WEBVTT 00:00.730 --> 00:07.150 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the name of Jesus, Amen. 00:09.570 --> 00:15.246 We didn't have Twitter when I was back at Concordia Seward in the 00:15.268 --> 00:16.640 1990s. 00:17.970 --> 00:23.070 If we did, news would have trended even faster. 00:24.810 --> 00:28.246 There was an occurrence that would happen every once in a while on the 00:28.268 --> 00:31.990 campus that would set the whole place ablaze. 00:33.050 --> 00:37.750 It was something that happened not infrequently in chapel. 00:39.790 --> 00:41.370 Everybody would notice. 00:42.350 --> 00:47.082 The buzz would begin to build even before the benediction was 00:47.136 --> 00:48.010 finished. 00:48.430 --> 00:51.710 And by lunchtime, the whole campus was in a frenzy. 00:54.050 --> 00:56.400 Did you hear what happened in chapel today? 00:58.530 --> 01:02.350 Rob and Amy were sharing a hymnal. 01:05.590 --> 01:06.900 It was big news. 01:09.350 --> 01:11.010 Seward is in Nebraska. 01:15.270 --> 01:20.014 This came to mind this week for me on Thursday. 01:20.062 --> 01:24.406 It came to mind because this past week I came to chapel just a little 01:24.428 --> 01:28.182 bit late and the sermon hymn was or the the opening hymn was already 01:28.236 --> 01:29.986 going and I came up the side aisle. 01:30.018 --> 01:32.226 I was sitting right there, Brandon, where you're sitting. 01:32.338 --> 01:34.838 And Dr. 01:34.924 --> 01:36.458 Seifrid was sitting right next to me. 01:36.464 --> 01:39.098 And I sat down, the hymn was already going and I reached for the 01:39.104 --> 01:42.302 hymnal and the hymnal wasn't there in front of me. 01:42.356 --> 01:43.022 And so Dr. 01:43.076 --> 01:47.406 Seifrid, very graciously and generously leaned over and shared his 01:47.428 --> 01:48.640 hymnal with me. 01:50.770 --> 01:52.320 I chuckled to myself. 01:55.250 --> 02:03.090 Of course, sharing a hymnal is a very superficial sign of unity. 02:05.510 --> 02:09.270 There was a kid at Seward who shared a hymnal with a different girl 02:09.340 --> 02:10.199 every week. 02:13.850 --> 02:15.218 But people noticed. 02:15.314 --> 02:18.570 People noticed because it was a symbol. 02:19.550 --> 02:23.450 It was a symbol of a more intimate sharing. 02:26.430 --> 02:35.866 The theme for this academic year is about sharing Sharing the Gospel 02:35.978 --> 02:38.640 and sharing our lives. 02:40.610 --> 02:41.834 It's a nice theme. 02:41.882 --> 02:45.230 I really, really like this theme. 02:46.370 --> 02:49.038 And it's taken from the reading that Nick just read a couple of 02:49.044 --> 02:54.686 minutes ago from First Thessalonians Two. We were ready to share with you 02:54.708 --> 02:58.900 not only the gospel of God, Paul writes, but also 03:00.330 --> 03:02.030 our own selves. 03:03.170 --> 03:07.440 The two go together, the gospel and our lives. 03:09.170 --> 03:11.710 Jesus and our very selves. 03:14.850 --> 03:18.270 But the problem is we're not very good at sharing. 03:21.450 --> 03:23.062 We're not good at sharing our lives. 03:23.116 --> 03:25.638 And for that matter, frankly, we're not very good at sharing the 03:25.644 --> 03:26.720 gospel either. 03:29.890 --> 03:37.774 It's very easy to put a theme on a T shirt and on a website, but to 03:37.812 --> 03:43.220 give and receive in the way that Paul is talking about in our text, 03:43.590 --> 03:45.620 well, that's a whole another story. 03:47.829 --> 03:52.686 And so here we are midway through the academic year and I suppose it's 03:52.718 --> 03:55.370 time for us to do a little self reflection. 03:55.470 --> 03:56.600 How are we doing? 03:57.290 --> 04:03.400 How are we doing with sharing the Gospel and sharing our lives? 04:06.190 --> 04:10.058 Now, anytime we start thinking about sharing, we have to remember that 04:10.064 --> 04:14.220 we don't start thinking about sharing by thinking about what we share. 04:16.450 --> 04:21.519 Because sharing for us Christians, begins with God. 04:23.490 --> 04:29.714 What He shares not only what He shares with us, but even more so, what 04:29.752 --> 04:32.130 He shares in Himself. 04:34.630 --> 04:37.170 There's a lot we don't understand about the Trinity. 04:37.990 --> 04:39.700 Dorothy Sayers is right. 04:40.630 --> 04:42.710 The Father is incomprehensible. 04:43.050 --> 04:44.914 The Son is incomprehensible. 04:44.962 --> 04:47.030 The whole thing is incomprehensible. 04:48.650 --> 04:53.394 But there's one thing we can comprehend, and that is God's internal 04:53.442 --> 04:53.858 being. 04:53.964 --> 04:57.590 His essence is a sharing, 04:57.750 --> 05:00.774 it's a relating, it's a communing. 05:00.902 --> 05:05.510 The Father shares life with His Son in the power of the Spirit, 05:05.590 --> 05:13.710 eternal, divine, communal sharing that's God in Himself. 05:15.810 --> 05:20.114 But God is such a sharing God that his sharing spills out into his 05:20.152 --> 05:21.010 creation. 05:22.710 --> 05:27.890 He shared His breath with the man he made out of clay. 05:29.190 --> 05:33.058 He shared His image with male and female. 05:33.154 --> 05:34.034 Male and female 05:34.082 --> 05:35.666 He made them in His image. 05:35.698 --> 05:36.518 He made them. 05:36.604 --> 05:41.590 He shared his dominion over creation with his human creatures. 05:44.490 --> 05:50.933 Will Willimon, the theologian at Duke Divinity School, was asked one 05:50.972 --> 05:55.350 time to summarize the Gospel using only seven words. 05:55.500 --> 05:56.750 Summarize the whole story. 05:56.820 --> 05:57.662 The whole story of everything. 05:57.716 --> 05:58.700 You don't even need a thousand words. 06:00.170 --> 06:01.040 Seven words. 06:03.090 --> 06:12.960 And Willimon said, God refuses to be God without us. 06:16.290 --> 06:23.760 The sharing God refuses to be God without sharing life with us. 06:25.370 --> 06:31.266 Even when we don't share it with Him, even when we hide from Him. Adam 06:31.298 --> 06:37.818 and Eve, even when we're unfaithful to Him Abraham and Isaac and 06:37.824 --> 06:42.666 Jacob. Even when we turn our backs on Him and wander away from Him, 06:42.688 --> 06:47.770 the faithful, unfaithful people of Israel. 06:48.830 --> 06:51.390 God still refused to be God without them. 06:51.460 --> 06:56.640 He kept calling, He kept gathering, He kept speaking to them. 06:59.810 --> 07:09.970 And then Jesus, the vineyard owner, said to himself, I will end 07:10.390 --> 07:14.180 I will share with them my son. 07:16.409 --> 07:21.159 Surely they will receive my son. 07:22.810 --> 07:28.930 And this sharing God shares Himself in person, exposing Himself, 07:29.090 --> 07:30.630 emptying himself. 07:34.090 --> 07:35.900 And what do these people do? 07:37.150 --> 07:38.810 They take his sharing. 07:39.390 --> 07:41.134 They take his self giving. 07:41.252 --> 07:45.550 They take his longing to gather them together as a hen gathers its 07:45.620 --> 07:48.880 chicks under its wings, and they kill Him. 07:53.909 --> 08:02.086 The God who shares is a God who suffers at the hands of his own 08:02.188 --> 08:02.840 people. 08:10.190 --> 08:16.490 We are familiar with sharing, and we are familiar with suffering. 08:19.610 --> 08:26.070 You live in these gray and latter days too, and some days are grayer 08:26.970 --> 08:28.039 than others. 08:33.520 --> 08:36.332 The darkest days, in my experience, at least. 08:36.385 --> 08:41.830 And I'm guessing you can understand and can relate. The darkest days 08:42.440 --> 08:47.984 and the most painful suffering comes from the hands of those to whom 08:48.032 --> 08:50.020 we should be closest. 08:55.270 --> 08:58.990 I'm thinking of the abusive husband. 09:03.810 --> 09:09.030 I'm thinking of the child who grows up and disowns her parents. 09:13.410 --> 09:21.130 I'm thinking of the friend who stabs you in the back. 09:24.720 --> 09:28.924 The people to whom we should be the closest are the ones who cause us 09:29.042 --> 09:30.540 the most suffering. 09:34.170 --> 09:39.654 In our text, Paul mentioned kind of offhand toward the beginning, the 09:39.692 --> 09:42.710 shameful treatment he received in Philippi. 09:43.690 --> 09:45.770 Do you remember what happened in Philippi? 09:47.150 --> 09:48.730 It's in Acts16. 09:49.630 --> 09:54.620 Paul and Silas had been preaching the gospel as they did. 09:55.470 --> 10:00.158 They had just spoken the word to Lydia, and she and her entire 10:00.244 --> 10:01.870 household were baptized. 10:02.850 --> 10:07.582 And as they're there in Philippi, they're bothered by this slave girl 10:07.636 --> 10:09.470 who's possessed by a demon. 10:10.950 --> 10:16.180 And Paul kicks the demon out, cast the demon out of her. 10:17.030 --> 10:18.226 And do you know what happened? 10:18.328 --> 10:23.350 The owners of that girl whipped the crowd into a frenzy. 10:23.770 --> 10:30.854 And they convinced the authorities to strip Paul and Silas bare, to 10:30.892 --> 10:34.462 beat them with rods, and then to throw them in jail. 10:34.546 --> 10:37.270 And not just in the cell on the first floor. 10:37.350 --> 10:42.010 It was the inner dungeon, the deep, dark one in stocks and in chains. 10:44.590 --> 10:46.170 And here was the kicker. 10:47.330 --> 10:49.920 It was their own people who were doing this. 10:50.930 --> 10:56.414 Fellow Roman citizens, beating them and locking them up. 10:56.532 --> 10:57.680 Their own people. 11:05.060 --> 11:11.120 Many of you are preparing for full time work in the church. 11:14.370 --> 11:23.442 You are preparing to give yourselves to the people of God, to share 11:23.496 --> 11:24.819 your life with them. 11:29.510 --> 11:39.930 At times it's beautiful and at times you get burned. 11:43.069 --> 11:48.146 As lovely as that hymn is that we just sang, it only told half the 11:48.168 --> 11:48.740 story. 11:49.270 --> 11:49.730 Yes, 11:49.800 --> 11:51.940 in Him we all are one. 11:53.830 --> 11:59.680 And yet sin clings so closely to all of us. 12:02.410 --> 12:08.142 As Richard John Neuhaus put it, not infrequently life together is 12:08.196 --> 12:10.080 mainly strife together. 12:11.090 --> 12:13.326 And then he goes on and listen to this. 12:13.428 --> 12:14.830 So you're not surprised. 12:16.210 --> 12:21.802 There is no adequate preparation for the virulence of sheer nastiness 12:21.946 --> 12:26.600 that so often erupts in the life of the Christian community. 12:34.730 --> 12:39.740 Now, you will also cause some suffering, and not the good kind. 12:42.190 --> 12:44.220 You're just as sinful as I am. 12:45.950 --> 12:47.946 But that's not the point I'm trying to make here 12:47.968 --> 12:48.780 this morning. 12:50.350 --> 12:54.222 Right now, I want you to think about the suffering you will 12:54.276 --> 12:54.880 experience 12:55.570 --> 13:03.454 and maybe you are right now at the hands of those who should be the 13:03.492 --> 13:05.140 closest to you. 13:05.510 --> 13:11.569 The question is this what are you going to do with that suffering? 13:14.700 --> 13:18.510 Paul shared it. 13:21.040 --> 13:25.420 He shared it with the Thessalonians. 13:26.960 --> 13:28.780 He shared his burdens. 13:30.100 --> 13:32.000 He shared his troubles. 13:33.060 --> 13:35.120 He shared his suffering. 13:36.340 --> 13:38.032 He shared his life 13:38.086 --> 13:39.810 because that's what Christians do. 13:41.380 --> 13:44.870 We share our lives with one another. 13:50.440 --> 13:56.520 Whatever suffering you experience, there will be sisters and brothers 13:57.819 --> 14:01.130 who will share your suffering with you. 14:02.300 --> 14:04.360 That part the hymn nailed. 14:05.740 --> 14:10.796 You see, God refuses to be God without us, and God refuses to let us 14:10.818 --> 14:12.590 be Christian without one another. 14:17.500 --> 14:20.596 The people who will share the burden with you, they may be sitting 14:20.627 --> 14:22.330 right here in the chapel with you. 14:24.300 --> 14:25.290 Look around. 14:28.940 --> 14:30.120 I'm serious. 14:30.780 --> 14:31.690 Look around. 14:32.860 --> 14:35.130 Look around at one another. 14:39.340 --> 14:47.415 There will come a time in your ministry where the darkness is too much 14:47.598 --> 14:50.200 for you to bear alone. 14:55.950 --> 14:59.880 At such times, you will get in your car and you will drive 15:00.250 --> 15:07.054 on a Saturday afternoon to a friend's house, a brother, a sister in 15:07.092 --> 15:07.680 Christ. 15:08.290 --> 15:12.960 And you will sit in the living room with your close friend. 15:14.930 --> 15:22.922 And you will vent together and you will yell together and you will cry 15:22.986 --> 15:26.600 together and you will pray together. 15:26.970 --> 15:30.200 And you will mourn how broken it all is. 15:35.810 --> 15:37.600 But that's not all you'll do. 15:38.850 --> 15:40.400 It's not all you'll do. 15:41.030 --> 15:42.980 You will console one another. 15:44.630 --> 15:49.140 You will speak the promises of Jesus to one another. 15:52.170 --> 15:56.566 You will strengthen each other with the good news that the Son of the 15:56.588 --> 16:03.986 vineyard owner is risen from the dead and that incomprehensible, 16:04.178 --> 16:09.354 incomprehensibly, he still reigns graciously even in this. 16:09.472 --> 16:10.774 He still reigns. 16:10.822 --> 16:14.058 He is still lord over all, and He is still good. 16:14.144 --> 16:20.506 You will console each other with this promise, and you will rejoice 16:20.617 --> 16:26.046 with one another as you look forward to that day when that Son of the 16:26.068 --> 16:32.674 vineyard owner returns and he judges all that is wrong and broken and 16:32.712 --> 16:33.150 sin. 16:33.230 --> 16:36.610 And he rids the world of darkness and sin. 16:38.790 --> 16:47.270 And he brings about perfect unity and perfect peace and complete joy. 16:52.600 --> 16:58.410 We have a name for this Smalcald Articles 3.4. 17:00.940 --> 17:08.695 It's the mutual conversation and consolation of the brothers and the 17:08.718 --> 17:09.639 sisters. 17:10.800 --> 17:17.723 It is the means of the gospel that we need most regularly, but that we 17:17.762 --> 17:20.540 name far too seldomly. 17:25.220 --> 17:33.810 To share our lives is to share the gospel with one another as we share 17:34.180 --> 17:35.520 our suffering. 17:38.700 --> 17:42.040 But we don't only share our suffering. 17:42.540 --> 17:45.370 We also share a calling. 17:48.139 --> 17:51.784 You know, Paul says in verse twelve how like a father with his 17:51.822 --> 17:56.692 children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged 17:56.756 --> 17:59.670 you to walk in a manner worthy of God. 18:02.090 --> 18:07.646 We share, you and I, a calling to walk in a manner that is worthy of 18:07.668 --> 18:08.240 God. 18:10.610 --> 18:12.240 And what does that look like? 18:13.410 --> 18:18.000 Well, we could spend all day on that, but I've got class at 10:25. 18:21.330 --> 18:24.806 So for now, we'll just stick with what Paul says 18:24.948 --> 18:28.790 in First Thessalonians. How do we walk 18:28.940 --> 18:34.840 as Christians? We are gentle with one another. 18:36.330 --> 18:40.794 We conduct ourselves in ways that are holy and righteous and 18:40.832 --> 18:41.690 blameless. 18:43.070 --> 18:48.300 We increase and abound in love for one another and for all. 18:50.370 --> 18:54.990 We keep awake and we stay sober. 18:57.010 --> 19:01.440 We encourage one another and we build each other up. 19:02.130 --> 19:03.550 We help the weak. 19:03.630 --> 19:07.090 We abstain from every kind of evil. 19:11.420 --> 19:13.320 We pray without ceasing. 19:14.380 --> 19:21.900 We give thanks in all circumstances. 19:23.680 --> 19:28.510 We test everything, and we hold fast to what is good. 19:33.300 --> 19:43.476 Incredibly, God still refuses to be God without us, and he refuses to 19:43.498 --> 19:46.230 let us be Christian without one another. 19:47.960 --> 19:53.936 So according to my office as preacher of the Word and following Paul's 19:53.968 --> 20:02.740 lead in this text, I charge you all this morning in the name of Jesus, 20:02.900 --> 20:06.890 walk in a manner that is worthy of God. 20:09.200 --> 20:17.244 Share your lives with one another by sharing your burdens with each 20:17.282 --> 20:17.870 other. 20:20.000 --> 20:24.910 Share the promise of Jesus with one another and with all. 20:28.240 --> 20:32.540 Or share the gospel. 20:34.760 --> 20:41.830 Share your lives, for God has shared his life with you. 20:44.120 --> 20:45.510 In Jesus name. 20:45.880 --> 20:46.320 Amen.