Church
Anniversary
November
10, 2013
John
17
Washing
and Feeding Sinners for 47 Years
In
the name of Jesus.
I.
Let's
take a look at Gethsemane by the numbers. Not how much money we have
or how many members there are, but how Jesus comes to us in His
Gospel Sacraments and takes cares of us through His shepherd.
There
are 52 Sundays a year and then we add on the festival days, like
Christmas and Easter, and we get 55. But there's Thanksgiving, too,
and Ascension and Epiphany and the Presentation of the Augustana, so
let's estimate 60 services a year. Times 47 years and we get 2,830
services where the faithful souls of Gethsemane have turned on the
lights and have heard their pastor preach Christ and Him crucified in
almost all those gatherings.
Throughout
the years your pastor has preached in hospitals, where he spoke
Christ to the sick or dying souls. Sometimes He went to wash a baby
clean through Holy Baptism, and over the years at church, home, and
hospital 170 dirty sinners where washed clean by Christ's promise.
Let's
guess that the blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion was offered around
1,500 times over these many years, where hungry souls ate and drank
Christ for their forgiveness. 1,500 is a good number and we can
increase that number even more over the next 47 years if Jesus gives
us the time.
II.
These
are the numbers of our faithful Savior, and they all are founded on
the number One. Jesus prayed before He went out to Gethsemane:
I
pray not only for these [disciples],
but
also for those who believe in Me
through
their message.
May
they all be one,
as
You, Father,
are
in Me and I am in You.
May
they also be one in Us,
so
the world may believe You sent Me. (John 17:20-21)
Before
He was arrested among the trees of Gethsemane, He was already
thinking of you, those who believe in Him. And you believe in Him
through the message of the apostles, which is confessed simply by you
in the Apostles' Creed. You believe in the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, the one true God.
III.
This
is the name that unites two people who have never met: Laura Knutson
and Nicholas Trier. Laura's in her 40's; Nicholas just celebrated his
ninth day. Yet they share the same faith because of the work of
Christ in His Gospel Sacrament. In 1968 Laura became the first
baptized soul in the history of Gethsemane, and Nicholas is the
latest.
We
are from many different places, but our lives have brought us here,
and we share the same faith that makes us one.
We
are fulfillment of Christ's prayer.
In
the name of the Father
and
of the † Son
and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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