2nd Sunday after Pentecost (Pr. 6) June 18,2006 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the redeeming grace we have received through your Son’s death and resurrection. By the power of your Holy Spirit, strengthen our faith, move us to deeper joy and appreciation for your gift of salvation, and empower us for witness. Use us, O God, to plant the seeds of your kingdom, that Christ’s church might continue to grow and flourish in our land. This we ask, in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
At our Synod Assembly, Dutch, Rosanne and I were confronted with a rather stark contrast in reports about the future of Christ’s church.
First, let me share with you the good news. We were privileged to have the Rt. Rev. Benson Bagonza, Bishop of the Karagwe Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, our sister synod in Africa, as our guest and keynote speaker. Bishop Bagonza shared with us the tremendous growth that is taking place in the Lutheran church in his synod. Every year, several new congregations are chartered, and nearly two thousand persons are baptized, many as adults.
And this growth in the church is happening, in spite of many obstacles! Persons infected with AIDS and the HIV virus in Karagwe is staggering. In fact, Bishop Bagonza reported that close to 80 percent of the people infected by the HIV virus don’t even know that they are infected, which has caused him to mandate that they cannot celebrate a marriage without insisting on a blood test. Malaria is also reaching epidemic stages.
In addition, Karagwe is an impoverished region of Tanzania. There are few paved roads. Educational opportunities, especially for women, are bleak. Buildings must be built by manual labor, including the moving of materials, because they have no machines to it. Many of the children suffer from malnutrition, to the point where those affected with Malaria, often die because their bodies do not have the strength to cope with the medications needed to cure them.
And yet the church is growing! It is growing at such a rate that one pastor has to serve eight congregations, some of them having over four thousand members. This requires that lay persons be trained to preach and conduct worship, while the pastor travels between the various congregations by bicycle or, if he or she has been ordained for over five years, they may be afforded a motor bike, simply to conduct baptisms, confirmations, funerals and weddings.
It is an amazing story that Bishop Bagonza shared with us about the growth of Christ’s church in his synod. But his story wasn’t just about the number of persons joining the church that impressed me. The Lutheran Church in Karagwe was also confronting and actively engaged in uplifting the social fabric of their society. As an example, through the aid of our synod, they have constructed a school for girls, which will soon be opened to improve the educational standards of women.
Now for the contrast. Our own Bishop had quite a different story to share with us at the Assembly. In fact, you know that adage, “What goes around, comes around.” I’m sure you know how I have often used conversations with Josie, Pastor Blair or other friends as sermon illustrations. Well, imagine my surprise, that when we were at the festive worship service of ordination Friday evening, our bishop used me as one of his sermon illustrations.
I had gone to talk with him several weeks ago, to seek his advice about securing the future of our congregation in light of the fact that our membership is below that which can realistically afford a full time pastor. During our meeting, he shared some rather bleak statistics. According to projections, in six to ten years, due to the rising costs of health care and other factors, out of the ninety-eight congregations in our synod, only fourteen will be able to support a full-time pastor.
A week or so later, I called the bishop to share with him that our meeting left me feeling rather depressed. And guess what? Our meeting and my phone call made it into his sermon as an illustration. More than being surprised, since I had no clue that our conversation would be one of the focal points of his sermon, I was also challenged by what he had to say. I was challenged, as should each and every one of us, to keep faith, to hope, to pray, and to work to do what we can to uplift the grace of God in our community.
Since I was not able to be at the Assembly Saturday morning, Rosanne reported to me that our bishop frankly discussed the situation facing our synod. Rosanne told me that it left her in tears – tears shed for the many congregations, many that have been in existence for over a hundred years, that our bishop has, or will be called upon to close, because they no longer have enough worshiping on Sunday mornings to even sustain or maintain their property.
She shed tears for the humility of our bishop, who shared with the synod that he had at one point asked his wife, Pastor Sandra Jones, why he had even run for bishop. He also found the situation depressing. But his wife knew not to answer that question immediately. About an hour later, she simply said, “Because God has called you.”
And I believe that some of the tears that Rosanne shed, were tears for us, here at St. John’s. For the facts indicate that in six to ten years, it will require an average weekly worship attendance of 130 to support a newly ordained pastor. The truth is, that right now, my salary is less than what it would take to call a newly ordained pastor – and over 15 thousand dollars less than what our synod guidelines indicate I should be earning. And our guidelines are the lowest of all synods in our church, with the exception of the Caribbean synod.
But please, please, don’t hear this as an appeal from me for an increase in my salary. The issue is far greater than that! It is really about the future of Christ’s church in our synod.
I honestly believe that we are a very healthy congregation, in spite of our numbers. We are alive with persons who engage in our ministry. And I told the bishop that I didn’t want to move, because I want to serve our congregation until I retire.
Nevertheless, this contrast that Dutch, Rosanne and I were confronted with at our synod Assembly does serve as a huge illustration, a huge critique of our failure to witness to the grace of God in our lives. We need to wake up to the decline of the church in our area. We need to pray for God’s Spirit to increase our faith, to fill us with the joy of God’s salvation, and to empower us for witness. In other words, if we truly care for the future of Christ’s church in synod, we just can’t wait and expect people to come through our doors, hoping to find the grace of God – we have to take an active role in inviting others to come and know joy of God’s saving grace in Christ.
After Bishop Bagonza finished his second presentation to our synod, one of the delegates asked him, “To what do you attribute the growth of the church in Karagwe?” His response was heartfelt and impassioned. He said, “To know the joy of Christ in your heart, to know that when you are baptized, that God embraces you as his own, and gives you the promise
of new life, is a message that should overwhelm you. That is such good news in the midst of our situation in Karagwe. But the message is no different no matter where you live.”
And then he added, “When a person is baptized, we tell them that to experience God’s grace, can not be kept to yourself. It must be shared. You are now a disciple of Christ, and are expected to share your faith with others. How can you keep the knowledge and joy of knowing God’s redeeming grace to yourself. Our people want others to experience and God’s love. It is that simple!”
In our Gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus uses two parables to teach us about the kingdom of God. In both, he talks about a seed that is sown into the ground, which produces more than what can be expected. And the implication, from both of these parables, is that we are not responsible for the growth. After we have sown the seed, we may need to do a little hoeing and cultivating, but we can sleep and rise, and allow the power within the seed to produce the harvest.
I take from these parables that the growth of the kingdom of God, the growth of the church of Christ, is beyond our control. The growth of Christ’s church belongs to God. But if we don’t plant the seed, it will never grow!
Quite frankly, St. John’s is such loamy soil, where the seeds that we plant are growing. But there are so many seeds that fail to planted into our soil. There are so many people in our community that I honestly truly long to know the grace of God, and to experience the hope of new life, not just in the life to come, but new life amid the depressing conditions of our area.
Perhaps every Christian in our synod, who has come to know the joy of God’s redeeming grace through our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, need to understand Bishop Bagonza’s simple answer to the future of Christ’s church. Sow the seed! And let God take care of the growth.
Amen.
