³³Then [Jesus’] disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought Him food?” ³⁴“My food,” Jesus said, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and the other reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:33-39 NIV)

 We are now in that time between the Epiphany of our Lord (January 6^th) and Ash Wednesday (March 1^st) known as The Sunday’s after the Epiphany. It is a season highlighting the Son of God’s manifestation in the world through many of the miracles He did. It is a very special time within itself, for it is a season with an outreach focus. This makes it a very appropriate time to remember our identity as a congregation. That is, our identity as a 159 year old “Mission Congregation” still, by God’s grace, dedicated to spreading the “good news” of Jesus Christ to all who will come and hear.

A portion of an article written some years ago by Dr. Quentin F. Wesselschmidt, editor of the Concordia Journal, will, perhaps, highlight the special significance of this “time between” as we remember our identity as a “mission congregation”. Dr. Wesselschmidt’s comments below were written as preliminary considerations for sermon preparation on Matthew 5:13-20. While primarily written for pastors, his comments bear consideration for all of God’s people as the Church reaches out to those still sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

In the Western church Epiphany is the commemoration of the Bethlehem Star and the visit of the Magi to the manger of the Christ child. Now, as we begin the fifth full week after the day of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles, we can reasonably assume that, by this time, the Wise Men (those first gentiles in the nativity account) would have returned home still filled with the exhilaration of having followed the star, worshiped at the manger of their Savior, and received direct communication from God regarding their route home. We’re not told what they did upon their return, but we might safely imagine, I think, that they would purposely, in the terms of Christ’s words in our text from the Sermon on the Mount, have become a salty seasoning within their society as they worked to win converts for Christ and that they would have made certain that the “little light” of the Bethlehem Star would bring a new spiritual illumination to the darkened pagan world of their day. Knowing that the name “Jesus” means one who “will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21), they would also have been able, after worshiping at the manger of the Christ child, to speak about the righteousness of Christ, which, procured through His still-to-be-realized suffering and death, would become their righteousness before God.

The situation of our world is really no different. In our text Christ is calling us to be the Magi of our world. We have followed the Bethlehem Star once more this year as we worshiped again at the manger of our Savior. We have had our commemorative epiphany of God’s salvation. Then God tells us to return to our place in our world. Now, five weeks later we are fully back in the secular world, with the Christmas-Epiphany celebrations an increasingly vaguer memory. Our experience at the manger should still be motivating us to be spiritual seasoning for the lives of people in our society. Our comprehension of the light of our salvation in Christ should cause us to shed that same light into our world by the proclamation of God’s Word. We should be living examples of people who seek not their own righteousness, but who find joy in the righteousness won for them by Christ.

Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church has been around for a long time. Over the years at any given time, every one of the positives and negatives concerning the seven churches in Revelation, chapter 2 and 3, showed its true colors here, for there is no perfect visible church on earth. The only perfect church is the invisible church of believers known only to God. However, through the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of His Sacraments (the means of grace), we can say without a doubt, that God’s perfect invisible Church on earth is present here at Trinity, Milwaukee. And it will remain here so long as God wills it!

God has indeed blessed Trinity with many physical blessings, not the least of which is our new office addition and church entrance that gets closer to completion every day. That new building, however, is not the main blessing here at Trinity. The main blessing is how God has blessed Trinity with so many faithful pastors, church workers, and lay members throughout the years. Buildings do not make the Church of God—people do! Think about it! Working together through the power given by regularly receiving God’s gifts of forgiveness in Word and Sacrament, literally thousands of people have been saved from their sins who might otherwise have been lost souls—including you, the reader of this article!

And that brings us back to the main point and focus for this letter this Epiphany Season! Each and every person’s responsibility to support the main mission of this church in whatever way they can has not lessened or changed with age. Just as Jesus said that His “food” was doing the will of His Father who sent Him, so also, our “food” is really doing the will of Him who died for us that we might live. First and foremost, Jesus will for us is to believe in Him, the one whom the Father has sent (John 6:29). In that believing our sanctified lives will evidence themselves in thought, word, and deed in whatever our God-given vocation in life might be. Together in faith and action, the “mission” of even a 159 year old congregation will remain true to the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Saints of God, the dawn is brightening, Token of our coming Lord;

O’er the earth the field is whit—‘ning; Louder rings the Master’s word:

Pray for reapers, Pray for reapers, In the harvest of the Lord!   (TLH 502:1)