Brethren, the time has come, once again, for the Church and her preachers to take heart and play the part of men in the face of the world’s whirling winds. We will need the steadfastness of John. Congregations need pastors who will dare to preach to them, not merely opine. Pastors who, like John, will look their people in the eyes and tell them the truth about sin, faith, death, sex, marriage, faithfulness, virtue, and truth; who will call sin “sin,” and point sinners to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away their sins; the Lamb hidden for them to eat in the bread and the chalice. We need the ministry of John, that the Church dare to stand apart from the world for the sake of the world; to look, speak, and act differently from every other place in the world for the sake of engaging the world with a Gospel not of this world. We all need Pastor John’s preaching in our lives, to bulldoze our idols and make plain to us our priorities. To call us out into the wilderness to repent and believe our Baptism. To give us a joy for which we will gladly lose our heads.
Joshua Hayes, Gottensdienst 24.4
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