JAN 15, 2012  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation today is the Gospel lesson for this the Second Sunday After the Epiphany, John 1:43-51. There we read these words:

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

We begin in the Name of Jesus, AMEN

We have before us this morning a model of church growth as it was carried out in the Church of the 1st century. Jesus called Philip to be a disciple. "Follow Me (He said)." "Philip (heard and obeyed Jesus' call, and then he) found Nathanael and said to him, 'we have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the prophets, wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Philip, it would seem, was the easy conversion, if there is such a thing.

Jesus said "follow Me" and Philip followed. Presumably he left everything behind, there in his home town of Bethsaida, a little fishing village on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. From that moment on, Philip would follow Jesus everywhere. He would be Jesus' disciple, a man convinced that Jesus is indeed the One of whom Moses and the prophets, in other words, the One that the whole Old Testament is about.

Philip, it would seem, was an easy conversion. Again, if there is such a thing.

Nathanael, on the other hand, was a bit of a skeptic. Perhaps he was well versed in the Old Testament and therefore he knew that there was no prophecy of the Messiah coming from Nazareth. Remember, although Jesus was raised in Nazareth, He was born in Bethlehem.

So, maybe Nathanael's skepticism was not altogether unwarranted. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth (he asked)?" I know, it sounds like Nathanael despised Nazareth, as if it were some slum of a city from which no one of renown could ever come.

But, Jesus responds to Nathanael with what appears to be a bit of a praise. Ah, "Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile, or deceit." Nathanael is a truth teller. There was no prophecy that the Messiah would come out of Nazareth.

Perhaps on this basis Nathanael was reluctant to follow Jesus. Some would say he was even a bit of a skeptic. Philip, realizing the challenge that Nathanael posed, calculated what would be necessary to bring Nathanael to the faith.

Maybe the church's song book was outdated and stale, irrelevant to 1st century thinkers. That song book, the Book of Psalms, in other words, may have needed to really be updated, modernized, contemporized. Maybe the church's liturgy was too difficult to follow too.

Maybe they needed to put a committee together so that they could develop a program to deal with this skeptic Nathanael. Maybe Nathanael just needed to be asked to serve on a church committee, so that he would become better acquainted with the other members of 1st Church in Jerusalem

Philip, realizing the challenge that Nathanael posed, probably calculated what sort of techniques he might use to bring Nathanael to faith, right? Well, no, it doesn't appear that that is what Philip did at all.

Rather, he simply said to Nathanael, "come and see." In other words, he invited him to come and see Jesus. And there you have it, the model of church growth as it was carried out in 1st Church in Jerusalem.

Our church, that is the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, is in the midst of a period in which we have been experiencing declining membership. In the last 35 years, or so, we have lost about 207,000 members and actually, of that figure about 90,000 have been lost in just the last few years.

Now, these figures don't mean that 200,000 plus members have left the Synod. It means that more have died or left the Synod, for one reason or another, than have been received by confirmation. And, as you well know, our congregation here in Mason City is really a microcosm of the Synod. We too have lost members, probably over that same 35 year period.

While it might be tempting to ask "how do we fix it" the better question to ask is "how should we look at such losses, and what has God called us to do for the growth of the church?"

First, I think it is important to remind ourselves that we don't convert people to the Christian faith. Philip didn't convert Nathanael.

No, conversion is worked in the hearts of people, by the power of the Holy Spirit, "when and where it pleases Almighty God." That last little phrase, by the way, is a quotation from one our Lutheran Confessions that states very clearly what we believe about the numeric growth or lack of growth of the Church, or even of a particular church, a particular congregation. The church grows "when and where it pleases Almighty God."

So, we begin with this simple confession about the growth of the church. It is finally in God's hands. But, we don't end here.

Because while it is true that God causes all of the growth in His church, it is also true that He expects everyone us to the play the part of Philip. That is to find another person and say to them "come and see." I wonder, when was the last time you invited another person to come and see Jesus?

At the 2004 Convention of our Synod there was a huge mission initiative that was approved by the delegates. The initiative was entitled "Ablaze." The goal of the program was to reach 100 million people with the Gospel by the time of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The whole program had to be voted on by the convention delegatesbecause it involved a sizeable budgetary line item…millions and millionsof dollars over that span of time.

To vote against the initiative made you look like you were against missions that you were against reaching out to other people with the saving Gospel of Christ.

One delegate though stood up at the microphone and made the most profound point that was heard in the entire discussion. Remember, they were voting on the expenditure of millions and millions of dollars. The delegate, very quietly and very unassumingly asked, "what does it really cost to tell someone about Jesus?"

The Church grows "when and where it pleases Almighty God," but you and I have been called to be a Philip to some other person. What does it really cost to tell someone about Jesus? There is that co-worker who is struggling with all sorts of life issues and troubles. Per-haps they came to you from time to time and you were frankly at a loss as to exactly what to say to them.

The answer to their troubles is in this Word of Christ, this Word of reconciliation, of forgiveness, and hope. "Come and see." There is that family member who has broken your heart time and time again because they haven't built their house upon the rock, that is, upon Christ. And yet, you know that God's Word is powerful and that it is, as Paul says, "the power of God unto salvation." If the Word could only be heard it would be powerful too in their heart. "Come and see."

God hasn't called all of you, obviously, to be pastors and teachers, to be able to explain the mysteries of the faith. He has, however, called all of you though to a simple trust in the power of the His Word. Rev. Klemut Preus is the author of a book titled "The Fire and the Staff." The book is about how Lutheran doctrine and practice go together. What you do, in other words, in life or in worship, or whatever, is a product of what you believe.

Pastor Preus tells a story about his becoming the chaplain of acampus ministry program. Since the district in which that ministry was located was funding it heavily, Pastor Preus was asked to come to one of the Pastor's meetings and to give a report about his ministry, how things were going thus far. Here is what he said…

"During my whole ministry I have been listening to the glowing success stories of other pastors. I have felt intimidated by those who obviously knew an awful lot more than me about growing their churches. Out of sheer self-doubt I have shirked the daunting task of saving the world. I have felt guilty because my Gospel presentation is apparently not winsome enough. I have lost sheep and lost sleep. My joy has taken a vacation and may natural optimism has deserted me, all because I have not done what the experts said. And I refuse to tell you gentlemen how great my current ministry is. It's bad. All the numerical indicators are down. I am losing members. I am losing leaders. Confusion reigns among those who are staying. They are sad. I don't know what will happen next week much less next year. I have no five-year plan. I just barely have a five-day plan. Yet, gentlemen, despite this terrible news I still think that God is doing just fine in my church, and I think I am too. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me."

Pastor Preus says he added that last part because he was sure that he would martyred right then and there. But, a strange thing happened. The pastors applauded. Pastor Preus' story was apparently not that far off from their own story. At the end of the day, like all of us, these pastors found that they had nowhere else to go but Jesus, for He has the words of eternal life.

"Come and see, (Philip said to Nathanael)." And so, as it was in 1st Jerusalem, so it is today. I bid you the same invitation today. "Come and see" Jesus' body broken for you, His blood shed for you. "Come and see…come and hear" about this One of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, this Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world, including yours and mine. "Come and see…come and hear" God's promises, for they are powerful, they are certain, and they do not change. "Come and see" this One who holds all things in His hands, even His nail pierced hands, including the Church itself, from 1st Church in Jerusalem to Bethlehem Lutheran here in Mason City, Iowa.

"Come and see...Christ is risen. "

AMEN