Christ crucified is a declaration. It is not a line of reasoning or argument. It is not making a case or offering conjecture. It is news-- good news, great news, spectacular news, life altering news!The truth of God's incarnate Son is not made more persuasive by the voice or media which announces it. It is the power of God in itself. A mother who whispers the love of God in Christ to her child delivers nothing less than St. Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost. A faithful preacher of the Gospel teaching in a tiny congregation like Pastor Seaver in Neuendettelsau who may have only his family to hear, lacks nothing. They have the good news of Christ. God doesn't need a giant media network.
It is never the media but the substance of God’s Word which transforms lives. The content of all Christian proclamation is Christ Himself. Let the world know, whether this News is carried by voice, print, radio, lyric, stained glass, sign language, or smoke signal I suppose, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, that He has conquered sin and death, reconciling the world to Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. This one wonderful announcement surpasses any other conversation between people. The supreme news is that God, the Father delivered his own eternal Son into this world of sinful people to be our substitute in life and in death. God became a man for one purpose, to reunite us with God through the supply of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection we could not otherwise acquire, earn, or deserve on our own.
To speak of Jesus is the greatest privilege. To do this the Lord has given us a voice and multiple ways to speak it. Electronic media is not necessarily a new way. Radio and even the Internet have been around for a while, but they are far from having been fully exploited for the sake of the Gospel.
Our own vocal cords are hardly exhausted from sharing Christ. Am I right? We still have breath, and we still have time, but how much and for how long we don't know. But this we do know: we have neighbors who need to hear God's Word. We have family members who need to be encouraged in their faith. We have friends who need to encounter Christ.
I don't think I even heard the word “blog” prior to a couple years ago. “Blog” is a condensed form of the term 'WebLog" a kind of web diary, I guess. But if the Lord has given this means of modern communication, there is every good reason to use it as long as it does not overtake the message. Some media does. Some media is so flamboyant and ostentatious that it leaves little room for truth.
Could we have too much media today? Are there too many voices, too much noise, too great a flood of images and information thrown at us? In my opinion there is not too much media. But again, it's not essentially the media but the content message in the media that matters. Media is not neutral. That’s a topic for another time, but wherever a voice can be used for the sake of the Gospel, let the truth of Christ be preeminent.
Up through last spring I had been sending pastoral devotions to many of our members under the title “Cross Points” through an Internet distribution resource called “Constant Contact.” I’d like to revive that and also use this blog in much the same way. Experts tell us people like to receive information in different ways. But what concerns me most as a pastor is that many of our people don’t have a consistent diet of God's Word.
This blog will never be a substitute for participation in the Divine Service. It will never be a proxy for your presence in the Lord's house on the Lord's Day to receive the Lord’s Means of Grace. You cannot have your sins pronounced forgiven on a blog. You cannot receive the true and living body and blood of the Lord over the Internet. But you can be reminded of how gracious and strong our Savior is. You can be encouraged to repent and believe the Gospel.
My hope is that in all our communication, here or elsewhere, we will always be saying, “To me, to live is Christ.”
