Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.

“Go in peace. Serve the Lord.”  That’s how the service ends every week.  I don’t know if you have noticed, but above the east door going out to the parking lot there is a sign that says, “You are now entering your mission field.  Go in peace. Serve the Lord.”

It is a charge, a commissioning of you and me to live a life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ in the domains we inhabit in during the week: the domain of home, workplace, community, school and recreation.

So, how did it go this week?  Were you able to live a life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus in the domains you spent time and to the people to whom you related?   Do you have any regrets?  Do you have any guilt?  Were you able to be true to your core values and your faith along the way or did you compromise?  Did you see God at work in any of your places and relationships this week?  Did you have a sense that God was working through you, or not?  Are you confused?  Do you even know what it might really look like and feel like to be faithful to the Lord Jesus in your various weekday environments?  “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.”  How did it go?

There are a couple of things I know about this, and I have learned them from you.  You are my teachers.  First, you have told me that, most of the time, it is very hard to live a consistent life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus in all of your domains of involvement and relationship.  A man said to me while sitting in the sauna at the health club, “My grandfather was an elder in the church and he always taught me to tell the truth.  But my grandfather did not work in corporate America.  I am finding it hard in my corporate job and be a person of integrity and always tell the truth.”   This man revealed his honest struggle and sense of duplicity with which he lives.  He feels the demands of a world that pressures him to fragment his life into pieces with little connection between what happens on Sunday and where he lives on Monday.  Do you ever feel that way?   Do you ever feel that what happens here on Sunday and in your life of faith is isolated from what goes on the rest of the week?

The second thing is that Lutherans are generally confused about what being faithful to the Lord Jesus in all of our weekday domains might look like.  We know we are uncomfortable with trying to “win souls for Jesus” or “naming the name of Jesus” every fifteen minutes.  I am not being critical of that approach or style, but I am saying that for most Lutherans it is a style we don’t warm up to. As a result we can end up feeling uncomfortable, inadequate or even guilty about our sense of mission, living out our faith, in our weekday domains.  One thing I must confess to you as a church leader is that I don’t think we have done a very good job of equipping you to live a life of faithfulness in the various domains of your weekday life.  And I make a pledge to you to do a better job equipping you!  Tonight’s event is a glimpse into doing that in the domain of home.

“Go in peace.  Serve the Lord.”  So how did it go this week?  Have I touched on any familiar themes for you?

The Old Testament scripture this morning is Jeremiah’s call to ministry.  There are numerous call accounts in the scripture of prophets of God and followers of Jesus, and they intrigue me.  There are a couple of things in this passage that fascinate me. 

First, the Lord told Jeremiah that even before he was born he was “consecrated,” which means “set apart” or “designated” for a mission to be God’s prophet, which means “messenger” or “spokesperson.”  Think about that.  Before Jeremiah was even a twinkle in his parents’ eyes God had a designated intention and purpose in mind for Jeremiah’s life.  How awesome is that?

How do you suppose you might feel if you came to the same realization that you were known to God and that God had an intention for your life in mind before you were even born?  I’ll say it directly to you, “Before you were born and before you were even conceived in your mother’s womb God created an intention and purpose for your life!”  How do you feel about that?

Jeremiah’s response was fascinating.  He must have felt overwhelmed and inadequate in light of such awesome knowledge.  “But I am only a boy, Lord.  I am too young, immature and inexperienced.  I don’t know how to speak the right words and say the right things.  You’ve got to be joking!”  Jeremiah was filled with anxiety about such a call to mission and faithfulness.   But, in the Bible whenever the Lord God issues and invitation he doesn’t take no for answer easily.  In response to Jeremiah’s doubt and hesitation, the Lord came to Jeremiah and touched his mouth and made a promise to Jeremiah that he would put the words in his mouth and travel along with him.

When Jeremiah heard God’s call, got past his anxiety and finally responded, he accepted his mission to be God’s spokesperson to the people.  I believe with all my heart, mind and soul that you and I have received a call to live a life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ in the domains in which we live.  You have a mission.  I believe the sign that hangs above our east door speaks the truth, “You are now entering your mission field.”

But how do we do that and what does that look like?  I will tell you about a distant cousin of mine who lives in the mid-west and has been cutting hair for his entire adult life.  Dan always has had a love for teenagers, and in many ways even though he is now 67, he is still a teenager at heart – a part of him sort of frozen in time in about 1958.  He has spent years refashioning his barber shop into a late 1950’s soda fountain cafe, sort of like “Arnold’s” on “Happy Days” if you remember that TV sitcom. 

Decades ago Dan had an experience of spiritual renewal and commitment while watching a TV evangelist on Sunday morning while his wife and children were off at church, and he was recovering from a hangover from too much partying on Saturday night.  Dan felt the evangelist was speaking directly to him, and he fell to his knees on the floor in front of the TV.  At that point Dan wanted to make some changes in his life and begin living a life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Like many people often do, Dan thought that God’s calling on his life meant that that he had to quit what he was doing as a barber and go into full time service/ministry of some kind.   As he talked about his life and his work as a barber with a spiritual mentor, his mentor asked him what difference God’s presence and acceptance in his life could mean for his current work as a barber.  A light went on in Dan’s head and heart.  Dan loved teenagers, and he had many teenagers come into his barber shop.  It dawned on Dan that he had about 15 minutes cutting hair to talk and listen to young people about their life and dreams, hopes and fears.  He realized that he could be a listener to his clients and provide a safe place for each person to feel accepted and valued.   This spiritual insight transformed Dan’s attitude about his daily work, seeing his daily work as a context and opportunity to live a life of faithfulness to the Lord.  A sense of mission was integrated into his daily work.  Dan loves cutting hair, but now he sees his hair-cutting profession as a calling in the Lord’s kingdom. 

We all will leave this place this morning and go out into the world and enter our domains which may include workplace, home, school, community and recreation.  I want to say to you that the life of faithfulness you live in those domains is as important and crucial to building God’s kingdom as teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, or serving on a committee inside the parameters of the congregation.  As your pastor I want to help equip you to live a life of faithfulness in those domains.

A Lutheran theologian writes this: “Whether it involves the household or requires movements beyond it into the community, a person’s job specifies the location where love of the neighbor takes shape.  Whether it is in changing a diaper, transporting the kids, tending the sick, caring for the grandkids, working in a field, teaching a class, attending classes, designing a building, performing a service, being a volunteer, managing a business, or whatever, your job is a partnership between God and others for the sake of the building up of God’s kingdom and creating a more trustworthy world.” 

While you are out there you will have highs and lows, joys and sorrows, successes and failures.  Some days you will rejoice with tears of joy, and other days you will shed tears over regrets and failures.   

But you can know that regularly this community of faith gathers at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, and we are nourished with his body and blood, empowered with words of grace and forgiveness, edified by God’s word, encouraged, I pray, by Christian brothers and sisters. 

When you walk out the door this morning you will be entering you mission field.  So, go in peace.  Serve the Lord.