It’s that time of year again. Depending on where you are, as you drive down this street or that, you’ll see banners on the properties of many churches across the country advertising their Vacation Bible School program, inviting parents to sign their children up for a week of fun with Jesus. In many cases, the program is sold to parents as a place to drop their kids off and be without them for a week—more a vacation for parents than for the children, I suppose—some planners have even designed their programs for this purpose.

The hope, more often than not, is that the children will be so enamored with the program that they will want to return for the church’s regular programs and activities, bringing their parents along, snagging new members for their little congregation. Many programs I have been a part of have had participants of which more than half were not members of the church; unfortunately, hopes are dashed as all or many of these children and their parents are not seen again until next summer, when the congregation prepares and runs another VBS program. Wasn’t insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results?

In any case, many places try to design bigger, better, and different programs in the hopes of attracting non-members to their church and making members out of them—of attracting the non-churched to them and “churching” them. The idea is always to attract them with the program, bring in the masses with an activity or dinner or show, then give them Jesus later—bait and switch, I believe it’s called. In any event, there are the few people who are taken in this way, finding in these programs, activities, dinners, and shows some gratification, and while Jesus may be given to them, they end up being there only for those programs, activities, dinners, and shows.

Now, I’m not saying that programs, activities, dinners, and shows need to be done away with. There is joy to be had as the body of Christ gathers around these things in addition to the fellowship that is to be had in His Word and His body and blood. However, I am saying that to put faith and hope in these things as a means to grow the body of Christ is facetious at best and heretical at worst.

It was our dear father in the faith, Dr. Martin Luther, who once quipped, “While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer, the gospel runs its course.” I wonder if he had today’s Gospel lesson in mind.

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

Looking for a program to grow the body of Christ? Look no further than His words here. Take as an example the farmer who scatters his seed on the ground. The parable of the soils should come to mind here as the farmer casts the seed and lets it fall where it may. The seeds sprout, plants take root, and soon peak through the soil, all without any direct intervention by the farmer. He doesn’t go and uncover the seed to see what’s happening. He doesn’t carefully place seed in one soil type only to switch it to another. He simply casts the seed and lets things happen as they do, returning home in the mean time to drink his Wittenberg beer.

It is as Luther noted, the gospel does its thing as he rests at home drinking his beer. In other words, Luther saw to his vocation—he taught and preached the Word of God—and when he had done his work, he walked away from the lectern and pulpit confident that the Word of God would do what it does—killing and making alive—all without his intervention or addition.

So it is with all of us, dear hearers. We don’t need any fancy programs to attract prospective members or make Christians. Truth be told, if the onus was on us to attract prospective members or make Christians, there would be no church. No, quite the opposite...there is nothing we can do to affect this; on the contrary, all that we do with our own words and actions, our gossip and behavior toward each other, despite the command to love each other, is turn people away from Christ.

However, we are given a simple message, one which may sound familiar to us as we are not too far removed from Ascension: “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47, emphasis added) “[W]here Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Ghost who creates, calls, and gathers the Christian Church, without which no one can come to Christ the Lord,” Luther wrote in the Large Catechism. Where Christ is preached—where repentance and remission of sins is proclaimed—there the Holy Ghost is at work to create, call, and gather Christians into the Body of Christ. “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” St. Paul wrote. (1 Corinthians 2:2)

That’s the seed that is sown—that is scattered. And without our knowledge or additional work, programs, activities, dinners, or shows on our part, it takes root, sprouts, and grows when and where God so wills it. “For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” This is the message given us to proclaim; the work is all God’s. Let Him do His work—do not interfere—He’ll do just fine in His own time.

Your joy comes simply in letting the truth of Christ crucified for our redemption and forgiveness be known, each in the situations in which God has placed you, in your various vocations. That brings us to the second part of today’s text.

To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.

The message is simple, the simplest of all messages. On the one hand, it need not be puffed up to be like other seeds; the small, simple mustard seed is enough. On the other hand, no specific training is necessary; no advanced degree from a theological institution prepares you to proclaim this truth. It is a simple, mustard-seed sized message of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins, the joy that there is an eternal life better this temporal life for all who believe and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. This message is so simple, even a 5-year old can deliver it.

However, much as we perceive that we need to bait and switch or dress up the message with programs, activities, dinners, and shows in order to grow the body of Christ, we also have this idea in mind that one must be specially trained to bring the evangel—the good news of salvation—to a lost and dying world. For one thing, we believe that the mission field is some place far away, not just beyond the walls of our safe, little buildings. For another thing, we believe that we don’t know how to talk to people when it comes to the Word of God, because we feel as if we lack qualifications.

You see, we’ve created programs that train up men as missionaries, as men prepared to speak the Word of God to those whom may have never heard it. And because those programs are in place, we are under the illusion that the proclamation of the gospel to the unbeliever belongs only to them. We have pastors who are charged with doing the work of an evangelist (cf. 2 Timothy 4:5) who are trained in the means and ways of proclaiming the Gospel to God’s people, and we are under the illusion that evangelism belongs only to them. We leave it to them, doing little more than perhaps putting a dollar or two in a plate in support of their good work.

Oh, to be sure, it helps to be prepared in order to talk to people of other cultures. Learning the language of other people in order to proclaim better to them the message of the forgiveness of their sins is certainly helpful and can take some training. And the work of a pastor does require much preparation, in order that he may see to the pure proclamation of the Gospel to God’s people and be ordained to the office which sees to the right administration of the sacraments. Beyond that, however, we need not see to a discussion of the topic of ordination, today.

Remember, however, the most training that the first “sent ones” received is simple catechization from Christ that repentance and the remissions of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, which includes the content of repentance and remission—that God the Son took on human flesh, was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, the third day He rose again, and ascended into heaven, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. By knowing Christ, they knew God, and the knew the Way to Him. (cf. John 14:6-7) From there, without any cultural training, Peter ended up in Rome, James the Elder supposedly ended up in Spain, Thomas is said to have gone to India, and we know of the missionary journeys Paul made to Gentile nation after Gentile nation. They were armed simply with the Word of God.

Likewise, all that you need is what you receive here. Here, you receive the Word of God which declares to you the life, death, and resurrection of God the Son for the remission of sins of the world, even for your sins. To wit, the congregations charge her pastors, “To demonstrate the mind and spirit of Christ as you serve the members of the congregation and equip them for Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost,” and, “To promote and guide the mission activity of the congregation as it is related to the local community and to endeavors of the Synod and its Districts, in particular to train workers and guide them in evangelism and to enlist the support of the congregation for mission work.” Therefore, I see to that task as I tell you, you have it. You confess the Apostle’s Creed, which proclaims in simple form who God is, what He has done, and what He continues to do. And, by virtue of your own catechization thanks to the pen of Dr. Luther, you confess what it means! Yes, even a 5-year old can say that!

By this, you are armed with His Word, the Word which you take with you beyond the walls of our safe, little congregation, to a world hurting and dying, the Word which you can speak to your friends and neighbors, to all whom God places in your path, as He gives you opportunity. No special training is necessary, though St. Peter encourages us all to be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks us for the reason for the hope that is in us. (cf. 1 Peter 3:15) That is why my encouragement is to be in the Word as often as you can. Come to Bible and Confessions studies when they are offered, if you can. Have a regular devotional routine which includes Scripture and Catechism readings and recitation. Come to our Lord’s gracious presence in Word and Sacrament as the saints gather in order that you may be refreshed and renewed by His Word, and prepared to enter the world for which He died and rose again in the place where He has put you.

Scatter the mustard seeds of the message of Christ crucified for you. This is your joy in Christ. Then, stand back and enjoy your glass of Wittenberg beer. God will make it sprout and grow when and where He pleases, producing a bountiful harvest, a bush grand enough birds to roost in its branches...but not yet.

It appears as nothing now. It’s a simple message, insignificant by our measurement, but the result is glorious, to be revealed when Christ returns in glory with His angels. Then, and only then, will we see the mustard-bush result of this simple message, as we are gathered with all the saints, all those in whom these words have taken root: You are forgiven for all of your sins. It is simple and it is yours!