Rev. Mark Nieting (on LWML Sunday)
Luke 12: 8-12
About 150 years ago General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia moved into the great state of Pennsylvania, towards the little Lutheran town of Gettysburg. As the Confederate army moved north, one German Lutheran lady, Hannah, was her name, felt called to DO something. She grabbed her broom and started marching down the middle of the road towards the “enemy. When the Confederates were confronted by this “Army of One Lutheran Woman,” to their credit, they merely brushed her aside and marched on.
Years later, at a quilting party the Lutheran ladies were reminiscing about that event and one of them, Mrs Bomberger, asked, “Hannah, what in the world did you expect to do with your broom against that great Southern army?”
“Vell,” she said, “I din’t tink I vuld schlow dem down, but I vanted dem to know vut site I vus on!”
This morning we celebrate Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Sunday, giving thanks to God for the ministry of women who for years have been visibly and vocally on the side of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and letting the WORLD know “vich site dey is on!” There are tens of thousands of them across the United States and around the world, all linked to the heritage of faithful Christian women.
The CHURCH has been blessed by faithful women since the beginning, when a group of them went to the tomb that first Easter to anoint the body of Christ and came back with news of His resurrection. For the most part, Scripture is silent about their conversation, but there’s NO WAY we can believe that THEY were silent! Christian women, from the beginning, have lived out the promise Jesus made in this morning’s Gospel lesson…..if I might paraphrase a bit: when God wants you to talk about your faith, the Holy Spirit will give you the right words!
Looking off this pulpit this morning, it seems very obvious to me what side YOU are on. After all, you are sitting in a Lutheran church offering your praise and your prayers to God who created you, to Christ who redeemed you, and to the Holy Spirit who called you to faith! It’s the essence of faithful Christianity in action.
The theme of the International LWML this year is Being with Jesus: Living on the Edge. Sitting here on cushioned pews in our comfortable sanctuary (and looking at our beautiful new cross) might not seem very “edgy” to any of us. After all, we live in a nation where the phrase “In God We Trust” appears on our money. Our national pledge says “One Nation Under God.” Our congress begins each session with prayer and our Supreme Court starts each session with God save the United States and this Honorable Court. Doesn’t sound too edgy to me!
We must never forget to thank God that we have the right and the freedom to exercise our Christian faith, something not allowed in vast portions of our world.
Yet the very freedoms we enjoy and yes, even take for granted have, at times, lulled us to sleep as a church and as Christian individuals. At the risk of sounding judgmental and even a bit trite, the examples are legion. If EVERY Christian parent refused to let their kids play sports on Sundays, the leagues just might get the message. If EVERY Christian student who graduates from a public school gives thanks to God in their yearbooks and their speeches, the Supreme Court might just get the message. If EVERY Christian voter would examine every candidate’s positions and how they align with the teachings of our faith, things might truly change….for the better!
Living our faith isn’t always EASY to do! Don’t we, at times, feel like salmon swimming upstream? Going with the flow…..is NOT living on the edge. It’s getting swept along with the tide. We KNOW that at the very root of all of this is Spiritual Warfare. It’s the same old Satanic Serpent hissing away, just as ‘he’s’ done ever since he deceived Adam and Eve with his message. He’s subtle, but he’s persistent. And he’s deadly……..eternally so.
That’s why this promise Jesus made to His disciples in Luke 12 is so important. The time will come, He reminds us, when we will be called to STAND UP for Him. The time will come when our Priorities will be called into question.
The time will come when we will have to let Jesus….and the world….know just what….just WHOSE side we are on.
Your side was chosen at the time of your baptism! That’s when God chose you, washed your sins away, and placed His Holy Spirit into you! You have been “on God’s side” ever since! HE knows that…..and, HE wants each of us to let the WORLD know that! That’s why Jesus made this promise….that when the time comes for us to “tell the world what side we’re on,” the HOLY SPIRIT will be right there, giving us the right words to say.
It’s time for us, for each believer to say to the world around us, “What do you have to offer me that’s better than Jesus? What foundation do you have for life that is more solid than Christ?” What the world has to offer is empty promises and a dead end life…..what Christ offers is forgiveness of sins and life everlasting with the God who created us!
It’s time for those of us who ‘live on the edge’ under the cross of Jesus Christ to say to the world around us: Your way is the wrong way. Your way creates hunger that can’t be filled. Your way creates children who are never satisfied. Your way leaves a moral vacuum that denigrates women and destroys teens. Your way offers a land where Jesus is banished, where corruption overflows, and where there is no eternal hope. It’s time for us to claim that promise of Jesus, who WILL give His people the words and the courage and the will to stand for HIM.
It’s time, as the LWML has known for decades, to let da verld no vut site ve’re on!
We stand with Christ! amen
