About a Quarter of the Way There

As we gather for worship this morning, I want to call you to worship by considering a couple of takeaways from the city council election this last week. And this really is an encouraging word. The lines were drawn fairly stark this time around. Three candidates thought it would be a good idea to campaign at a Drag Show, and three candidates did not. And the three Drag Show candidates won the election handily in a roughly 4 to 1 ratio.

But the big picture is that we should think of this whole thing as a really helpful progress report. How are we doing on our assignment from Jesus to disciple the city of Moscow? How far have we gotten? And, how many Christian communities get a really clear progress report like the one we got from their city? We are very blessed to be in a position to get such a progress report in the first place. And the numbers, if they are broadly representative of the total population, suggest that we are about a quarter of the way toward our goal. So our first response should be gratitude to be in such a position where people who represent our concerns and values showed up at all, and we got a public, fairly objective progress report. We clearly have plenty of work to do, but we should not miss the fact that God has brought us this far. 

And this leads to the second thing: this is farther than we’ve ever been. What we’ve been doing the last 50 some years is actually working. And what is that?  We’ve been starting and running businesses, loving and serving our neighbors, getting married, keeping our wedding vows, having children, raising them to love God with us, building and leaving an inheritance to our grandchildren, proclaiming Christ to the lost around us in word and in deed, and at the center of it all, worshiping the Triune God every Lord’s Day in spirit and in truth. 

This project is not something we dreamed up. It is the command of Jesus, to disciple the nations and teach them to obey everything He has commanded. That’s what we’re doing here in Moscow. Jesus purchased the ends of the earth with His blood, and that includes this place. And so we gather every Lord’s Day to march around this city, as we confess our sins, sing at the top of our lungs, hear His word, feast at His table, and go out with His blessing, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Photo by Fabien Wl on Unsplash