Once upon a time there was a person who was caught in a storm. They couldn’t leave their house even though there was a mandatory evacuation order. They prayed to God to be rescued. There was a knock on the door and it was a firefighter. She said to get in the firetruck to go to safety. The person refused and said that God would rescue them. Flood waters rose so that a boat came by. They knocked on the door too. “Get in the boat,” they said. The person refused believing that God would rescue them. The flood waters rose and the person stood on their roof. A helicopter hovered over and a man lowered down and said, “Come with me if you don’t want to die.” The person didn’t; believing that God would rescue them. Then the person drowned and went to heaven. There they said to God, “Why didn’t you rescue me?” God said, I tried three times, but you didn’t have faith in me, and that I would provide for you through others. So what’s the moral of the story? If you have faith in God, then you must take action in your life and see that God is caring for you through others.
Once Jesus fell asleep in a boat with the disciples. A storm came and threatened to sink them all. They woke up Jesus. Jesus calmed the storm, and then reprimanded the disciples for being afraid and not having faith. Was he mad that they woke him up? I don’t think so. It is good that we go to God and ask for help. The problem is that they didn’t trust one another. They hadn’t gelled as a group and trusted one another and cared for one another in the storm. The simple fact of the matter is that if you have faith in God you must also have faith in other human beings. If you trust God, you must trust others. If you are faithful to God, you must also be faithful to other human beings. If you commit and love God you must also commit and love other human beings. That is why we are the church.
One of the best ways you can make a commitment to God and other human beings is by joining a church, and becoming a member of a church. Joining a church is scientifically proven to help you in life in practical and spiritual ways.
Who? Any person baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is eligible to join this church.
What? Church membership means that you come to church regularly, receive the word of God through worship and Holy Communion. Church members are asked to practice stewardship. That means giving some of your time and money to God. As a member in good standing you are entitled to vote at annual meetings, and to serve on committees and the church council if you are so called.
Adult Confirmed Members are expected to know a few things:
- The 10 commandments
- The Lord’s Prayer
- The Apostle’s Creed
- The Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion
In this sermon and in the next three sermons I will be teaching about the core beliefs of what it means to be a Lutheran. We will begin with the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.
What is Baptism: It water and the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God.
What is Holy Communion: It is bread and wine and the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. For this reason we believe that communion is the body and blood of Jesus.
Why do we receive these sacraments? We receive them for three reasons:
- Forgiveness of sins
- Eternal life over and beyond death
- Salvation from evil and the devil
How does this work? Through Faith. God has faith first through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit then gives that faith to us. If you have faith, congratulations! The Holy Spirit gave you that faith!
So what? The sacraments are not a “one and done” they are intended for daily practice. Everytime you wash your hands you should remember your baptism.
Everytime you eat you should think of God’s grace poured out through Jesus!
So church membership is based around your acceptance of God’s grace given through the common practice of Baptism and Communion.
Now is there is something very important that you need to know. As awesome and wonderful as the church is, it is not perfect, and you will face hardship and conflict. Hopefully not a lot, but it will happen. Take Job, for instance. Did you know that Job is revered within all three monotheistic world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? Because suffering is universal. Yet even though Job suffered terribly, God’s grace was made known to him. God saved him. Then there is also the example of the church in Corinth. This was probably a conflicted church. A church with a lot of fighting and conflict. Yet even though they wrestled with conflict at times, God never gave up on them. God has an uncanny ability to make lemon out of lemonade. God can take situations that are very difficult and challenging, and bless us. Like the disciples in the boat on the water in the storm. God takes something scary like water, and uses it to bless us! God takes the very thing that we would be afraid of, and God uses it be a sign of ultimate salvation. So that even if the disciples perished in that water. Even the foolish person we imagined who refused help, that person still went to heaven! God will bring you to heaven! God will forgive you of all your sins. God will protect and save you from the devil and evil, so that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. You are saved by grace! Amen.
Leave a Reply