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Sermon: Office of the Holy Ministry

Sermon: Office of the Holy Ministry

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 Text: 1 Timothy 3:1–13Liturgical Dte: Pentecost 16, Proper 21 CCalendar Date: September 28, 2025Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. JacksonLocation: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County The following transcript was generated with the assistance of AI. It doesn’t match the sermon as preached 100 percent. Invocation In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Community Garden Tour About 15 years ago, I was taking a garden tour, community garden tour in Lexington, Kentucky. The congregation that I was serving there was considering starting up a community garden, and so there was an organized community garden tour, so I went around and saw all the various community gardens that had sprung up around the city there. And I noticed there were two models of community garden. There was what you might call the communal model. So in the communal model, basically there was one huge garden and everybody participated in, had to share equally in taking care of the garden and also share equally in the produce of the garden. So that was one model. And then on the other hand, there was another model, you might call it the micro garden model. So basically there was a big large community garden, but that big community garden was subdivided into small plots. And it wasn’t that everybody took care of the whole thing together, but each household or each group that bought one of those plots or rented one of those plots had that plot as their responsibility to take care of and to steward. Comparison of Garden Models And guess which one looked way better than the other one, the one where it was one person’s job to take care of it. The gardens where it was everybody’s communal responsibility without fail looked terrible. Weeds were everywhere. The ground was all cracked and crumbling because it hadn’t been watered in weeks. Things were diseased and overgrown. The gardens on the other hand where each person had their task to take care of that particular thing looked beautiful. Down in Kentucky, you can grow big, huge tomatoes. You know, we’re lucky to eke in a tomato crop here by the end of August down there. Man, these tomatoes were just big. And my goodness, the tomato vines were just cracking under the pressure of the big, huge, beautiful tomatoes. The corn was higher than my head. They were gorgeous. And I would guess that each individual household that had one of those plots had not only enough produce for themselves, but enough to share with others as well. Diffuse Responsibility In the military, I was talking to my son about this and in his military leadership class, they talked to him about the dangers of diffuse responsibility. And basically, if you would sum it up, it’s this: if something’s everybody’s job, well then it’s nobody’s job and it doesn’t get done. And that has everything to do with what we’re talking about today. Today we’re taking up the doctrine, or rather the Office of the Holy Ministry. We might otherwise just call it the office of pastor. We’re going to be talking about it today, not talking about me, but rather talking about the office or the job that I fill as a great blessing that the Lord has given us, and it’s related to the central task of the church. Church Architecture and Teaching One of the reasons I love this congregation, I love this church building, is because just about everything in this place teaches us something. One of the wonderful things that teaches us stuff are our stained glass windows. And as you’re walking up and down from communion today, maybe you take a look at this stained glass window over here. It’s one of our least prominent ones, unfortunately, ’cause it’s a very meaningful one. And if you come up and you look at this window over here on the left side of the organ, you might remember it in your mind’s eye as we talk about it, there is a church building and it’s sitting on top of a set of keys. The Office of the Keys What is that teaching? It’s teaching about the central foundational job that the church has, the church as a whole, which is the exercise of the Office of the Keys. You might think, Pastor Chris, what? That’s a strange word. Office of the keys. What’s that? Matthew Chapter 16. There we find that Christ says these words. I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. In a pretty similar passage, very similar phraseology, Jesus spells out a little bit more clearly what that means to have the keys of heaven. John chapter 20 to his disciples gathered in the upper room. Jesus says this. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. The Office of the Keys is this: the Lord has granted his church here on earth the power and the authority to forgive sins, and that is the central ...
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