Called and Sent
Mark 6:7-13 Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their money belts. 9They were to put on sandals but not to wear two coats. 10He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area. 11Any place that will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.” 12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They also drove out many demons. They anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). Amen.
About 15 years ago, a young pastor asked me for advice on his divine call. I said, “You can have calls like I did. I was assigned out of the Seminary to a brand-new church. Be the first pastor so no one can compare you to previous pastors. Or you can accept a call to a church where the previous pastor was so bad that he was kicked out of the Synod. Then, all you have to do is show up, preach the truth, and love the people.”
This morning, we see Jesus sending his disciples out with authority to preach and drive out demons. We will examine the divine call of the pastor. What is the call? Why do pastors get calls from other churches? What is the work of the pastor? What is the work of the people? And how does Jesus forgive and use sinful pastors and sinful people to do his ministry work?
How does Jesus call pastors into the ministry? It’s a little different than what Jesus did with his apostles. Jesus walked up to Peter and Andrew, James and John, while they were mending their nets along the Sea of Galilee and invited them to follow him. He called Matthew out of his tax collector’s booth. He knocked Saul off his horse on the road to Damascus, blinded and baptized him. Jesus gave them years of Seminary training and then sent them out as apostles.
Today, Jesus still calls men into the pastoral ministry. Instead of him calling them audibly like with his apostles, he uses congregations to call pastors in his name and for his ministry. Pastors in the WELS do not go looking for a call to another church. Another church comes looking for them. Presently, there are about 140 pastoral vacancies in the WELS. Pastors are eligible to receive divine calls every 6 months. So, some pastors may receive calls regularly.
When a pastor receives a divine call to another congregation, he then has to decide where his gifts can best serve the Lord of the Church – his current call or his new call. The pastor will talk to pastors, principals, teachers, leaders, and people in both congregations. He’ll talk to his family and talk to the Lord in prayer. The pastor may be looking for a new challenge. The Lord may have grown his gifts for a specialized ministry. Or the pastor may see there is work to be done in his current congregation. Through the call the Lord may have opened the eyes of the pastor and his people to focus more on the work at hand.
Deliberating on divine calls may be easy or can be very difficult. For example, when I received the call to come to Epiphany, Shelley and I took our three girls for a little trip to Cincinnati. On the way there, I was returning the call. On the way home, I was accepting the call. More recently, last year when I had the call to Modesto, California, for the first two weeks, I was accepting the call. Then after talking to good friends at Water of Life, I was returning the call.
In our Epistle lesson, St. Paul establishes qualifications for those serving in the public ministry when he writes to Pastor Titus: “Indeed an overseer, since he is God's steward, must be blameless, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not eager for dishonest
gain. Instead, he must be hospitable, loving what is good, self-controlled, upright, devout, and disciplined. He must cling to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he will be able both to encourage people by the sound teaching and also to correct those who oppose him” (Titus 1:7-9).
Lord willing, your pastor will have those qualifications for the public ministry. But please understand that your pastor is also a sinner. He will make mistakes. Lots of them. As a new pastor and home missionary, my Mission Counselor advised me, “Michael, if you are a pastor who likes to be in the office working and studying, you need to schedule time to be with your people. If you are a pastor who likes to be with the people, you need to schedule time to be in your office.”
I’ve talked to lots of pastors over my 28 years in the ministry. Some pastors can spend a lot of time with their ministry and then neglect their family. Other pastors can spend a lot of time with their family and neglect their ministry.
Pastor can often be Alphas and leaders. They may not always play nicely with others – other pastors, other called workers, other leaders in their congregation. I’ve had calls to come to churches to clean up the mess created by associate pastors who couldn’t get along with each other.
I tell you this because I pray that you have patience with your pastors. Show love to your pastors. And be willing to give lots of forgiveness to your pastors. Be willing to talk to your pastor – not about your pastor to others, because that’s gossip. Talk to your pastor. Let him know if you think he needs to tweak his work schedule, spend more time with his family or his church family. Hopefully you love your pastors. Love them enough to be honest and open with them.
By God’s grace, Pastor Klusmeyer and I do work very well together. Even though we are opposites in many ways. He’s listening to Greek and Hebrew in our office. I’m reading graphic novels of the Bible. I’m the big picture, planning guy. He loves the minutia. In golf, he hits his drives far and to the right. I hit my drives farther and straight.
Pastors understand that their members are also sinners. People will take their pastors’ words the wrong way. Maybe they don’t show him the respect he deserves as God’s called servant.
Members may not like their pastors’ sermons or teaching style or personality. That’s OK. We don’t always like everything about everyone. But if that is the man your God called to serve as your pastor, then he deserves the respect of listening to him, learning from him, and getting to know him. Because when the pastor preaches and teaches, that is the voice of your Savior coming through the mouth of your pastor.
I know of a situation in another church where a member didn’t like one of his two pastors. He asked me if it was OK if could contact the church office for the preaching schedule. When the pastor he didn’t like was preaching, then he would go to another WELS church. I told that member, “That is absolutely not OK! That’s your pastor. You go to church and you listen to him.” Thankfully, that member listened. He sat in the pews and really concentrated on his pastor’s sermons. He admitted to me that he was the problem, not the pastor.
It's good to defend your pastor. About a decade ago, I went to see Elenore, one of our homebound members. She lived close to the church, so I biked there. When I walked into her house, she told me, “I had to defend you again.” I just shook my head and said, “Now what?” She said, “One of the ladies asked me, ‘Do you think Pastor Zarling bikes so much because he’s trying to tell us that we don’t pay him enough?’” I was stunned. I said, “You can tell whoever
you talked to that I just had my second knee surgery and the doctor said I don’t have any cartilage left in my knee. That means I can’t run anymore. I bike because I don’t want to be the fat pastor.” She said, “No, I told her, ‘Don’t you have anything better to do than to bother my pastor.” I laughed and said, “That’s way better!”
Pastors need to have patience with their members. They need to show love and grace to their members. We are called to offer Christ’s forgiveness to those gathered within the church. This patience, love, grace, and forgiveness of pastors and people come straight from Jesus Christ. St. Paul describes it this way, “We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Or, as my Mission Counselor put it, “We are all cracked pots.”
The point of these stories is that Jesus uses congregations to call pastors into the public ministry. Jesus then sends his pastors where he needs them to serve in his kingdom.
Jesus uses a cracked pot like your pastor to share a very special message – a message of patience, love, grace, and forgiveness that only comes through the Savior of pastor and people.
The pastor is the voice of Christ to his people. He reminds you of the Father’s consolation and care in working everything to your eternal benefit. He reminds you of the Savior’s work in forgiving all your sins. He reminds you of the Spirits comfort when you are suffering or grieving.
The pastor is the man appointed with authority by Christ to use his ministry of the keys to lock heaven to the unrepentant, but open wide the gates of heaven to the contrite.
The pastor is speaking with authority because he is speaking on God’s behalf. Remember how the prophet Amos responded to his critic, Amaziah. Amos said, “I was not a prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending flocks, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel” (Amos 7:14-15). The pastor may be gifted in some areas and lacking in others. But be assured of this – he has been called and sent by Jesus to go prophecy to his people.
The pastor is authorized by Christ to counteract the accusatory lies of Satan that burden the consciences of sinners. He is authorized by Christ to use his mouth to fill up your ears with God’s Law to point out your sins and God’s Gospel to absolve your sins. He is authorized by Christ to use his hand to pour water over the infants’ head at the baptismal font, to use his hand to give you Christ’s body and blood into your mouth, and to use his hand to hold the hand of the dying saint on their deathbed.
C.F.W. Walther wrote this about people and their pastors, “Concerning the true shepherds, even if they are also poor, weak, vulnerable men, that you be merciful to them, as your father in heaven is merciful, to pray for them and, finally, not to forget that God’s Word calls to you: “Take heed of your teachers and follow them,” (as they present you God’s Word), “for they watch over your souls as those who must give account, that they do so with joy and not with sorrow, for that would not be good for you” (C.F.W. Walther, “Second Sunday after Epiphany: On the Public Preaching Office. Epistle: Romans 12:7-16”).
God called an ordinary man like Amos the shepherd to be his prophet. Jesus chose ordinary men like fishermen and tax collectors to be his apostles. Jesus continues to choose ordinary men like Pastor Klusmeyer and myself to be your pastors. He calls and sends us – with all our weaknesses and failings - to be your pastors at Water of Life. He invites you – with all your faults and flaws – to call us to serve you. Jesus, the Lord of the Church, calls imperfect people into his ministry to share the message of a perfect Savior. A Savior from all our weaknesses and failings, all our
faults and flaws. He has called and sent us to work together with patience, love, grace, and forgiveness. Amen.
St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “The things that you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: Keep doing these things. And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). Amen.