Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 27, 2010

What Does Membership Mean?
Luke 9:23-24

What does membership mean? Strictly speaking, membership in a congregation is not a requirement for salvation. Same goes with attendance at worship, Bible study, or Sunday school. Giving money to your church doesn't get you into heaven, either.

Jesus earns us a spot in heaven with His blood, sweat, and tears. He explained: "[I] must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and [I] must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Luke 9:22).

He did suffer. The Jews rejected Him and demanded that He be crucified. He was killed on a cross. And on the third day He came back to life. This is how He saves us.

You'll note that in His explanation of how He saves us, Jesus never said anything about church membership, attendance, or offerings. But even though these things will never save anybody, they are still important because they require self-denial.

After Jesus feed over 5,000 people with the miracle of bread and fish and just before He showed His glorious appearance to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, He said this: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it." (Luke 9:22-23)

The principle that Jesus is speaking about is self-denial. To be clear, self-denial doesn't mean that you can't have fun. You can, and you should by spending time with friends and family. Have a picnic, go to the Air Show, go and see the third Toy Story—these good things do not violate Jesus' principle of self-denial.

Denying self is something that we do by placing Jesus first in our lives. Luther explains self-denial when explaining the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” What does this mean? “You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”

Self is the part of you that wants to kill you by dragging you away from Jesus, sometimes so slowly we don't ever recognize how far away you are. Self does not care about Jesus' death on the cross. It does not care about Jesus' resurrection from the empty tomb. It does not care about your salvation. It cares about itself.

In the daily decisions that you make, you will struggle with your self. Self always wants you to make choices that lead you away from following Jesus, decisions that do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

For example, going on vacation is a good thing. But if you plan your vacation with no thought of Sunday worship at a local Wisconsin Synod church, you are being lead away from Jesus. (Sure, I'll readily concede that there are some spots in America where there aren't any of our churches for a good long distance.)

What I'm talking about is that many of our selves plan our vacations by assuming we won't go to church. Our selves write off those Sundays as vacation days. Our selves reveal that we consider church to be work, and from time to time, we deserve time off.

Let's talk a small step toward denying self. This year let's include worship on our travel iternary, whether it's a business trip or a vacation. Pick out a WELS or ELS church before you put a hold on your mail. You can even call ahead or email the pastor to let him you are coming. Trust me, when you do that, you'll make his day.

But there are so many ways to follow Christ and deny self when we are here. One of those ways is belonging to a church and being one of its members.

Let's get a few misconceptions about membership off the table. First, membership is not a free ticket to heaven. Membership doesn't mean that you can angry when your pastor asks why you come to church once a year. Membership doesn't mean that you have the right to gossip and complain about you fellow members. Membership doesn't mean that you know everything about the Bible—trust me, you don't, and it's selfish to think that you do.

What does membership mean? It means that you voluntarily remain a part of a family of believers who hold that God comes down to us as a perfect Man who died for our sins. As a member, you are publicly confessing that the Bible is God's Word and that it does not change with time. Your membership also is public statement that you had no part in the decision that brought you into Jesus' family—He did that.


Membership also means that you consistently come to chuch for Bible study and for worship. When you aren't here, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are on vacation and worshiping at a different WELS church. Membership means that if your job forces to work on Sunday, that you let me know and we'll set up alternative ways for you to hear God's Word and receive the Lord's Supper.

Cancer kills you. When the doctors tell you to be at the chemo clinic at such-and-such a time, you're there, whatever it's takes, to get that medicine. If you don't, your doctors, your friends, and your family are going to say something.

Jesus explained to the self-righteous religious experts that He is medicine and that all people need this medicine.

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow Me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:27-32)

We are sinners who have a daily need to feel shame over our selfishness and to trust in Jesus' forgiveness. Jesus is our Medicine. As each week begins, we gather at our “clinic” to confess our sin and to be forgiven by the words of Christ. Staying away from our clinic—church—is a public statement that says that you don't think you are selfish and that you don't need to be forgiven.

If you move away from the Quad Cities, consistent access to your “clinic” where the Medicine of Life is administered isn't possible. Unless you are a college student or serving in the military, membership means that you find a new “clinic” where you can get your Medicine.

It doesn't mean that we are no longer your family. It means that I can't take care of your soul over the phone. I can't mail you the Lord's Supper. I can't baptize your children by email.

There are 18 members of Gethsemane whom I am unable to serve because they live far away. They deserve to be taken care of. That is their God-given right as Christians. They deserve to have a home and a pastor who gives them the Medicine that we all so desparately need. They need a place where they Lord's Supper as often as possible, where they sin is forgiven, where someone will notice if they haven't been to church and will say something to them about the Medicine they need.

When you move, you need to transfer your membership to a nearby WELS or ELS church. You will always be welcome at Gethsemane whenever you visit. I've very much enjoyed meeting many of you already and I can't wait to meet the rest soon.

When you go to college, you probably keep your parents' address. But when you move away permanently, you find a new home and you get mail there. Finding a new church home is just as important, even though self says differently, “This is the perfect time to disappear from church—you're busy, maybe you got kids, you're starting a new life—who has time to be a member of anything, especially church!” What a perfect to deny self and tell it to be silent.

During the next year and more, we'll be helping our permanently moved-away members connect with their new “clinics,” where they can receive Jesus. We're not pushing them out the door; we are pointing them to the Cross and to the clinic for the Medicine. The name of the clinic might be St. Paul's, St. Matthew's, Peace, Jerusalem, Holy Cross, or Good Shepherd. Then we drive our selves, sometimes kicking and screaming, to our clinic for our medicine. Our clinic's name is Gethsemane, but the medicine is the same: Jesus, our Savior who lived and died for us.

Amen.