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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
My dear brother in Christ Ryan; Audra, Elias, Elise, Everett, Everly, and Eleanor; other brothers in the Office of the Holy Ministry; Saints of Grace Lutheran Church; and other family, friends, and guests,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am glad to be back in this part of Texas, not far either from Elgin where I served as Assistant Pastor for more than five years, or from Austin where I lived for even longer than that. Preaching God’s Word here on this occasion is my privilege and pleasure, as is the brotherhood that you, Ryan, and I have shared the last six years or so, during which time I have come to know you to be a faithful husband, father, pastor, and friend. No doubt that the saints here at Grace Lutheran Church, Brenham, also have some sense of the fine man that you are, as the Holy Spirit led them to call you here to be their new Associate Pastor and Headmaster. Yet I wonder—amid the PIF, SET, and other components of their and your due deliberation of the call—just how much they really know about your feet. I mean, I have known you for some six years and I do not think that I have ever seen your feet bare, and only last weekend did I indirectly learn your shoe size. How much do any of us really know about your feet? Well, Saints of Grace Lutheran Church, this afternoon, reflecting on the three Readings that we heard, we will consider “The beautiful feet of your new, younger under-shepherd”.
In this afternoon’s Old Testament Reading, the prophet Isaiah, in his final Holy-Spirit-inspired announcement that the exiles will return in safety, declares, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Confer Romans 10:15.) The as-if-wingéd feet of him who brings good news are said to be beautiful both because he is bringing and proclaiming news quickly and because, in this case anyway, the news is good—news of the reign of God, news that means peace, salvation, and other good things. As all the watchmen clearly see Israel’s return from exile, their various voices unite in one song. And, as a result of that song, the very ruins of Jerusalem themselves can sing over the Lord’s unencumbered comfort, redemption, and salvation.
Of course, Jerusalem was in ruins because of the people’s sin and unbelief. They were like we by nature are: at war against God and in need of salvation, afflicted on account of our sin and in need of redemption. Our sinful natures lead us to sin against God and our neighbors, and those actual sins of thought, word, and deed merit consequences for us far worse than the destruction of Jerusalem and the people’s exile—any one sin alone merits death here in time and torment in hell for eternity. Yet, as God through His faithful prophets then called His Old Testament people to repent, so God through His faithful pastors today calls us to repent. Such turning in sorrow from sin, trusting God to forgive sin, and wanting to do better than to keep on sinning is necessary in order for us to experience the peace, comfort, redemption, salvation, and other good things of God. We cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition, but God can and does free us! When we, enabled by God, so repent, then God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, our sin against Him and our sin against our neighbors, whatever our sin might be.
Saints of Grace Lutheran Church, as uncomfortable as the preaching of God’s law can be, both for pastors and for their hearers, expect Pastor Ogrodowicz to unite his voice with the voices of your other faithful watchmen here in the preaching God’s law for the sake of the preaching of God’s Gospel, His good news and glad tidings of the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ crucified on the cross and resurrected from the grave for you, for me, and for all people!
In this afternoon’s Gospel Reading, Jesus Christ Himself preaches that Gospel, identifying Himself as the Good Shepherd Who gives His life on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sheep. In fact, the God-man Jesus Christ came so that, by his death on the cross and the forgiveness of sins that He wins there, all may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus contrasts Himself with the self‑interested Jewish leaders of His day and with any other such hirelings who had come before or who ever might come after. Jesus cares not, as it were, about Himself but, Jesus cares about the sheep, all the sheep, Jew and Gentile alike, including you and me. Jesus’s relationship with us sheep is like His relationship with the God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. We sheep hear Jesus’s voice, we know and follow it, and we come to Him, so that there is one flock of holy believers and sheep in the Church (Smalcald Articles III:xii:2) and one Great and Chief Good Shepherd, Her Lord (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:4).
Yet, when that one Great and Chief Good Shepherd ascended into heaven, He gave gifts to His Church, including pastors such as Pastor Ogrodowicz, whom you should think of as a “shepherd”, or perhaps better “under-shepherd”, for he serves under the Great and Chief Good Shepherd, perfecting you, doing the work of ministry, and building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:7-11). Such under-shepherds pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, in order for them to shepherd the Church of God, which the Great and Chief Good Shepherd obtained with His own blood (Acts 20:28). To that end, such under-shepherds use the means God has given for them to use: reading and preaching His Word, combining His Word with water in Holy Baptism, individually Absolving with His Word those who privately confess the sins that they know and feel in their hearts, and combining His Word with bread and wine that is Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, so that those who receive it in faith might be strengthened and preserved in body and soul to life everlasting by that Body and Blood. Such under-shepherds so love their Lord, the Great and Chief Good Shepherd, and His flock that they feed and tend His lambs and sheep in all these ways (John 21:15-17).
When I was a teenager (a long time ago, in a state far, far away), the members of our congregation’s youth group felt pretty looked down upon, and so we picked as a motto of sorts the first verse of today’s Epistle Reading: Let no one despise your youth. Little did I know at the time that the Greek word used there does not refer to teenagers but refers to someone between 30 and 40 years old! No doubt, Ryan, there will be times here, serving older saints, not to mention working with older and more experienced pastors, teachers, and staff members, that you could feel or even be looked down upon for your youth and lesser experience. The Divinely‑inspired St. Paul’s words to Timothy, as he served in Ephesus, apply well to you: silence yourself and your critics by being an example to the believers in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. Give attention to your public reading of God’s Word, to your exhortation in preaching, and to all the teaching—both that you yourself do and that which is under your supervision as Headmaster. Do not treat lightly the gift of the Holy Spirit you received in your ordination, recalled by the congregation’s words “and with your Spirit” in every proper Salutation. Properly balance your service as Associate Pastor and Headmaster with your callings as husband and father (caring for your family through spending time with them), and, perhaps most importantly, receive God’s forgiveness and others’ forgiveness for all the times you will fail in these and in any other ways. Saints of Grace Lutheran Church, as you have promised in extending this call to Pastor Ogrodowicz, receive him as an under-shepherd of Jesus Christ, giving him the honor and love and obedience that the Word prescribes; make faithful and regular use of the means of grace; and bring forth the fruits of faith according to your vocations, including faithfully and diligently supporting and aiding him in word and deed, working with him to glorify God and extend His Kingdom, and providing for him and his family according to your ability. And, perhaps most importantly, forgive him and his family their failings, even as he and they forgive you your failings in these and in any other ways. Together as pastor and people freely receive God’s forgiveness through His means of grace, and, in turn, extend His and your own forgiveness to one another and to the community at large.
Reflecting on the three Readings we heard, this afternoon we have considered “The beautiful feet of your new, younger under-shepherd”. Perhaps like me you will never see his bare feet—and maybe we should be glad, as you probably do not want, nor do you need, a Birkenstock-sandal-clad, khaki-shorts and Hawaiian‑shirt wearing pastor strolling around your sanctuary on Sunday morning or at any other time. Yet, because God has given him to you to bring and proclaim the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you can be sure, seen or unseen, that his feet are beautiful at least in that regard. Pastor Ogrodowicz may be newer and younger than your Senior and other Associate pastors, and part of his call may be as Headmaster, but he nevertheless still holds the same office under Christ as “shepherd”, what the word “pastor” really means. The Great and Chief Good Shepherd will bless you, as you live together as pastors and people, in His forgiveness of sins, to the glory of His holy Name.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +