“No Longer Ashamed” by Rev. Paul Philp
The Second Sunday After Pentecost (LSB – 3A – Proper 3)
Romans 1:16
125th Anniversary Celebration – Confirmation Theme
May 24/25, 2008
Trinity Lutheran Church – Traverse City, MI
Intro: The Feast of Pentecost, June 7, 1987, a little after 11AM with the sun beaming brightly through the chancel window on the east end of the sanctuary. 15 students seated in the front pews of the south side of sanctuary on their confirmation day – just a few feet in front of where the elevator is today. This pulpit in the old chancel. Pastor Gieschen vested in a white robe and a red stole looked down upon those of us seated in those front pews and asked, “Why are we wearing white robes?”
Not everyone was physically wearing a white robe in the sanctuary that day – just the confirmands, the pastor, and those assisting in the procession. Yet, in another way, all were wearing white robes – the white robe of righteousness placed upon them in their baptism. For all those gathered there who were the Baptized of Christ were wearing the very same White Robe. For all of them were, indeed Clothed in Christ. Why were we wearing white robes? We were wearing white robes because God had called us out of the shameful darkness of our sin and brought us into the light of faith – the very baptismal faith that we were about to confirm before this altar.
On that day, Romans 1:16a was given to me as my confirmation verse. When I was privileged to receive the invitation to preach on the occasion of your 125th Anniversary Celebration during the month with the theme of Confirmation, I determined that I would use this text for the sermon. It is a happy coincidence that this text is a portion of the assigned Epistle for this day. This morning St. Paul’s words to the Romans come also to us – he was eager to proclaim the Gospel to them and now he is eager that we also consider the Gospel proclamation.
I. The World is no longer ashamed.
A. Postmodernism has eliminated shame from the equation.
B. Tolerance removes anyone telling someone that what they are doing is shameful.
II. As a Result – Shame is everywhere around us.
A. No longer is the world ashamed by the foulest of sins.
1. Millions of lives are ended by abortion and the world rejoices that women have a choice.
2. Teenagers are engaged in premarital sex – and postmodernism rejoices that they are able to express themselves.
3. Homosexual marriage is upheld as legal in a California Court and the world rejoices that these people can now marry and more importantly have the benefits of divorce!
4. Thousands are dead, many thousands more are in need of aid and the government of Myanmar won’t allow aid in – and while the world takes notice and says it should not be – they really don’t worry about it too much.
B. The World is no longer ashamed – because it has no sense of true focus on what is right and what is wrong.
1. There is no guide – the world does as it pleases.
2. The only checks and balances that have any effect are those of tolerance and emotion.
3. The Church is nearly rejected out of hand as archaic and out of touch with people.
4. And God – He is just whomever you happen to think or want him to be if you believe He exists at all.
C. The world is no longer ashamed because it doesn’t know what shame is.
1. The word translated as ashamed in our text – carries with it the fullness of a sense of experience a painful feeling or sense of loss of status because of some particular event or activity.
2. Since in this world “I” am most important and what “I” think is best for me is what “I” focus upon – it has become virtually impossible for shame to exist.
D. The world is no longer ashamed and some may ask if things could be much worse than they are.
1. As we look at the world around us it is reminiscent of the Days of Noah.
2. Genesis 6:5-6 says, “The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
3. One begins to wonder – was Yahweh looking at the world of that day – or was He looking at the present reality around us?
a. It really does not matter!
b. Both were and are totally corrupt.
c. Shame is devoid!
d. Sin abounds.
4. It can’t get much worse in the world – or can it?
III. Sadly – it is worse – for even the Church has been affected.
A. In some cases even the Church is no longer ashamed.
1. Consider confirmation rates of retention.
a. The joke has long been that if you want to get the bats out of your belfry all you need to do is confirm them and they will never come back!
b. The joke only works because the reality is so very true.
c. As we celebrate 125 years of this congregation – I wonder how many confirmands have confessed faith in the Triune God to the point of death before this altar and then turned around – recessed out the back door of the nave and never darkened the door of the Church again?
(1) My guess is that if the calculation were done the results would be nauseatingly staggering.
(2) And every other congregation in the LC-MS would be in just about the same circumstance.
d. Yet we are not all that ashamed.
(1) Sure it bothers us.
(2) Sure is probably talked about in confirmation class and maybe the confirmation sermon.
(3) Sure we notice it.
(4) But how many of us, honestly speaking – do much of anything about it?
(5) My guess is that if we shared our answers – we all, myself included, would find ourselves in a shameful mess!
2. What about the number of church workers?
a. All of the projections demonstrate a shortage.
(1) Within just a few years we will be seriously short of pastors.
(2) Within just a few years we will be even more seriously short of Lutheran Trained teachers.
(3) Already our teachers are nearly 50% not synodically trained Lutheran teachers and many of those are not even Lutheran.
b. Yet – Synod has cut its funding of the Concordia University System schools to zero and the funding of the seminaries to a combined total of about $750,000 last year – which is a drop in the bucket of the total costs of the institutions (it cost over $22 million to operate Concordia Seminary in that same time period).
c. Worse yet our congregations are not sending students to prepare.
d. Other congregations are treating the church workers they have poorly.
e. And during all of this time – the Gospel is not being preached to those who desperately need to hear it!
3. Consider the Mission field.
a. Missionaries are recalled from places where they are working – because there isn’t enough money.
b. While the fields are ripe for the harvest – the workers are few and the few that are working are not able to continue – and yet we really are not all that ashamed.
4. What is worse than that? I am glad you asked.
B. The Church is no longer ashamed in far worse ways.
1. Church rather than confessing the truth of the Word of God and proclaiming the Law and Gospel – are ashamed of who they are.
a. There are congregations that are on the roles of the LC-MS who have removed the word “Lutheran” from their name – for it might give offense.
b. Congregations, one here in Michigan preaches – not Christ crucified and risen – but a series on sex for Lent.
c. Congregations use billboards signed by Satan to try and lure people to church in the St. Louis area.
d. People hear stories instead of solid confessional preaching in many of our congregations’ pulpits.
2. And it gets even worse – the Blessed Sacraments are mishandled and administered not in accordance with Christ’s institution.
a. Congregations hand out the sacrament to whoever shows up with no regard to what they might believe, teach or confess.
b. One missionary, shortly before being recalled, was told he could not baptize an infant that was brought to him for baptism, because that was not why he was there and that they must send the infant to the Baptists for baptism (of course Baptists don’t baptize infants!).
3. And even the Church, is sadly no longer ashamed of these types of things and more
IV. Why are we no longer ashamed?
A. We are no longer ashamed because we are sinners.
1. Sin has corrupted us fully and it has overtaken us.
2. Sin has filled us with the filth of shameful sin and made us to believe that it is what we want.
3. And so when that sin sees itself manifested around us – it is not ashamed – it rejoices that others are sinning just like we are.
B. From that sin – all of us must repent and be forgiven.
1. It is all of the shame of our sin, the guilt of our sin, and the damnation our sin has brought upon us – that we have repented of and that Christ has removed from us.
2. In Holy Baptism – the shame of our sin, its guilt and its damnation were removed and washed away.
3. In Holy Baptism we died to sin and were buried with Christ – this is the Good News of the Gospel that St. Paul was eager to proclaim to the Romans. In Romans 6, St. Paul says, “Do you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
4. In Baptism we were clothed with Christ – marked with the sign of His cross upon our foreheads and upon our hearts as those redeemed by Christ the Crucified.
5. In Baptism we were clothed in white robes – white robes of His righteousness.
a. That is why 15 confirmands sat here in white robes 21 years ago.
b. That is why many more confirmands have sat in these pews and confirmed their faith before this altar, wearing white robes for the last 125 years of Trinity’s history.
c. That is why all of us here this morning that have been clothed with Christ in Baptism are already wearing the White Robe of Righteousness.
d. That is why all of us here this morning who have been redeemed by Christ have had our robes washed in the Blood of the Lamb and been made white.
e. That is why all of us baptized into Christ will wear these White Robes – the Wedding Garb for the heavenly banquet at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end!
f. That is why – my dear brothers and sister in Christ Jesus – we are truly NO LONGER ASHAMED!
V. In Christ we have nothing to be ashamed about!
A. In Christ our sin is forgiven.
1. It has been removed as far as the East is from the West.
2. Its guilt is gone.
3. It no longer is counted against us.
4. Christ died for that sin and its shame.
5. And therefore we no longer need to be ashamed.
6. There no longer is a painful feeling because of our sin – for Christ has borne our pain upon the Cross.
7. Even the shame of not being ashamed of the sin in the world and in the Church around us has been removed – in Christ!
B. We are no longer ashamed of the Gospel then either.
1. For the very same reason that St. Paul was not ashamed in our text.
2. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation – first for the Jew and then for the Greek.
a. The Gospel is God’s power – not man’s.
b. We are not ashamed – it is not painful for us – for it is the good news of our Salvation in Christ Jesus – we are the Greek, the Gentiles – the Body of Christ.
3. By his language, St. Paul indicates more than just a lack of being ashamed – he tells us why he is eager to proclaim the Gospel. His words could be rendered as “I have complete confidence in the Gospel.”
4. He is not ashamed of the Gospel – because its content is Christ and to be ashamed of the Gospel would be to not only be ashamed of Christ but to actually be contradictory to Christ. Rather Paul is not ashamed and desires to proclaim Christ to Rome and to us.
VI. Trinity is no longer ashamed of the Gospel either.
A. For 125 years and counting – Trinity has had complete confidence in Christ.
1. I don’t imagine that there was anyway that those who officially organized the congregation on Easter of 1883 could have done so without complete confidence in Christ.
2. Building the first building could not have happened without complete confidence in Christ.
3. Pastors who proclaimed the Word could not have done so without complete confidence in Christ.
4. The move to this present location could not have happened without the complete confidence in Christ.
5. This addition could not have happened without complete confidence in Christ.
6. And no confirmand could have stood before this altar, this year, 21 years ago, or any year in the history of Trinity and confessed faithfulness to the point of death without complete confidence in Christ!
7. Trinity could not be engaged in this celebration this year but for the blessings of Christ Jesus bestowed upon her through Word and Sacrament and by the Holy Spirit who has created in your hearts and minds complete and faithful confidence in Christ – so that you are no longer ashamed but are the children of God.
B. For 125 years and counting – Trinity has not been ashamed of the Gospel and has had complete confidence in Christ in all that she has done and has proclaimed that confidence in the Gospel to the world.
1. You have proclaimed Christ in Traverse City
a. To those who watched a young congregation grow and expand.
b. To those who watched as a school was formed and students were taught.
c. To those who watched a cross led procession of sacramental vessels and the faithful of God from one location to another.
d. To those who have seen a gothic cathedral structure erected to the glory of God.
e. To all who enter this space and have their eyes drawn heavenward to Christ.
f. To all on approach or departure from Cherry Capital Airport who fly past this place and look down and behold the Cross of Christ.
g. To all who have sat in these pews and heard the word faithfully proclaimed in the Divine Service, on holidays, at funerals, and at weddings.
h. To all who have been brought to the font for baptism.
i. To all who have approached this rail – as we will today to receive the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.
j. To all who have knelt and confessed their sins and heard the proclamation of Christ that their sins are forgiven.
k. To all who have learned in the Bible classes of the congregation.
l. To all who have been confirmed in the faith of Christ and their baptism, nurtured in this place.
2. Beyond that you have proclaimed the Gospel – no longer ashamed beyond these walls and beyond this city.
a. By supporting Missionaries and Bible Translators.
b. By sending your pastor to be a District President and Synodical Vice President.
c. By sending your pastor to be a professor training me for the Office of the Holy Ministry at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne.
d. By sending this son of your congregation to prepare for pastoral ministry to serve God’s people and now to recruit future pastors to train at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.
e. By sending others to prepare for full-time service as in the Church – Dean Dumbrille as a pastor and others as teachers.
f. By serving the church as a training ground for vicars during the 70’s and 80’s.
g. By planting the congregation of St. Michael and All Angels.
3. By God’s grace He will continue to enable you – no longer ashamed – to proclaim Christ and Him Crucified.
a. Here in this place.
b. Here in Traverse City
c. Throughout the world.
d. As you raise up new sons of the congregation to fill the pulpits of our congregations and to reap the fields ripe for harvest around the world.
e. As you raise up new teachers, DCEs, parish nurses, church musicians, and other church workers.
f. As you raise up faithful youth – confirmed in Christ – to serve in other vocations of the Church.
g. As you – no longer ashamed in Christ – proclaim Christ to the World and even to the Church that is still fallen in the shame of sin around us – that others might no longer be ashamed in their sin but might have life in Christ Jesus.
Conc: We live in a shameful world. At times even the Church does things which are shameful. But we are no longer ashamed! We are no longer ashamed because Christ has redeemed us and cleansed us from the shame of our sin. Christ has raised us to new life – clothed us with His White Robe of Righteousness, and reserved a place for us in His eternal reign at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Christ has blessed this congregation for 125 years – He has blessed its confirmands with faith – and He will continue to bless you as together we proclaim the Gospel of Christ – No longer Ashamed – for the next 125 years or until Christ returns in Glory. “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew and also to the Greek.” St. Paul says. Why? “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The Righteous shall live by faith.”” Confirmed in Christ – Confirmed in our Baptism, as His people in this place for 125 years – that is what we, what you have done – lived by faith. To God be the Glory. Amen!