Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross

“During the day when the people are watching, bring out the things you would pack as captive. At evening, with the people watching, leave your place like those who are taken away as captives from their country. Dig a hole through the wall while they watch, and bring your things out through it. Lift them onto your shoulders with the people watching, and carry them out in the dark. Cover your face so you cannot see the ground, because I have made you a sign to the people of Israel.”” (Ezekiel 12:4–6, NCV)

For the Gospel does not preach the forgiveness of sin to indifferent and secure hearts, but to the “oppressed” or penitent (Luke 4:18). And in order that contrition or the terrors of the law may not end in despair, the proclamation of the Gospel must be added so that it becomes a “contrition that leads to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10).

²⁸  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:28 (NLT2))

³  “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵  Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5 (NLT2)

One of the men I trained for ministry, first as a deacon, then as a pastor, was excellent at stating the profoundly obvious. He did it in a fun, but also deeply challenging way. Perhaps his best observation was a couple of years into preaching regularly as he said, “we preach the same thing every week, we just use different words.

But another deep thought he caused, when he asked, “why are my best sermons the ones where God forces me to apply the passage to my own life all week long.” If we were preaching about God lifting up the humbled, we would be humbled. If we talked about God being there with those who were broken, something would break us. If we were preaching about worshipping the God who came near and rescued us…. we would get to worship, only if we had to be rescued from something.

It seems like we aren’t the first to notice it, Ezekiel had to be a model of what God needed to teach Isreal, more than the one time in today’s devotion. Jeremiah is often frustrated by this as well, as are others, even Hosea. Our lives as leaders in the church (not just pastors – all leaders) are broken in the ways our congregations are, and we need to let God address them–and then appropriately worship and praise Him.

Moving through my devotions to my reading in the Lutheran Confessions, this hit a little close to home. If I am going to preach the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, that means I have to let the Spirit circumcise my own heart. I have to recognise how sin oppresses, I have to learn (again!) to trust God to take action in my own life, that I may hear with joy the forgiveness that comforts this broken soul.

Mark was right – we need to let God preach our messages into our hearts first, to let the words that cut and heal have their way.

Then we rejoice when we share them with the flock entrusted to us, the ones we are tasked with guiding towards the Healer of their souls…as ours have begun healing. That is the other advantage to being the exmaple, we recognize the healing they join us in…as we are all ministered to, by the Ho.y Spirit.

Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration: Law and Gospel,  Tappert, Theodore G., ed. 1959. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.