Dedication of the New Spring Prairie Lutheran Church

Columbia County, Wisconsin

December 5, 1886

THE PROPER DEDICATION OF A CHURCH

"I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which you have shown unto your servant." Ge. 32:1O. With this humble confession of our insignificance and unworthiness of all your grace and gifts, we want very much to meet you, O Lord our God, as did the patriarch Jacob of yore, on this joyous festive day which you grant our congregation. O help us to do that! Yes, Lord, prepare our hearts rightly to celebrate it in such a way that it may truly serve to our edification and to your glory! With heartfelt humility and grief we acknowledge our great and many sins with which we have rather deserved your wrath and punishment instead of the unending love and the innumerable demonstrations of grace with which you have overwhelmed our congregation to this very day so that from our hearts we can properly exalt the greatness of your grace and praise and laud your holy name. Yes, to that end grant us your grace and blessing for Jesus' sake! Amen.

Text: Luke 19:1-1O

Dear congregation, and you, dear brothers and sisters who have come together in order to celebrate this festive day with us, grace and peace from God our Father through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!

"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits!" Ps. 1O3:1.2. Yes, how much reason do we not all have, adults and chil-dren, pastors and listeners, dear congregation, to encourage our souls to thank the Lord with the psalmist for all his benefits with which he has overwhelmed us and our congregation in the more than thirty years which have passed since we were assembled for the first time at this place to dedicate to the Lord a house of God to his service! When I let my glance roam about in this gathering then there are not really many it meets of those who were along at that time to construct the cherished old stone church on whose solid foundation this new, beautiful house of God is erected. Most of those dear old friends of ours are resting out there under the sod. And we who are still here, we who took part in the work at that time in the strength of our manhood, we are bent over with age, our hair has turned gray, our strength is weakened, and now we are awaiting only the summons to depart in order to be laid to rest beside our loved ones who have gone on before. In the meantime we have the joy of seeing many of them who were present at that time at that festive occasion in their youth or even as small children in their mother's laps, now taking our place in the work in the strength of their manhood. Yes, many and great are the changes which have taken place among us during this time, but the Lord's goodness and faithfulness have not been subjected to any change or alterations. He is the same yesterday and today, yes, for ever. At that time most of us were living as poor newcomers in little huts here and there between the thickets. Now we are living in good houses on well-cultivated farms. The blessing of the Lord has done this. And if the Lord asks you, "Did you ever suffer hunger or did I ever forsake you?" do you not then have to reply, "No, Lord! your goodness has always encompassed me from my youth on and upon your benefits there is no number." However pleasantly as well as earnestly we have just now been reminded of these things, yet I am not going to detain myself with them any longer. I must dwell a little upon only one thing, to the glory of God.

Through your Call I was the first whom the Lord placed as a resident servant of the Word among you. Young and inexperienced, I came to you and took hold of the work with the sincere wish and prayer that I might work toward the salvation of your souls. I know that I did that with many shortcomings and with many weaknesses. I know also that the Lord lovingly took me into his school and taught me to understand his truth better. Over toward the Lord it is only his grace with which I comfort myself; only shame covers my face. However, not to my praise, but to the Lord's glory do I dare hope that with the richer understand-ing and with experience I also received grace to proclaim the Word of God to you with greater clarity and more power. But here I want to testify to the fact, and I ask you to consider it well, that it is the same way of salvation and the same divine truths which I preached and instructed the young in at that time, which I hold and proclaim to this very day. Although I have made progress in knowledge and understanding, I am not conscious of having changed my conviction in any point of the doctrine of faith since that time or of teaching anything different now than then. Hopefully, I dare appeal not only to the testimony of many hundreds of people who have heard my preaching from the beginning and up to this very day, or have been instructed for confirmation by me, but also to the Lord before whom I expect soon to have to give an account of my stewardship.

And this, dear congregation, you are to regard and appreciate as the greatest of all God's benefits toward you, that for more than a generation he has allowed his Word to be proclaimed in its truth and purity without addition and distortion and his Sacraments to be rightly administered among you. The Word of sin and grace has been proclaimed to you without interruption, and Christ and him crucified has been preached to you as he in whom alone there is salvation. Christ has stood at the door of your heart and knocked. If he did not come in to you, then it was your own fault because you hardened your heart and closed it to him. In the pure Gospel you have had an open fountain against sin and all uncleanness. If you have remained in your sins unconverted, then you must not blame the Lord but yourself, because you despised the fountain of grace and the forgiveness of sin. No anxious soul hungry for grace has sought comfort and refreshment from this fountain in vain. How many of our loved ones, whose bodies are resting out there, drank from this fountain and thirsted no more, that Great Day shall reveal. But for us the hours when we sat at deathbeds and saw those dear people overcome the terror of death through the comfort of the Gospel, and through that living hope cheerfully and gladly left everything and departed from here, were certainly among the most precious and beautiful. Whatever battles we have had, the con-gregation or an individual, against error and persecution, we came out of them victorious, with God's Word having won the victory. You see, I would that we should especially appreciate and thank God for this the greatest of all his many benefits which he has allowed to flow to us in the course of years when we held our services in the old church, when we are gathered today to dedicate our new house of God. Be-cause, dear friends, the proper joy and blessing which we are to have from our comings together in this house are not based upon the beauty and comfort with which the love and care of so many men and women have furnished it, although this certainly can remove hindrances for even the elderly and the in-firm coming to church faithfully; no, they are based upon the fact that God gives his grace so that we take the Gospel of Christ with us and preserve it as our precious treasure and the best adornment of our church. Through this Word of God the house is dedicated each day to be a sanctuary of the Lord and we the temples of God, and this is the proper dedication.

A closer consideration of our Gospel will teach us that this is so because through  the Word of God  come I] Christ to us, and II] We to Christ.

I.

Our Gospel begins like this: "And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho." It was certainly not just by chance that Jesus came to Jericho that day and passed through the city. He, the Son of man, had come as he himself says at the close of our text, "to seek and to save that which was lost." It was this merciful love for lost sinners which also guided his steps this time. We hear not only that he heals a poor blind man who called to him in the vicinity of Jericho, saying, "Your faith has saved you," but in our Gospel it says, "and, behold, there was a man named Zaccheus, who was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich."

Certainly Christ has said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," (Mt. 19:24) yet he seeks and wants to save the rich publican as well as the blind beggar. And Zaccheus needed salvation, he needed Jesus to come to him. In Scripture publicans are placed alongside of gross sinners because they were notorious for extortion and fraud. And it was certainly with a definite intent that it is expressly reported that he was the chief of the publicans who accepted pay-ments from his subordinates, and that he was rich. We hear of course that the Pharisees reproach Jesus for going to be the guest of "a sinful man," but Zaccheus has been awakened from his sleep of sin and be-come concerned about the state of his soul. Jesus had come to him beforehand with his preparatory grace. Through the Law the Lord had opened his eyes to his sinful depravity and lost condition. He saw now that neither his riches nor his power could free him from his sin nor protect him against God's wrath. There-fore, when he learned that Jesus had come to the city and when he then had also heard of the miracle Jesus had just performed upon the blind man, then we hear Scripture say, "And he sought to see Jesus, who he was," whether there was something divine about him, whether he was the Messiah who should redeem Israel. And when his zeal prompts him to climb up into a tree, Jesus, who looks upon the humble of heart and to them who have a broken spirit, comes to him with his comforting words and says, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at your house," and again, when the Phari-sees reproach him for going to be a guest at the home of a sinful man, "This day is salvation come to this house."

In this way, my friends, Jesus comes also now to us in the Word and the Sacraments. Thus we hear him at his departure from the earth charging his disciples with teaching all people to observe everything which he has commanded them and promising them unconditionally on that basis that he will be with them al-way, even unto the end of the world. Likewise he says to his disciples, "He who hears you," namely when you speak the Word of God, "hears me." (Lk. 10:16.) The Gospel is really nothing other than the Good News of grace in Christ, and the heart of the entire Holy Scriptures the truth that Christ is the way to salvation for all believing souls.

Thus it is also Jesus who blesses the little ones in Baptism. It is into him that they are grafted through Baptism and through him they are taken up into the fellowship of the Triune God. Thus he comes finally to us also in the Sacrament of the Altar and gives us himself in his body and blood to eat and to drink so that we shall not doubt that he is with us and bestows upon us the forgiveness of sins.

Thus Christ comes to us, speaks to us, deals with us in the Means of Grace and gives us his grace and gifts in them.

But "Christ" - it is written - "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re-demption" (1 Co. 1:30). God from eternity, out of love for us sinners, he became our brother in the fullness of the time and in the likeness of sinful flesh and was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. He fulfilled the Law in our stead since he was obedient unto death, through his blood on the cross he appeased the wrath of God, freed us from sin, death and the kingdom of Satan, and earned for us forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.

Now where Christ is proclaimed to you in his redemptive work in this way, where he is portrayed before your eyes during his earthly sojourn step by step, from the manger in Bethlehem to Golgotha, yes, until he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, there is bestowed upon you the fruit of this entire redemptive work of his. If God therefore preserves his Word and Sacraments to us and lets his Word ring pure and unadulterated in our church, then Christ comes to us and everything is given us in him - everything which we need: the healing remedy for every hurt, comfort and help in all sorrow and distress, yes, life in death and eternal salvation.

But if Christ comes to us in this way as often as we gather in this temple, then is it hallowed and dedica-ted to be a temple of the Lord, because Christ is the brightness of his glory and the express image of God's essence. In him are revealed to us the Father's unending love for our fallen race and his wise counsel for its salvation. In him the sun of righteousness shines upon God's temple and congregation.

II.

What good does it do us however if Christ comes to us with all his grace and gifts, if we do not come to him and accept him? None. Much rather, if we turn away from him and despise his gifts, then he, the Cornerstone on which we should be built up, becomes for us the stumbling stone and rock of offence against which we offend and by which we are crushed. And yet all Christians surely confess as with one voice that our nature is so corrupted by sin that we "cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Christ, our Lord, or come him." For people it truly is impossible but for God nothing is impossible. He works in us through the Word and Sacraments so that we believe in Christ, accept and appropriate him and all his gifts to ourselves in faith - so that we come to Jesus just as Christ comes to us through the Word. Because Christ says, "my words are spirit and they are life," (Jo. 6:63) and Peter writes, "You were born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever" (1 Pe. 1:23) and James, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (1:18). The Spirit comes with the Word which never returns void. He does not however with an irresistible power put new abilities and power into everyone who hears the Word, but he does his sanctifying and saving work only in them who do not willfully resist and harden themselves. With the hammer of the Law he first crushes the unrepentant hearts and leads them to contrition and repentance, because it is in the feeling of our sinful wretchedness that faith is conceived.

Thus we heard a minute ago that through the Spirit's preparatory work Zaccheus had come to a recog-nition of his sin and concern for his soul before the desire for seeing Jesus and learning to know him bet-ter had ever arisen in him. This desire also was called forth and worked through the Word and through the miracle which he heard Jesus had performed. Granted that his understanding of Jesus, both of his power and will to help him out of his sin's distress, has been very weak and deficient in many ways. His longing to see Jesus and to come to a better understanding of him must however have been deep, earnest and strong.

"He sought to see Jesus," it says. He takes great pains to know where Jesus will come by. But he was little of stature and could not see Jesus because of the press of the people. Zaccheus was a rich and highly respected man. To what reproach and mockery does he not expose himself when like a small boy he clambers up into a tree in order to get to see the so-despised Jesus of Nazareth? Scorn and mockery, though, do not stop him. He breaks through all barriers and "runs ahead" and climbs up into a sycamore tree along the way where Jesus is to come. Jesus, who had begun the good work in him and awakened this longing in him, comes to meet him now in order to satisfy it and to complete the good work in him.

Jesus was aware of him in the great crowd of people. He knows him and his longing but he also sees the shyness, fear and doubt which hold him back so that he does not approach him and disclose his troubles to him. Therefore he encourages him and says to him, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at your house." His longing, faith's weak spark which was kindled in his heart, is strengthened mightily by this friendly greeting and demonstration of grace from Jesus. "This man knows my name; nothing can be hidden from him, and yet he wants to step into my, a sinful man's, house!" We often see Jesus accepting an invitation from the proud Pharisees but never do we see him invite himself as a guest to their homes. But "the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit." Even though doubts and objections would certainly arise, Zaccheus is obedient to the word he heard. It says: "he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully." We see that his faith has made progress. No longer is there any delay or doubt. He hurries down and receives Jesus, not with fear, but "joyfully."  

However, where Jesus has entered in, there the cross does not keep one waiting. Zaccheus must hear the bystanders in their self-righteousness berate him for his earlier life of sin while they murmured against Jesus and reproached him for "going to be the guest of a man who was a sinner." But now we truly see what fine growth Zaccheus' faith has made. He doesn't try to justify himself, yes, he does not even apolo-gize for himself. He doesn't boast of his riches and of the fact that he is a chief among the publicans, even less of his virtue and good attitude which really could seem to make him just as worthy as the Pharisees of accepting Jesus as a guest. Without answering them, he says to Jesus, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." It isn't Zaccheus' intent to want to boast of himself, of his good works and promises, as the Pharisees would, but he does want to prove the sincerity of his repentance and his heartfelt love for Jesus. Now he has reached the true and saving knowledge of Christ. He has formed the intent to improve his life from now on and to bear fruits worthy of conversion, well-pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus' answer shows this, with which he strengthens Zaccheus' faith even more, "This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham" (that is to say not merely according to the flesh, but above all, through faith, because Abraham is called the father of the faithful). But he dismisses the bystanders' hypocritical talk with his, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Thus we have seen then how Zaccheus has come to Jesus and been saved through the Word. We also, my friends, must be led by Jesus on the same path of conversion and faith if we are going to come to Jesus. If Jesus comes to you through his preparatory grace and knocks on your heart's door, then the first thing you must do is not plug your ears and turn away from him. Oh, how many people have not hindered the Spirit's work, yes, perhaps forfeited their salvation through not wanting to come and hear the Word of God, even less, read it at home. Or, if they did come now and then to where it was preached, yet their mind was so filled with inappropriate thoughts, that hearing they did not hear and seeing they did not see.

However, the Lord is longsuffering and through his providence he has brought it about that you did heed his call. You have not been able to avoid feeling a certain unrest because in your conscience you've had to admit that the Law was right when it judged you as a sinner under the wrath of God. That was a bitter pill for you to swallow. Your natural pride and self-righteousness rebelled against it, and your love for the world and the things which are in the world tried to draw you away from the Word which disturbed your happiness, but you had no peace and could not free yourself from the accusations within you. You came to a sober fear of death and hell, and more and more you learned to know your sinful depravity with horror. Jesus who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he shall repent and live, came to you now in the comforting Gospel. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. But you could not really believe that so great a grace was possible that that holy God could receive such a great sinner as you were. Therefore you still took all the frightening threats and judgments on unrepentant sinners which the Word of God contains, personally. But it appeared that the glorious pledges and the comforting promises did not take care of you and did not apply to you. However, at times it was as though a spark of hope was kindled in your soul and the thought came to you again and again: Should it however be possible that he would receive also you, that you also could be pardoned, be saved? You feel a certain yearning for a clearer understanding of God's Word, for learning to know Jesus better. And then, what Scripture says about Zaccheus applies to you, "He sought to see Jesus."

If you begin now to show a greater zeal for the Word of God, to separate yourself more from foolish, thoughtless company which you have sought before, if you really want to talk with earnest Christians about the things which are on your mind, about sin and grace, then for you, as for Zaccheus, many obstacles will place themselves in your way. There is shyness around people, fear of their mockery and scorn. There is a feeling of your own unworthiness and a temptation to want to try to make yourself worthy of grace. There are external circumstances, poverty or riches, and the temptations associated with both, etc. Here you must not let yourself be detained or stop in the course, but as Zaccheus did, press on in spite of all obstacles and keep on meditating on the Word of God day and night. "He ran ahead," it says of Zaccheus. He was afraid that Jesus should pass by before he came and got to see him. So must you also show zeal and not put off and postpone it until what you think can be a better time. You don't know how many days of grace are allotted you and whether he is to be seen when it is convenient for you. Oh, how many a person may there not also be among us, who in these many years Jesus has been coming to us, hasn't gotten to see him because they allowed themselves to be detained by various obstacles or put off and postponed it to a more convenient time.

But by the Lord's mercy you have succeeded in getting to see Jesus. You stood at the manger in Bethle-hem and sang with the shepherds, "Unto us is born this day a Savior." (Lk. 2:11.) You followed him on his sojourn and saw how he comforted the grieving, healed the sick, made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dead to live, and preached the Gospel to the poor. You went with him to Gethsemane, and stood at his cross and saw his struggle but also his victory. You heard his, "It is finished!" (Jo. 19:30) and your heart shouted for joy because you understood it was for you he had fought, for you he had won; he had finished your redemption. Furthermore you saw how death could not hold him, but he broke its chains and arose from the dead, and finally you saw how he ascended to heaven, so that you knew that you had him there at the right hand of the Father as your almighty King, your brother and redeemer. Thus you saw him in his humiliation as in his exaltation as if portrayed right before your eyes as he who had come to seek and to save the lost. During all this Jesus was aware of you and knew you, although still driven by doubt and unbelief you perhaps kept yourself at a distance and believed him far away from you. But he called to you: "Make haste, for today I must abide at your house." He saw what pains and distress you prepared for yourself with this doubt which you let find room in your heart and which kept you from him so that there came to be no real intimate fellowship between you. He saw how easily your weak faith could fail, the spark be extinguished, and you fall away completely. Therefore his "make haste," so that you could get to taste the blessing of his fellowship.

O, that you, my dear fellow Christian, might heed this appeal of the Lord and hasten to him as Zaccheus did! We are so slow, we let so much disturb us, we keep ourselves at a distance because of so many kinds of doubt and anxieties. We do not consider how quickly we can be exposed to the heat of temptation or the stormy weather of errors, or even death's final struggle where it is important to have a strong faith and to be firmly convinced in your mind. That's why not so seldom do we see people who began to run well, slow down on the course and fall away or allow themselves to be tossed about by the first, the most tempting wind of doctrine which blows over them. For that reason, uncertainty about the state of soul of dear friends often makes the departure so painful. O, let us therefore make haste! Jesus comes today and wants to make his abode with you. You don't know whether he is coming to you tomorrow. "Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts" Ps. 95:8; He. 4:7. He says to you, "Be of good cheer, your sins are for-given you," (Mt. 9:2) but you feel so unworthy, you are afraid to yield yourself completely. O, here you must look away and turn your ears from everything else and look only at Jesus and hear his Word and be obedient to it in faith, as Zaccheus was. Then Jesus comes and gives the soul experiences of grace far beyond what we dared ask for or understood. Then if the cross does not fail to come either and you get to hear murmuring and that Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinful man, do not let it confuse you about Christ's attitude toward you nor tempt you to apologize for yourself or boast that such a big change has taken place within you now that you are holding diligently to God's Word and zealously have sought the Lord. All that however does not make you worthy of the Holy One making his abode in you and if you rely on that, then the devil has come away the winner. No, let it prompt you to ever greater humility and to look ever more intently upon Christ alone and cling to his Word and promise, and finally with ever great-er zeal and diligence to letting your faith come to light distinctly in your life in order in that way to give evidence of the sincerity of your repentance and faith and in order to thank the Lord for his undeserved grace and mercy.

Behold how magnificently Zaccheus' faith demonstrated itself. He will not brood over his riches as the covetous do nor waste them in luxuries and luxurious living or spend them in living every day in grandeur and in pleasure, but toward relieving the needs of the poor. The half of his goods, you hear, he will give to them, and fourfold he will make up for every wrong he may have committed against anyone. You see, his heart is not clinging to mammon. It cannot do that because it is clinging to Jesus.

Dear congregation! We've been living and building here for thirty-five years. The loving-kindness of the Lord has been new to us every morning. He has blessed us all, many richly. But how have you used these gifts of his? How have you thanked him for them? We all say that we believe in Christ. But where are the fruits of faith? Oh, with the deepest pain must I say: They are few, altogether too few and feeble. How many of these goods have not been spent in drunkenness and sensual lusts or in the service of vanity! How much unrighteousness in business! How many people's hearts have not clung to mammon, so that "to do good and share" (He. 13:16) has been neglected altogether too much! How far have we not lagged behind Zaccheus! Yes, how often have we not been the reason that Christ's name has been mocked among the heathen? Or is it proper for them who bear the precious name of Christ to sit in saloons and in drinking bouts with gambling and lust? And yet he who has redeemed you with his blood has come to you year in and year out in order to seek and to save you. So today you are drawn into this new, beautiful house of God, today Jesus comes to us again; today he cries again, "Make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at your house."

O merciful God, thou God of our fathers, help us to appreciate your grace, help us to receive you! Grant that in faith we form the resolution that hereafter we will apply ourselves more zealously to living worthy of the calling with which we are called, and apply ourselves to a life which is well-pleasing to you!

Behold, my friends! if we meet the Lord in this way today, if we come in this way to Jesus and remain with him, then we ourselves are the temple of God, sanctified and dedicated to the Lord. Then we become also a magnificent adornment in this house of God as often as it is granted us to assemble here. Rich blessing shall we then take with us from here, blessing for our hearts and for our homes.

O blessed home where man and wife

Together lead a godly life,

By deeds their faith confessing!

There many a happy day is spent,

There Jesus gladly will consent

To tarry with his blessing.

And then when we must leave our earthly home we shall be gathered into the house which is not built with men's hands, above in heaven, and live in eternal joy and blessedness with Jesus and with all our dear ones who have died in faith. May God grant it to us of his grace for Jesus' sake! Amen.

When we now dedicate this house in the name of the Triune God, we call to you, heavenly Father: Bless this house. Come to us, Lord Jesus, and fill it with your glory! Grant that they who shall proclaim your Word here in the course of time may reveal your glory, and that they who shall go in and out here may seek to see you, Lord Jesus, view your glory, and in holy adornment bear thank-offerings well-pleasing to you through Jesus Christ! Bless the children who are carried to this baptismal font. Receive them and preserve them so that they may remain in you as they are grafted into you, and bless the adults who here are reminded of their baptismal covenant! Bow their hearts who shall kneel at the foot of this altar, to true repentance. Hear their cry and refresh them with your body and blood as a pledge of their sins' forgive-ness! Lord, hear the prayers which are offered to you from here and bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus! Lord, bless us, bless your heritage and let it all prosper! In Jesus' name. Amen.

Kirketidende, Feb. 11, 1887; pages 81-92