Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Nominated for Worst Sermon Ever.
Worse Than Ski and Glende Copies?
Worse Than Parlow/Kelm Xeroxes?


Hi Professor,
I've been trying to get my folks to leave their WELS church for some time now.  Last Sunday's sermon, I think, was enough to push them over the edge.  The sermon is not that surprising (typical crap-ola), but for some reason it made it into the Top-Ten-Worst-Sermons-I've-Ever-Heard list.  The absence of the Holy Spirit and the Means of Grace from evangelism is Epic.  Totally Anthropocentric.  Anyhoo, the pastor doesn't publish text versions of his sermons, so I took pains to write accurate notes while listening to the audio file.  The link to the audio file is below if you care to totally waste 20 minutes of your life.  But I figured your readers might want to read a random example of WELS rottenness.







Now Hiring, by Pastor William Monday
Starts with token story about farmers.
Hard work is the only way to get treasure

What does it take for the Church to bring in the harvest?  How much responsibility should we have (how much work ethic) do we individually need to put forth to save souls?
Do we see things like Jesus does, that hard work is necessary, or do we not yet see that it our responsibility to work hard to save souls?

Why is Jesus spending all his time preaching and talking to people?  Why doesn't he spend his leisure time on himself?  His motivation was that he had compassion on them.  His heart broke for them.  When he saw everybody without goals and without God and his heart broke for them.   So, Jesus spent all his time telling everyone that "God Loves You".
Jesus looked at all these believers (OT and NT) who are struggling be passionate about the lost, struggling to harvest souls....so what words does he have for us:  (Quote:  And I can imagine Jesus' voice cracking when he says this)  The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  So pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send worker

Can't you see the desperation in his eyes?  Yes, Jesus paid the price for everyone by dying on the cross but they won't all be saved because there aren't enough workers in the field to tell them of the great work already been done!

[insert cute non sequitur story about farmers and puppies:   4 healthy puppies.  1 puppy with deformed leg.  Little boy with prosthetic leg decides he wants the deformed puppy.  Boy says:  That puppy is going to need someone who understand him.  The farmer promises to give the lame puppy to the lame boy for free.]

The Moral of the Story?  The Love of the Lord--it is so important to sympathize with others...to understand people.  to be compassionate.  Jesus is unique because he came to earth to understand us.  To sympathize with us.  In fact, he came to take our place.  He sees our failure.  We're all cripples.  Everyone needs something.  Jesus sees that and becomes that except without sin.   And then goes to the cross and becomes crippled for us.

Doesn't that change us?  Doesn't seeing Jesus do this for us change us?  Change how we see other people?  Don't we begin to look through our Savior's eyes?  Don't we also have compassion for one another?  Doesn't that inspire us to go from town to town and be witnesses for Jesus?  Doesn't that give us the motivation we're looking for to call out to our Savoir who is Now Hiring?

Jesus thought so.  He went and called 12 disciples and gave them authority to heal people and preach the good news.  [Insert Great Commission.]  And this applies to all of us.

Let me sum up by asking a better question:  How many of you have been assigned to a task where you needed other people?  Can you lift a couch up the stairs by yourself?  I wouldn't advice doing it by yourself.  Can you play with a teeter totter by yourself?  Nope.  If you've experienced this then you can relate to Jesus in this text.  With desperation and a choked up voice  (verbatim quote)  Jesus says to us:  "There are souls that keep dying and there aren't enough people to go out and rescue them!!!"

How wonderful things are when people volunteer and bring donuts and clean up!  How wonderful things are when we have volunteers  for money counting and ushering!  How wonderful when people sign up for VBS and all the other things that are required (quote) to further the gospel ministry along for ourselves and the Lost!

But how tough ministry becomes when nobody signs up for anything.   How tough it becomes to make the place look good for visitors.  You know, when nobody signs up to pull the weeds around the front entry, those jobs still get done.  You know who does them?  The leaders who have been charged with preaching the gospel and reaching the lost.  They pick weeds and shovel snow instead of saving people.

I've come to find this out in ministry.  That the most pressing needs are the ones that get fulfilled...but not the most important.  In order for outreach to happen, in order for us to be able to till the soil and plant the crop and bring the harvest home we need all those other things to get done. (shoveling snow, picking weeds, making coffee, serving donuts)  We need all of us together to work.  We need all of these things to happen so that outreach, which always happens last, can take place.  So take a look at Jesus.  He's standing there.  The Kingdom is Now Hiring.  Let us be people of prayer.  Let us be the ones who are willing to do the work.  Let us be willing to go out into that field and dig up that treasure.  The treasure of lost souls.


Let's do it together so that we can make sure we can turn over the field so that the people charged with doing the one-on-one soul saving can save the lost.  Maybe we're not all evangelists, but we can all hold up the evangelist's hands can't we?  Let's work while it's still day.