When I was a new pastor, I would come home from a long day at church and my beautiful young wife would ask, “did you get your work done?” I never liked it when she asked me that question because my answer was always a frustrating, “no”. “No, my dear wife, I did not get my work done.” I am not a hatchling pastor fresh from the Seminary anymore. I have been laboring in the mission field for a few years now, nearly two decades, sufficient time, one would think, to finish their work. But to this day, when my less young but still very beautiful wife asks me if I got my work done, I still have to say, “no”. After all my time spent laboring in the mission field I have never been able to tell my wife that I got my work done. The best I have been able to manage is, “I did all that I could”, and to be completely honest even that was not always true.
There is just so much to do. I was looking at some demographic information about our ministry field the other day because, well, I’m a huge nerd who likes to use statistics to influence my tactical and strategic plans for ministry. Did you know that there are an estimated 3.2 billion people in the world who still need to have the gospel shared with them? In America alone, that number is estimated at 5 million. Numbers like that are so big that it is hard to comprehend so let’s just restrict ourselves to our ministry field here at Messiah. The 2020 census is not yet complete but there are approximately 8,271 people who live within three miles of our church. About 60% of those people identify themselves as some type of Christian. That means within three miles of our church there are approximately 3,308 people who don’t believe in Jesus as their savior. That’s a lot of people.
Now, let’s pretend, for a moment, that I am the hardest working pastor on the planet and as the hardest working pastor on the planet I talk to one of those people every day. It would take me 9 years to talk to all of them. But the problem is the 10-year growth rate for our ministry field is over 10% and there are currently over 400 homes for sale. That means by the time I got done talking to the 3,308 people the population would have changed by 4,427 people which would set me back an additional 12 years. Again, that is pretending I am the hardest working pastor on the planet. Factor in my unfaithfulness and the numbers almost get depressing. The reality is, by the time I am ready to retire, there will be more people that need to hear about Jesus as their Savior than there were when I started.
The takeaway from my research of the demographics of our mission field is this, I simply can’t get it done, and neither can any of you. We have some incredibly gifted people in our congregation. There are some self-professed workaholics among us. There are people here who are passionate about their faith. Yet when you look at the statistics, there is not a single person here that can get it done.
Alone we cannot get it done, but if we work together, well that’s another story. In 1 Peter 2:9 we are reminded that we do not work alone. Rather, we work together as a people, a priesthood, and a nation. In the first half of verse 9 saint Peter reminds us that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”.
We are a “chosen people”, that is, we are a group of persons who are related biologically. We might simply say we are a family. We do share a common ancestry; we are all descendants of the sons of Noah, but saint Peter wants us to recognize that we share a bond more powerful than that. Saint Peter reminds us that we are “10 the people of God.” That is, we are members of God’s family; we are the sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters in faith.
We are God’s family; we are God’s people; we are God’s chosen people. God chose us. In his letter to the Ephesians saint Paul marvels about this choice. In 1:4-5 he writes, “4 For he [God] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—” In accordance with God’s pleasure and will, we were adopted into His family. Jesus Himself, also comments on God’s choice. In John 15:16 Jesus says to us, “16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” Jesus tells us, God chose us to go and bear fruit. God chose us by His pleasure. God chose us for a purpose.
As members of God’s family, we have the pleasure of purpose. That is why saint Peter also calls us a “royal priesthood”. Out of the chosen people of God there was a group within the family that was selected to serve as priests. Those who were selected to be priests spent their lives in service to others. They served as mediators between God and men. They led people in worship and made intercessions for them; prayed for them. The priest spent their time among the people in the hopes that they would lead those people closer to God.
Saint Peter reminds you that as children of God, you are the royal priesthood. Because of Jesus, there is no longer a need for a group within the family to be selected to serve as mediators. Because of Jesus we can go directly to God with our prayers and praises. That means every single one of us is a priest. You are a priest. You are the ones who have been selected by God to live your lives in service to others. You are the ones who have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading people closer to God. I am the pastor of Messiah Johns Creek, but every single member of this congregation is part of the royal priesthood. That means every single member of this congregation is called upon to be a witness; every single member is to do the work that God has placed before us.
As a member of the royal priesthood you are responsible for the work that God has placed before us, but that does not mean you are responsible for all the work. That is why saint Peter calls us a “holy nation”. This is the largest unit into which the people of the world are divided. A nation is a vast sea of diversity. It encompasses people from different economic levels, people who have different political views, people who come from various levels of society. In a nation there are intellectuals, artisans, and craftsmen; there are leaders, laborers, and caregivers. In a nation there is every sort of person you can imagine.
Saint Peter calls us “a nation” to remind us that we are a vast group of people who have been given a wide variety of gifts and abilities. Saint Peter calls us “holy” to remind us that we are to use the diversity of our gifts in service to our God. While there might be a part of the work that God has placed before us that you individually cannot do, there is no part of the work that God has placed before us that we collectively cannot do.
God has made you a people, He has made you a priesthood, He has made you a nation; God has made us these things so that (at last we are ready for the second half of verse 9) so “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Like the nation of Israel that was chosen by God to be the people of promise, we have been chosen by God to be the people of proclamation. God has gathered us together as a people, priesthood, and nation so that we can tell others about the Father who asked His one and only Son to set aside His divinity and embrace the humility of humanity. God has gathered us together as a people, priesthood, and nation so that we can tell others how that Son spent three decades resisting every temptation that man can face and then offered His life as the payment for our sins. God has gathered us together as a people, priesthood, and nation so that we can tell others about the Spirit who continually works through word and sacrament to call, gather, and enlighten more people into the family of God. God has gathered us together as a people, priesthood, and nation so that we can get it done.
Individually we can’t get it done, but when we work as a people, a priesthood, and a nation we absolutely can get it done. Remember that 3,308 unbelievers that I said are living within three miles of our church? If I divide the 3,308 unbelievers by the 174 members of Messiah, the number of unbelievers who still need to hear about Jesus as their savior drops to 19. That means, if we each talk to 1 or 2 people a month, we would get the work done. Not only could we get it done here at Messiah, but I bet we could help get it done in other places as well. We have actually already started. We are helping to train young men like Adam and Jacob for the pastoral ministry so that someday they can go and get it done in their own mission fields. Beyond that, we have enough resources here to help support missionaries all over the world. At least we do when we combine our resources with the resources of our brothers and sisters in Lawrenceville, Sharpsburg, Covington, Atlanta, Hiram, Marietta, and Chattanooga. Then when we combine the resources of the churches in our circuit with the resources of all the circuits in our district and then when we combine the resources of all the districts in our synod, then suddenly the 5 million Americans who still need to hear about Jesus as their Savior becomes a much more manageable number. Alone we cannot get it done, but if we work together, I think you can see how that’s another story.
You know, I don’t know if I will ever be able to tell my wife that I got my work done, but, if we work together for the next 20 years or so, I know I have at least got a chance. I say we give it a shot. Let’s work together as a “royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Amen? Amen.