Here is a typed sermon from 1990. It has the same sermon title as the last sermon published, but that one is from 1993. This sermon mentions confirmation, and it is likely the last confirmation class that he preached to in Wausau.
The sermon lists 20 Pent A as the season but the gospel now corresponds to the 19th Sunday After Pentecost in year A. I was able to use Google’s OCR to get the text from these images. This sermon refers to the lyrics of a hymn during the sermon which is called We Give Thee But Thine Own, so I posted a video of someone signing the hymn below the sermon text. He referred to this hymn in the 1993 sermon, as well.
ALL THAT WE HAVE - 19 Pent A - 10/21/90
20 Pent A (Confirmation) (10/21/90)
Matt.21:33-34 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.
Confirmands, families and friends, grace and peace….
A faithful congregation, like a fruitful vineyard, is a delightful place to be. Little children are taught about Jesus, young adults are instructed in the faith and come forward to confess that faith, elderly saints are comforted and committed to God’s eternal care. Marriages are strengthened and families grow in showing God’s love. This kind of congregation can be a refuge for the weary and a refueling place to strengthen them for serving. Yes, it feels good to be in a faithful congregation, just like being in a fruitful vineyard.
But in this real world in which we live, we know that not all congregations are like that everyday. Some people seem to be barren ground. Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a lot of joy in worship. People gossip in the halls about how the Sunday School just isn’t what it used to be and the choir isn’t up to snuff, and the youth group is lagging, and the pastor is second-rate. Goodness, someone may even say that the confirmands just aren’t as sharp as those of years past! What goes wrong in the fruitful vineyard that we want our congregations to be?
Jesus says that what goes wrong is that we forget who we are and to whom the vineyard belongs—-that’s when things go sour in the kingdom of God. Jesus says that God is like the landowner who planted a vineyard, and set a fence around it. It’s a first-class operation—with not only the fence, but also a wine-press and a watchtower. Surely this will be a fruitful venture. You and I are in that vineyard. The fence that God has placed around us is not to keep us from the world, but to set us apart for a special purpose. We are like the claim that the prospector stakes out– the place where he concentrates his efforts. God has staked a claim when you were baptized. And God continued to till and keep you, tending you with special care. This is the gospel in a parable which seems so full of law and demands. You belong to God…you bear his mark of ownership, God’s claim is on you.
(You confirmands have been tended and nourished in the vineyard of this congregation…you have had the encouragement of your parents and family, sponsors, the leading of Sunday School teachers and pastors and catechists. God has intended for you to be fruitful and faithful in this vineyard of the kingdom.)
And your life, although it belongs to God, is entrusted to you. It was common for vineyards to be owned by a landlord, and kept by another. Jesus uses this as an example of how God, in spite of owning all that we are and have, seems to leave us to ourselves at times. And when we are left to ourselves, sometimes we forget what we are about. We become like those ungrateful tenants who begrudge God’s mark of ownership and abuse God’s messengers. It was such sin of forgetfulness that led to the killing of the landowner’s only son. We are forgetful, too. It is human to try and forget this relationship–to pretend that we are our own, not the Lord’s. We like to think that this life, this vineyard, is ours to do with as we please.
We resist God’s messengers and God’s call to faithfulness. (Confirmands, there will be) times when God seems to be an absentee landlord, when you will feel like you are doing pretty well on your own. And when we are feeling that way, we are tempted to begrudge God’s claim on our lives. We begrudge the voice of God’s messengers, and we wonder, “Now what do they want from me?” We make the same mistake that Adam did back in the garden of Eden, the mistake of claiming something which was not meant to be ours. One great writer said centuries ago, “It wasn’t because Adam ate the apple that he sinned. It was because he claimed something for himself. He could have eaten seven apples, and not have fallen, if he had never claimed anything for his own. God’s call in this parable is not to resentment or pride, but a call to blessing. A familiar hymn goes like this: “We give thee but thine own, whate’er the gift may be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.” When we acknowledge God as the owner of our very life, and that we are the, keepers of that life, then we can be a fruitful vineyard and a faithful congregation. It is a great privilege to be a keeper, a steward. We can take real pride in a caretaking job that is well done—I remember the man who had taken over a bad patch of ground next to his house….after much work it became working and fruitful garden. The pastor of the town walked by one day when he was weeding and leaned over the fence and said: “My what a beautiful garden! The Lord has done wonderful things here.” The man answered with hardly a glance, “Yes, but you should have seen it when the Lord had it all by himself.” (Confirmands) may you know the joy of being faithful tenants of all that the Lord has given you—of the knowledge you have gained, of the faith that we have shared, of the strength and health God gives you each day….and may you be blessed with knowing all this comes from God. May you welcome God’s messengers who are sent to remind you of what you owe God—pastors, teachers, faithful witnesses to the grace of God and the gifts of God. And may your labors be happy in the fruitful vineyard, the faithful congregation, where God sends you throughout your lifetime.
I guess we all want to be number one in this world, but you know, letting God be number one is a much happier way to live. To be a servant to whom much is entrusted is not so bad. To be reminded of what I owe to one who has given so much is not bad, either. May God help us to remember who we are and whose we are. Then we can receive God’s messengers, even his only Son, with open arms and with joy.
God bless you, confirmands, as you affirm your faith today. You have learned many things to help you make this confession. You may forget some of them, you hopefully will learn many more things in the years to come. But one of the greatest things to remember is that you are not your own, you were bought with a price…you are precious to God, and God has placed a claim on you to be set apart for fruitful service in God’s kingdom. May God bless your serving.
The peace of God…..
Amen.