June 26, 2022 – Dedication of Stained Glass Windows Text: 2 Chronicles 29:3-11
Dear Friends in Christ,
We all know what it is like to plan. On our recent vacation we had to make plans – after all that is what vacations are all about. Monday of this week went like this. Up early. Pack. Clean the room. Check out. Get out into Denver traffic. Stop for breakfast. Gas the rental car. Return the rental car. Take shuttle to airport. Weigh, tag and drop off bags. Go through TSA line. Then find our departure gate. In Lueck family vacation history nothing has gone as smoothly as this endeavor. We were at our gate 2 ½ hours before our departure. We planned and everything worked.
Today we have dedicated the stained-glass windows to God’s glory. They beautify our sanctuary. They all started with a plan many years ago. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, it took many years to get to the Promised Land. In the design for the church, architect and member Don Gronert, had the upper windows shaped like church windows. The first monies given for the project were in 2005. Today is a day of blessing.
That is what Good Shepherd Lutheran is – a blessing. We have come here again today to worship in the Lord’s House. That has always been the focus since Good Shepherd began as a mission in the 1990’s. We congregate together to confess our sins, witness the Lord’s Absolution, meditate on His Word, sing His praises, hear the Word preached, lift our prayers, partake of Christ’s body and blood and receive His blessing for the week ahead. We are . . .
“THE CONGREGATION THAT WORSHIPS”
Our worship life ties us in to the Christians of all time. Not a lot has changed since Old Testament worship and that is a beautiful thing. Now we know that they had their ups and downs. Their good kings and their bad kings. Shortly before our text begins the King was Ahaz. He shut the doors to the Lord’s temple, and he set up altars on the street corners of Jerusalem. He encouraged the people to burn incense to other gods. This all provoked the Lord God to anger. Ahaz then dies.
In steps Hezekiah. Twenty-five years old and verse 2 says, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” What did he do that was right in the eyes of the Lord? The first thing was he opened the doors of the temple and repaired them. Do you see the key here? The people need to return to worship. With no worship there is no faith. The people before had been unfaithful and did what is evil in the sight of the Lord. They had forsaken the Lord, turned their faces from the place of worship and turned their backs on what the Lord wanted.
It is still the same in our time. If we forsake worship life, if we don’t allow our face in the Lord’s House, if we turn our back on God’s Word and Sacrament then God has every right to bring His wrath upon us. What if God turned his back on us? Is there a worse feeling?
Hezekiah was led by the Lord to repent of all the people had done. “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.” (v. 10-11)
The covenants made in the Old Testament were always directed toward the Lord. Hezekiah knew they could only make a fresh start if they acknowledged their sinfulness and were forgiven. Then the true worship could begin.
The same can be said of us. If we have negligent in our worship, if we have not always followed the Lord’s Word, then we admit that and receive a covenant ourselves. What is that? It is the covenant promise that God made to us that he would send His Son into the world to die for us. He would send his Son into the world to rise for us. He would send His Son into the world to forgive us and cleanse us from our awful sin so that we can enter and leave this place of worship knowing that we are a redeemed child of God.
You see this depicted in our windows. Christ’s birth – born for us so that man may not die. Baptized for us – Christ’s baptism is our baptism, what a wonderful gift it is. Christ’s giving us his body and blood – sacrificed and shed for you so that you know His presence in your daily life. Christ rising from the dead for us – through Jesus we have conquered death and sin and Satan. Because He lives – we live! May these windows reflect what we already know. They are visual reminder of God’s great love for us. One day you may be sitting in worship, feeling down about a life event, struggling with a sin, and you take a look up and you see with the eyes what the Lord has done for you. It calms your heart. It lifts a burden. It confirms your faith and why you come to His house each week. Love, mercy, grace all for you.
Unlike our Monday trip, this plan took years. The life of a congregation can be like that. Even when we were getting closer, a worldwide sickness put on the brakes. The Lord is faithful. This allowed us to time to have all of the funds to pay for the windows. What a gracious God we have. His timing is not our timing.
The Psalmist wrote, “Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” We can all say “amen” to that because we are . . . The Congregation That Worships.
Amen.