LWML Sunday “Serving & Telling, Like Joe & Mary”
October 1, 2023 (Pent.18 Phil. 2:1-11
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In the Thursday men’s Bible study, we just wrapped up the Gospel of Mark; so I was reminded of those women who were of the first LwmL group. Chpt.16 begins: “when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.” And then, after Mary Magdalene sees the risen Christ & speaks to Him, she runs to tell the disciples. Serving Christ and Telling the Good News = that’s the heart of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. That’s the heart of the Church: serving – as we have been served by Him; telling – with the Gospel that we have received.
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Let me tell you about Joe. Joe was a drunk. In a certain poor part of New York City, his reputation was that of a filthy wino who had no purpose, only a miserable existence.
But repeatedly, God’s message of forgiveness, hope & true life in Christ Jesus came to him at the local shelter, & finally he believed. Now, his conversion was no more miraculous than what the HSp has worked in any one of us; but the change in his heart & life was so drastically seen on the outside, it seemed like a great miracle. Because everything changed. Joe became the most caring person the local shelter had ever known. Joe spent his days & nights hanging out at the homeless shelter, doing whatever needed to be done; no job was too small or beneath him. He cleaned up after sick alcoholics, & scrubbed filthy toilets.
Joe always did what was asked – with a smile on his face, being thankful to help others. He said it was because of Jesus’ message of forgiveness & heaven that he was honored to clean up, feed, & put to bed those poor men who were too ‘out-of-it’ to take care of themselves. Jesus gave him a 2nd chance & a new life.
One evening, when the director of the shelter was delivering his evening devotional message to the usual crowd, one of the men stood & came down the aisle to the makeshift altar & knelt down. This repentant drunk, with tears, said: ‘Please God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!’ The director leaned over & said to the man, “Sir, I think it would be better if you prayed, “Make me like Jesus.” The man looked up at him puzzled, and asked, ‘Why,… is he like Joe?” The director said, ‘Oh yes. Even better.’
Mary Magdalene, & the other disciples, in their day, were like Joe = people with an unclean past; but by the Gospel, God called & changed them for the purpose of following after Christ, and serving others. They served because of the message of the Gospel of forgiveness of sin & heavenly life. They served by bearing the fruit of obedience, with the many opportunities of kindness toward those in need around them.
Those women & men were good examples & role models; they lived the kind of Christian life worth imitating. Thru them, God reached others & changed their lives. Altho, one problem with trying to imitate those women & men is that we can’t imitate them completely, because they don’t always do the right things. However, the One they followed & imitated always did & said the right thing. Sometimes we wonder: why doesn’t the Bible tell us more about Mary Magdalene? It’s because the Bible is too busy telling us about our Lord & Savior Jesus. Why should we imitate an imitator? We will follow & imitate The Original.
And yes, like Mary & The Twelve, WE still have the original. We have the Master among us in a very real, but hidden way. In the pages of Holy Scripture – Jesus is alive for us to learn from, & walk with, & imitate. The director of the mission was right. We can pray: ‘Please God, make me like Jesus,’ = because Jesus is ‘like Joe’, only better.
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Just like Mary, & The Twelve, & Joe, our true identity is in Jesus, the Son of God.
God reminds us -in the Book of Romans- that having been Baptized in His Name means that we have been joined with Him in the death He died in payment for all sin. Our life is now hidden with Christ in God. Like Joe, even tho we were sinful & unclean, Jesus was not embarrassed to come near to us. He used His life to serve our real & messy need. To be ‘in Christ’ means that He is serving us, & we are gladly receiving what He gives; which is far more than the world can ever give.
To be united in faith with Christ Jesus is a gift of His Holy Spirit; it’s gracious & undeserved. Why do people strain their eyes & ears out into deep space, hoping to find life’s meaning or ‘intelligent life’ out there somewhere?
The truth is: The Creator’s full attention has been focused on earth, & on us; and because of that, all who respond to Him are blessed.
One author puts it this way: ‘we are more than an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing. We are much more than a highly developed ape, who has learned how to shave.’ God’s own Word teaches us that, 1: we are His unique creatures & the crown of creation. 2: We are each valuable to Him -who gave us life. & 3: We are so loved, that He desired to restore His image in us, and worked our salvation with His own Son.
We are hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind, living souls; created by the One loving & Almighty God. This is what makes it such a monumental disaster that man disobeyed & turned away from Him. We might wonder: Why did Adam & Eve turn away from perfection; what did they think they’d find? It’s an unanswerable question. Yet, because we inherited a sinful nature, we are very familiar with that practice of turning away; we share their temptation & sin.
Like the teenager from a decent home & upbringing, with education & a future, who turns away to experiment with immorality, or lawbreaking, & ruins their life. What are they hoping to find? Or the man who turns away from his wife into the arms of another woman. Or the woman who turns from her responsibilities to drugs. What did they hope to gain?
We don’t have to look at Adam & Eve, we can look in the mirror. What is it that makes US willing to take the chance to throw away all the blessings for a brief thrill, or a few dollars? Rebelling against God & what is right or good is the essence of sin. As every soul receives life from our holy Creator, & is accountable to Him, so every soul that sins shall die = that is: forfeit their life. As the soul is forever, so death is also forever when judged by the Law. The Almighty has spoken; & there is nothing more powerful than the ‘sovereignty’ & judgement of God.
OH WAIT! There IS something more powerful than the Law & sovereignty of God!
His mercy. God’s grace made a way for us to be given one second chance, by one single Savior, & one cross.
The penalty of sin would have to be paid for by a willing human being, who was without sin & overflowing with the righteousness of God, and who was strong enough to enter into death – but able to come back out again. Only God himself could do all that. Romans 5 says, ‘for if the many died thru the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace…of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.’ God’s grace in Christ is His top attribute.
So it was – that God Himself came to rescue us. Jesus came to show us God’s very nature, holy & loving; He came among us in human flesh as a servant, ready to substitute. His perfect obedience makes up for our disobedience & cancel’s the Law. He set His eyes on the goal of the cross & grave, so that we would have our 2nd chance to live a new & changed life.
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And how did this new 2nd life become ours? We could not enter a second time into our mothers to be born again. But instead, since it was spiritual life we lost, it’s a spiritual birth we needed. So by the power of the Holy Spirit, by His promise applied with water, we have been born again. By Holy Baptism, He put in us a new heart & a live spirit. This is our blessed 2nd chance in our Savior Jesus; and it’s our last shot at life.
So, each day it is fair to ask ourselves: are we treating our 2nd chance like Joe or Mary Magdalene treated theirs? They discovered that new life has a new & improved purpose:
to serve others as we have been served by Christ, and to tell others the Gospel as we have told.
Eph.5 says that, as children of God, we are to be imitators of Christ, and produce the kind of fruit that is in step with His Spirit. That fruit, in service to others, is in the various actions of love & joy, peace & patience, kindness & gentleness, goodness & faithfulness, and self-control. (Gal.5)
Even in his lowly position, Joe found ways to live his new life in Christ, and to serve the needs of those he was most familiar with. Even in a time of deep sorrow & uncertain fear, Mary Magdalene found a way to serve her Lord, and to tell the hope of the Gospel to others. And this is the new life which has also been given to you & me.
In this new life, there is encouragement from being united with Christ; there is comfort from His loving mercy; and there is fellowship with the Spirit, so we are not alone in our serving.
Altho it was in 1942 that the LwmL began as a recognized nat’l women’s missionary organization in our Synod, yet – as early as the 1850s, the women of our local congregations were mending the clothes of seminarians, gathering supplies for hospitals, orphanages & nursing homes, finding food & furniture for the poor, and gathering their ‘mite’ offerings to support the gospel’s work & missionaries. Who have they been imitating?
Mark 16 says that Mary Magdalene has been possessed by 7 demons & Jesus had cast them out & given her a new life. She used that new life to serve Christ, and to tell others about Him. All women who believe in Christ Jesus have also been given that new life.
Joe was a pitiful drunk with no purpose. In hearing the gospel, Jesus gave him a new life; which he used to serve others, being grateful that Jesus served him. All men who believe in Jesus have also been given a new life of purpose to help others. Both Mary & Joe are worth imitating in that new life, and so we could pray: ‘Lord, please make me like Mary; make me like Joe.’
But Eph.5 says there is a better prayer, because the very Son of God came to us to teach us & show us what it means to live this new life as a child of God. So we pray: ‘Lord, thank you for this new life. Now please, make me like Jesus.’
Amen