SERMON Scripture: Psalm 24:7–10
2023 Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and
from the Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the one true faith, until
that glorious reappearing of our great God and coming King, Jesus, the Christ! Amen!
Today is a special day here at Trinity as we are recognizing the work of the “Lutheran Women’s Missionary League” an auxiliary organization of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and does great work in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Today we also recognize “Church Worker Appreciation Sunday.” In His great love and mercy, God cares for His people through the men and women serving in church work vocations. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod thanks God for the faithful church workers who serve in congregations and schools across our Synod. We thank God here at Trinity for our Trinity Tots Staff, Office Manager and our Pastors.
We are blessed beyond measure to have such a skilled staff and dedicated Teachers, Trinity Tots Director, Office Manager, and Pastors serving our Lord and the community in which we live. It is this kind of worker that LWML support through financial assistance and grants for extending the kingdom of God by supporting ministries not only here in the USA but around the world. And we give thanks for our Church Workers as well as the ladies of the LWML.
As we look more closely at Psalm 24:7-10, we need to keep in mind that God promised to Adam and
Eve an heir that would redeem Adam, Eve, and eventually all humanity, from the curse of the sin of disobedience and lawlessness, brought upon humanity in the Garden, thereby plunging all humanity into sin, original and actual. “Sin is every thought, desire, word, and deed which is contrary to God’s Law” as we have learned in the Word of God and Luther’s Small Catechism. Throughout human history, God pictured the coming redemptive King through various images of His promise, providence, provision, and protection for His people.
David saw God’s redemptive glory in the return of the Ark of the Covenant from Obed Edom to Jerusalem to the place of worship. God’s sanctuary was now in Zion, the Temple. Meaning the glory of the Lord coming to His people.
This redemption, proclaimed in the name of the Lord for God’s people, crushed the evil head of sin,
Satan, and our sinful flesh and returned us to Himself in His reconciling Word, worship and witness of His Son, Jesus, [Savior from sin] Emmanuel [God with us].
King David proclaimed: Psalm 24:7–10 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah
God’s only begotten Son comes to the world in three ways; first, in the promised Son, David’s Lord, First as the world’s Savior, Mary’s incarnate Son; Secondly, personally in our hearts, by grace through faith, not of ourselves but as the ultimate gift of God; Thirdly, in His great Parousia, second coming for the ages, the end time.
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod does not focus too much on the second coming although we do
know that it is coming, we feel it is more important to help people prepare for the second coming. We do not know that hour or the time, that is why we need to be ready at any time when either we go alone into Glory or Christ returns in His Glory.
It is obvious the world needs to be rescued from itself. The onslaught of brokenness, destruction,
disease, and death are all around us and we make it worse with our selfish ambitions, hatred of
others, and self-centered greed. Genesis chapter 6, verse 6 tells us, And the LORD regretted that he
had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Apostle Paul spoke of the days of lawlessness [2 Timothy 4]. Through the eyes of sin, we could easily
become downcast and heart-broken because of the evil of our world. “Man’s inhumanity to
man” refers to human cruelty, barbarity, or lack of pity and compassion toward other humans —
essentially, mankind’s ability to see and treat other people as less than human. We would quickly
give up because of the constant bad news; but God’s hope, peace, joy, and love as we proclaim in the
coming of our Advent King of glory, is the promise of our God for His people.
This LWML Sunday, let’s remember the mission work of God’s people — Christ’s church is to proclaim the Gospel to all. Jesus reminded the Emmaus disciples of this promise, Then he (Jesus) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should
suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you
are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:45–49). Through the ‘Gospel’ (Romans 1:14–17), the
people of God have received the power of God’s salvation and are obligated to proclaim the Gospel to
all people, to Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish.
The Gospel is our only hope, as the King of glory comes in, with and through the Gospel, as we are
buried with Him in Baptism and raised with Him to a new life [Romans 6], and Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5). In this
new life creation, God provides us with every means of grace we need to fight off every kind of evil,
with His word of “It is written.” and His ultimate word, “It is finished.”
Through Word and Sacrament, God provides temporal and eternal means for receiving the King of glory right now and throughout eternity. Because the “Gospel is the power of God for salvation . . .The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16,17). The Gospel is the life-changing, it changed Martin Luther’s life from one seeking to appease the wrath of God, by doing good works, to one who received the good grace of God in Christ, and who brought the Gospel back to the Church of God.
The world has been in the throes of sinful behavior since the ‘Fall.’ At times we think our time is the worst of all times. Surely, we have seen some horrific and horrible atrocities in our time:
wars, the senseless killings of babies, children and adults; poverty, homelessness, addictions, every
kind of evil one can imagine. We would surely give up, but for the grace of God. As Noah found favor
in the eyes of God, so we too find favor/grace in our King, Jesus, as we look beyond the brokenness of
our humanity to the blessed hope of His coming in His resurrection.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!” Paul, the
apostle to the gentiles, reminds us that the mission of the church, not just the LWML, is to “Pray for
All People.”
As we look through the heavenly eyes of the King of glory, in the darkness of our sinful world, then, we see clearly the promise, providence, provision, and protection of God for His people in Christ. As Disciples we put skin on God so people can see Him through us. Each day we put on Christ so others can see Christ in us. Out Pastors and our Teacher and Staff are the face, the flesh and blood of God for the little ones God has gathered here at Trinity Tots. Each one of you do the same thing, speak the truth in love to those around you so others may see Christ in and through each of you.
May this LWML, and Church Worker Appreciation Sunday remind us to be missionaries and share the Gospel throughout the world so that all will know of Christ, God's coming King of glory who provides redemption to all who believe in Him, everlasting life, now and in eternity. Amen.