How Beautiful!

How beautiful! I can’t believe it! How beautiful! I mean, you just can’t drive down the street without knowing this is a church, a house of God! And the lighting! And it faces, what, east, south east, almost like it’s supposed to so the morning sun rises upon the worshippers. Everything is so new—the preschool attached to the church, the huge acreage, the parsonage right across the driveway. How beautiful! A million times more beautiful than the barren scrap of desert that was here in 1998 when Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church got started. How beautiful this church on its day of dedication!
But it isn’t the building itself that is so beautiful. Here’s what I mean. Instead of the cross built into the outside of your building with the cross shaped windows, let’s turn it into a Star of David, or instead of having Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church on the sign, let’s put Church of Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ-Silverado Ward in its place. Then this building wouldn’t be so beautiful, would it?
A striking bride who loves her groom is a beautiful woman. A striking bride who sleeps with all the men in the wedding party is a tramp.
What is here at this corner of Bermuda and Frias which makes Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church beautiful?
How Beautiful!
1.The message.
2.The messengers.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Our text for this beautiful day when we dedicate this beautiful church is all about beauty. It is rare for a passage to be used twice in the Bible at climatic junctures. The Apostle Paul, after reviewing the great teachings of Jesus, how all, Jew and Gentile, have sinned and are freely justified by God’s grace, how this forgiveness is applied to us through baptism into Christ and gives a new life to live, the apostle to the Gentiles opens his heart in sorrow over his own people, the Jews, who daily rejected Jesus as Savior. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t heard. They had prophets and priests sent to them by God, beautiful feet bringing good news.
Paul lifted that verse from the prophet, Isaiah, who used it in an equally climactic moment. In chapter 52, Isaiah stirs the people of God to rise and meet their Savior, wake up and hear his message, for the watchmen are already calling, those beautiful feet are already bringing the good news to your town! Then he talks about the suffering of Jesus on the cross, stricken, smitten and afflicted.
Like I said, it is some Bible passage to be used so successfully in two places in the Bible. It is before us today, I pray, with some of its power intact on the poor, stammering lips of this preacher.
“Did I hear that right?” some of you might be thinking--did he say, “beautiful feet?” There’s more than meets the eye, here. I’ll save that for the end. It may just be the best part that makes this beautiful.
How beautiful! How beautiful the message!
From all the time I spent on Paul and Isaiah’s train of thought, you can see the message is important. The message is what makes this church beautiful. That message, Paul says, is “good news.”
You, the members of Beautiful Savior, thought it was good news the day you got word that your building project had received approval from the Mission Board and then the county. You thought it was good news the day you had groundbreaking. You are probably thinking right now this is good news that you are finally in. That news isn’t good enough to be compared to THE GOOD NEWS that Paul is talking about. It is THE GOOD NEWS of the Gospel.
The Good News is that God still loves people who daily sin much and deserve only punishment. The Good News is that the Holy Spirit does not flee from the heart which fills itself with garbage—lustful thoughts, hateful words, evil inclinations. The Good News is that the payment for our sins, Jesus’ death on the cross, has not been stopped, like a person angry over home repairs never begun might try to stop payment on the check he gave a con-man contractor as earnest money. The Good News is that God wants us in heaven, not as servants, not as stowaways, but as his dear children gathered around the family table.
If we think THE GOOD NEWS isn’t that great a news, well, look at what some other houses of worship are spreading. Some come right out and encourage people to be their own saviors, to make themselves worthy enough for a celestial kingdom or better. Some urge their people to do the right thing by living up to the Law as the way to ennoble their lives. Many don’t even consider life in the hereafter certain enough to talk about! A majority of the Christian churches will talk about faith, but then they add you have to be good, too. Believe and be good. The most deceptive will so vandalize the good news with an emphasis on human decisions, holy living, confidence in man-made teachings, that the you can’t even see the good news for all graffiti they’ve spray-painted over it.
It all boils down to sinful human beings wanting to be religious, but not wanting to listen to God in his Word.
What makes Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church beautiful is that it displays THE GOOD NEWS in all its beauty. We don’t have to do the impossible, to earn heaven. Jesus earned heaven for us. We don’t have to be good enough for God. God was good enough for us. We don’t cherish the thought that we are going to heaven because of what we are. It’s because of what God is, undeserved, loving forgiveness for all, young and old, for you and me.
How beautiful! How beautiful the message! How beautiful the messengers!
Here is where it gets interesting. When Paul talks about those beautiful messengers, he is talking about you, the people of Beautiful Savior! You are the beautiful feet bringing the beautiful Good News to this part of God’s creation.
“Ach! You got it wrong, Pastor Pieper! That’s Pastor Guse’s job! That’s what we’ve got elders for! They do that preaching and teaching stuff. They do the evangelism visits!”
Oh, really! Pastor Guse and your council is footing the bill for this church! The only ones who are going to be here for Sunday morning worship are Pastor Guse and the elders! Gee, if that’s the case, couldn’t you have just run it all out of the garage of that first parsonage near Silverado Ranch and Spencer?
See my point? You, the members of Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church, have put your shoulders to the work. You have strained and prayed and stretched to make this beautiful day of dedication possible. You have even stolen! You’ve stolen time from your families, time from your rest and relaxation, to hang flyers, make phone calls, move in furniture and I don’t even want to hazard a guess as to what else you’ve done. Every pastor knows that and that is why your willing works of service are so appreciated. Every time you walk into this building, yes, the beautiful feet of Pastor Guse your preacher will lead you, but it will be your beautiful feet bringing you into this church to praise Jesus, to pray to the Father for others, to be moved by the Holy Spirit to serve God here in the organized programs for worship, evangelism and education and out there as you talk up your beautiful church with its beautiful message of a Beautiful Savior to others.
Can I give some advice, advice gathered from years of bitter experience? It will be your beautiful feet that will beat the path for others to follow. This past week I had a wonderful lady in our Religious Orientation class. She was sending her daughter to our preschool—and what a treasure you will find your beautiful preschool to be!—and she had actually come to our church last March. She was looking for a place that had a strong ministry to children, but when she looked among the church worshippers, she saw hardly any children! So she went to the Baptist church down the street!
Put an extra load on your beautiful feet by bringing your children not only to Sunday School, but also to worship. Your schedule is designed to get adults and children into worship. Yes, it will take extra time. Yes, it will take extra effort. On some Sundays, because it was hard getting the little ones ready, you will look like a train wreck, but don’t let that stop you. If you are going to be a little late, don’t let that stop you. In this church, it ain’t going to be the first time somebody was late and everyone, including the Lord, will be glad you made it.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Why the feet? I guess it is the most humble part of our body. Those feet get calloused and cracked, the toe nails get all goofy looking after a while. Maybe some toes are crooked from the time you kicked the parking meter when you saw a ticket tucked under a wiper blade. And they smell. Oooo-weeee!
But it is in the humble acts of service that the Bride of Christ is her most beautiful. It is in the daily, ordinary looking things that you will be doing that you will be most beautiful to the Lord and to the people the Lord has put in your life. The best service those feet can bring is not to run away to Mexico and build some homes for strangers. The best service those feet can render is not to trot around the globe on some vacation pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The best service those feet can offer is not to skip town to sneak into Nepal as a tourist and hand out Bibles. That’s the flash people who are pretending to be Christians display to keep everyone riled up.
Those humble feet teach the children their prayers. Those humble feet shake a hand at the church entrance and get to know the new comer. Those humble feet hang door flyers and teach Vacation Bible School and Sunday School. Those humble feet sit at the feet of the Teacher and hear him speak to them through his Holy Word.
How Beautiful!
1.The message.
2.The messengers.
How beautiful! How beautiful is the head, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
How beautiful are the messengers! How beautiful is the body of Christ!