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FROM THE BOARD OF ELDERS

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer, or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:20)

As we recently announced to the congregation, the Board of Elders received word from Pastor Jay Hobson that after much deliberation and prayer, he has declined our call to serve as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. He concluded that his gifts are best employed in continued service to God’s people and ministry at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Skiatook. “A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Let us thank God for His answer to our call and our prayers, His guidance to Pastor Hobson, and His care and provision for His saints in both Skiatook and Norman, Oklahoma, through many pastors and workers.

We will continue to submit ourselves to God’s gracious will and timing. The elders are working in conjunction with Pastor Muenchow, as Second Vice President of the LCMS Oklahoma District, to schedule another call meeting for our congregation. As of this writing, if the Lord wills it, we anticipate announcing the date of that meeting early in October for a mid-October assembly.

Following on the heels of last month’s article, I would like to observe God’s instruction toward wisdom and humility (together, sober judgement) in our service as members of Christ’s body. As we remember “our place in the cosmos”, let us specifically recognize our individual gifts from God and consider wisely how they are best employed within the individual constraints allowed for us by God, in the work of the church.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:2-8

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

1 Corinthians 12:18-20

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Colossians 4:5-6

Luther had much to say about the proper understanding of service through our vocations, humble as they may be. A Christmas sermon he preached covering Luke 2:15-20 touched on this subject. In Luke’s second chapter we read about the shepherds who witnessed the announcement of Jesus’ birth by an angel of the Lord, were surrounded by the Lord’s glory, and saw and heard the multitude of the heavenly host praising God (Luke 2:8-14). They went and found their cosmically heralded messiah lying in a cattle trough (Luke 2:15-19). And then “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:20).

In his sermon, Luther said this about them and their vocation: “For these shepherds run to no desert, put on no hood, never shave their heads, never change clothing, time, food, drink nor any external work, they return again to their sheep cots and there serve their God.” And later, “See, in this Gospel you have a picture of a true Christian life, first according to its outward character, so that it glitters outwardly not at all, or very little in the eyes of the people, yea, is falsehood and the work of fools in the eyes of most people; but inwardly it is nothing but light, joy and salvation.”

Can you imagine witnessing what they witnessed, and then resuming the duties of a herdsman? From a certain angle it could be a tremendous disappointment, small and appearing meaningless in comparison with the glory that at first terrified them and later surely inspired their own praises. But understood with sober judgement, what a quietly joyous and honorable thing it is to bear God’s image – and to be “little Christs” – to one another, to the world, and (especially in the case of herdsmen) even to Creation itself, according to the talents and stations God has assigned us.

In Christ our Lord,

Seth Lemke, Chairman, Board of Elders