If Luther Wrote a Letter to Pastors Today

I have a small request I would like to make. You don't have to rush to fulfill it - just in time for next Sunday's sermon would be fine. Pastor, I would like to know Christ.

This may come as a shock to you, but Christ seems to be missing in your sermons. Oh, sure, you mention him by name; you refer to the "gospel of Christ;" your sermons are filled with nice sounding Christian terms. But often I leave and feel that I still don't know Christ.

I know what I'm about to say to you is nothing you don't already know. And I know that for 52 weeks a year you are faced with the challenge of saying the same things in different ways, using different words. I know, because I myself once struggled such with weekly sermons and do so today writing a weekly column for the local paper.

But now I sit in the pew rather than stand behind the pulpit. And all those feelings and all that guilt and all that pride still attend church with me. In the pew I need to hear those same things again and again, even though I do come to church every week. I often carry "baggage" into church, despite my meager attempts to come prepared to worship Him.

I need to know Christ. Don't just pass by his life and his work with the simple "gospel of Christ." Explain to me what that gospel is. Show and tell me how that gospel affects me. Show me what Jesus did for me, how he paid for my sins, why he had to pay for them the way he did, stretched out on a cross.

And Pastor, please don't spare the gory details of why Jesus had to come to this miserable planet and die for miserable human beings. Tell me that I am a sinner. Confront me with my guilt. Reveal all of my dirty little deeds and dirty little secrets. Yes, I'll feel uncomfortable - but not as uncomfortable as I might feel in hell had Christ not suffered, died, and rose again. If I had cancer, you would certainly urge surgery and rejoice that surgery is available. Why not use the Law to cut open those festering boils of sin and rejoice that God has shown me my shortcomings and my need for a Savior?

And finally, Pastor, once my wounds are open and sore, treat me with the salve of the Gospel. Bind up our broken hearts with the sutures that Jesus' love provides. Show me that my uncleanness is washed away in the blood of Christ. End your sermon with the gospel message of full and free forgiveness, that Christ Jesus came into this earth to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. He died that I might live; he rose to assure me