The View from the Pulpit:

Dear People of God, Gathered at Resurrection,

Celebrate!  God has given us His love, mercy and grace through His Son, Jesus.  Celebrate!  Our sins are forgiven and we are put right with God through the work of our Savior.  Celebrate!  We have been baptized into the Triune God, and the Spirit now dwells in our heart.  Celebrate!  God has led us to be part of a growing, dynamic congregation.  Celebrate!  And during the month of February, our congregational family is CELEBRATING its 62ND Anniversary.  Celebrate!

Beginning in 1956, Resurrection Lutheran Church has sought to be a confessional Lutheran presence on the Virginia Peninsula.  For 62 years, God has led determined men to come to Newport News to pastor his people at Resurrection.  For 62 years, the people of Resurrection have sought to live and to share the Good News of God’s love and grace to our community.  For 62 years God has led dedicated lay people to serve as leaders and workers in and through our parish mission and ministry.  “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!”

Dr. James Nestingen, a retired professor of Church History at Northwestern Lutheran Seminary in St. Paul, MN, once wrote a devotional centered around the phrase contained in Psalm 23:  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies …”  Until that devotion, I never really stopped to think about the significance of that imagery.

Think of it:  CELEBRATION in the midst of one’s enemies?  Good party protocol is for the host to invite friends, not enemies.  The presence of enemies puts a damper on any celebration, doesn’t it?  Yet the Psalmist clearly puts God as the one who gathers His people together and sets a feast table for a grand celebration “in the presence of my enemies”.  The key for us is that the enemies of God and His people are defeated!  Through Jesus our Savior, God has defeated our enemies of  sin, death, hell and the devil.  The battle – in fact, the war! – is already won!  God knows that!  His people should know that!  When Christ rose from the dead, the last enemy: death, was conquered!  It is truly time to party and celebrate!  That is why we can LIVE IN GOD’S GRACE, as we LOVE – EQUIP – and SHARE!

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!

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“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”  

[1 Peter 2:9]

Pastor Arnold Deknatel, of Risen Christ Lutheran Church, Fairport, NY  (a Seminary classmate – and an old friend – of mine) relates this story:

“I remember a few years back, when I was an Assistant Pastor of a large church in North Carolina, I visited a woman in the hospital.  We had a good visit.  I cared for her spiritually and otherwise and I felt that I had been a good pastor to her.  As I was concluding my visit with her she asked, ‘Oh, by the way, when is the Pastor coming to see me?’  She was referring to the Sr. Pastor.  The Assistant Pastor, or an Elder or Deacon, or a fellow parishioner just wouldn’t do!  It had to be the Pastor!”

The question of that hospitalized woman should have us ask: “Who IS the minister around here?  Is there only ONE MINISTER in any congregation?  Or, is there ONE PASTOR, but MANY MINISTERS as there are those connected to that congregation?”

What I am getting at is this:  Everyone at Resurrection is a MINISTER!!  Each and every Christian is called by Jesus Christ, and equipped by the Holy Spirit, to carry on ministry in the name of that same Jesus, our Savior.  Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses”  [Acts 1:8].  The YOU He is referring to is all believersYOU! – not just pastors!

Think of the differences in the quantity and quality of ministry if the pastor is the only one doing ministry.  Think of the number of souls that could be saved if the pastor was the only one who could be used as an instrument in their saving rather than the tens or hundreds or thousands that are connected to churches.  Think of what it would mean in your place of work or in your community if you figuratively hung out a shingle in front of your house, “John and Jane Smith, Minister-at-Large for Jesus Christ!”  What a wonderful multiplication of ministry when we all accept the role God gives us as royal priests, His ministers – “that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light!”

Cleanliness Shows Our Pride

It is disturbing to me that we sometimes take so little pride in God’s House, resulting in clutter and messiness.  When you use the YOUR CHURCH BUILDING – and especially the CHURCH NURSERY, the  KITCHEN, the FELLOWSHIP HALL or any CLASSROOMS, it is imperative that you clean up and restore the area to better than its original order!  Please remember that: 1) the congregation cannot afford to hire a fulltime sexton to go behind you and clean up (and our cleaning service is contracted to do only so much!), and 2) someone else must use the room or area after you are finished!  Especially if you are using a Resurrection School room, please pick up – straighten up – and return all things to where you found them!

A clean and hospitable church building – dedicated to God’s glory and for use in His Kingdom – is only possible with YOUR help!

 

Pastor Hank Hollar