Rev. Gerald Matzke's Circuit Sermon

The following message was presented by my Dad at today's circuit meeting. Good Stuff!

“Undershepherds by the Holy Spirit’s Call” John 10:1-10
Since seminary days have you had anyone try to summarize or evaluate your sermons? We have our confirmation students do a sermon summary that answers a few questions about Law and Gospel content and application. Those are certainly interesting. You read what some of the students claim you said and you wonder where they got that from. I just started an adult Bible Class on Law and Gospel and at the end of the first lesson, the study suggests that the participants listen to a TV preacher and try to pick out Law and Gospel, an interesting challenge. One person in my class didn’t do that but took notes on my sermon this past Sunday in the early service, just before Bible Class. He also asked His family to do the same. As he looked at what they wrote and compared it to what he wrote he was surprised at some of the differences. It brings up an good point that is true about most people. Not everyone is going to hear all that you think you said to them. You may have thought that your well constructed sentences couldn’t possibly be misunderstood but something happens when those sentences reach ears that might not be ready to hear and understand what you have to say. Those who hear often come from very different circumstances and what they hear can be colored by background, education, or even what happened at home as they were getting ready to come to church.
When we as preachers hear the Gospel lesson for today, one of the things that probably stands out for us is the fact that even the followers of Jesus didn’t always understand what He was saying to them. Does that mean He did a bad job of teaching? I don’t think so. They may not have been ready to hear what He had to say. He even used a good illustration but it fell on ears that weren’t quite tuned in to His point.
If Jesus, true God and sinless true man, could not always get His point across, where does that leave us? I know it happens to me and I’m sure that it happens to you as well. Our messages are not always as crystal clear as we think they ought to be. While we have to take into consideration that our hearers are all different, that doesn’t always account for our lack of clarity. Who of us can honestly say that we spend an adequate amount of time researching, molding and crafting every sermon that we present? If you do, I hold you in great esteem. With the press for time due to hospital and shut-in calls, meetings to prepare for, counseling sessions, weddings and funerals, and the occasional drop-in visitor who just wants a few minutes of our time and leaves an hour and a half later, what ought to be our number 1 priority of the week becomes a poorly prepared dish that sat on the back burner too long. It shouldn’t be surprising then that multiple interpretations of your sermon are floating around in the minds of the people in your congregation.
What can we do? We can look to Jesus and His example of teaching. When the disciples didn’t understand, He started over again and used a different approach. We don’t always have that luxury. We don’t always have that divine wisdom either. As attention spans are getting shorter in our fast paced age, we generally have one chance to make our point and we better do it well the first time. If we keep comparing ourselves to Jesus though, we are only going to beat ourselves up until we have very little energy to go on. We can look to Jesus though. Not for an example, but for forgiveness. When we fail to do our tasks adequately and we honestly know that we could have done better, we need to bring that burden to the Lord and cast those burden on Him because He cares for us. Just as we preach and teach forgiveness, we also need to call ourselves to repentance and look to Jesus alone for the forgiveness that we so desperately need. In Sunday’s Gospel lesson we heard, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” When we are thirsty, we too can come to our Savior and drink. There we find the forgiveness that we need and the power of the Spirit to be refreshed and renewed for our continued service in the calling that we have received through that same Spirit.
We have been called, enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit to be undershepherds of the Good Shepherd. When the Spirit works in and through us, great things can happen, just as we heard in the Old Testament lesson and the in the lesson from Acts. We are given wisdom to understand and apply the Scriptures for those in our care. We are given courage to preach the word in season and out of season. We are given the privilege of proclaiming God’s Word, a Word that has power to change hearts and change lives. In spite of our weaknesses and in spite of the factors beyond our control that cause people to miss or misunderstand the things we say, the Spirit still works through God’s Word to accomplish God’s purposes.
May that assurance be a comfort to us as we seek to serve our Good Shepherd. May the Word and the Sacraments be our strength as we shepherd the flock in our care. Amen