Dear Scattered Members of the Family:

Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more that all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. … Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 3:20-4:3

Yesterday we had our official closing of the Faith in Action/New Orleans project. For 3 seasons people from across our synod have come here to help us rebuild our church and our homes. It was a thank you to all who have been here, all who have helped. The theme was “Thanks for Bringing us Home.” About 40-50 volunteers were here to represent that 1200 who have come. Even the president of our synod was here. We sang together. Wanda and the choir sang “Somebody Ought to Tell God thank you.” Tyrone, the choir and all the volunteers sang, “I’ve Got My Mind Made Up.” Madonna Heier put together a gift bag for all the volunteers containing New Orleans type things along with a fleur de lis platter and a mug with the theme of the day and our church picture on it. Then we all went out to Resurrection Plaza, ate crawfish and second-lined to Richwell’s jazz band.

Since it was the last day I decided that this should be the last Diaspora letter. By my count this will be the 319th such letter that I have written. I remember writing those first ones, the urgency the passion of it all. It is hard for me to read them. They bring back some hard memories but they also bring back moments when we could see the hand of God among us so clearly.

But now it is time to end them. Their purpose was to keep our scattered family members in touch with how things were going back home. Today most who are coming back are back. Many have chosen to make lives for themselves in other places. Of course these letters have reached hundreds of other people, maybe even thousands. Many of you have said you enjoyed hearing about the progress made here. I thank you for your support and encouragement along the way. I hope some day that you can come down and worship with us and see for yourselves what has been happening. It is time for us to get over the hurricane. It is time for us to look into the future. Of course it is not really over yet but I for one want to do all I can to move on.

What follows is the sermon I preached yesterday. I think it says what I need to say. It is based on the Bible passage above. I’ll also include some pictures.

Signing off for the last time

Be Strong in the Lord

Pastor

Ephesians 3:20-4:3
04/22/08

I’m sure this passage sounds familiar to the members of Crown of Life. When a person leaves our family here to move to another town we’re always sad. But instead of just saying goodbye, we have what we call a commissioning ceremony. We promise to pray for them and ask them to faithfully use the gifts that they shared with us with a new congregation. So I thought it would be fitting that we not just say goodbye to Jerry’s Kids/Faith in Action people but commission them to share what they did in our city with others. But what exactly was it that they shared? Was it gutting houses? Was it rebuilding houses? Was it helping others? Living in house trailers? Escaping the snow? To a casual observer that is what it might look like. But I can tell you that I have not been a casual observer here. Jerry’s Kids came and went sometimes several times. Some of Jerry’s Kids were here for months at a time. But I was here the whole time. So I feel qualified to share with you what I observed. Some of it was unexpected, some amazing, some almost miraculous. But WE SAW IT WITH OUR OWN EYES. 1. God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine through us. 2. There is such a thing as the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Our text begins with a doxology that I think we would all agree states the obvious. (V20) I doubt if any of us would disagree that God can do anything. As a matter of fact is says that God can do more than I can ask or imagine. I don’t know, I can ask for a lot. I’ve asked him for some things that would seem impossible. But God can do more than that. I can imagine even more. But according to St. Paul, God can even do more than I can imagine. If that’s not good enough, our God can do immeasurably more that we can ask or imagine. Imagine the most you think God can do and he can do immeasurably more than that. We are all happy to agree with that. But here’s the hook. (Read “according to his power that is at work within us.”) God’s power at work in us? Well the biggest thing we see is how God took a spiritually dead sinner like me and made me alive in Christ, born again, his child. But there is more and we saw it.

On August 29, 2005 we Crown of Lifers were thinking of one thing; the destruction of our church, our homes and the loss of our property. What we were not thinking about was our church body, our synod. At that time our synod was going through some tough financial times. We weren’t able to open new missions. It looked like we were going to have to close some schools. And even after efforts to get people to give better to the work of the synod, it seemed like there was no more money to be had. And then that dirty 7 letter word hit us. That same synod who couldn’t raise a nickel, gave over 2 million dollars for hurricane relief here in New Orleans. The money was coming in so fast that they had to hire more people just to count it. “Immeasurably more than we ask or think according to his power that is at work within us.” I used to be on the Board for World Missions so I had some meetings up at synod headquarters in Milwaukee. There I would run across those who were pinching pennies and closing schools and missions. They were wondering, “Why couldn’t they have given some of that money to us. We need it too.”

No one anticipated the response. Yes, God’s people respond to disaster, they always do. But nobody anticipated this response. It was more than we ask or imagine. Over 2 million dollars. 1200 volunteers. One week there were over 100 people here. We actually had to tell people no. How many man hours of labor. 75 houses gutted. Between 40-50 houses rebuilt. “Immeasurably more that we can ask or imagine according to his power at work within us.”

I know his promises ought to be enough. We actually saw this at work. God was moving his people and there was no stopping them. We who saw this with our own eyes will never be able to say, “We can’t do this.” And now for the commissioning part. You volunteers when you go back home and sit in your churches, look into the faces of the people sitting there with you and understand the potential that is there. “Immeasurably more that we can ask or imagine according to his power at work within them.” If there is something your church thinks it can’t do, tell them about us. Have them give me a call, because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

I saw something else. (Read 4:3) We talk about the unity of the Spirit all the time. And we say that it isn’t just the family here at Crown of Life who believe and confess the same thing. We say there is this unity between all the members of our synod, all these hundreds of churches and thousands of people scattered around the world, who believe and confess the same thing. The same Holy Spirit that is in me is in all of them, the unity of the Spirit. But come on, how close are we really? I can tell you that the members of Crown of Life had very little contact with the rest of the synod. We’d get the occasional visitor who wasn’t afraid to drive to our part of town. There was the WELS Connection video tapes and they helped but when they would announce that the CCFS is having its biennial meeting at MLC, I could see their eyes glossing over.

And then the hurricane hit us. And all at once there were all these people around us. People who talked funny, ate strange food. Some of them didn’t even want to suck the heads and pinch the tails, what’s with that? They came from odd places like Sleepy Eye and Oconomowoc, and they misspelled words like Natchitoches and Tchoupitoulas. But they were nice people. They prayed with us. They cried with us. They helped us come home. “The unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” We saw it with our own eyes. It was real. We were united with these people. And if we were united with these people then we were also united with all those other people.
And they learned it too. They came from all over the country and met people from around the country for the first time. Sometimes they met people who went to the church across town from them that they had never met before. Sometimes they got to know people in their own church that they had not known before. I saw you. Sitting in a circle in the parking lot laughing, telling stories, drinking a beer. I saw you. I saw you hug each other. Sometimes there would even be a tear or two when someone left. You found it too. “The unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

If you don’t believe me ask Virgil. I guess you can’t ask him because he is really alive now. Big tough Virgil. He stood right there, at that door and he said to me with a tear in his eye, “Pastor, this is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.” He wasn’t talking about pounding nails. What Virgil had discovered should have been expected. I mean you started each day together with the word of God. You worked all day long out of love for Christ Jesus your Savior. You ate your meals together. You got to know each other. You worshipped on Sunday together. And something totally predictable started to happen. “The Unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Hanging out with other WELS people could actually be fun. Who’d have thought that? Virgil did. “The best thing that happened in his life.” Within a couple months of saying that, the Lord called him home. Now he has a new “Best thing that happened in his life.”

I know that we here at Crown of Life will never think of our synod in the same way. But should it really take a disaster to make us see this? And you volunteers, I hope that you feel the same way. I hope that you along with the other 1000 volunteers who were here will become ambassadors of the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. I suspect that there are a lot of people in your church that still don’t know what the Spirit taught you here.