One of my
favorite passages in the Psalms goes this way, “The eyes of all look to you[O
Lord], and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of
every living thing.” (Psalm 145:14-16 NIV)
That is an important recognition.
Not only has God provided for every living thing from His generosity and
loving-kindness, but He does this in the proper season, intentionally and with
perfect timing. This is why we pray, “give
us this day our daily bread,” in the Lord’s prayer. We recognize God’s provision for this life
and we pray for the faith to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.
Yesterday in
worship, however, we were not focused on daily bread, but on God’s mission to
bring the Gospel to the whole world; a fitting topic as our readings all
focused on the Last Day when Jesus will come to judge the living and the
dead! We were blessed to have Matt
Myers, a missionary to the people of Macau, China on behalf of the LCMS, to
share with us the work he, his family, and the team at Concordia English Center
are doing to proclaim the name of Jesus and share the Good News of God’s salvation.
I was very
encouraged as he talked about people coming to faith, leaving behind ancestor
worship, and being baptized. It was
exciting to hear about people who had come to faith through the ministry of
Concordia English Center sharing the faith with their friends and loved
ones.
It struck me as
Matt was speaking how important our partnership in the Gospel is. We are relying on Matt and his family to
share the love of Jesus as they work in Macau.
It’s hard work. It’s important
work. We do well to support him with
prayers and finances. On the other hand,
Matt and his family are relying on us to share the love of Jesus here in our
little corner of the world. This too is
hard and important work that must be steeped in prayer and support of our time,
talents and treasures.
More and more I
see our situation as people of God in North America like that of the early
Christians in the book of Acts. Today, fewer
and fewer people in the United States know Jesus. Fewer and fewer people know the significance
of the cross. They don’t know about
Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are
here to share that message. We are Jesus’
witnesses so our neighbors can know God’s love and forgiveness, and they can
experience the scandal of the cross – that God would redeem us by His own Son’s
suffering, death and resurrection!
This is new
territory for us modern Christians. We’re
used to be a sending church. We now have
the privilege of relearning what it means to be sent. We get to find out again what it means to be
chosen to be Jesus’ witnesses in our community.
As we learn, I
want to encourage us all to be attentive to God’s Word and the guidance of His
Spirit. To that end, I want to offer you
the following prayer, and ask you to join me and the leaders of the
congregation in praying about our future.
“God, what do You see when you look at us? Where are You
working? What are you equipping us for? You know the plans you have
for us; plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a
future. Guide us by Your Spirit to know Your plans. We know Your
plan is to give us forgiveness and life though Jesus’ condemnation and
death. We know Your plan is to work among us through Your Word and the
Sacraments. We know that the mission is Yours, the victory has been won,
and You accomplish Your plan as You work through Your Word and Sacraments to
create faith and redeem people. Help us to also know how You want to use
us for that work. Amen.”
Thanks be to God for all
His blessing to us!
p.s. – If you want to know more about Matt
Myers, his family, and their work, or if you’d like to support their ministry, you
can find out more at this link - http://www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=723
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