(On April 23, 1865, the first Sunday after Easter, 150 Years ago today, Holy Cross Lutheran Church was organized. Meetings had been taking place since December 26, 1864. Since that day regular worship has continued at Holy Cross, Emma. To commemorate the occasion, here's the sermon from the first anniversary service on December 21, 2014.)
Text: Luke 1:26-38
In the name of Jesus, dear fellow redeemed,
Put yourselves in the shoes of those who
gathered for the first time to form our congregation 150 years ago It was
December 26, 1864. As they gathered in someone’s home that day with Pastor
Biltz, what was on their minds?
It was 11 weeks to the day after the
October 10 bushwhacker attack on the community. That day Sophia Dierking
Haesemeier—who would live longer than any of the other founders—lost her father,
Johann Heinrich Dierking, to the rebels. She was the only one to lose a family
member in that attack. This group had suffered in previous attacks. Johann
Dietrich Oetting’s brother Christian had been killed in the bushwhacker attack
on October 5, 1862. Johann Dietrich’s wife Dorothea and her brother Wilhelm Ehlers
lost a brother, Christian Heinrich Ehlers in the attack on August 29,
1861.
Remember that at Christmas in 1864, the
war was still four months from being over. There was still plenty of
uncertainty to go around. If there was uncertainty surrounding the war, then
there was also uncertainty surrounding their families.
Death would not let them be. Looking
back through records, you see that a lot of these families lost children at a
young age. From the thirteen original families, a total of sixteen children and
two grandchildren died before reaching adulthood. The family of Friedrich and
Sophia Beermann alone lost six children—four of them before the age of two.
Those are just the deaths we know about after the church was started, there are
probably more from before 1865. These would be the first of hundreds of funerals
—988 (as of April 990) to be exact—to take place on our cemetery.
These people needed to hear good news. There
they were the day after Christmas. They wanted to hear good news. So where did
they turn? Pastor Biltz brought them God’s Word. They heard and received the
same comfort and peace that the Lord gives to us each time we gather.
This is the good news that the Angel
Gabriel declared to Mary. The good news for her is also the good news for us as
we gather together in this place. Gabriel said to Mary, “Greetings, O favored
one, the Lord is with you!” This morning we’ll wonder with Mary at “what sort
of greeting this might be.”
Different
languages have interesting ways giving a greeting. In Hebrew you say “shalom” which means “peace.” In South
Africa, Zulu people say, “Sawubona”
which literally means “I see you”. In Thai, people say “gin khao reu yung” (or something like that) which means “have you
eaten rice?” But the ancient Greek greeting remains my favorite. To greet
someone in ancient Greek you say, “χαῖρε” which comes from the word “rejoice.”
As
we read the Gospel narratives, when angels appear to people, it’s time for them
to rejoice. First we see the angel Gabriel appearing to Zachariah. He and
Elizabeth are going to rejoice because they’re going to have a baby—John the
Baptist! Gabriel then appears to Mary. She and Joseph will rejoice because she’s
going to have a baby too—our Lord Jesus!
The angel army appears to the shepherds
and tells them the “good news of great joy that will be for all people.” They’re
going to rejoice because the savior, who is Christ the Lord has been born.
The angels appear to the women at Jesus’
tomb. They declare to the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He
is not here, but has risen!” If that’s not reason for rejoicing, I don’t know
what is.
This good news of the Angels is the same
good news that Holy Cross Lutheran Church has always proclaimed. We have peace,
we have better pediatric care then our founders, but we still face uncertainty
each and every day. Not a single one of us knows what this day, week, or year
will hold for us.
Mary’s life suddenly became full of
uncertainty. What would her parents think? What would her neighbors think? What
would Joseph think? For the time being all of these things and so many others
were uncertain. But Mary faced the uncertain future with confidence and joy
because she trusted the angel’s word.
We can go into our uncertain futures
with joy because what the angels proclaim is true for us too. We rejoice
because Jesus has been born as one of us. We rejoice because He us our savior
who died for us. We rejoice because He is risen from the dead. Your sins are
forgiven and you have favor with God.
Gabriel calls Mary, “O favored one.”
Mary even wondered what this meant. She was “greatly troubled at the saying and
tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”
We don’t know much about Mary. Zachariah
and Elizabeth are described as “righteous and devout” Joseph is called “just.”
But we don’t have any word to describe Mary’s character. She must have at least
been someone you look at and think, “She’ll make a great mom.” All we know
about Mary is that she was a virgin.
Mary knew one thing; she was not worthy
of what was about to happen to her. She was afraid like all sinful human beings
are when they stand presence of someone who simple stands in God’s presence.
God
favors Mary—not because there was anything special about her—but because of the
child she would soon bear. She was favored only because the source of all God’s
grace and favor would become a human being in her womb. It shows the power is
coming from God and not her.
We
have to say the same thing about us and our congregation. God has given us 150
years together. We haven’t deserved a single second of it. How many times have
we despised God’s Word? How many times have we belittled our brothers and
sisters in Christ? How many times have sought our own way rather than seeking
to love?
We
have been wicked and hateful. We have loved only ourselves. We have neglected
our own and completely ignored the world outside. We are totally unworthy of
the gifts God has given to us.
But
like Mary, God shows us His grace. He shows us His grace through Mary’s child
who was born to live and die for you and for me.
God has given us 150 years
together in this place. He has favored us as we’ve heard His Word here
together. He’s favored us since the day we first received His grace in the
waters of Holy Baptism. He feeds us with His grace and favor when we come to
His table to receive His body and blood given for the forgiveness of sins. He’s
favored us by giving us the declaration of absolution—forgiveness from the
mouth of the pastor—the same words that Jesus Himself would say if He were
standing before us. He has given us favor by giving us each other. He promises
that where two or three gather together in His name He is here with us.
That’s what the angel said to Mary, “The
Lord is with you!”
Mary asked how this would happen—since she
was a virgin. Gabriel answered. The Holy Spirit came upon her, the power of the
Most High overshadowed her, and the child in her womb was holy, the Son of God!
Right there you have Spirit, Father and Son! The whole Trinity was there with
Her.
Our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is
with us also. The Holy Spirit has called, gathered, and enlightened us. He has
made us part of the Holy Christian Church. He was given to us in our baptism as
a down payment of eternal life.
The
Father has determined the places of all people. He made us and knew our entire
lives even before we were born. He knew that when the Holy Spirit called you
into His kingdom, you would join your brothers and sisters in Christ in a place
called Emma here today.
Jesus
promises that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He is there with
them. Thanks be to God, we have never been quite that small, but the original
gathering wasn’t much bigger. Look at where God has brought us today. Christ
Jesus is with us no matter how many gather on any given Sunday.
This
is what we believe, this is what our founders believed, and this is what Mary
learned through her Son. She responded, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it
be to me according to your word.”
When
Martin Luther preached on this passage, he listed three miracles that happened
here. First we have a virgin conceiving. Second, God the Son becomes a human
being—we call it the incarnation. And third, Mary believes what she has heard.
Which one do you think is the greatest
of these three? For God to make a virgin conceive is no big deal. For God to
become a human being us really a mystery—but definitely within His ability. It
needed to happen so that Jesus could die and rise in a human body.
But the greatest of these miracles,
Luther says, is that Mary believed. The Holy Spirit had already created faith
in her heart. Now that faith was expressed by accepting and submitting to God’s
will. That’s how the miracles happened.
Mary’s uncertainty was changed into
unwavering faith. Our founders were comforted in their uncertainty by the Good
News of Mary’s son and Lord. And so you, when you receive this good news once
again, trust and believe. Through the proclamation of the good news, you will
be built up in your faith each time you hear.
This
is the task we have before us this year. How will we answer the Lord’s call
like Mary? Those thirteen families heard the call and started our church
because they wanted to hear the good news of Jesus every Sunday for the rest of
their lives. They wanted a pastor to bring them God’s Word and His Sacraments
in the good times and bad times. They wanted teachers to teach their children
about God’s Word and His world.
We are also the servants of the Lord. How
will we bring Christ to the world? How will we give them joy in the midst of
their pain? How will we show them that God favors them and loves them in
Christ? How will we show them that they don’t need to feel alone-the Lord is
with them?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is our
challenge for this year of celebration. We have done this for 150 years. How
will we do it now? How will we continue what they have started?
We
start it with joy because Jesus has been born for us. We start it with God’s
grace because we are forgiven. We start it with confidence because He is with
us. “All this he does out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any
merit or worthiness in you or me or anyone else. For all this it is our duty to
thank and praise, serve and obey Him.” This is most certainly true. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,
Amen
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