125th Anniversary Sermon – Remembrance
by Dan Dockery March 29/30, 2008
Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-9 - 1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
I am honored to be in this pulpit today, but I was not the first choice of speakers. The committee’s first choice was one of its former pastors, Eugene Krieger, whom God called home to sing with “all of the angels” last year. Shortly before he died, I had the privilege of spending an evening with him along with Pastor Zagore and Dr. Webb at the West Michigan Pastors’ Conference. Before we ate, Gene said the following prayer which was written by his brother, Pastor W. Harry Krieger, whose story is printed in your worship folder.. Pray with me now those words of thanksgiving and remembrance:
Father, now we come before Thee … For thy blessings we implore Thee.
Grant according to Thy measure … Of the fullness of Thy treasure
Peace, health, food, good weather … And all things that work together.
In the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen.
Dear Fellow-Redeemed:
The sun was moments from setting, and its final rays illumined the knoll around which the people had set up their tents. Suddenly the sound of numerous crackling fires gave way to the sighs of hundreds of human throats. For now, from behind a screen of towering palms on the edge of Moab and the Promised Land, a grey-haired figure suddenly stepped into view and slowly climbed to the center of the knoll. He held out his hands for silence. He glanced around him. Even in the twilight the people had to flinch from his burning, hypnotic eyes.
It was their leader.
“In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, I want you to remember …” His voice cut deep into their hearts, searing their consciences. He recounted everything, he forgot nothing, and he did not gloss over their rebelliousness and disobedience.
Israel had traveled through the wilderness for 40 years and Moses was getting ready to say farewell as he passed the mantle to Joshua. But, he invites the people to remember God’s great blessings that he showered upon them. He reminds them of manna falling from the heavens every day to feed them. He invites them to remember water bursting forth from a solid rock to give them drink in a desert wasteland. He asks them to remember 40 years of wearing the same clothes that did not wear out and their feet that did not swell from water retention or ache from arthritis. God had showered his abundance and blessings upon His people. Remember!
Today, you and I remember, for 125 years ago, on Easter Sunday, 1883, a small, but hearty band of German Lutheran immigrants gathered at Grace Episcopal Church to proclaim, “Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia.” How that small band of our faithful ancestors trusted in God’s promise of Christ’s resurrection and the salvation that was theirs by faith in this same Christ Jesus – crucified, died, buried, and resurrected for them and for us, their posterity. At that time, they were foreigners in a foreign land of mighty white pines, wilderness, and water. It was time that these immigrants to a new land looked to two Promised Lands – the land that lay before them and the joys of heaven for all those who believe in Christ as their savior. As God called Abraham and chose His people, Israel; God “calls, gathers, and enlightens us by the Gospel” to believe in the same Covenant Savior, Christ Jesus. Like our ancient ancestors, Israel, whose “faith was credited to them as righteousness,” so our forefathers along with us put our trust in our Risen Lord and Savior.
As we meditate on Moses’ second sermon or farewell address, it is important that never lose sight that this world is not the Promised Land. We live in a sinful world where the prince of this world attempts to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus through doubt and hurt and longings. We don’t dream of a land filled with “wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey,” because God has showered all of those gifts upon us already. In our world tainted and broken by sin, we dream of a land where diseases are cured, terrorism is a fading memory, and divisions within families and the church healed. We dream of a promised land not crippled by worry, no more economic hardship, and a land where marriages are not broken by hurt or hasty divorces.
But so did our ancestors and their story calls us to REMEMBER. We remember Pastor Hutfilz as he buried the sons, daughters, husbands, spouses and families killed in World War I or the horrific Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919. Yet, Pastor Hutfilz would return some 14 years later to give thanks with God’s people as this church would celebrate her 50th Anniversary celebration. The Holy Spirit would call Pastor Grueber to arrive at Trinity to provide leadership and God’s love to those who had lost their earthly treasure to the Great Depression and comfort those who lost their loved ones during WWII. Pastor Krieger would answer God’s call to grow this church to God’s glory and to guide her into the second half of the last century. The Church grieved with the nation as Pastor Hawlicheck led this congregation in mourning the assassination of President Kennedy and Pastor Zagore brought God’s comfort to a people confused by the attack on the Twin Towers.
How the Israelites must have remembered all of those who had died in the desert over these past 40 years and remembered their hurt and their hope. How we too remember all of the saints who laid before this altar having heard those words, “Well done, thou, good and faithful servant.” No matter what the evil one tries, he cannot destroy the church. Because the Church’s One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
The Church is not mere brick and mortar; it is not pastors or teachers; or saints and sinners. It is all those things and more – It is the “Bride of Christ” and Christ laid down His life for her. So, we remember! Every couple married before this altar are reminded how Christ’s love for His Bride is a picture of the Christian marriage that is theirs on that special day.
Remember what God desired to teach the Israelites through Moses and what He wants us to remember today – we are not to trust our own resources for our physical needs nor our salvation. Listen again to Verse 3: He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. “Every word going forth from the mouth of God” includes the declaration of God’s promises, the claims of God’s covenant (both Old and New), the guidance of God’s Law, and the promise of justification by faith and not by works. Words that promised bread came from the same mouth that promised much, much more.
God’s Word which formed the universe is the same divine Word which commanded our first parents to obey. Interestingly, it was the relationship of God’s Word and food that got us all into trouble. Our sin in the Garden was rejecting the wonderful gifts of God’s perfection in order to taste and eat only that which God forbade. Here in the wilderness God provides food in abundance in a form never seen before; still the people questioned His goodness. Again, the first temptation of Christ was with regard to food, seeking to sow doubt, as the devil always does, as to whether God’s promises would come true.
Remember, though, that here you and I take and eat the spiritual food when we celebrate the Meal of the Lord. Here … “in, with, and under” the bread and wine is the real presence of Christ – the same lesson taught these past 125 years to all of our confirmands and Day School students. Rather than seeking to feed ourselves, rather than rejecting God’s gracious gift and seeking to supply our own needs, God invites us to a table where we eat our fill, where He will satisfy us far more than we can imagine with the forgiveness of sins, the strengthening of our faith, offers us fellowship with all of the saints. Here God calls us to REMEMBER again and to be united with all of those who have gone before us. When we kneel at the Lord’s table, we kneel with all of the faithful who now kneel around the Lamb’s throne in heaven. You can see them there in your mind if you look … from the ancient ones of the Old Testament, the apostles, martyrs, and all the saints. And, those saints include our very own brothers and sisters by blood and marriage and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all there – the family of God called to be his own by the word drenched water of Holy Baptism.
The trouble is that we so often indignantly imagine that we can take care of ourselves. So often, we fail to remember God’s grace in times of our greatest need or in times of plenty. We need to remember the Sunday when this congregation was $10, 000 short of being able to meet its construction goal in 1949 and within one hour that money was promised and then paid. We need to remember the Ted Bathke's parents, Ted and Marie Bathke, who when this church was in dire financial need, mortgaged their home to pay the church’s bills.
We need to remember the Christian love and compassion of the Fitz family who, upon hearing of a family in need one Thanksgiving, gave the needy family their entire Thanksgiving dinner while they went out to a fast food restaurant. These things were done out of love for the one who stretched out His arms on Calvary’s cross and paid for your sins and mine. These were not acts of works to merit salvation rather these were Christ-like deeds of love. This is a Sunday to remember that Got provides all that we need from day to day and that we have been called to be “imitators of Christ.”.
One afternoon a shopper at the local mall felt the need for a coffee break. She bought herself a little bag of cookies and put them in her shopping bag. She then got in line for coffee, found a place to sit at one of the table, and then taking the lid off of her coffee and taking out a magazine began to sip her coffee and read. Across from her a man sat reading a newspaper. After a minute or two she reached out took a cookies. As she did, the man seated across the table from her reached out and one too. This put her off, but she didn’t say anything. A few moments later she took another cookie and, once again, so did the man. Now she was getting a bit upset, but still she did not say anything. After having a couple of sips of coffee, she once again took another cookie and so did the man. She was really upset by all of this – especially since there was only one cookie left. Apparently the man also realized that only one cookie remained. Before she could say anything he took it, broke it in half, offered the half to her and proceeded to eat the other half. Then he smiled at her and, putting the paper under his arm, rose and walked off.
Well, to say she was steamed would be mild. Her coffee break was ruined, already thinking ahead of how she was going to tell her family, she folded her magazine, opened her shopping bag, and there discovered her own unopened bag of cookies.
So, often we tend to think of the church as ours. And, in a way, it is because we belong to it. But, St. Paul calls us to remember that it is far more than that. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. With these words, Luther writes “St. Paul here declares and explains the nature of the true Christian church and how it is to be recognized namely, that this Church is one single church or people of God upon this earth … who live together in peace and harmony among themselves.” Thus, we must always remember that the church is not our church, but it is Christ’s church. It is a family of people who “gather and unite for the purpose of prayer and worship and then exercise toward one another lowliness of mind, gentleness, and patience.
We are called together today, as Moses called our ancestors so long ago, lest we forget. Lest we forget what God has done for His people here at Trinity – including the fellowship of cookie baking, youth group, Sunday School classes, Voters, all of the countless events that have been held in this place, and, yes, even the time that Mike Kirt and I bounced Bertha Koszarek’s Swedish meatballs on the floor at an Advent Smorgasboard to see who could bounce one higher and got into trouble when Bertha caught us. We are called together in celebration to remember God’s grace through His Word and Sacraments. We have been called together to long for the Promised Land where we will be reunited with our Savior and all the saints. Finally, we are called together in the words of a hymn written by one of our own organists, Dorothy Bertram, who wrote it for the Dedication of our current building in 1989:
Dear Lord, on this most joyous day
We gather here today, and pray
That all who join to thank and praise
May worship here through all their days.
May God’s Word here forever be
Kept in its truth and purity.
This precious Word to us is given
Our guide through life; our way to heaven.
All glory to the Father be;
Dear Jesus, heartfelt thanks to Thee.
Whom with the Spirit we adore
Forever and Forevermore. Amen.