Redeemer Lutheran Church

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

Let us pray…Speak O Lord Your word of life to us and may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to You, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

 

The basis for God’s Word to us today is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2 and specifically verse 22 where Paul writes:

 

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

 

For the vast majority of my life, I have been engaged in God’s mission of inviting people into fellowship with God through Christ Jesus and in building up the body of Christ for that mission.

 

Now some would measure the success of a pastor’s ministry or that of a congregation by the size of the church facility or the number of people attending or how many activities are going on within a congregation. However, if that was the true measurement of success in God’s kingdom, then my ministry has rarely been successful and perhaps the same can be said of this and most congregations.

 

No, a building, no matter what the size, or great attendance and activity numbers, are not indicative of God’s kingdom come. In fact, sometimes these can become distractions to God’s actual mission.

 

Now before we start patting ourselves on the back for being a small congregation with little going on or even for having that good Lutheran theology, we also can become comfortable and distracted by what we have accomplished or become and thereby excuse ourselves from doing anything more to engage God’s mission.

 

So today I thought it appropriate to sing what I am describing as a church building hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” to remind us that God’s building project among us is not finished, as much as we may have grown tired of it.

 

In this regards we are encouraged by God’s Word from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today where he writes this:

 

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

 

Now the first thing to always remember about the Church, whether the big “C” Church or the little “c” church – like our congregation, is that the Church in all its manifestations is God’s ongoing building project and not ours. The church, despite what many say, is not some manmade creation. Neither is it a business or a non-profit or somebody’s family accomplishment. Rather, the Church is a divine institution, founded by Christ himself and important to God’s plan for this present time and for the age to come.

 

As I said last week, God has a mission and God’s mission has a church and despite what the church may be or become, God promises to never abandon His Church in this mission. He will not abandon us whom He has called and gathered to be the Church; to be both workers in His kingdom mission and benefactors of that mission.

 

It is God who is in control, and He is the owner and builder and contractor of this eternal enterprise which ought to be a very encouraging and comforting word for us, especially in these days when the Church seems backed into a corner and falling apart in so many places.

 

Indeed, right now the church looks to be in dire straits, especially after having gone through COVID. Many in the church are still worried about the future of their congregations. Will we make it? How long will we last? What about our numbers or our finances? Will the Church be around for our children and grandchildren?

 

We in the church are often worried or at least greatly concerned, but you know it’s a totally different story for people outside the Church since most of them don’t even know anything about the church or even care about it. Most are happy to ignore the church and turn a deaf ear to it or a blind eye as they drive by this building every day. In fact, since COVID, the Church in general seems to have gone completely off society’s radar.

 

I suppose we can be thankful that most people are not openly hostile to the church. Even so, there is still a growing antagonism toward those parts of the church that do speak out or act contrary to positions of the popular culture.

 

It’s tough times for the Church no matter what your flavour or color may be and for those of us inside these walls, we could use a little encouragement.

 

And that’s what God’s word offers us today. Encouragement. Encouragement for those of us who are the church, who are living in a time when anxiety, apathy, and aggression are swirling all about us.

 

And that encouragement begins with recognizing that the Church, yes, this part of God’s Church we call Redeemer Lutheran Church, belongs to God. Yes, this is God’s building project and one that is not yet completed.

 

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul is writing to a church located at Ephesus, an ancient city in what is now modern-day Turkey.

 

The church at Ephesus was made up mostly of Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, people who had come into the Christian faith from all kinds of other religious backgrounds. And so, Paul reminds them, these Gentile converts, of what they had come out of when they had been called and gathered into Christ’s body. He writes:

 

“Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands–remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

 

Now whether you were brought into Christ’s body as a little baby or when you were older, there was a time when all of us were apart from Christ and outside of His Church. There was a pre-baptism/pre-faith time when you and I were aliens and strangers in relationship to God and His people. There was a time when we were outside the kingdom of God, not knowing the precious promises of His salvation.

 

Now even if that time was only for a week or one month, as is my case, that’s a terrible place to be because if you think about it, apart from Christ there is no hope–no hope for the future, no hope for what lies beyond this life and death. To be without God in the world is to be without any true hope.

 

Now that should be pretty scary. But for most people in our world, those without faith in Christ, they don’t even recognize what a precarious situation they are in. They are walking in darkness, as if it were not dark and many of these people may even be those who once heard God speak to them in Christ through the waters of baptism or through the faith shared by a mother or father or pastor, but who have drifted away from the light.

 

Paul reminds us that we were all that way at one point. Our sin – our natural rebellion against God - alienated us from God – causing us to be far off from God; causing us to drift away, to turn away, even run away from God.

 

Now why is it important to remember this? Well, remembering that we were like everyone else ought to first keep us humble as we bear witness to those walking in darkness, but more significantly, remembering ought to lead us to continue to bathe in God’s amazing grace. We are here only because of God’s gracious intervention in Christ and that’s where Paul takes us next.

 

We are here as part of Christ’s body, not because there is anything special about us in comparison to anyone else. If there is anything special in all of this, it is God’s gracious love in Christ who has brought us together into Christ’s body along with all kinds of people, both Jews and Gentiles, or as a faithful elderly woman would say to me over and over again, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in God’s sight” – we have all been united in Christ. Paul writes:

 

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

 

We who were once far off, were brought near, near to God and near to one another. To be brought near to God is to have peace, peace with God and peace with one another, but how did this peace happen?

 

Well, it is because of what Christ has done. “In Christ Jesus,” Paul states, and he uses that phrase “in Christ” many times in this letter because God’s mission is all about Christ. It is a mission that happens in and through Christ. Christ’s church is all about Christ and you and I and everyone only enter into the church and into God’s peace because of Christ.

 

We have been brought near “by the blood of Christ.” It is the blood of Christ shed on the cross, the blood he shed for our redemption that brings us near to God and grants us peace and makes us members of the body of Christ.

 

In Christ we have forgiveness of sins because the Son of God willingly paid the price that sets us free. He took our place on that cross, dying in our place, so that the burden of our guilt would be lifted from us; so that we might be redeemed. And because He did that, we are now at peace, reconciled, brought back to God, restored to a right relationship with him, all because of what Jesus did for us in his death and resurrection.

 

And this is the good news we have been given to enjoy and to share with others! It really doesn’t get any better than this! To know that we are at peace with God; that we have access to God the Father and are in his good favor. What a joy and comfort and security and encouragement this ought to give us despite whatever may be blowing around us!

 

Now the thing about God’s redemption in Christ is that once he forgives us and saves us, God doesn’t just leave us to wander around on our own.

 

Instead, God brings us into his flock, his family, Christ’s body, the church. Use whatever image you want–and the Bible uses several of them, including flock and family and body –but the bottom line is, we are now God’s people. We belong to him.

 

In Christ God gives us our identity as his children. He gives us our created purpose in life. He makes us part of His mission. He makes us disciples called to follow our Lord as we live life together as the Church and as we go out into the world within our daily vocations as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, grandparents, children, people with different types of work and as citizens of this country.

 

And so this is where Paul begins to use this building language to talk about the church.

 

Of course, the specific building picture he has in mind is the temple, that physical building in Jerusalem where God set up shop, so to speak, in the midst of his people Israel.

 

The temple was where God dwelt in the midst of his people, to guard and guide and protect them. The temple was where the Lord forgave the sins of his people, through the various sacrifices he prescribed to be offered there, all of them, of course, pointing ahead to the forgiveness and the peace we now have in Christ, the Lamb of God sacrificed to take away the sin of the world.

 

But with Christ coming into the world, the physical temple has been displaced by the body of Christ, which is not another building like this one made up of bricks and wood and nails. No, this body of Christ is a living body, a living temple, made up of those living stones who have been called and gathered into it through water and the Word.

 

And so the Church – God’s people, not a building - is the dwelling place of God on earth, the place where God’s mission unfolds; where God’s saving and forgiving, his guarding and guiding happens.

 

Yes, it happens right here among us, who call ourselves Redeemer Lutheran Church in Edmonton, Alberta. This is where God’s people are gathered around God’s Word and Sacraments, where Jesus has promised to be present for you and all.

 

We are one little part of God’s great building project, and God promises not to abandon us. God is indeed doing his thing here, his gospel thing, his mission, through Word and Sacrament.
So why do we worry about the church as though we were the ones who somehow make it happen or can keep it going or can protect it!

 

No, it is God who is the one who keeps saving people here, forgiving our sins, strengthening our faith, building us up for lives of service in our various vocations and in our life together.

 

God is greater than our anxiety and fears. He promises to provide all that we need. God is greater than our apathy at times and the apathy of people outside this church. In fact, his word is still powerful enough to reach people and turn them to repentance and to faith in Christ.

 

God is even greater than the hostility of the world. History has proven that there is no persecution that can stop the church because Christ is the head of the Church and the Spirit is building his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 

So, in the midst of what may not look like much here, especially in the summer, we can shout “Fear, worry, be gone! God is in control” We can pray that God would fill us with faith, confidence, and the Holy Spirit.

 

For the promises of God that fill the Scriptures offer us a foundation upon which we can stand and grow and go out from. God’s Word declares that we belong to the household of God; that the foundation of our faith rests on the prophetic and apostolic Holy Scriptures, with Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; that we are joined together, brick by brick, into a holy temple of the Lord, growing stronger and firmer, held together by the mortar of God’s word. Indeed, in Christ, we are being built together, as Paul says, “into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

 

Yes, there is much darkness in our world and sometimes that darkness casts a long shadow and yet there are glimmers of light among those who still cling to Christ in faith and hope as they face the challenges of life; as they continue to participate in God’s redemptive mission; inviting others into fellowship with God through Christ.

 

Yes, it’s sometimes hard not to despair in a world that seems to offer our children more confusion than clarity; more lies than truth; more hostility to God’s word than peace. Yes, we may be concerned about what kind of future our children will face.

 

And yet, it is at times like this that those promises from Psalm 23 speak loudest. This is the Psalm appointed for today and allow me to read portions of it:

 

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

 

The church, this church, us together, are God’s ongoing building project. He will not abandon us. He will provide us with everything we need. In fact, God is building us up right now, through his word and sacraments, and we are his dwelling place and all that will happen as part of this building project will occur because of Christ and as we live in Christ. Christ is building his church, he’s right here with us, and we have his peace and his promises. Amen.