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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our

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Father and our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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I remember on this day almost seven years ago when I was first stepping foot on Concordia

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Seminary's campus.

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I was here as a junior for the spring contemplate session as I was preparing and praying for

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pastoral ministry.

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As I remember I sat in these pews for the first time as part of the program and I thought

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to myself that Concordia Seminary seemed like a place of spiritual haven.

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A place where students could come seeking to do pastoral and diaconal ministry and be

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protected from the outside world as they grow into the pastors and deaconesses that God

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had called them to be.

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And it's very true that I have grown in so many ways while I've been here on Concordia

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Seminary's campus through the classes and discussions with classmates and professors

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and through things like chapel services I've grown in my own spiritual life.

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But I'd say that after four years perhaps the image of a spiritual haven isn't exactly

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the right image.

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The image I'd use more now is more of a spiritual pressure cooker where they take students from

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all over the world seeking to do ministry and they kind of throw them into a pot and

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in the midst of the pressure and the stress our weaknesses are exposed we're humbled and

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we grow in the midst of all of it.

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Because in some ways the seminary is actually designed like this.

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I mean you think about the amount of classwork that we have.

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Classwork that's designed to help rival the amount of work in the pastoral ministry and

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in the midst of the stress we have to learn how to balance our lives make sure that we

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perform all our vocations while also getting our work done how to cope with the stress

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in good ways and it puts a lot of pressure on us.

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But it's not just the amount of work it's also the content of the classes.

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Oftentimes in class I'm being challenged with some of the most core and doctrinal truths

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that we have deep in our hearts.

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Some of the things that actually convinced me to go into pastoral ministry and it's helping

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me to see some ways in which the world in our culture has actually sort of integrated

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into that and trying pulling away from it.

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And it's hard to actually figure out and process these deep truths and the way that the seminary

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is shaping us at that time.

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On top of that I mentioned that we still have vocations the world still goes on and we're

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trying to balance all this workload all of this processing with at the same time trying

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to be a good son or daughter trying to be a good brother or sister trying to be a good

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friend and perhaps even a good husband or wife father or mother.

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And if you're like me I feel like I don't ever do either of them well.

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I feel like I sort of am not able to fully live up to the expectations that I have for

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myself in either one.

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That I'm too weak.

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I'm not strong enough.

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I'm not disciplined enough to be able to live up to the vocations that God has given to

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me.

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And finally on a more personal level there's a transition that happens during the seminary

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from the person that's able to sit in the pews and receive from the pastor on Sundays

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to you being the one who's actually doing the work.

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You're putting in the work on Sunday and you're trying to figure out how to take all these

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doctrines the Greek and the Hebrew and integrate it into your own personal devotion life to

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the point where God feels distant sometimes because of how much I'm faltering how weak

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I am and able and being able to maintain that.

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I've talked and I've said myself that there are times here on seminary campus where I

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felt closer my devotional life has seemed better before seminary than while I was in

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the midst of it.

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It all ties into the fact that while Christ is present here on this campus and he is certainly

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is and praise God for that but Satan is also present roaming around like a lion trying

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to to roaring and trying to seize upon the fear and the guilt the weaknesses and the

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struggles and the stress and trying to get us to fail and to quit because if you can

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get one person to quit that's one more flock that doesn't have a pastor that doesn't have

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a shepherd.

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And so many times after that first day seven years ago I stepped foot into this chapel

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that was far less joyful of a person than I had hoped to be.

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There are many times that I brought in these fears and doubts that rather than like our

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text says approaching the throne of God with confidence there's many times that I instead

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approached with a lot of questions a lot of fears a lot of anxieties questions like God

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what do you see in me?

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You want me someone who's undisciplined like I am someone who's too weak you want me to

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be able to go and pastor a flock why are you calling me certainly there must be someone

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else out there that's better suited to the task.

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There's many times that rather than with confidence I approached the throne a lot like Isaiah

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when he reached his call in Isaiah 6.

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Rather than approaching with confidence he proclaimed woe it to me I am a sinful man

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and a man of unclean lips amongst a people of unclean lips.

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I approached the throne and I'm saddened and ashamed because I can't serve the God that

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I love with all the expectations that I want to I can't serve him perfectly like I want

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to.

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And perhaps you're like me in the midst of the spiritual pressure cooker with your weaknesses

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being exposed being humbled before God to serve in pastoral ministry and maybe you're

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able to hide it with a smile or distract yourself from it or ignore it for a little bit but

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I think all of us in the midst of the stress and the pressure of the fear and the doubts

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that we have to deal with our own weaknesses.

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And so today maybe it's not a groundbreaking truth that's going to shock the professors

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here but maybe it's more of just rather than hiding our weaknesses or ignoring that fact

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looking at what Hebrews actually has and says about our weakness today.

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See weakness is not necessarily a sign of being disqualified of being incompetent rather

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perhaps weakness is an opportunity for us to rely upon our God and our great high priest

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that we have in Jesus Christ. And I know this intellectually but when I'm in the midst of

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the struggle against my own weakness when I'm struggling with my own inadequacies this

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is the truth the gospel truth that I need to hear the most and we need to hear as well.

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Because our great high priest in Jesus has everything that we need when we struggle with

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our weaknesses when we falter to temptation and sin in the midst of the stress and the

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pain and the struggle of our weakness our spotless lamb who has sacrificed himself for

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us and stands there and declares to you that your sins are forgiven you are a baptized

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believer of God that you are still his child that he loves. When we come to him wearied

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and exhausted by the struggle with our weakness by the stress and the classes he stands there

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as the one who wandered 40 days in the desert tempted and tried by Satan he stands as the

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one who suffered throughout his life and with loud cries and tears to the Father he clung

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to Him relied upon His Father the one that through His suffering He accomplished our

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salvation and He sympathizes with us He suffers with us and then He intercedes with the Father

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for the grace and mercy to keep on going one more day. And when we sit there and we wonder

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if God is even working in the midst of this weakness if He's even working in the midst

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of the stress and the pain if he's even doing anything. Jesus stands there as the one who

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through his suffering overcame death and the devil and proclaims to you that He is making

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you into that new creation even if it doesn't look like it God is working for you to make

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you into the pastors and the deaconesses that he wants you to be. Because when we go out

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from here our formation is not going to end we will still struggle with our own weaknesses

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we're still going to fight in our pastoral ministry and we need to remember of a great

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high priest but also our congregations need to see the great high priest perhaps through us as

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kind of mini priests in service to the great high priests. Because our parishioners when they have

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fallen to temptation in their struggle against their own weakness they need to hear proclaim to

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them that same truth that we did that their sins are forgiven. Because when they are weary and tired

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from the stress and the suffering of the world they need a pastor who will come alongside them

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a deaconess who will come alongside them and suffer with them walk with them sympathize with

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their weaknesses and to intercede and encourage them to give them keep them going one more day.

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Because when they come and they ask if God's even working in this brokenness in this mess

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they need a pastor that can tell them that story of that spiritual pressure cooker of

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Concordia Seminary and say guess what he is working even though I didn't see it he was

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working to form me into the pastor that he was calling me to be. So perhaps then our weaknesses

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here were not in vain but rather they're how God forms us into these pastors and these deaconesses

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and the great high priest that he is calling us to be and he's going to use it to help encourage

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our future parishioners as well. So may Jesus Christ our great high priest may he keep us in

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the one true faith and may his power be made perfect in our weakness. Amen