Installation Sermon

Installation of Ryan Mills
02/20/2011

Mark 10:42-45
2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

This afternoon we have the opportunity to celebrate the installation of Ryan as pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. We have the opportunity to recognize the gifts that he brings to this office of leadership and service here in the community. And we have the opportunity to look forward together to see what fruit he will bear as the pastor of Trinity.

And you might be lured into thinking that the scripture you have just heard is all about him, is all about what it means to be a pastor, to be a servant of Christ and a servant of the church- your servant.

But alas, no, Ryan is simply one servant among many. He has an office to fill, it is true, he has certain responsibilities that are specific to his job as pastor. But all of us gathered here today have offices to fill, we have jobs that are required of us by Jesus, the one who has called us to be his disciples.

Trinity Lutheran Church and the Christians of New Haven, Connecticut are not that far off from the Christians of Corinth, those who were the first recipients of Paul’s letter, our second reading for today. We know that there was conflict and strife in the community at Corinth, we know that there weren’t that many Christians in Corinth. It was a small church, they were a minority religious sect in the city, many may have never heard of Jesus Christ. Needless to say, they had an uphill battle, within and without.

And I’m sure to some it may have seemed hopeless. You can’t thrive as a church or a mission if you have internal conflict. And you can’t strive as a church or a mission if no one has any idea who you are or what you’re about.

Fortunately they had a good pastor in Saint Paul. Even after he left, Paul kept tabs on this congregation, he wrote to them to discipline them- to tell them what they needed to hear and what to do – and he wrote to them to encourage and comfort them.

And Paul is our pastor, too. Paul’s letters still speak as a living word to us, reminding and exhorting, encouraging and disciplining.

Listen: Since it is by God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Keep your eyes on the prize. Over and over again, Paul is constantly reminding the Corinthians, and us, what is central. The central thing to our identity and to our ministry is the gospel, it is the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord. And that is not just for the pastors in the room to remember.

As a Christian, as one who has been baptized into the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each one of us gathered here is a part of this identity, is a part of this proclamation. You are all responsible to the gospel. You have been called to it, called to serve the gospel and called to proclaim it in your daily vocations.

And Paul doesn’t mince words, does he. He recognizes the difficulties that go along with this identity as gospel proclaimers- as evangelists. Many in this world are completely blind to Jesus, the gospel as it has been handed down to us does not make sense – it is not logical for a man to die upon a cross and for us to rejoice that this is the good news that God has sent to us. It is a stumbling block.

But, by God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry and we do not lose heart.

We are still in the midst of blindness, we are still in the midst of the struggle with sin and death and the devil.

This is the very thing that Jesus is responding to in our gospel reading for this afternoon.
There’s some conflict going on with the disciples- James and John want to be the greatest of all the disciples.

But they have been blinded by the god of this world, have they not. They see greatness achieved as the world sees it- triumph and strength, power and glory through human means.

James and John model their greatness after the world, after the greatest empire they knew – The Roman Empire.

And Jesus responds by proclamation, does he not? He proclaims the gospel in these words:
It is not so among you.
That is not who you are. Your identity lies elsewhere, not in this world, not in the striving for worldly power and authority. Your identity lies in Christ, in the one who has called you to follow him.

Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

The power of the gospel is its ability to turn everything we think we know onto its head. As those who follow and proclaim the gospel we live our lives upside down.

According to the world, we look like a ragtag bunch of silly folks gathered together singing really old songs to a guy who died 2,000 years ago.

We may have a beautiful building, but the ceiling leaks and there’s always plenty of room.

Let’s face it- people are not busting down the doors to get in here and listen to the preaching and proclamation on a Sunday morning, as good as it may be.

But, by God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry and we do not lose heart.

We live in an upside down world and we have been called to serve as Christ has served us.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that he came to serve us, to live for us, to die for us, and to gain eternal life for us is the reality in which we live. That gospel reality is our world. Of course we are tempted by worldly success- financial, social, political, vocational success.

But that is not who you are. We deal with it and live in it. We have to pay our bills and struggle with the world’s idea of success and wealth. But that is not who you are.

You belong to Christ.
Sin, death, and the devil will wield their ugly heads as long as they can. They’ll try to make us feel like failures and they will try and proclaim that the gospel of the world is what really matters.

But, they have already lost.
By God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry and we do not lose heart.

Christ has been our ransom, he has freed us from the bonds of sin and the clutch of death and the snares of the devil. Sin, death and the devil will not succeed. They have already lost.

So, be who you are. Ryan will be your pastor and you will be the people of Trinity Lutheran Church, all of us called together to proclaim the gospel in this place, in this community, to the people who so desperately need to hear it, to hear the truth, to see the light that shines in the darkness, that illuminates the cross of Christ that leads to true life, true wealth, true success for all people.