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Jesus' friend John never heard of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, but in the Gospel for today from Mark 9:38-50, John came to Jesus with a problem that's a lot like the problem we're talking about this morning. Jesus shared a solution with John and he's going to share it with us for those times when we find ourselves asking, "So What If They're Not WELS?" October 11, 2009.
If you look carefully at the signs on the southeast corner of the church you’ll see four letters: WELS. If you glance at the back of the bulletin you’ll see what those four letters stand for: Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Grace Lutheran Church is a member of WELS, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
So what does it mean to be a member of WELS? It means that we have partners—almost 400,000 of them—who work together with us to spread the gospel of Jesus around the world. We learn about that work every month when we watch the WELS Connection. But there’s more to being a member of WELS than training pastors and teachers and sending missionaries. When we joined WELS—and that’s what we did when we joined Grace—we made a statement about what we believe. We said we believe Jesus is the only way to life with God. We said we believe Jesus is the center of the Bible, and the Bible is the Word of God in all its parts. Being a member of Grace and WELS isn’t just activity, it’s also confession. We work together because we believe together.
So what do we do with the other churches around town, the ones that don’t confess what we confess? And what do we do with friends and relatives and classmates who don’t believe everything we believe? This isn’t an impractical question. We don’t live in a little WELS world where everyone goes to the same church and believes the same truths. How do we handle this? What’s our attitude toward churches and people who aren’t WELS, who aren’t Wisconsin Synod?
Jesus’ friend John never heard of WELS, but in the Gospel for today John came to Jesus with a problem that’s a lot like the problem we’re talking about this morning. “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” Driving out demons wasn’t the issue; John was in favor of that. The issue was: he’s not one of us. That’s our issue, too. Jesus had a solution for John. He shared it with John and he’s going to share it with us this morning for those times when we find ourselves asking, So What If They’re Not WELS?
Accept all who promote the Savior’s cause
So how did Jesus respond to John? “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.” So what do we know about this man who was driving out demons? Really nothing. We can assume this was a man who had heard Jesus preach and believed he was the Savior. Whatever the man’s motive might have been, God must have given him power to do the miracle. Why wasn’t he one of Jesus’ disciples? Well, Jesus hadn’t called him like he had called the twelve, and maybe the man wouldn’t have been ready to follow even if Jesus had called him. But here’s the point Jesus made to John; “Be patient, John. This man may not have the same knowledge or commitment you have, and he hasn’t had the opportunity you’ve had to be in my group of followers, but if he’s speaking about me and doing things I do, he’s obviously not against us. He may not be one of us now, but he’s leaning in the right direction. Don’t drive him away.”
Let’s talk about this. What happened to John in today’s Gospel sometimes happens to WELS people. When it comes to confessing the truths of the Bible, we know we’re in the minority. And sometimes we get ourselves so concerned about what other churches teach and what other people believe that we look right past the love these churches and often show in the name of Jesus. We know people like this. They aren’t part of us, they don’t share our confession, they may not be ready or even able to understand everything God tells us in his Word, but they’ve caught the love of Jesus and they’re welcoming little children in Jesus’ name. They may not all confess the truth or even know the truth, but they’re leaning in the right direction. They baptize children and operate Christian schools, they run day care centers and soup kitchens, support orphanages and hospitals, and send missionaries all over the world with the simple message that Jesus loves people. So how do we react to this? We love God’s Word and we’re faithful to God’s truth. Are we going to turn that love and faithfulness into arrogance? Will I raise my haughty confessional Lutheran eyebrows and look down on these churches and people? Will I assume God would not and could do great things through them? Will I be like John, “He is not one of us?” Listen to Jesus: “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” So, what if they’re not WELS? Jesus wants to tell us: Accept all who promote my cause. Thank God for them, pray for them, encourage them, praise them and, better yet: imitate them! And then create an open door so you can witness to the truth.
There are a lot of religious people around who would suggest that people like us need to be more tolerant, more broad-minded. WELS people hear that criticism all the time, even from other WELS people! How many of us haven’t heard someone say, “You WELS people (or we WELS people) have to loosen up?” Is that what Jesus was telling John? If Jesus is urging us to be more accepting of what people do in his name, is he also encouraging us to be more tolerant of what they say in his name?
Reject all who destroy the Savior’s children
I don’t think so. Jesus took the conversion with John to the next step. “If you’re going to get upset, John, don’t get upset with people who are leaning in the right direction. Get upset at people who are moving in the wrong direction. Save your righteous anger for people who aren’t promoting my cause at all.” This is what Jesus said about people like that: “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”The picture Jesus used here is a trap, the kind of trap you use to catch pests in your garden. But Jesus isn’t talking traps and varmints. He’s talking about wrong teaching, the kind of teaching that isn’t in the Bible, teaching that some people and some churches invent or assume or deduce. He’s talking about simple, sincere Christians who sometimes get confused and distracted by wrong teachings. And he says that anyone who uses wrong teachings to trap simple Christians and ruin their faith—well, you heard Jesus: “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”
Our Lord Jesus cares passionately about people. He knows the situation people are in. People sin; they do things everyday that God tells them not to do and they don’t do things God tells them to do. We know all about that, don’t we? Jesus also knows how God feels about sin: God hates sin and he’s ready to send sinners packing to hell. That’s why Jesus came to earth. He came to take care of the sin problem. When he lived and died he was carrying the sins of every sinner. When he rose from the dead he proclaimed that he had conquered the sins of every sinner. Now he adopts people into his family through Holy Baptism, he creates faith in their hearts with his Word, and he strengthens them in with the meal of his body and blood. Jesus has a whole lot invested in us! And when somebody uses wrong teaching to trap his people in the prison of unbelief and hell, Jesus is furious. And he wants us to be furious, too. He makes a very dramatic point: If your hand was diseased, or if your eye was cancerous, or if your foot was gangrenous, wouldn’t you have a doctor remove it or amputate it so you could save your life? Well, of course; any of us would do that. We’d be crazy not to. That’s how Jesus wants us to react to any wrong teaching or any wrong teacher who tries to trap us in hell where—and this is what Jesus said in the gospel--where maggots will eat us and fire will burn us forever. And if you didn’t know before, now you know why Jesus cares so passionately about saving and protecting his children.
So what if they’re not WELS? We’ve all heard it. Parents hear it when they caution their kids about choosing their closest friends or a partner for life. So what if they’re not WELS? Families hear it when a relative moves to a new town and joins a different denomination. So what if they’re not WELS? Pastors hear when someone tells them they heading for a church that means more to them. So what if they’re not WELS? What does it mean when someone says “So what if they’re not WELS?” Does it mean “I don’t care about wrong teaching” or “I’m not worried about wrong teaching” or “I won’t be fooled by wrong teaching”? People can say what they like; it’s a free country. But anyone who talks like that sure doesn’t sound like Jesus.
So what do we do when people aren’t WELS: the churches in town and our friends and relatives and classmates who attend those churches? Everything depends on everything doesn’t it? When we see people leaning toward Jesus with love and compassion for others, we rejoice and praise God for the way he works even through people who haven’t discovered all of his truth. When we see them leaning away from Jesus and trying to trap Jesus’ people with wrong teaching, we grieve and we label them for what they are.
How can we ever keep this all straight? How can we live in our community with people who don’t confess what we confess about God’s Word? How can we know when to rejoice and when to grieve? Jesus has the answer: “Have salt in yourselves,” he said. We can find it in almost every home. We see it everyday and know exactly what it looks like. We use it to preserve things and improve things. You know what Jesus is talking about, don’t you? Not salt! He wasn’t really talking about salt; that was just a picture. Jesus was talking about the Bible! Take the Word God into your hearts, Jesus said. Let the truth about God preserve your faith, improve your knowledge, and enhance your wisdom. And the more we rely on Jesus’ Word, the more we’ll be able to solve difficult problems, including this difficult problem: What if they’re not WELS? Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on October 11, 2009
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GJ - I remember Paul Tiefel (cousin of James) also trying to make a wedding cake out of one drop of vanilla and a cup of evaporated milk. In other words, this is a verbose straw man argument. Huebner sets up a straw man, an argument no one is making, and destroys it with great gusto.
With leaders like him, the question will not be - "Is anyone outside of WELS saved?" but "Are any believers left in WELS?" The leadership is almost entirely apostate: higher education, FIC, VP, Love Shack, Time of Gath.
Unionists start with the fact that there are Christians outside the synod boundaries. But they use this to justify their doctrinal indifference and unionism. Huebner is one member of the Gang of Three, the traveling Fuller salesmen (Huebner, Kelm, Olson) who share their CGasms with everyone, at synod expense. They also bill congregations outrageous sums to be consultants - i.e. printing boilerplate with the same suggestions for each victim-church, often with the wrong name or details in that boilerplate.
Huebner is the typical ecumenist - he loves every denomination except his own. His published comments mock the efficacy of the Word in the silliest smart-alecky way, and yet he is a synod officer. The good news is he barely won. The bad news is - he won, replacing another Shrinker, Wayne Mueller.
WELS forced all the pastors to attend a seminar led by the Gang of Three, about 17 years ago. Everyone had to pay $100. One pastor asked me if I would attend. I said, "If you hold a machine gun to my head, yes." The ovine pastors went and complained. One thousand pastors had their chance to stay home and send a chill up the spine of The Love Shack. Instead they forked over $100,000 to hear rank heresy. That is what careerism has done to the Lutheran ministry.