I was just reading the other day about a couple in Minnesota that was celebrating an unusual wedding anniversary**(see footnote). What made it unusual was the number. They had been married for 83 years. They’re both right around 100 years old. Can you imagine celebrating an anniversary like that? 83 years of marriage! They have 39 grandchildren and over a hundred great grandchildren. Just think of all the experiences they’ve had together, all the changes in the world they’ve seen. The Guinness Book of World Records is investigating to see if they’ve set the record for being the longest married couple alive – an 83 year wedding anniversary.
Today we are celebrating an anniversary in our church services. It’s not a church anniversary, although we are very thankful that God has blessed St. Paul’s church and school over the years. What we are celebrating today is a part of our ministry of the Word at St. Paul’s – part of our ministry of Christian education to high school students, known as Lakeside Lutheran High School. This is one of the ways we serve our Lord here at St. Paul’s. Now if we were teaching these high school students right here in this building, or in a building attached to our church (kind of like our preschool / grade school), this ministry might be something that is more on our minds.
Over the last few years a good number of young people from St. Paul’s attended and graduated from that ministry. Every year, the members of St. Paul’s dedicate a part of their church budget to support this aspect of Christian education. Today, we celebrate its 50th year.
The passage we are focusing on as we do this is taken from the Psalms, where the writer talks about how much he values the Word of God in his life. He writes, “Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.” As we celebrate this 50th anniversary of Lakeside, our theme is “The Word of God – our heritage and our future.”
Now why did a group of Christians in the Jefferson County area band together to start a Lutheran high school? This area already had enough high schools. But there was something missing, something that all the Lutheran elementary students had enjoyed from kindergarten through the eighth grade, and that was the Word of God. Still today, our grade school students enjoy the Word of God every day in their classrooms, and what a treasure that is! Every day, pastors and teachers build into our students that strong spiritual foundation of God’s law and gospel. They learn the truth about sin, their own sin and the sin of the world. And then they learn the joy of the Gospel, how God in his grace has saved us through his Son, Jesus Christ. What could be more important than that?
But why have that stop at eighth grade? If there is ever a time when the Word of God is needed, it’s during those high school years, which can be filled with so much drama, so many ups and downs. And so, Christians throughout the area joined together years ago to organize a high school, where the Word would continue to be present in the classroom. It started in the basement of a church in Fort Atkinson, and I’m sure that the founders of that ministry never dreamed that it would be what it is today. They went through all of this because the words of Psalm 119 were in their hearts: “Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.”
Isn’t the Word of God our joy as well? Whether you’ve been educated in a public school setting or in a Lutheran school setting, what a joy it is to know Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. We need this, because there are a lot things in this world, in this life, that bring the opposite of joy.
Just think about our own lives, for example. When we look back on our lives, whether it be for the last 50 years or 50 days or even 50 minutes, not every moment is a reason to celebrate. We see those good moments, those good things we’ve done. But when we take an honest look back on our lives, we also see those mistakes we’ve made, those sins we’ve committed, those words we wish we could take back, those people we’ve hurt, that pain we’ve caused. We can see all those acts of love that we have left undone. These all come from the sin that we’re born with. And this doesn’t bring joy into our lives. Our sin brings feelings of guilt, feelings of shame and regret.
And then someone we love dies. And then what do we feel? Confusion – how can someone I care about die? Sadness, feeling of emptiness and loneliness because that person I love isn’t here anymore. Maybe even felt a little anger at God – how could he do this to me?
And then there are those troubles that come from living in a sinful world. Something goes wrong – I lose my job, or I get really sick, or my family is having serious problems at home. And then I feel fear as I think about the future, or I feel helpless because these problems are too big to fix by myself, or I feel hopeless because it doesn’t look like things are working out at all. There are so many things in this world – our sin, death, problems, that bring the opposite of joy into our lives.
And so where do you go, when you feel this way? The Psalmist knew where to go. He went to the Word. “Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.”
When I sin, and I feel guilty, there is the Word, and there I find my joy. There in the Word God tells me that he forgives me because of his Son, Jesus Christ, who paid for my sins by dying on the cross. There God tells me that I have been forgiven in the waters of baptism, and that I am forgiven every time I receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. When I sin, I find joy in the Word.
And when my loved one dies suddenly and unexpectantly, and I feel sad and empty and angry all at the same time, there is the Word. And that Word tells me that my loved one is in heaven with Jesus, and that he, or she, will someday rise from the dead, and so will I, when Jesus returns on Judgment Day. When death takes away a loved one, I find joy in the Word.
When there is trouble in my life – big trouble – and I feel afraid and helpless and hopeless, there is the Word. And the Word tells me my Lord is always with me, that he will never leave me or forsake me, and that I can call upon him in every trouble, and he will deliver me, and he will work out all things for my good. When I have problems, I find joy in the Word.
What a treasure the Word of God is. And so, we preach the Word in our church services, in our Bible classes and Sunday Schools and Vacation Bible Schools. We have Lutheran grade schools. And, we have joined together for the last 50 years so that we can have a Lutheran high school. There each student not only learns math and science and reading and writing and everything else necessary to be a productive citizen of our country. There each student also learns the Word. They’re making their minds smarter, their bodies stronger. But most importantly, they’re doing something for their souls.
Martin Luther once said, “Human reason teaches only the hand and the foot of a man; God alone teaches the heart” (Quote 1329 from What Luther Says. Concordia Publishing House. St. Louis, MO. 1959).
But is it worth it? The extra expense. The extra time. The extra effort. Is it worth it to go through all of that, just for the Word? Jesus once told the story of a man who was digging around in a field. And there in that field he found a treasure. He was filled with joy! He wanted to keep this treasure for himself, but he couldn’t – the field didn’t belong to him. So what did he do? Do you remember the story? Jesus relates how the man went and sold all that he had, and took that money and bought that field, so that he could keep that treasure.
The point of Jesus’ story is this – the Word of God is a valuable treasure. On this side of heaven, there is nothing in this world more valuable than that Word. After all, what good is it for a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? What good is it, if he gains a diploma, maybe a degree, and he has the best job in the world and the best house in the world and the best car in the world and the best retirement in the world and he’s the richest and most popular and most powerful person in the world? What good is it, if you have all those things, but lose your soul?
What a treasure the Word of God is! And once you have it, no one can take it away from you. It’s our heritage. And it’s also our future. In the years ahead, you can lose your health, your money, your mind – everything! But no one can take away that Word of God. As Jesus once said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
And so, we thank God for our ministry of his Word to our high school students at Lakeside. We pray that God will continue to bless our church’s ministry in that place. And we pray that God will continue to bless the ministry of his Word here in this parish, at our grade schools, and at every church and school throughout our synod, and throughout the world. We pray this prayer, confident that God’s answer will be yes.
The Word of God is our heritage forever. It is the joy of our hearts. Amen.
