The gates of hell. . .

It is often a mighty comfort to the faithful in the midst of trouble and turmoil.  The devil will not prevail.  The gates of hell will not prevail.  But what this does not mean is that the status quo will endure forever.  It is a false comfort to presume that everything that is will continue because God has set His protection upon it.  Indeed, God has not set His protection upon all the institutions and their various shapes and forms.  God has placed His protection over us.  Over you and me.  We belong to Him.  All the things that have articles and bylaws, web pages and physical addresses, phone numbers and email addresses may not endure.  They probably will not.  We will.

This ought to be of great comfort to us as God's people.  We are the people of His promise, upon whom He has placed His mark, whom He has cleansed in baptismal water, and begun the good work of salvation in us.  Yes, this is our comfort and assurance when things seem bleak and threats abound.  We belong to the Lord.  It does not mean we are immune from suffering or that we will not pay a cost for being His disciples.  Of course not.  Our Lord repeatedly reminds us that as He was treated, so shall we be treated by a world at enmity with those who belong to Him as it was to Him.  But the things that the devil and the world can do to us cannot rob us of all that Christ died and rose to bestow upon us.  That is the promise.

At the same time this comforts us, it ought also to push us to action.  As we in the LCMS look around us, we should be chastened by the reminder that even the good institutions among us have no guarantee upon them and carry no immunity from the assaults of the devil or the ravages of time and the whims of the moment.  IF they are good and salutary, IF they are to endure, it will be because we work for them.  We cannot stand on the sidelines and watch the Lord do for us what He has called us to do.  We are the laborers in His harvest.  If we are lazy or complacent, all the good things that are our Synod will fall into disrepair and fail us.  If we are foolish and mistake earthly success for faithfulness to the Lord, all those things we think of as we identify ourselves as a Synod will fall through the fingers of our own neglect.  If we squabble over needless things or overlook serious disagreements over faith and practice, it will come back to haunt us.  

Jesus did not tell us not to fear but whom to fear and whom not to fear.  Do not fear the powers of this world but fear God and heed the voice of His Word.  We will be accountable and not only for the individual stewardship of the time and resources He has granted to us but also for the things we hold of value together as a Synod.  Sometimes we get this wrong.  We act to protect institutions instead of the cause, fearing the loss of the things that may be valuable today but are not eternal over that which is forever.  We also act as if we are merely spectators and God is the only actor.  The witness of the New Testament ought to show us how God does His work.  He works through those whom He has called.  He works through us.  

The hard part is working this out in daily life.  Some presume that the Church grows because of what we do or how we do it.  They would forget that this work is too valuable to the Lord for Him to consign it to others.  His Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies still and He works through means.  These means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments, are administered by us but He is their power as well as their goal.  We would be foolish if we thought that we had the franchise of the Church and it was our duty and our power to make it flourish and grow.  But we would also be foolish if we presumed that if God wants it done, He can just do it Himself.  What we do in the home and in the congregation matters and has profound effect.

Conventions can be a mess, a cacophony of voices and agendas clamoring for the limelight.  They can be boring as we realize that we have dealt with nearly everything on the agenda before.  They can be sobering as our well meaning efforts of the past had unintended consequences.  But they can also be a place of hope as we encounter people from all over the nation who share our common identity as Missouri Synod Lutherans and are working in their own neck of the woods to do what we have been called to us, trusting in the Lord but placing all the attention and energy of their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls at His behest.  Hopefully we will walk away reminded that nothing will be preserved without our efforts but we shall be kept to everlasting life by the Lord alone.  Hopefully we will have met some new folks who labor with us but in different arenas for the same cause and be encouraged.  Hopefully we will learn to set aside smaller loyalties for the larger loyalty to Christ, His Word, and the faithful Confession once made and still kept by us.  Hopefully we will not expect our leaders to do what we have been called to do and we will not try to be a church body of many leaders with no followers.  Hopefully we will find cause for joy even as we are given sober reminder that these things are not easy, clean, or efficient.  It is what it is but the LCMS is still our best cause and the best place to be.  If and when that is no longer so, we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it but for now it would be nice if we showed in life some of the unity we claim in theory.