Sermon for October 5, 2025, Lutheran Women's Missionary League Sunday (LWML)

Luke 24:44-53 (LWML Sunday)

“Missio Dei—The Mission of God”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

October 5, 2025

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Gospel lesson chosen for this LWML Sunday recorded in Luke 24:

⁴⁴Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that it is necessary that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and He said to them, “Thus is stands written that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” ⁵⁰And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. ⁵¹And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵²And after they had worshiped Him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³and they were continually in the temple praising God.

          LWML Sunday. Today, we give thanks to God for the work of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. But maybe you’re asking, What is the LWML? “The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) is an official auxiliary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Since 1942, the LWML has focused on affirming each woman’s relationship with Christ, encouraging and equipping women to live out their Christian lives in active mission ministries and to support global missions.”[1] Their Mission Statement reads, “As Lutheran Women in Mission, we joyfully proclaim Christ, support missions, and equip women to honor God by serving others.” The women of the LWML work toward the goals of Mission Education, Mission Inspiration, Mission Service, and Financial Grants for Mission Needs.

          Do you hear a theme? Mission! The mission of the LWML is the mission of the Church is the mission of God!

          The mission of God—missio Dei for you Latin fans—is work that belongs to God. It describes His intention to save all mankind from sin, Satan, and death. The mission to accomplish this is God’s mission. And His mission of salvation is achieved in the service which the Church, the people of God in Christ, gives to Him and to their neighbors. The missio Dei—the mission of God—is the work that the Lord does through which everything that He has in mind for people’s salvation is offered to people through those whom He has sent. The result is that people are freed from sin and can fully come into fellowship with God. So, the sending becomes an act of the love of God to condemned sinners. It is an expression of God’s mercy to us all.

          God’s mission to save the world from sin, death, and the devil is the enactment of His great grace, His undeserved loving-kindness to fallen humanity. He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4 ESV). All people need this salvation. You and I need to be saved from our sins, otherwise the punishment of temporal and eternal death looms over us like the curse that it is. The culture downplays sin as no big deal, some mistakes, but nothing to worry about. God reveals in His Word that sin is the biggest deal, so much more than mistakes, and something to be very, very worried about. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

          Yes, we ought not only to love and trust God, but also fear Him, as we are reminded in the Meaning of the First Commandment from the Small Catechism. The fear of the Lord, however, is more than simply holding Him in reverence. Older editions of the Explanation of the Small Catechism said, “We fear God above all things when we revere Him alone as the highest being, honor Him with our lives, and avoid what displeases Him.” And this is most certainly true. But there is more to it than this, an important aspect that the newest edition of the Explanation emphasizes for us. To fear God “means to take God seriously as our Creator and Judge. He means what He says when He threatens to punish those who disobey.”

          All humanity, by nature, is turned away from God. We are unable to look to Him for security, meaning, and righteousness. This inner sinful condition results in actual sins of thought, desire, word, or deed that are contrary to God’s will as summarized in the Ten Commandments. We are, according to our sinful nature, blind, dead, and enemies of God who deserve His temporal and eternal death sentence and are enslaved in a lifelong sinful condition from which we cannot free ourselves.

          Enter into the gloom of our sin and death the mission of God to save us. God the Father sends His Son. Father and Son send the Holy Spirit.

          Everything written about the Son of God made human flesh in the Old Testament Scriptures—in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms—had to be fulfilled. To save people from their sins and the punishment of death, Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, gave up His perfect, sinless life into death in our place. 1 Pet. 2:24, “[Jesus] Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” Do you hear the Good News of God’s mission? You have been healed of your sins! Forgiveness has been bought for you by Jesus on the cross with His holy, precious blood poured out for you.

          According to the Father’s good pleasure, Jesus, His only Son, suffered, died, and rose again from the dead on the third day in order to save you and all people from sin, death, and hell. As the Lutheran pastor and hymnwriter Johann Heermann wrote in his hymn (568 in our hymnal),

If Your belovèd Son, O God,    Had not to earth descendedAnd in our mortal flesh and blood    Had not sin’s power ended,Then this poor, wretched soul of mineIn hell eternally would pine    Because of my transgression.

But now I find sweet peace and rest;    Despair no more reigns o’er me.No more am I by sin oppressed,    For Christ has borne sin for me.Upon the cross for me He diedThat, reconciled, I might abide    With You, my God, forever.

          Oh, sweetest Gospel! Oh, Good News of release and salvation! In Christ, our sins are forgiven. We have eternal life and salvation from death and the devil’s power! God’s mission to save humanity is a wondrous success! Through His Word, we hear God’s Law that shows us our sin and drives us to our knees, begging for mercy. And according to His great love and mercy to us in Jesus, the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to bring us to repentance for our sins and deliver to us personally the forgiveness Jesus won for us with His death and resurrection. The Father sends the Son; the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit—the mission of God for salvation through the Gospel!

          And the missio Dei continues today through the same Holy Spirit at work in Christ’s Church, among Christ’s people. Jesus told His first followers, “You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The “promise of My Father” is the Holy Spirit who was poured out upon the chosen disciples on the Day of Pentecost. The Spirit led the apostles into God’s plan of salvation, drove them into the work, and He continues to do so among Christians today.

          Christ’s disciples, including you and me, are now part of God’s mission to deliver forgiveness, life, and salvation to the world by proclaiming the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. This mission of the Church as announced by Jesus depends on His promise that He will be present among His people through the Spirit. And so He is present through His Spirit with His Church in Word and Sacrament. And His Church—His people—are empowered by that same Spirit to take part joyfully in God’s mission. You and I as baptized believers in Christ are the Lord’s messengers to the nations of the world, proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus alone for the saving of people from sin, death, and the devil’s power.

          That is our mission as individual Christians, as a congregation, as the New England District, and as The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In our District and Synod, we have the immense joy of also knowing that we have a partner in this work—the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. Your LWML works to carry the Gospel to those very people who need to meet our Lord Jesus Christ. They are involved in so many ways the world over. They are the ones who gather blankets to take to those who are going through tragedy. They are the ones who put meals into the mouths of those who have gone through disasters as they aid relief efforts. They are the ones who, on your behalf, make certain that people in Africa have access to the Word of God. They are the ones who become for you, in numerous places, the very heart and hands of the compassionate, merciful Lord who saves.

          The missio Dei, the mission of God, to save people from sin, death, and the power of the devil, has been shared by the Lord with us, His Church. As we go about our daily lives and in our every-day vocations, we proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. We share the joy and the blessing of salvation as we share God’s Word with people, as His Spirit gives us the opportunity. May our Lord continue to bless His mission among us here and through the faithful service of the LWML in Jesus’ name. Amen.

     [1] https://www.lwml.org/who-we-are