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Two weeks ago, when Denny and I took a few days off, we drove north to Lake Superior, to what’s known in Minnesota simply as the “North Shore.” If we had to choose a favorite place on the planet, this would probably be it. We rented a cottage on the lake near Two Harbors, and each of the four mornings that we spent there, I got up early, turned on the fireplace, got my Bible and sat in a chair in front of the windows overlooking the water. I watched the sun rise over the lake; sometimes I’d see ships in the distance. It was quiet and incredibly peaceful.

But as we were driving up, my daughter Emily called me and when I told her where we were going, she told me about the big storm that had occurred just a few days earlier. October 10 was a very rainy day in Iowa and much of Minnesota. On Lake Superior, however, as often happens, especially at this time of year, a huge storm blew up. Winds up to 86 mph blew over the lake and waves more than 20 feet high crashed against the rocky coast, causing more than $18 million in damage to the Duluth harbor.

A few miles up the coast from Duluth a lighthouse sits on a rock 130 feet above the water. The picture on the front of your bulletin is this lighthouse at Split Rock. Emily said that she’d seen pictures on the evening news of waves so high during that storm that the spray flying up reached the top of the lighthouse.

Lake Superior, you probably know, is the largest freshwater lake in the world—and it’s often called one of the most dangerous pieces of water in the world. Because these storms often come up without warning, especially at this time of the year. Yesterday was the anniversary of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank during a sudden storm on November 10, 1975; the entire crew was lost. The event was memorialized by Gordon Lightfoot in his song called The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald that was a huge hit. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship traveling on Lake Superior at that time and, like the Titanic, no one thought it would ever go down.

Ship traffic is heavy on Lake Superior, as the Duluth harbor is one of the leading cargo ports in North America. So when a November storm back in 1905 wrecked 20 ships and caused 116 deaths, the state knew that something had to be done. They commissioned the building of the lighthouse known as Split Rock.

The lighthouse was completed in 1910 and the light shone continuously out over the water—officially it was visible for 22 miles, but it has been reported that, under the right weather conditions, it can be seen 45 miles away in the Apostle Islands. There are 350 ships lying in the deep waters of Lake Superior, more than half of which have never been located. But not a single ship went down in the dangerous North Shore region of the lake following the completion of Split Rock Lighthouse.

Denny and I visited the lighthouse; we also visited Gooseberry Falls State Park, a place where we camped almost every summer with our children as they were growing up. There are no sandy beaches on the North Shore of Lake Superior; you need to go to the Michigan side of the lake to find those. No, the Minnesota side of this lake that the Indians called Gitchee-Gumee is wild and dangerous. At Gooseberry Falls State Park, the shoreline is covered with huge rocks, often jutting out far above the water. Children—and often grownups, too—love to climb on them, to run along the top of them. We would watch our children closely, however, because the lake is deep and very cold even in summer; if a child were to fall in, chances are good that they would not survive.

We never turned on the TV in our cottage, but as we were driving we heard about bombs being mailed to former presidents and other government officials. We heard about angry mobs chasing down people just because they don’t agree with them politically. We heard about people shooting other people. We heard about political attacks by both parties as the upcoming election drew closer.

And as I sat looking out at this beautiful lake on those quiet and peaceful mornings, as I saw huge ships in the distance, I pictured our nation as a ship being tossed about in a Lake Superior autumn gale, struggling with storm winds that seem to be increasing by the minute. And our boat, though huge, is being tossed about like the Edmund Fitzgerald was back in 1975. The sky is growing ever darker; the strength of the sailors is failing. And in the midst of all this, we realize that there’s something or someone on the boat with us that wasn’t there before. And as a huge wave washes over our boat, someone screams: Stranger in this boat, who are you?

And the answer comes: I am Fear. All hope is lost. Fear is in the boat.

As Americans, we’ve been used to feeling safe. Powerful. If there was fear, it was fear of us.

Somehow we’ve lost that feeling of safety. People are afraid. Afraid of people who show up unexpectedly with guns in their hands, ready to kill anyone in their path. Afraid that elections are rigged or the results somehow manipulated. Afraid that our health insurance won’t be sufficient if we discover cancer or heart disease or Parkinsons or Alzheimers is a reality for us. Afraid that if the wrong people are elected we might lose our religious freedom. Afraid that the immigration issue might not be resolved the way we think it should be.

A recent poll showed that the greatest fear among American people is fear of government corruption. Next in line is health care, followed by pollution, not having enough money, high medical bills, world war, global warming, and North Korea.

We are in the midst of fearful and turbulent times. As the dark waves seem to batter us from all sides, many Americans—including Christian Americans—fear what the future might hold.

Fear is in the boat. It’s in our own lives. It’s in this church—fear of what might happen tomorrow or the day after.  

Fear fills us with loneliness, hopelessness, desperation. It drives our decisions and actions and causes us to do things we could never have imagined we would do. Like getting so angry with a friend or family member over a political issue that we stop talking to them.

Fear eats away at our insides until our resistance and strength are spent and we break down. It eats away at the ties that bind us to God and to others, and when in a time of need we reach for those ties, they break and we sink back into ourselves, helpless and even more despairing than before.

Everyone is looking for a savior. Many of us hoped salvation would come in the election last week.

And because our fear has become so enormous, so powerful, even many of us who are Christian have forgotten—we already have a Savior.

Fear has so polluted our thinking and distorted our judgment that distrust, hatred, and selfishness have separated us from our neighbor and our family—and, most importantly, from our Creator. Fear has grown so large that we have forgotten what it is that unifies us: faith, trust, love.

Fear takes away our humanity—because this is not what the creature made by God looks like.

Today is Veterans Day, the day that we remember all those who have served in the military. Most of our World War II veterans are gone, including both of my parents. But those veterans who fought in Europe during the second world war saw what fear did to Germany. They saw how the German people allowed fear to erode their humanity, turning trust in God to trust in a maniac, from love of neighbor to holocaust and war.

Fear doesn’t discriminate; it knows no boundaries of time or place.

We’re in a boat riding rough waters—we wonder if we’ll survive.

But brothers and sisters in Christ, we don’t need to be afraid. We have nothing to fear—because we’re not alone in the boat.

Matthew 8:23-27 “When Jesus got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but Jesus was asleep. And they went and woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And He said to them,’ Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?’”

When all hope vanishes, when fear enters the boat, when we’ve forgotten that Christ is right there with us, when we think we’re perishing, it’s as if the heavenly hosts cry out to remind us, “Christ is in the boat.”

When the disciples remembered that Christ was in the boat with them, when they cried out to Him,  immediately the waves subsided. The sea became calm and the boat rested quietly on the water.

Because Christ was in the boat.

Have we forgotten that the disciples’ story is our story, too?

Have we forgotten that the certain knowledge that “Christ is in the boat” is our salvation, too? Because it seems, strangely enough, as if we’re at sea once again, on a voyage without faith, without hope, overwhelmed, in chains, in bondage, paralyzed by fear; we have lost heart, have lost the joy of living.

Have we forgotten that our purpose is to be the lighthouse that shines the light on Jesus—the only one who can save?

Perhaps we’ve forgotten because for so long so many of us have listened to and believed TV preachers who promise that life for Christians will be filled only with good things. Promised that God will protect us from pain and trouble and suffering. Nowhere, however, do we find that message in the Bible. In fact Scripture is clear that we who believe in and follow Jesus are not exempt from the storms of life: in fact, it often seems that trouble targets us more than anyone else.

Because when Jesus is in the boat, storms always come up. The world tries with all its evil powers to get hold of Him, to destroy Him along with His disciples; the prince of this world, Satan, hates Jesus and rises up against Him at every opportunity. We know this. We have only to read the Bible, to look at Christians who have gone before us, to realize that safety in this world is never promised to those who follow Jesus. Quite the opposite.

This is why God gave us His Word. This is why Jesus placed such a high priority during His lifetime on gathering and discipling a group of people who would be the start of His Church. We may be surprised every day by the things that happen in our world—but God is never surprised. He’s known forever everything that would ever happen in this world. And He knew before He created the world that in 21^st century Iowa we would desperately need the Church—the church, where we would hear the voice of Jesus calling to us, saying, “I am in your boat.”

Because when we can’t hear Him, we listen to other voices: voices telling us there is no hope, no way out. Voices telling us to place our hope in men, in revolutions, or in ourselves.

Many pinned their hope on last week’s election. If we just elected the right people … if people just make the right choice. If only everyone would agree with me.

The results came in and almost no one was happy. Many are fearful. The storm seems to be increasing–overwhelming waves just keep crashing all around us. The media is already talking about two years from now. Maybe we’ll get it right then, maybe we’ll elect the right people. Maybe then the country can come together, can stop arguing, can stop killing people.

President Trump said, prior to last week’s election, that Evangelicals were “one election away from losing everything.”

But if an election can cause us to lose everything, then what exactly is it that we have in the first place?

Surely we can be grateful when our elected officials uphold religious freedom. But do we worship or serve at the pleasure of any administration?

Or do we serve at the pleasure of Jesus Christ? Because it’s not when we’re fined or even imprisoned for refusing to follow a law that goes against our faith that we lose everything—it’s not even when we’re fed to the lions that we lose everything.

It’s when we preach another gospel that we lose everything.

Right here, in the middle of this fearful world in which we live, is a place that is meant for all time, a place that has a strange and peculiar task that the world will never understand—the task of being a lighthouse for Jesus Christ, the hope of the world. Right here, we have the body of Christ, created for just such a time as this. Created by Jesus to be the lighthouse in our storm of fears, shining the light into the world that will guide us away from the rocks and point us to Jesus.

Jesus, who’s with us in the boat. Jesus who keeps calling out to us, “Don’t be afraid. Fear is overcome. In this world you are afraid, but be comforted—because I have conquered the world!”

Jesus is in the boat with us. When we’re overwhelmed with fear, our tendency is to isolate ourselves. And the devil has even made us fearful of church—because people have been gunned down while worshiping God in churches. But the call of Jesus to His church is never isolation. It’s to come together, especially when we don’t feel safe. Especially when our world is in turmoil. To come together, if necessary to suffer together, to make our way together with Christ, looking always to Him who is with us in the boat.

To allow Him to remind us that, no matter what’s happening, His will is being done. To remind us that throughout all of human history, He has never abandoned or forsaken His people.

To remember that it was God who brought the Israelite people safely out of Egypt. To remember that all they had to do was follow the Lord’s instructions. To remind us that even Pharaoh with his powerful army, was unable to stop them.

To remember that King Solomon, the man to whom God gave the gift of wisdom, was unable to build a kingdom without problems, a kingdom that endured—almost immediately after Solomon’s death, the kingdom fell apart and was soon divided.

To remember Pilate, who thought that he was in charge, who thought that Jesus should fear him and his authority. Who had no idea what Jesus was talking about when He said that if would never have been delivered over to the Jews if it had not been His will.

To remember that James and John wanted to call down judgment on a village that rejected their message, but “Jesus turned and rebuked them” (Luke 9:54-55).

We have something far better than any earthly kingdom. Something that no elected leaders will ever be able to provide. We have the Body of Christ. When our faith is weak, the church reminds us that it’s not our strength that carries us through, but the strength of our Savior. When we fall into despair and begin to think that God has left us or that He doesn’t care about what’s happening our lives, it’s here in the church that we’re reminded of the cross of Jesus Christ. Reminded that Jesus went to the cross because of His great love for us. Reminded that in His greatest time of trouble, when He hung on that cross, God did not abandon Him. And because we know this, we can be certain that God will never abandon us either.

It is here that we’re reminded, that we can remind one another, that we don’t need to be afraid—we have hope. A certain hope, a hope that we pray every time we gather: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

A hope that promises that Thy will is being done even now—even when we can’t see it.

It is here that we’re reminded of God’s good purpose for our lives, of His love for His children, and His power to overcome fear and evil. It is here that we hear the truth that we so often don’t want to hear but so desperately need.

It is the church that is called to be the lighthouse in the storms of life. Because we are the only place that those who are lost, who are in danger of falling out of the boat and drowning in the sea of fear, can hear truth.

The Bible, the gospel, Christ, the church, the faith—all are one great battle cry against fear in the lives of human beings. Because when fear hits, it is the Bible, the gospel, the church, the faith, that remind us that Jesus is in the boat.

But when Jesus gave authority to the church, it was to make disciples, not citizens; to proclaim the gospel, not political opinions; to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not in the name of American or a political party; and to teach everything that He delivered, not our own personal or political priorities.

And He promised that His presence in the boat with us was something that the world can never take away.

And so if a lighthouse built high above Lake Superior can be totally successful is bringing people to safety during even the most powerful storms, should a church founded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to shine the light of Jesus into the world expect to be any less successful?

Should we not continually be asking, as did His first disciples, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” Asking and remembering. Remembering that we are never alone, but that this mighty and powerful Lord and Savior is with us every single minute—that we need never fear.

And may we never stop pointing our light directly at Him in this desperate world.

Let us pray.

Today is All Saints’ Sunday; last week was Reformation Sunday—both have much to say about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Today we remember a dozen people who have gone from this world to the next in the past year—half of them in just the last few weeks. People whose lives, certainly from an earthly viewpoint, were vastly different.

The one thing they all have in common is that in the end, all that mattered is what they did about Jesus. the only thing that we can take with us into eternity is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And because in one sense, our relationship with Jesus is a very private one, it can be difficult for us to know for sure what kind of relationship someone else has with Jesus—even, sometimes, when we’re very close to that person.

It should not be so. This is one of the areas where the church today needs reformation.

I remember a conversation I had with the daughter of one of the people we’re remembering this morning. We were sitting at the bedside of their dying parent, a parent who was no longer able to communicate with us. The daughter was deeply distressed because she said that she wasn’t sure that her parent was saved. She wasn’t sure that her parent would be with Jesus in eternity.

When I know that someone is nearing the end of their life, I always talk to them about their relationship with Jesus. I want to be certain that they’re right with Him before they leave this world—because nothing is more important. And because I’d had this conversation with this dying individual, because actually I’d had many conversations with this individual over the years, I was able to reassure this woman that I was quite certain that their parent would be going home to Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the way Jesus intended it to be. And yet I’ve encountered this over and over again. Because apparently for many years, the church either taught, or at least allowed people to believe, that faith is a private matter between us and God and we don’t need to share it with anyone else.

For at least a generation, and probably longer, people in this country, even people who attended church regularly, were allowed to think that as long as they believed in Jesus, that’s all that mattered.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about these chapters in John’s gospel that show us the last hours of Jesus’ life on this earth. He’s giving His final instructions to His disciples. He began His public ministry by calling these twelve men to follow Him and He’s spent more time teaching them than He spent doing anything else. These men are the beginning of the new community that Jesus came to form. A community of men, some of whom are related to each other, some of whom are polar opposites of each other in every way imaginable. He calls Matthew the tax collector, who would have been hated by the others. He calls Simon the zealot—the zealots were consumed with a desire to overturn the Roman Empire. He calls fishermen who probably just want to do their job and earn enough money to support their families.

He calls them to follow Him—and they do. The one thing they have in common is their relationship with Jesus, their willingness to follow Him.

He’s not calling a group of individuals to learn from Him and then go off and do their own thing—He beginning a new creation. A new creation that’s not just another religion. A new creation that is a living organism—the Church. The Body of Christ.

And here He’s using the image of a vine with branches. Branches that He calls to bear fruit. This is NOT a message about our individual and personal relationship with the Lord, as it is often taken. Jesus isn’t saying, you’re one of the branches, now go and bear fruit.

He’s saying, “You’re all branches and you’re all connected to Me, and therefore to one another as well.”

He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Paul will later use the analogy of the human body to illustrate this point—because we can all easily understand that not a single part of our body can operate independently of the other parts. If I cut off my arm or my leg, or my finger, that part is no longer of any good to anyone. It’s dead.

Jesus is taking the image of the vine that throughout Jewish history has been used as a symbol for the nation of Israel and He’s applying it to Himself. He says, “I am the true vine,” meaning that Israel had failed to bear fruit. Earlier in chapter 8 of John’s gospel, we saw Jesus break with the temple and then we saw Him begin in chapter 9 to form a new people—a people united by their belief in Jesus.

God is doing something new—He’s is replacing Israel as the people of God with Jesus and His disciples, the vine and its branches. This isn’t a rejection of Judaism, but rather its fulfillment in its Messiah. The identification of a people of God with a particular nation is now replaced with a particular man who incorporates into Himself the new people of God composed of Jews and non-Jews. Of people from every tribe and race and tongue and nation.

A people not determined by geographical boundaries, but by relationship with Jesus Christ, Son of God.

It’s important to recognize that in our gospel passage, Jesus isn’t contrasting the old community to the new community. He’s not saying, “Well, the old community didn’t bear fruit, so now the new community will take over and be very fruitful.”

He’s focused on the new community—it’s now been established and it must bear fruit. The new community, like the old one, is established for the purpose of bearing fruit.

But…what is the fruit? What is the fruit that we supposed to bear? When we look at the rest of Jesus’ words in this section, it’s pretty clear that the fruit Jesus is talking about is the possession of eternal life itself, and especially the chief characteristics of that life, knowledge of God and love—love for God and love for one another.

The image of fruit is all about union with God.

This is another area where we need reformation. Because many of us seem to think that bearing fruit is about getting a lot done. That if we’re a really busy church, if we have lots of things going on, we’re bearing fruit.

Or even if we’re a really busy individual, if we’re doing a lot of good things, then we’re bearing fruit.

This brings us to our passage from Revelation, which is revelation that the apostle John received from Jesus after Jesus had ascended into heaven. We’re all probably familiar with Jesus words, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

This verse is almost always quoted out of context, taken to mean that Jesus is standing at the door of our heart inviting us to open our hearts and let Him come in. But if you read it in context, as Jake did earlier, it’s impossible not to recognize that the door that Jesus is knocking at is the door to the church. He’s speaking to the church at Laodicea, a church that He condemns as being “neither not nor cold.”

They’re not lukewarm because they’re not doing anything. They’re lukewarm because they haven’t invited Jesus into their church. They think they’ve got everything all figured out—they don’t need Jesus. Jesus says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

It’s not about just getting things done. To be fruitful we need to have knowledge of God and we need to love one another. It’s all about relationship.

LCMC gathering “Small but mighty church.”

It’s good to know that we’re doing good things—but do we have the knowledge of God that we need to be certain that we’re doing the things God has planned for us to do?

Are we growing in the number of missions that we have? Or are growing in our knowledge of God? Are we growing in our love for one another?

What Jesus is telling His disciples in our gospel, what He’s telling John in Revelation, is that everything is about mission. Every single thing. Nothing is ever just about getting a job done. If you’re serving a funeral lunch, if you’re called to be an usher, if you’re teaching Sunday School, if you’re serving on the church council, God is always much more interested in how you’re growing in relationship with others, growing in love for others, than He is in how many items on the agenda you can check off. He’s much more interested in how whatever you’re doing helps you to know Him more than He is in anything else.

Because it’s only as we know Him more that we can bear fruit in the world.

Jesus, when He told His disciples to abide in Him and to bear fruit, knew that by the end of the next day, He would be, by His death on the cross, removed from the world. In His absence, He is sending His disciples into the world to carry on the task of spreading the gospel, of growing the kingdom of God. Not just to the local neighborhood—but to the very ends of the earth.

He’s saying that we have what the world needs—we have Jesus. And ultimately, He’s saying that the condition of the world in the years or centuries to come rests upon the people in the Christian church. Because ONLY those of us in the church have at our disposal the means to bring the world effectively under the rule of God. John 15:7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

We have all the power available to us in Christ. And we also have Christ’s kingdom fellowship to live in and to offer to the world—if we have the fruit of the knowledge of God and if we have His love for our fellow man.

But we have a big problem—the people of Christ have never lacked for available power to accomplish the task that Jesus has set before us. We have, however, failed to make disciples. Most often, I think, this is because we have decided that what Jesus has called us to do is impossible.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the local church is the hope of the world. But the local church can only operate as Christ intended when we remain firmly connected to Him. When we abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us. And we can only learn to abide when we know His Word. His Word which is addressed to the community of His people far more often than it is address to us as individuals.

But we think: we don’t have to come together to pray, we can do it by ourselves. Coming to Bible study with others isn’t really important, we can do it on our own.

Look around at the world in which we’re living. A world where men and women are killing each other in a daily basis, sometimes over political positions.

A world where we have what people need to find the peace and security they’re looking for. And we’re too busy being connected by text message or social media to be connected to one another in the body of Christ, to busy to be connected to Jesus.

Too busy doing all the things that we think are so important—all the things that we think are more important than gathering with brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for the world, to grow in our knowledge of Christ that we might be better equipped to go and make disciples.

Jesus knew that it was only when we came to truly know Him that we would love him enough to make His mission a priority in our lives. He knew that as we come to realize His love for us, that love for others grows in us.

Jesus stands at the door of our church and knocks—because Jesus is always outside the church. Oh, He might be inside as well. But only if we’ve opened the door and invited Him in. It’s to the people in the church that Christ calls, and what He’s offering is a special fellowship that we can never have without Him. He’s inviting us to follow Him outside of the church, into the world, where we have not yet had the courage to follow Him fully.

Because only “outside” is great enough for Him.

When we answer His knock, when we invite Him in, He’ll come in, He’ll share with us, even though He will, in His greatness, find our church to be too small and confining.

It’s All Saints’ Sunday. Some of these saints who have gone before us have born much fruit, some not as much. But without them, without men and women throughout the generations who have gone before us, bearing fruit for Jesus, none of us would be here.

Do we want our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know Jesus? Do we want them to have the knowledge they need of Him to love Him enough to go and tell? Do we want to change our world?

It’s not as hard as you think.

Dentist’s office.

What if each one of us were to think about one person in our field of influence this week—maybe one person that we don’t really like very much. A neighbor, a relative, a coworker. And what if we were to make a point of praying for this person, not just once a day but multiple times throughout the day. In addition, what if, every time they said or did something that irritated or angered us, we prayed. Prayed for them, that they might allow God to be at work in their lives—not you, God. Of course God might call you to be involved in His little rebuilding program. But ask God to be at work. And then what if we prayed for ourselves—that God might help us to see that person the way He sees them. That we might look at them and see a human being created in God’s image, loved by God—someone that God wants to be a part of His body.

And what if we began to view every task we do for the church, for mission, as not just a job to be done, but an opportunity to grow in relationship with other men and women and children?

Let us pray.

Denny’s maternal grandfather was a farmer in southwest Minnesota. Albert Kersten was the oldest of 12 children born on that farm more than a century ago and he lived in the same house from birth until he retired from farming. When he retired, he and Denny’s grandma bought a house in Springfield and moved into town. Denny’s grandma, Ella, did ceramics and she knitted and she baked and she had lots of things to occupy her time. But Albert had never done anything but farm—he wasn’t a guy who liked to sit around and do nothing, so he had to find some new ways to occupy his time.

There was a golf course in town, so he decided to learn to play golf. He did—and it turned out that he was really good at it. He was well into his nineties when he scored his last hole in one—the last of several.

Denny’s grandma played the piano and so Albert decided that he’d learn to play the piano. He did—and it turned out that was really good at it. So then he bought a small organ and learned to play that—and it turned out that he was really good at that, too. They had an organ and a piano in the living room and would often play duets—just like Kirby and Bonnie.

Albert had discovered that he loved music—so he bought a violin and learned to play it—and it turned out that he was really good at that, too.

Who knew? So… did Albert Kersten just suddenly develop these athletic skills and this musical talent when he quit farming? Of course not. He’d had those talents all along—maybe there was something inside of him all along urging him to bring forth his musical talent, his athletic ability. I don’t know—but until he retired from farming, no one knew that this man had these gifts inside of him. Gift that, for the  first 65 or 70 years of his life, he didn’t use. Maybe didn’t even know that they were there.

The Bible tells us that each one of us receives spiritual gifts when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Albert’s gifts were talents—and we’re all born with certain talents, too. Things that we’re naturally good at. Things that we’re inclined to want to do. Things that bring us great satisfaction, that we really enjoy.

We understand talents—most of us, I’ve come to realize, don’t understand spiritual gifts at all. And unlike talents, apparently most of us have no idea what our spiritual gifts are.

Yet in some ways, they’re not really that different from talents—sometimes our spiritual gift is simply an enhancement of a natural talent. Or something that helps us to use a natural talent in a new way.

The most important thing to know about spiritual gifts is that, unlike natural talents, we never receive them for our own benefit—they’re always for the purpose of benefiting others. Always.

In our first reading this morning, Isaiah said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). The key word here is because. God sent the Spirit of the Lord upon Isaiah because he had a job for Isaiah to do. Isaiah’s job was to preach good news, to minister to those in need.

We receive spiritual gifts because God has a job for us to do. John 15:16-17 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

Jesus chose Peter and John and James and Andrew and the rest of the apostles—He chose them for a purpose. Chose them to “go and bear fruit.” There are lots of different kinds of fruit—we all know that. And there are lots of different kinds of spiritual gifts because none of use are called to do exactly the same things.

Peter was a fisherman—fishing was what he was good at. He had a talent for fishing. And so when Jesus called Peter, He said, “Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men” (Mark 1:17). Jesus called Andrew and James and John at the same time—they were all fishermen.

And Jesus knew that He was going to need a lot of fishermen.

Peter is happy to follow Jesus—but he really doesn’t understand what he’s there for. We see when he pulls out his sword and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest when they come to arrest Jesus that Peter thinks his job is to protect Jesus, to defend Jesus. But then later that night he denies Jesus three times and realizes that it’s not Jesus who needs Peter, but Peter who needs Jesus. He realizes that he’s helpless to protect Jesus—and he goes away brokenhearted, thinking that he’s of no use to Jesus.

Jesus dies on the cross the next day—but on Sunday, He rises from the dead. Peter’s awed and amazed—but because he failed Jesus, he still thinks that he’s no good anymore. He goes back to fishing, only to discover that he’s no good at that anymore either—until Jesus shows up. Shows up and tells him to “cast the net on the right side of the boat” (John 21:6). Peter does—and immediately his net filled with fish, 153 of them.

Peter can still fish—if Jesus is there to help him. And so, a few weeks later, on the day of Pentecost, having been filled with the Spirit of Jesus, Peter goes outside and preaches the gospel to the crowd. And, we’re told in Acts 2:41, that “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Jesus had promised the day Peter met him that He would make Peter “a fisher of men.” Peter didn’t understand what that meant—until now.

On the night before He died, Jesus told the disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:12-14).

Peter didn’t understand these words when Jesus spoke them. But a few weeks later, on the Day of Pentecost, they became clear to him. Peter went out and preached the gospel—and 3000 souls were added that day to the brand new Church here on earth, to the body of Christ.

Jesus preached a lot of sermons while He was on earth—and never once did 3000 people make a commitment to follow Him. The response to Peter’s sermon is the “greater works” that Jesus talked about. Peter had asked for people to follow Jesus—and they did.  Jesus said, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it”—Peter knew now that Jesus wasn’t talking about asking for material things, for a new house or a new car or even a new job. Jesus was talking about asking for the kingdom of God to grow—he was talking about asking God to use him to point others to Jesus and to the Father.

Peter also understood what Jesus meant when He said in John 16:32, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” He understood that Jesus was able to do the things He did because He was never alone—the Father was always with Him. Jesus had said this repeatedly:

John 14:23 “Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Peter understood—and his heart was no longer troubled. He understood that Jesus had called him to be a fisher of men. This man who almost every time he opened his mouth, stuck his foot in it, was now able to preach the gospel in a way that caused thousands of people to come to Jesus.

God took Peter’s natural talents—clearly Peter loved to talk, he had a natural gift for leadership, and he knew how to fish. God took these talents and began to use them in a new way, a way that would bring many people—thousands of people, thousands of souls—into the family of God during the rest of Peter’s lifetime here on earth.

On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples, in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

A short time later, in 15:12, Jesus said again, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

Jesus’ purpose in calling His disciples was to plant the seeds that would grow into His Church. Do you realize that Jesus spent more time preparing a community of disciples than He did to proclaiming the good news? Do you realize how much time Jesus spent teaching the disciples to love one another and to love people in general?

If you do, then surely you must realize just how important community is to Jesus, how important community is to the proclamation of the gospel.

What happened to those 3000 new believers on Pentecost? Acts 2:42-43 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”

They became a community—we can see how important it was for them to become a community. They were doing what Paul talked about in Ephesians—Jesus had given Peter and John and the rest to lead and guide the community. Paul wrote, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood.”

This hasn’t changed. Community is still incredibly important for the individual believer. And yet today I think that all too often, we see the church as simply a collection of saved souls who show up occasionally in the same sanctuary to worship God. Saved souls who think that as long as they turn to God now and then, it doesn’t really matter all that much if they’re together with others or if they’re just gathered with their own family or even all by themselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from the very beginning, everything Jesus did was about community. Because His intention for His Church was that it be a community of interacting personalities. Too often in our culture we have placed individual Christian growth as our emphasis, rather than focusing on building a community of the Spirit. This despite the fact that Scripture repeatedly speaks about the whole concept of the people of God, despite the model that Jesus showed us through His relationship with the Twelve, despite the example of the early church, despite the explicit teachings of Jesus and His apostles.

We don’t know much about spiritual gifts because spiritual gifts don’t matter if we’re only concerned about ourselves. Somehow in our do-it-yourself, self-help culture, we think that we can equip ourselves for ministry, that we can attain the knowledge we need on our own. We can listen to TV evangelists or on-line preaching—we fail to understand that it’s not just about listening to preaching.

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” How do we love one another if we don’t even know one another? If we’re not in relationship with one another?

We’re given spiritual gifts in order to serve one another, to equip one another. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on the night before He died and then said to them, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Serve one another. Take care of one another. Care about one another.

How are we doing at that?

This is what it means to be the body of Christ. To be connected, to be “held together by every joint with which it (the body) is equipped, when each part it working properly, [to] make the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

We are to grow up in our gifts. We receive our spiritual gifts in baptism, but that doesn’t mean that they’re immediately apparent. Babies grow into toddlers and then into preschoolers and then into boys and girls who grow into men and women. Their skills and talents develop as they grow. This is a picture of what Jesus expects in our spiritual life as well. We’re to grow up—to build up and strengthen our spiritual bodies just as we build up and strengthen our physical bodies.

We’re to use our gifts for the glory of God. When we really understand how this works, it becomes clear to us what our gifts are. I have loved to read and study for my entire life. So it makes sense that God would call me to be a preacher—because preachers have to spend a lot of time reading and studying.

God takes what we already love to do and shows us how to use this for His glory.

He took Peter’s love of fishing and showed him how to fish for men. We see this throughout Scripture.

And God’s plan has always been that we do this to benefit one another even as we bring Him glory.

Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David—when David offered to fight Goliath, Saul told him, “You’re only a boy.” But David wasn’t alone—he had the Lord with him.

We can’t be sideliners. We have to live—church was never intended to be a spectator sport. I know you’re busy—everybody’s busy.

Mr. Incredible was busy, too. He’s so overweight he can barely get his superhero belt on. He and his wife have superhero fights. He’s distracted. He slips on skateboards. He breaks doorknobs and car windows.

But he doesn’t let any of that keep him on the sidelines.

Could it be that God’s greatest frustration with His Church is all the gifts He’s given us that remain unwrapped? All the gifts that we fail to use because we don’t really love one another—or because we think it’s someone else’s job to worry about them.

Do you really understand that the same God we worship is the God of Abraham and Moses and David? Look how God used them.

And they didn’t have the Holy Spirit living inside them.

Look what Peter and John and Paul and the others did when they received the Holy Spirit.

Bonhoeffer in Life Together: “Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ.”

Luther: “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer the fellowship suffers with me.”

We were made to be Incredibles—to be a people who use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to bring others into the fellowship of believers.

Look around you. Do you love the person next to you? In front of you? Behind you? Do you know them?

Look around you. Who’s not here that’s usually here? That we haven’t seen for a while? Do you miss them? Do you care about them?

Look around you—and ask God what He wants you to do.

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

If we begin to be the community that Jesus calls us to be, we’ll know what our spiritual gifts are. We’ll know how He intends us to serve.

Let us pray.