- my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, without whom I would be nothing, but through whom I have
eternal life;
- my Christian family at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in West Columbia, SC, without whom I may
never been able to attend ILC for as long as I have (or will);
- the faculty of ILC for allowing me to present these chapel addresses at ILC.
*Note: The chapels listed on this page are ones that I had the privelege of sharing with the students at Immanuel Lutheran College. Some of them are dated the day that I gave the chapel, but unfortunately not all of them were. All hymns are taken from The Lutheran Hymnal.
Psalm 23
"The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell[1] in the house of the LORD
Forever."
Body: Just before Christmas vacation, Pastor Tiefel gave an advent sermon in which he mentioned the X-men. This became the talk around campus that day. Those who went to the early service told those who had yet to go that Pastor had the X-men in his sermon. Needless to say this caused great excitement among those who were to hear the sermon later on that night. And if any of you saw my costume for the fall party, you would know that I too became overwhelmed with curiosity and excitement to hear this sermon. But as I was driving to church that night the thought occured to me, "Why is it that we never hear people say, 'Pastor had Jesus in his sermon today' and see the same excitement on people's faces?" The Lord lead me to reflect more upon the situation and what resulted was this chapel that you are hearing tonight.
First, let's take a look at the differences between the X-men and Jesus Christ. The X-men are superheroes who were born with superhero powers because of a mutation in their DNA, some might say their powers were accidental. Christ's birth, however, was no accident. It was God's plan from the beginning of time to provide salvation for all of fallen mankind. Also, Christ was perfect, there was no mutation in His genes. The X-men's battles seem to never end. There are always new villians popping up for them to fight against. Christ's enemies were completely defeated through His life, death, and resurrection. The battle is done and Christ is the victor! Furthermore, the X-men are fictional characters that exist only in comic books and on the movie screen. Christ, on the other hand, was very real. He lived, breathed, and walked upon this earth as He is now doing at God's right hand in heaven. We know this through God's very own words which are contained in Holy Scripture. These words have lasted and will last until the end of time.
So why is it that we do not always get excited in anticipation of hearing about the message of Jesus Christ? It is because our sinful nature causes us to take the precious Gospel message too often for granted. We are too overcome with tomorrow's test, with school finances, with our girlfriend or boyfriend, to take time off and consider just how exciting Christ's redeeming work is for us. Isaiah 53:6 affirms this, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way."
So what's the answer? How do we attend church with anticipatory excitement to hear the same thing preached Sunday after Sunday? In Psalm 23 we all just read, "The Lord is My Shepherd." It was this same shepherd who was "led as a lamb to the slaughter." Our Lord Jesus Christ who was true God became also true Man, so that He may free us from the shackles of sin, death, and satan. We also read how He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake, how He restores, or refreshes, our soul, and how He comforts us in times of danger and distress. THIS IS EXCITING STUFF! We should ponder these things in our hearts as Mary did at Jesus birth. We look at our text, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" When we continually dwell upon the work of our Savior, day by day, our faith is strengthened, our souls refreshed, and our excitement for the coming sermon on Sunday will not cease. However, our sinful nature makes it difficult for us to do these things, but by the Holy Spirit, who is in us, we can have confidence that our Good Shepherd will always lead us, His straying sheep, back to the paths of righteousness. Knowing this we are readily able to follow Paul's directive, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" Amen.
Closing Hymn: "O God of God, O Light of Light" TLH 132 vs. 1,3,5