day be raised again for their salvation. He preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.
And indeed, these preachers were heard by these Jews. They stood right there in their midst, in their temples and in their synagogues, and preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins directly into listening ears. But that right there is where we find it: the missing link for that particular group of Jews 2,000 years ago. People were sent, the sent ones preached, and the preachers were heard, but they stubbornly and steadfastly refused to believe.
That’s not the only place where you can find a missing link, dear friends. I was in the country of Belize for the first time, visiting, just several months ago, this past July. And I had the pleasure of living there among the Garifuna people of the coastal town of Sainbite, Belize, for the better part of a week. Now, the Garifuna people are a beautiful people with a rich culture of dancing and drumming and singing. You can hear this going on in their towns all over the place. And they live this wonderful, simple, slow-paced life in a tropical paradise.
But if you look past the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, if you look past that bright shining sun and their wonderful, simple, slow pace of life, the question is this: Will you find a people who call upon the name of the Lord for their salvation, ready to greet him on the last day? Well, one might think so at first glance. After all, many of the Garifuna people of St. Bight will proudly stand up and declare, “I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ.” And you might be thinking, hey, that sounds pretty good. We’re off to a good start there. Some of the people in the town are even active members of the local church. St. Alphonsus, Roman Catholic Church, are the letters that are stenciled on the outside of that building.
But sadly, there’s more to their story than that, I soon found out. You see, the first thing that you see when you drive into the village of St. Bight is a large, thatched-roof temple. And from within these walls, you can hear their traditional Garifuna drumming and dancing and singing going on night and day. And oftentimes, it sounds quite joyful. It’s quite a thing to listen to. But from within these temple walls, that is not all that you hear. You will also hear the haunting cries of animals being sacrificed in pagan worship.
You see, I quickly learned on my trip to Belize that the very same people who claim to follow the one true God in St. Bight are at the very same time following a very, very different one. The very same people who supposedly drink the cup of Jesus’ blood for the forgiveness of sins and the peace of our Lord whenever they go to Mass at St. Alphonsus also, at the exact same time, seem to rely on the blood of chickens and goats and pigs to appease the wrath of their dead ancestors.
The very same people who claim to believe that a man who lived 2,000 years ago was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father with all power and authority on heaven and on earth, those very same people who claim to believe in him also seem to tremble in fear over the power of their dead ancestors, whose bodies, by the way, to this day remain buried six feet under, succumbing to death.
Now, if you’re wondering what the priest of St. Alphonsus is doing about this sad, sad situation, I can tell you she is the one presiding over the animal sacrifices at the other end of town. Yes, for the village of St. Bight, Belize, the leader of the local Roman Catholic Church and the leader of the voodoo temple at the other end of town are one and the same woman. And it has been going on like this for years.
Clearly, tragically, the Garifuna people of St. Bight also have what we might call a missing link in this process that would lead to their salvation and prepare them for the return of our Lord. But you see, their missing link, I fear, goes all the way back to the very beginning. For them, I fear, no true Christian has ever been sent to establish God’s word permanently in their midst.
People have to be sent. Sent ones have to preach. Preachers have to be heard. And hearers have to believe. If they’re going to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
So what, dear Christian friends, are we supposed to do about this seemingly tragic situation? What are we to do when we look left and right all around the world and through history and see all of these missing links in the process that would lead to a person’s salvation? Do we give up? Do we throw in the towel? Do we just pray, “Oh, come Lord Jesus, but I’m just going to sit here and do absolutely nothing because it’s hopeless”? Is that what we do?
No. Not us Christians. Our mission in these last days is to put into action that exact same process over and over and over again. We send, we preach, we hear, we believe, and we call upon the name of the Lord all across the earth.
And what does that mean? It means, well, for starters, it means we go to church as if our lives depended on it. We bring our children and our grandchildren to church as if their lives depended on it. It means we continue to put ourselves in the presence of those whom God himself has specifically sent to preach into our ears. We put ourselves in a position to hear the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ over and over and over again.
It means we continue to keep the word of God and the good news of the gospel on our own lips and in our own minds as we go about carrying out our vocations on a day-to-day basis. Because, you know, we run into a lot of people every single day. And God has given us each, all of us Christians, beautiful feet of our own to carry that message that the outside world so desperately needs to hear. So we keep it on our own lips every single day.
And it means we continue to send out and support missionaries to serve God, both here at home and all across the world, to the far stretches of the earth. We do all of these things stubbornly, relentlessly, in these last days, even in the face of what may seem like absolute and complete failure. Bad track record.
Why? Because we have another promise from God. We know that there is another chain of events in this process that God would use for our salvation. There’s more to the story. And we hear about it from St. Paul just a few chapters earlier in Romans chapter 8 where he writes this: Listen. “Those whom God foreknows, he also predestines. And those he predestines, he also calls. And those he calls, he also justifies. And those he justifies, he also glorifies.” Every last one of them. No buts about it. Do you see the chain?
But you see, there’s something a little bit different from this chain than the first one that we’ve been dealing with all along. With this chain, there is never, ever a single missing link. Thanks be to God.
Yes, here and throughout Holy Scriptures, we are assured that God’s process of salvation, as fragile as it may seem at times with its many different links along the way, is just that. It is God’s. And there is nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth that can get in his way. Just think about it. Think about God’s track record. A band of murderous Jews 2,000 years ago could not get in his way. Not even death and the grave could get in his way, as we learned that first glorious Easter morning 2,000 years ago. And dear brothers and sisters, there is nothing that is going to get in his way today.
Can you see it? Can you see God working all across the world? Open up your eyes. Because the fact is, people all around the world are still coming to church to hear and to taste that good news of their salvation in Jesus Christ. People are still speaking the good news in their day-to-day lives and their vocations. Missionaries are still being sent out all across the world in droves, even from our own church body.
You know what? There is even hope for those poor lost souls in the village of Sainbite, Belize. For today, I’m pleased to announce that for perhaps the first time ever, someone is being sent to establish God’s Word permanently in their midst. Someone is being sent to preach to them that good news of their salvation in Jesus Christ, that they too might hear, believe, and call upon the name of the Lord for their salvation, ready to stand with us on that last day when our Lord returns.
So yes, dear Christian friends, the end is near, and we have work to do. But take heart and rejoice, even in these tumultuous days, for we have absolutely nothing to be concerned about as Christians. God continues to send out his many beautiful feet all across the world—beautiful feet carrying a message with both the power and his promise to save.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Amen.
