I appreciate your appreciation!

It’s October, which means it is Pastor Appreciation Month.

The Zarling family thanks you for the appreciation you showed us with your generous gifts. I wanted to take this opportunity, though, to ask, “Why do you appreciate your pastor?”

It’s not because he’s well liked, has a good personality or is a snappy dresser. It’s not because he’s good with kids or tells funny stories. Hopefully, I am all those things.

 
But you shouldn’t appreciate your pastor because he’s likeable in any way. In fact, your pastor may well be someone you can’t stand at all. Maybe you even pray that he takes a call somewhere else.
 
And yet, you still appreciate him.

Why?

Because your pastor is the one chosen by God to be in this place at this time to administer God’s Means of Grace in Word and Sacraments to God’s people. He’s the one called by God, through you, to stand in the place of Christ for you. Though you may hear the pastor’s voice, it is really the voice of Christ delivering the holy words of God in Law and Gospel. He is Christ’s hands for you, delivering forgiveness of sins, new life and salvation in the Sacraments.

You appreciate your pastor because he tries to be there with you in the maternity ward at the birth of your child, in the hospital before or after surgery, in your living room when you are homebound, at your dining room table when you are grieving, and at the hospice home ushering your soul into heaven.

You appreciate your pastor not because of him as an individual, but because of the office in which he stands.

This is why you appreciate your pastor. And how do you, then, show appreciation? As much as we appreciate your cards and gifts, what I truly appreciate is seeing you in church and in God’s Word.

Here is how you can show your appreciation: Simply let your pastor do those things which he is called to do. Come to worship. Attend Bible Study. Let your ears be filled with the Word of God and your mouths be filled with the Body and Blood of Christ. Receive what your pastor is there to give you. For when I urge you to go to the Divine Service and receive the Sacrament, I am doing nothing less than urging you to be who you have been recreated to be – a Christian. Be a sheep of the Good Shepherd by following the invitation of His under-shepherd – your pastor.

To be honest, what I really appreciate is seeing all of you sitting in the pews for worship, answering questions in Bible study and kneeling at the Lord’s communion rail to receive the Sacrament.

“For the gospel is not delivered unto us that we should thereby seek our own praise and glory, or that the people should honor and magnify us which are the ministers thereof; but to the end that the benefit and glory of Christ might be preached and published, and that the Father might be glorified in his mercy offered unto us in Christ his Son, whom he delivered for us all, and with him hath given us all things.” – Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, 5:25

I appreciate your appreciation,

Pastor Zarling