A Recovering Methodist

What follows is my devotional address for the Ohio District Church Worker's Conference. Typically the Vice Presidents serve as devotional leaders. I have been honored to serve as a vice president and this is my last year. Here is the message I gave last night.



Devotion for Pastor’s Conference
Text: Isaiah 55:10-11
Theme: Trust the Word

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
it brings forth and sprouts,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.


In the name of Jesus:

I will confess to you here and now that I am a recovering Methodist. I don’t say this lightly. It is something that as a parish pastor I struggle with daily. The type of Methodist I am referring to does not bear any similarly to being a member of a particular church denomination, or a follower of John Wesley. A recovering Methodist is one who constantly seeks a method that will work in the parish. Looking around the room, maybe I am just not the only recovering Methodist in the room!

So let’s have a Lutheran moment and ask, “What does this mean?” When a new stewardship program becomes available and has met with some success, do you wonder if it would work in my parish and have the same success rate as another congregation. When new types of groups are introduced in other congregations do you think: “Will it work at my church? Is it something that I can use?” If there is a new technique in evangelism that brings in new members, will it bring in the masses in Lancaster Ohio? Or Cleveland? Or Dayton? As a parish pastor it seems that of a practical nature I am continually on the lookout for something that works. Perhaps you are a recovering Methodist like me. For when we wonder, “why is such and such a church is growing, and mine is not, something must be wrong in what I am doing! Maybe a new methodology will work! It certainly wouldn’t hurt, or so we think.

Now that is not to say that this is inherently wrong. After all, if we are not concerned about doing a good job for the Lord and giving an account of our ministry, we are slothful servants. However, the temptation for me as a recovering Methodist is this: do I place my faith in the method, or in the Lord?

As I read continually read the Scriptures daily I am struck by one theme that is played over and over again throughout the pages of the Bible, namely, trusting in the Word. The problem that we have as pastors is that we are sinners and that first sin that our first parents committed rears its ugly head in our lives and ministry. Remember in the Garden, when God gave to Adam and Eve that simply command: Don’t eat? How did Satan tempt our first parents, simply with a question: Did God really say that? And in response to that question, Adam and Eve, doubting God and His Word, fell horribly short of God’s demand of perfection.

Throughout the Old Testament God’s people are given the Word, and they come up horribly short, don’t they? Abraham and Sarah are to have a child, and Sarah laughs. Moses is told to lead God’s people and Moses stammers and looks for an excuse. Namaan is told that in order to be cured of leprosy he simply needs to follow orders, but he becomes incredulous. Even during the era of the prophets, God’s messengers called Judah and Israel to repent, to turn to the Lord and listen to Him. Isaiah called God’s people to turn from idols and other gods, to cease trusting in what sinner man could do. Trust in the Lord, turn to Him, LISTEN TO HIS WORD. But Israel and Judah thought that they knew better. As they chose to despise God and His Word, God left them to their sinful desires and they were placed into exile! Throughout history, time and again God asks sinners to trust in Him, but sinners look for another option.

Isn’t that what happens in our lives and in our parishes? We are called to trust in the Lord, but we don’t. We are called to follow Him but we look for a convenient detour. Rather than trust in the Word to work, we look for another method, a better way of doing things, placing our trust in our own efforts rather than trusting in the Lord and His Word.

So what are we do to? Repent. When Jesus began His ministry He said: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. We need not forget that! Jesus calls us to repent to turn from TRUSTING OUR METHODS AND WORKS AND TO TRUST IN HIM. Why? Because Jesus is God’s Word, incarnate, sent to deliver you and me from the messes we make of our ministry and lives.

Doesn’t God say in His Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God…14 and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1,14)” Jesus, throughout His life, lived to give glory to God through doing the will of the One who sent Him. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus asking as he did of Adam and Eve: Did God really say, Jesus used the Word to defeat Satan. God in Christ kept His Word to sinners by living the life you and I could not live and by dying on the cross for our forgiveness and eternal salvation.

New life is given by the power of Christ’s Word! The Word brings new life to sinners for the Word brings Christ! God works through His Word, for you have been “born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word.” (1 Peter 1:23). God works through His Word, for in Baptism sinners are given a new birth by the washing of the Holy Spirit. God works through His Word read and proclaimed, convicting sinners of sin and comforting the damnable with the Good News of His grace. God works through His Word leading sinners to repentance. God works through His Word forgiving sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God works through His Word for at His Word we eat and drink the Lord’s body and blood for forgiveness and life. God works through the Word.

In an era when we as parish pastors and professional church workers hear about a “new paradigm” or a “new model” or “a different way of doing things, perhaps it would be best to be reminded of how the Lord Jesus Christ Himself describes our work.
“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears let him hear.”

Jesus likens our work to sowing seed. The seed is the Word. Certainly there is much work to be done in preparing the soil and fertilizing the soil, the seed still needs to be sown. God’s Word is the good seed. He blesses His Word and our work so that whenever and wherever it is sown, God brings forth fruit. Remember Luther’s analogy, where he says that when he planted a garden he prayed as if his work meant nothing, and when he worked he worked as if his prayer meant nothing. Perhaps that is what we need to remember, that God’s Word works and that God uses we lowly workers to sow the seed so that God will give the increase. Just as God promises in Isaiah: ““For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

The Word works, my friends. Christ and His Word is all we need. And maybe it is just that that a recovering Methodist needs to hear.
Amen