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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord

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and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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As you look at the 183 year history of Concordia Seminary, you will

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see some very interesting characters who have passed through these

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halls

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so, to speak. Some famous, and some, I suppose infamous the latter

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category

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I won't name names, but there are a few. But one student in particular

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came to my mind

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as I looked at this text that we had for today from

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Samuel chapter 15. And we look at this conflicted relationship that the

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prophet Samuel had with King Saul.

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The man that I'm thinking about, who attended this Seminary is

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Reverend Henry Gereke, and if you don't know the story of Henry

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Gereke, you should read up.

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I find it to be quite fascinating and also quite inspiring.

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But one part of his multifaceted story came to mind when thinking

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about how Saul tried

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so hard to minister.

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I'm sorry when Samuel tried so hard to minister

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to Saul.

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Actually Reverend Gereke

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never graduated from Concordia Seminary.

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He attended, Seminary, but he, he fell in love which was not permitted

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in his day and age and so he among the Seminary Student.

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So he left Seminary to get married, but he continued to work in the

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area as a teacher and under the tutelage of some local pastors,

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including none, other than the well-known Richard Cretchmeier, who's

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actually on the Board of Governors of the Seminary.

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at the time it was called the Board of Control then.

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But under the tutelage of these local pastors, Henry Gereke, finally

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passed his exams and was ordained into the Missouri.

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Synod.

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Now, his ministry here in St.

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Louis was exceptional already.

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But what is very interesting is that in 1943 at the age of 50

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he decided to join the war effort course, World War 2 was raging at

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the time.

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So he decided to join the war effort and he signed up to be an army

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chaplain.

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His first assignment as an army chaplain was to go to a hospital in

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England where he was to minister to the wounded and the dying. But the

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most challenging assignment of his entire life came

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after the war was over, when he was supposed to come back home, but he

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got an assignment.

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He received orders to go to Nuremberg to minister to the war criminals

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who are going to stand trial there for their War, their crimes

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against humanity.

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He was no doubt chosen for the task.

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People on trial, they're the men on trial also claimed to be Lutheran.

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And, of course as a good Lutheran in that day and age, you spoke

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German and English, both fluently and he had previous experience in

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jail and prison ministry, which is the story of what happened before

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he before he joined the army. But he received this assignment to

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minister to these, to these men, these Nazi criminals who are going to

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be standing trial.

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It was a challenge for him.

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And did accept the assignment.

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Although he had so much hatred in his heart toward the Nazis.

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He said that even to feel the breath on his their breath on his face

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would sicken him. And he said that he had to pray harder than any other

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time in his life that God would teach him to hate the sin, but to love

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the sinner.

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Now Gereke felt his task and his mission

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to minister at Nuremberg was to lead these men to repentance for what

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they had done and to lead them to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness

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of sins.

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And in the end, he was able in good conscience to absolve six of those

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prisoners and to administer the Lord's Supper to them.

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But the part that came to my mind, when looking at the ministry of

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Samuel to King Saul was the relationship of the chaplain that he had

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with one of the most notorious leaders of the Nazi party.

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Indeed, the creator of the Gestapo and a close

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and trusted friend of Hitler's in a member of Hitler's cabinet, and

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that was a man by the name of Herman Goering.

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Now remember that Pastor Gereke thought that his primary Duty in going

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to Nuremberg in ministering there was to bring these men to Christ.

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And in some ways, Hermann Goering was a model prisoner in spite of all

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of the horrible horrible things he had done before, but when he was

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there, he was in some ways a model

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prisoner. He received, Chaplin Gereke warmly all the time.

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Unlike many of the other prisoners who did not want to talk to him.

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He read every piece of Christian literature that the chaplain left

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him. Goring attended every Sunday service that the chaplain offered

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always sitting right in the front pew right there.

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He was always dealing with the chaplain respectfully, but Pastor

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Gereke, could not administer

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Holy Communion to Hermann Goering.

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Although Goering even asked for it.

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He asked for it the very day in which he was

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go to the gallows. Of course

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he didn't go to the gallows because he somehow was able to get some

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cyanide and took that before he was led off to be executed by the

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soldiers.

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But yet he asked for communion that day

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and Gereke could not give it to him.

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He did not feel that his repentance was sincere.

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And in fact, Gereke even though he said, he believed in God, and he

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confessed that he felt that God could forgive him of his sins, but he

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said one thing.

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He said that Jesus that you keep talking about, he's nothing but

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another smart Jew.

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Pastor Gereke for the rest of his life grieved, grieved for the fact

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that Hermann Goering did not repent.

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Now, as we turn to our lesson for today, and as we think about the

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wider context of 1st Samuel, I think we can see some parallels.

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Let me start by the by saying that the word of God describes life as

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it really is.

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God's word is full of the descriptions of sinful human beings.

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Some, perhaps better than others.

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Maybe king like Prophet, Daniel

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we don't hear much about his deception and his deceit.

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But in many cases we hear so much about how sinful some of the even

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heroes of the Bible are. Even King David who was considered to be one

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of the could good Kings of Israel was an adulterer and a murderer.

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He would have never been allowed to the clergy roster of the Missouri.

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Synod.

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Well, our lesson for today, this tragic episode of first Samuel,

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chapter 15 is a narrative. And I think whenever you read a narrative,

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really what you do consciously or unconsciously as you try to see

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yourself in that narrative in one of the characters of the narrative,

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one of the characters of the story.

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They're probably two characters in this story that we could relate to

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that we could see ourselves in and they are, they're both men

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it is true.

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But I think when you look at their attitudes and their words and their

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action, they really some they display things that any of us men or

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women can relate to I believe.

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I think that when we think about Saul for example, we see a tragic

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figure indeed.

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He had the distinction of being the first Earthly king of Israel.

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Now, I say Earthly because, you know, of course, God did not want to

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name a king, an Earthly King to Israel, but the people demanded it so

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he said fine and he gave him the king. He gave them

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the king Saul was the first but the Lord said also, you remember that

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I finally and ultimately are your

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hey, I am your king.

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But he made Samuel King.

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Samuel is deeply flawed, of course, like every human being.

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Like Hermann Goering.

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At times, Samuel seemed to be so close to doing the right thing and it

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seems sometimes

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he's just almost there to trust the Lord, and yet his weaknesses, get

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the best of him and it all comes to a head in today's lesson.

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We heard about how Saul was commanded by God to completely wipe out

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the Amalekites to take no prisoners.

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No plunder.

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Nothing to bring nothing back because of the way, the Amalekites had

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treated Israel as it came up from Egypt.

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But Saul did not trust in what the Lord commanded.

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And instead he brought back with him the best livestock and even

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brought back the king of the Amalekites Agag.

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He brought him back as a trophy to himself and then sandal even the

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wind and built a monument to himself at Carmel.

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Well, when Samuel heard about all of this, he came to confront Saul

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because he had disobeyed the Lord.

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What did Saul do?

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He made his excuses.

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He said I did what the Lord commanded just as he said.

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But then Samuel said, what about that

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bleating of sheep that I hear in the lowing of cattle? And Saul sort of

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tried to wiggle out of that.

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He oh, yeah.

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Yeah, we brought it back to sacrifice to the Lord.

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Yeah

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that's it.

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That's it.

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To which Samuel responds.

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I like the way

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the NIV puts it enough.

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Literally be still stop go no further with your lies and deceit, but

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then he continues to press Samuel and Samuel comes up with more

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excuses.

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He says he says, really

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it was the soldiers.

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It was the soldiers.

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That's right.

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They brought them back to sacrifice to the Lord.

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Yeah

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that's it.

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In essence Saul's root character flaw was self exaltation and

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self-deception.

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He was completely blind to his arrogance.

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That's the worst part of it

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all. He was completely blind to it.

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He the biggest tragedy is he didn't even seem to be aware of it.

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And he believes that he's right in every case.

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He was so delusional in many ways.

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Now, do you see yourself at all in the person of Saul?

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If we're honest, we probably have to admit that we are more like Saul

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then we'd care to admit.

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The root of it all was his

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failure to trust in God, his failure to trust in God, to his failure,

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to trust in, what God commands in his failure to trust in what God

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promises.

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Though, do you see yourself in that, in any way?

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Because all of that failure in the trust, their failure to trust in

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God, led to many, many other outwards sins.

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Do we need to go into more detail?

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I don't think it's necessary.

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It's like the pastor, who's, who's in the Pulpit preaching to his

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people and he said, you are all sinners.

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I've been pastor at this church for 30 years

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I can elaborate if you'd like.

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The people are like, well, we don't need to go into more

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detail.

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On the other hand, as a child of God, perhaps we can also identify

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with Samuel.

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Samuel tried so hard to minister to Saul.

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He made every effort, not only here in chapter 15, but all throughout

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his ministry.

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He tried to reach Saul.

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He tried, so very hard.

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Sometimes he had to use very hard words to talk to Saul like in our

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lesson for today.

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He said the Lord anointed you head over the tribes of Israel

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He told you what to

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do why did you not obey him?

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He has given you everything.

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Your rebellion is like the sin of divination. Your arrogance

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like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the

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Lord

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He has rejected you as king.

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Now for Saul to say that certainly gave him

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no pleasure.

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And it was not easy for him to do

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so, either, it took courage.

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Saul even then replies with another ambiguous half-hearted confession

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saying he was afraid of the people, but Samuel says, no, you have

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rejected the word of the Lord.

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We see in Samuel a man who with all his heart wanted

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nothing more than that

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Saul would truly repent of his sin.

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We remember during this penitential season that repentance includes

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two things, two parts to it.

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It includes contrition and faith.

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True repentance is sorrow for sin

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but also trust in God.

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True repentance leads to a release. True repentance leads to a peace.

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True repentance leads to the joy of Salvation

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that is true repentance, but Saul would not.

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Like a chaplain Gereke and the case of Hermann Goering, Samuel mourned

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for Saul.

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He mourned over Saul's refusal to come to true repentance.

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Perhaps you see yourself in the ministry of Samuel too, I hope that you

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can. I hope that no matter what your vocation that you can have the

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courage, when necessary to call sin sin.

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And to announce forgiveness of sins to those who come to you with a

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contrite heart, no matter how serious their offenses are, and that

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takes courage too.

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It took courage for chaplain Gereke to absolve those six war

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criminals

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and to administer to them, the Lord's Supper. It took a lot of courage, in

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fact, afterwards, when it was found out, that he had done

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so he had death threats against him for having done

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so.

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The word of God describes things, as they are. The word of God is

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realist, it's not escapist.

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It's not idealist.

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There it seems plain to me that we can we can see ourselves in both

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King Saul with his deep flaws and excuses.

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And in the ministry of Samuel too who wrestled, and fought to remain,

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true to God.

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In fact, he even got angry with God for having made Saul the king.

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And yet ultimately in his heart

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he wanted nothing more than to see Saul the sinner come to repentance.

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The ability to do so I think is to identify.

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The ability to identify with Saul and Samuel

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I think depends on being sure about who you are, and what you believe.

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Who are we?

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We are the children of God, who is our only King. The King that calls

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us to offer him

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our sacrifice of a contrite heart that takes courage.

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And what we can believe, what we are called to believe is that God is

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true to his promises to care for us.

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God is true to his promises to provide for us.

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God is true to his promises to forgive us and to grant us salvation in

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Christ Jesus.

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When Henry Gereke was called to be a chaplain to the Nazis the Army

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knew for sure that they had to have a mature man.

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He was 53 years of age by that time.

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They also knew that they had to have a man to do this work.

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Who was sure about who he was unsure about what he believed.

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May those truths those truths that we can be sure about who we are as

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a called children of God. And that we can believe and trust in God,

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for his provision, and his forgiveness

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and his eternal salvation, made those truths enable us to have the

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courage to confess to him

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our sin in true repentance. And the trust to proclaim his salvation,

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to a hurting and lost world.

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In Jesus name. Amen.

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Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding.

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Keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.