February 2012 Pastor’s Corner
Those who attended the Annual Meeting on January 22 heard me offer these remarks. For those who did not attend, I offer them to you in this written form.
Join me in a prayer both at the beginning of these few thoughts & at the end. It’s called Luther’s Sacristy Prayer which he used before he led worship services. “Lord God, Thou has placed me in Thy Church as a bishop and pastor: Thou seest how unfit I am to fulfill this great and responsible Office, and had it not been for Thy wisdom and guidance I would long since have brought everything to destruction. Therefore do I cry unto Thee. Most willingly do I desire to give and conform my mouth and heart to Thy service. I desire to teach the people, and long continually to be taught Thy Word. Deign to use me as Thy workman, dear Lord. Only do not Thou forsake me; for if Thou forsake me, I, alone, shall bring all to naught. Amen.”
The focus of this prayer is twofold: humility & confidence. There are no two better qualities for a pastor or for any Christian. Humility–even our best efforts as pastor and congregation are not good enough. Confidence–even our worst mistakes as pastor and congregation can somehow be used by God to strengthen the church of Christ.
2011 has seen both our “best and worst” come to light. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, “It has been the best of years and the worst of years.” I’m not offering details at either extreme. But I am bold to say that God is working through us at First Lutheran to show signs of the kingdom. Christ rules wherever faith is born. We are people of faith. Christ is ruling in our midst. If you haven’t already done so, take a look our Annual Report. There are lots of words on these pages, but they represent lots of Christ-centered and Christ-motivated deeds of ministry through our congregation. We have been faithful stewards of the gifts God has given us. Thanks be to God for our common ministry in our historic congregation.
In all the pages of this Annual Report, and through all these activities, think & remember why they happened. They happened because their foundation was Jesus Christ. Think for a moment about what that means.
Years ago, when I would hear people talk about how important Jesus was to them, I would not be too moved. I suppose I thought there were lots of things to get excited about besides Jesus! There were places to go, people to see, experiences to enjoy. Those things took priority over Jesus. Jesus was a concept, an ideal figure, a wise man from the past. But he wasn’t Jesus on the cross for me until much later.
Now Jesus is the man on the cross for me and for you. I see him more in the crucifixion scenes portrayed by the great artists of every generation than I see him in the many other scenes where Jesus is doing the rest of his ministry. In short, I have come to this realization: if you can’t get excited about Jesus on the cross, then all the other ways you see Jesus aren’t important. Maybe this struck home to me in 1997 when I was in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. There was a cross-stitch sampler on display in a frame in the Folk Arts section of the gallery. It read: “Remember that Jesus had his eye on you when he died upon the cross.” That was a cross-stitch sampler done so well that it earned wall space in the Scottish National Gallery! It also earned wall space in my heart.
When I was younger, I would have received that saying in a guilt-producing way, sort of like the far less elegant bumper sticker slogan which you may have seen, “Jesus is coming, and boy is he mad.” That’s the Law! Earlier in my life, I would have also received the cross-stitch slogan as Law. “Remember that Jesus had his eye on you.” But at least by 1997, and I’m sure quite earlier, I received the cross-stitch slogan as Gospel, as “good news.” The good news comes when you finish the sentence. “when he died upon the cross.” You recognize the irony there–the cross-stitch sampler presented the cross to me–not as guilt but as gift.
The sampler brought to life 2 Cor. 5.21: “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” On another museum trip–this time in 2005 in Colmar, France, I absorbed the magnificent Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald. There are many riches in that great triptych, but the payoff is this: John the Baptist is pointing his elongated finger at the crucified Christ. John was long since dead when Jesus was crucified but artists take license with these things. Through this license comes the Gospel since out of John’s mouth come the words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That’s humility and confidence.
2011 has given me a greater focus on Jesus. With this focus have come humility and confidence. Humility and confidence are gifts of God’s grace to us. I have seen humility and confidence in the life of our congregation this year. Thanks to all who have given their humble service for the sake of our ministry. They have been staff, Council members, visitors, and all the baptized who enter our church. I am grateful for each person who has given such humble service. I am also grateful for each person who, with confidence, is looking forward to this coming year of worship and service in Christ’s name. Humility and confidence. We must decrease. We are humble servants of Christ our Lord. He must increase. God’s Word will give us the confidence we need to bear good fruit through this coming year.
Let us pray again Luther’s sacristy prayer: “Lord God, Thou has placed me in Thy Church as a bishop and pastor: Thou seest how unfit I am to fulfill this great and responsible Office, and had it not been for Thy wisdom and guidance I would long since have brought everything to destruction. Therefore do I cry unto Thee. Most willingly do I desire to give and conform my mouth and heart to Thy service. I desire to teach the people, and long continually to be taught Thy Word. Deign to use me as Thy workman, dear Lord. Only do not Thou forsake me; for if Thou forsake me, I, alone, shall bring all to naught. Amen.”
Grace and peace,
Philip Nesvig, pastor