“Hold Firmly to the Word”
1 Corinthians 15:1-4

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost–Blocktoberfest Outdoor Service—September 16, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

There has been a major shift in the building design and construction industry in the past few decades.  It used to be that public buildings, such as churches, schools, libraries, post offices, hospitals, even office buildings and retail stores, were built as “century” buildings or better, meaning they were intended to last for 100 years or more.  An example in Paola is our beautiful county courthouse, built like a castle in 1898.

But, today, it is considered more cost effective to construct a building rated for only 50, 35, or even 25 or 15 years, and to plan in advance after that time to just tear it down and replace it.  In the future, most couples won’t be able to go back to the restaurant where they had their first date, the hotel where they spent their honeymoon, or even the church where they were married.  Because, most of the hospitals where we were born, schools where we study, offices where we work, stores where we shop, restaurants where will eat, and even many newer church buildings, will all be gone in a few decades.

That is symbolic of our transitory nature of world today.  We face increasing uncertainty and drastic change.  The lovely lady who cleaned my office when I served at Concordia University Wisconsin retired after working for the school for 55 years. In contrast, the typical worker today can expect to change jobs ten times, and completely switch careers three times.  Companies merge, then diverge.  Positions are added, then cut.  Workers are transferred out, then transferred back. 

It’s nearly inconceivable how much things have changed since the ancestors of many of us settled here in the rugged wilderness at Block a century and a half ago.  Miami County is increasingly becoming more like Johnson County, and like the suburban neighborhood in South Dakota where I served before.  People moved in and out so frequently that in just the decade we lived there many houses were bought and sold three or four times.  As a result of such instability, we can often no longer rely on the old support systems of family, friends, and community.

In addition to the unprecedented uncertainty and changes we face as a result of societal and cultural shifts, many of us face distressing personal upheavals in our lives.  Losing a job, struggling with illness, financial troubles, family and marital problems, the death of loved ones.

I’m pleased to say that this beautiful Shelter House, built a few years ago, and our church, which will be sixty years old next year and is still in great structural shape, and the new North Wing of the church now under construction, are all century buildings, lasting structures, not only for ourselves, but for future generations.  You see, there’s actually a symbolic reason why it’s traditional for churches not to be disposable, but built as “century” buildings or better, intended to last 100 years or more. 

When we excavated for the new North Wing it took only a few feet to see that the entire church is built directly upon solid rock.  That’s what the old tradition of well-built church buildings is meant to symbolize spiritually.  As our Lord declared in the parable of the wise and foolish builders: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

God’s Word is the only solid foundation, the only thing really enduring, through all the changes in our world and your life.  That’s what enduring church buildings are supposed to represent.  That’s why, in today’s Epistle Reading, St. Paul urges us to, “Hold Firmly to the Word.”

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.”  St. Paul had spent a year and a half in Corinth proclaiming the Gospel and winning many converts.  Like our church building on solid rock, like the house built on the rock in the parable, this teaching they received from St. Paul was a solid foundation on which to build their faith and their lives. “The Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.”

But, St. Paul is now writing to the Corinthians because of a troubling development.  After he left, new teachers came in, who convinced them that the “old time religion” which St. Paul preached WASN’T “good enough” for them.  A similar thing happened with the Christians in Galatia, and St. Paul described it this way in Galatians: “You are turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.  Some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ.”

Unfortunately, that remains a very accurate description of what is happening today in many Christian church bodies, “perverting the Gospel of Christ.”  The national leader of one large, mainline American denomination was asked in an interview in Time magazine if faith in Jesus is only way of salvation, and replied that Jesus is “A” way of salvation, but it would be arrogant to say that he is the ONLY way of salvation. 

Was St. Peter arrogant when he proclaimed in Acts, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”?  Was St. Paul arrogant when he wrote in 1st Timothy, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  Was Jesus himself arrogant when he declared at the Last Supper, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me”?

“By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”  Jesus puts it this way at the end of the parable of the wise and foolish builders: “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

“By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”   These words from St. Paul are very close to the wording of the oldest Christian creed, which we confessed together a few moments ago.  It may be that St. Paul’s words here in 1st Corinthians formed the original basis for what was later expanded to become the Apostles’ Creed. 

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins.”   This is the first and foremost teaching of our Christian faith.  This is the whole basis for Christianity. 

It’s been nearly 2,000 years since Christ’s death and resurrection; last year we observed the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther launching the Lutheran Reformation; and this year we are celebrating 150 years since our ancestors founded our church, and also built a school here where this Shelter House now stands.  And yet, after all those years, and all the changes the passing centuries have brought to our world, the message of our Christian faith remains the same.  It’s beautifully and very simply summed up in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

St. Peter puts it this way: “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. . .  he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”  Your sins are all forgiven, because God the Father accepted his own Son’s suffering and death on your behalf as a sacrifice for all your sins.  As St. John writes, “He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  That’s what St. Paul means when he says, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.”

Jesus promised, “Because I live, you also will live. . . For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  Just as Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day, even though you die and are buried, perhaps right here in our cemetery, YOU will rise again, on the last day. 

“O my people,” the Lord promised in Ezekiel, “I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.”  Our cemetery is usually quiet and peaceful, as it is today.  But, on the last day, it will be an awesome sight, as the Lord opens these graves and brings up from them the generations that have gone before.

“Do not be amazed at this,” Jesus says, “for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [my] voice and come out. . .  I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.”  Even though you die, yet shall YOU live.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  Notice how St. Paul twice stresses “according to the Scriptures,” which is the same language we have in the Nicene Creed.  God’s WORD is the sure foundation.  “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word.”  To “hold firmly to the word” means first of all to hold to the Scriptures as the inspired and inerrant Word of God.  Sadly, many denominations no longer accept the Bible as God’s Word without error, and there are many outrageous examples of how these denominations are approving teachings and practices and immorality that go against God’s Word.  As individual believers, and as a congregation, and a Synod, we must continue to “hold firmly to the word.”

To “hold firmly to the word” also means for you to personally cling to the promises of God’s Word, as your spiritual anchor, in all the storms you encounter in your life.  It was forty years ago that dozens of Americans were held captive for over a year in the Iranian hostage crisis.  One of them was a Lutheran, Kathryn Koob, who in her childhood had attended a Lutheran parochial school, just like the one that used to stand here.  And actually before entering the foreign service she was for some years a Lutheran parochial school teacher.

In her memoirs “Guest of the Revolution,” she relates that, as the days dragged on: “I reached back into my mind to see what I could find.  Were the hymns, the psalms, and Bible verses there?  Yes!  Their words filled my mind . . . a vast treasure of worship and devotional materials from my earliest childhood days. . .  And I thank God for my parents, who insisted that we know our Bible verses.”  She said that’s the only thing that kept her going and got her through her long imprisonment. 

One thing her captors would let her have was pens and legal pads.  So, over time, as more and more came back to her, she wrote down the hymns, and psalms, and Bible verses, and our familiar Lutheran liturgy.  By the time her imprisonment finally ended after 444 days she had actually created from memory her own very complete personal hymnal, prayer book, and collection of Bible verses.

That’s the great value of faithfully reading God’s Word, memorizing passages of Scripture, hearing God’s Word regularly in preaching and worship, singing and saying God’s Word in the liturgy and hymns.  Then you have the promises of God’s Word within you, as a spiritual anchor in times of trouble.  As Hebrews says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

When you are troubled by your sins, cling to the anchor in 1st John: “The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.”  When you feel God has abandoned you, cling to the anchor in Hebrews: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.’”  When you don’t understand why things are happening, cling to the anchor in Romans: “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love him.”  When you face overwhelming troubles and struggles, cling to the anchor in Isaiah: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will hold you up with my mighty hand.”  When you face death or mourn a loved one, cling to the anchor from Jesus: “In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you. . .  I will take you to be with me. . .  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this Gospel you are saved, if you HOLD FIRMLY TO THE WORD.”

Amen.