This
Sunday, October 1, is the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Verse
of the Stewardship Season:
This
week’s sermon is: His Love/Our Response: Will and Won’t
This
week's readings are :
Philippians 2:1-4 (5-13) 14-18
Message: The Church: Ancient and Contemporary
When people hear the word “Church”, I suspect they think of
buildings, congregations, parishes.
Gloria Dei – October 30, 1966 first worship service,
May 1969 this building was dedicated.
Fall of 1988 – offices and education wing
2020 – Narthex, Ministry Center, kitchen and sacristy
57 years – not very old! Consider …
1847 – LCMS founded by German
Lutheran immigrants
(German Evangelical Lutheran Synod
of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States)
1824 - Oldest Church in Ohio is the
Old Wyandot Mission Church in Upper Sandusky
1639 – Jamestown Church, Jamestown,
VA
1610 – San Miguel Mission, Santa Fe,
New Mexico
1521 – Cathedral of San Juan, Puerto
Rico
1504 – Cathedral of Santa Maria la
Menor, Dominican Republic
1498 – John Cabot – Carbonear,
Newfoundland?
1163 – Notre-Dame de Paris
200’s – Dura-Europos, Syria
66 – St. Thaddeus Monastery, Iran
33 – Temple of Jerusalem, Pentecost
The Church includes all believers in
God’s Messiah, whom we know to be Jesus, in all times and places.
2000 B.C. – Abraham
All the way back to Adam and Eve
Even the believers in the future!
John 8:58 – “Before Abraham was,
I am.”
A lot has changed over those years.
Music –
styles and instruments (organ?)
Vestments
Liturgies
… for better or worse (“Non-liturgical”)
Choices
of places to worship – denominational and within a denomination
Somethings have not changed
God’s Law
is still God’s Law and sin is still sin.
10
Commandments
The
Gospel is still our message.
Christ
crucified, raised, ascended, returning.
Our
mission remains
Matthew
28:19-20 – The Great Commission
Acts
1:8
Matthew
22:36-40 – The Great Commandment – Neighbor!
Care
for the poor and vulnerable
Defense
of Life
I stand in my sanctuary – but it’s not really mine
Six
pastors served here before me.
Hundreds (Thousands?)
of members
The Word
of God Preached – Same as Peter on Pentecost
People
are Baptized into Jesus – Just like the Ethiopian Eunuch
Including
Infants – like circumcision
We
celebrate the Lord’s Supper – Same as Jesus and the Disciples did
This
is my body
This
is my blood for the forgiveness of sins
Do
this in remembrance – but this is no mere memorial
Jesus is
at work by His Holy Spirit doing what He has always done
Seeking and
saving sinners.
This is a message that is still needed today, and we are truly
Ancient and Contemporary because …
Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. – Hebrews 13
The Church is present wherever the Word of God is proclaimed
and the Sacraments are administered. Truly worldwide! Truly spans history even
into the future.
Proclaiming
Jesus today
Forgiving
Sins in His Name
Redeeming
people.
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