Tomorrow Sunday January 26th, 2014 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “Fishers of Men” (Matthew 4:19) and considering the Call For An Assistant Pastor
Worship is at 9:30 am at Crean Lutheran High School (event center/gym) located at 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA 92618:
Exit Sand Canyon from 405 or 5
Head East, towards the hills
Cross Irvine Blvd.
Turn right on Saint’s Way and you’ll be on the Crean Lutheran High School campus
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Tomorrow morning is a very important time for us at Saint Paul’s. First, we will receive the Word of Christ and the Holy Sacrament.
The Third Sunday after The Epiphany is traditionally a Sunday on Missions and Evangelism celebrating that because Jesus is the Light of the World that His light has pervaded our lives and leads us to share His light…you Christian are now equipped to “let your light shine before men”…you are among the disciples of Jesus who share in the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow we will reflect on our shared mission and how we remain equipped to conduct this sacred and exciting mission in the world. Talk about a great reason to be alive…talk about a sense of drive and purpose that is so needed and so important! These things are yours because you are washed, cleansed, and forgiven…you are a new creation, born-again, and called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus…come and have Christ’s light shine on you again!
Secondly, tomorrow we have a very important voter’s assembly meeting. We need our confirmed members at this meeting. And I think you will agree, at Saint Paul’s our meetings highlight what is important and President Fick and the other leaders keep things moving. Our meetings are efficient.
Tomorrow, we need your prayerful consideration over two vital matters:
1) First, we are asking you to consider calling in sacred assembly, the Rev. Dr. Steven P. Mueller to be our Assistant Pastor (part-time) here at Saint Paul’s. This is an amazing opportunity for us. If you choose to call him, you will be making a statement about our commitment to grow the Kingdom here at Saint Paul’s and to mark ourselves in having the highest standards for teaching and proclamation of the Gospel.
2) Second, the parish council has put in the hard work of preparing a 2014 budget. It can only be ratified and put into effect with you blessing and approval. Please plan on prayerfully considering this proposal.
We need you. You are important to our congregation. Please come and share the load with us. This congregation is worth it to say the very least.
May we all serve to the glory of the One who gave His blood to save us and whose light permeates His people so that others may also see the light of Christ!
Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:
“Fishers of Men” (Matthew 4:19)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 26th, 2014
Pastor Espinosa
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Matthew, chapter 4 is not the first time Jesus called Peter and Andrew and other disciples. John, chapter 1 records that Jesus had already called them to be disciples. This call in Matthew, chapter 4 was a call to full-time ministry that would eventually lead Christ — as recorded in Matthew, chapter 10 — to send out the twelve with authority as apostles. The meanings of the two biblical words are good to know:
Disciple = is a hearer or a learner [and in application to the Christian faith, it is about hearing and learning the Word of Christ] and such a one follows Christ.
Apostle = is a sent-one of Christ who goes forth to proclaim the Word of Christ.
Every apostle in Scripture is a disciple, but not every disciple in Scripture is an apostle.
By the way, to be a disciple (or even an apostle) does not mean that you cannot still have a “regular” job in society. When the apostles were still disciples they were fishermen, but they did not totally forsake their vocation of fishing as we find them working the fish during one of Christ’s resurrection appearances (John 21). Furthermore, we know that St. Paul was a tentmaker by trade even during his apostolic ministry. Thus being a disciple or an apostle as presented in the Bible does not mean that you become a separatist! God wants you out in the world, living in your various vocations, living with your families, living in society and being God’s light to the world with Christ in your hearts and His word upon your lips.
Now strictly speaking, there are no longer any apostles in the biblical sense or original sense of the word. These sent ones were called directly and immediately by the Lord Jesus Christ. These apostles actually saw the risen Christ. The only exception to the rule would be Matthias who was appointed by the other apostles, but note that Matthias also saw the risen Lord (Acts 1:22). At any rate, there are no apostles in this sense in the world today.
There is still, however, an office that stems from the apostolic ministry that maintains the distinction between the following ones and the sent ones: the office of the public ministry (as well as its auxiliary offices). Those who serve in this office are called “pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4) and “evangelists/[missionaries]” (Eph. 4). When it became evident that apostles needed help to continue emphasizing the ministry of the Word of Christ, God also established the office of the deaconate. Deacons and Deaconesses serve the special needs of the people of God while enabling pastors to proclaim the Word and administer the Sacraments (Acts 6). These are exceptional servants who show the Servant Christ through their ministry of the Word and putting others before themselves. We are blessed to have an LC-MS deaconess in our congregation as well as having sponsored other deaconesses (“church daughters”) as part of the heritage of this congregation in addition to our having sponsored several men (“church sons”) who went on to become pastors. This has been a rich tradition here at Saint Paul’s and you’ll see this reflected in our missions budget proposal if you attend the voter’s meeting today…we continue to have a vision for future church workers in the Kingdom!
Now having these distinctions, the Christian might be tempted to think to themselves: “Well, I’m so relieved that this attention is put on apostles, pastors, deacons and missionaries…looks like I’m off the hook in terms of spreading the light of Christ and the Word of Christ!” But that would be an inaccurate analysis. It is easy to forget that the entire purpose of having pastors is so that the disciples – all of you – would be equipped through the Word of Christ (Eph 4:12). That is, yes, pastors are sent, but why are they sent? They are sent so that the disciples – all of you – would be equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit through the magnificent Word of Christ and the Holy Sacrament.
But at this point, we might also want know why it is that you as a disciple are to be equipped with the Word and Sacrament at all. Well, the reasons are under two major headings: One major answer to “why be equipped?” is “for your own salvation and benefit”. You are to be equipped with the Word so as to keep you in the forgiveness of sins. In this context of Matthew 4 Jesus takes up where John the Baptism left off; He was proclaiming, “Be repenting!” And under this heading of personal benefit, we often forget the significance of how Christ was preaching: His admonition and call isn’t “repent once!” but rather be repenting every day, constantly, perpetually, throughout your life until the day you go to heaven.
Thus pastors are to keep you in the forgiveness of sins, because it is possible to lose faith in the forgiveness of sins. No, we cannot ever take away the reality that Christ came to forgive us, but we can take away the personal benefit of this forgiveness by forsaking Christ when faith itself is forsaken. So you are equipped by remaining in the forgiveness of sins; constantly repenting; constantly having a living faith; ever holding to Christ so that you never fall away.
This is the self-sustaining purpose of your pastor feeding you. That is why we are called to thirst for the Holy Sacrament. “If you ask how often you must go [to receive the Sacrament], it may indicate a stubborn heart that wants to buy God’s grace as cheaply as possible and that does not really want to be with Jesus. If that is the case, you must pray God to convert you. If, on the other hand, you ask how often you ought to go, our Lord’s answer is, ‘As oft as ye do this,’ and that means that you must do it oftener than the great majority, who commune four times a year just for the sake of propriety. And if you ask how often you may go, you are showing the right hunger for grace, and my answer then is: Go in the joy of the Lord as often as you can. But do not be careless about the preparation!’” (Giertz, Bo. The Hammer of God, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1973: 79)
Think of your being thirsty for water because you’re dying of thirst. You would never dream of trying to quench your thirst by saying to yourself, “Well, I just had some water last week!” Of course not! If anyone ever dies of thirst, it is because they did not have water within a few days, while the sufficiency they received from the water before that is far less at issue! God calls us to thirst for the Sacrament. Why? For the forgiveness of sins! In this way we never come forward to receive the Sacrament because we are so worthy as forgiven people, but rather we approach the altar because once again we confess our sin and our need for forgiveness…needing forgiveness just as much as on the day we were baptized.
Some people foolishly and smugly say, “I don’t need the Sacrament like that; I already know that I’m forgiven!” To say such a thing is to reveal the most profound ignorance of what Holy Scripture actually teaches. Disciples, you are forgiven because Christ keeps you forgiven, and Christ keeps you forgiven by keeping you in His Word and Sacrament. Yes, the food is Christ who is our forgiveness, but the food is to be received and eaten constantly. Yes, Christ won our salvation, but that salvation must be distributed and received…stop receiving it and you and I may lose our faith.
Now all of that is just the first heading as to why you as a disciple must be equipped. The second heading is that you are equipped not only for yourselves, but for others. Now under this second heading, you as a disciple are called by God to be a blessing to others through the following: through your prayers, through your service, and through your witness: sharing the light of Jesus Christ with your neighbor.
In Jesus’ Love,
Pastor Espinosa