This past Sunday afternoon, I had the poignant and bittersweet privilege of preaching for and officiating the closing of one of our congregations, Our Savior Lutheran Church in Evansville, and the decommissioning of its church building. Another congregation, Christ Lutheran Church in Irvington (Indianapolis), will have its closing service this coming Sunday afternoon. Similarly, St. Peter in Warsaw and Zion in Kokomo closed this past summer. While each of these situations has been unique, all of them have been emotionally painful and difficult. The decision to close in each case was not made quickly or easily, but conscientiously and prayerfully.
The closing of a congregation can feel like a failure, as though we simply didn’t do enough or do the right things in the right way – or as though the Lord had failed us! Although such feelings are understandable, they really miss the mark and overlook the grace of God that is actively at work.
By way of contrast, the closing of a congregation is actually an appropriate and opportune time to thank and praise God for causing His Gospel to be preached, His Word to be taught, and His good Gifts to be given and received for however many years He has done so in that place. That is to acknowledge that the life and lifespan of every congregation is solely by the grace of God.
At the same time, as many of us heard from the Letter to the Hebrews this past Sunday, the true “Holy of Holies” is not made with human hands in any particular place on earth, but is eternal in the heavens, in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus (Hebrews 9:24). Indeed, here on earth “we have no lasting City,” but, with all the faithful who have gone before us, “we seek the City that is to come,” whose Architect and Builder is God (Hebrews 13:14; 11:10, 16).
Yet, the same Lord Jesus Christ who has entered that truly Holy of Holies on our behalf, as our merciful and great High Priest, has also established and built His Church on earth, upon the Rock Foundation of His Gospel. So it is that He abides with us and among us here, that we might abide with Him in body and soul, even now by faith, and forever hereafter in the Resurrection.
To be sure, the Lord works through means in the building and care of His Church on earth. So it is quite right that we should also give thanks for the stewardship and sacrifices of all those who have served through the years, both pastors and laity, in each congregation. Let us not make light of those contributions and efforts, but rather recognize that their labors in the Lord have not been in vain. His Word has not returned void, it has accomplished the purposes for which He spoke it.
Now, we have no Word or promise of God that any particular congregation will remain until the final judgment. The Lord plants and preserves His Church where and when – and for as long as – it pleases Him, according to His good and gracious Will. Even the congregations of the Apostles came to a conclusion at various points over time. By way of example, the home of St. Peter that served as a church in Capernaum is now an archeological dig!
For all that, the Lord has promised that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. Neither death and the grave – nor the closing of a cherished congregation – gets to have the last word; for Christ is risen from the dead, and His Body and Bride, the Church, shall also be raised in glory at the last to live forever in and with Him. That is the point, after all, and if we did not believe and trust in that sure and certain promise, we might just as well give up altogether! But as it is for now, even as congregations come and go, other congregations remain and persist, by God’s grace alone, for the preaching and teaching of His Word and the giving of His good Gifts.
To point to those other congregations is not to downplay or diminish the significance of those congregations that have closed, It is rather another reminder that, as demographic and societal challenges accumulate and press against the Church on earth, it becomes increasingly essential that we must live and work together as a fellowship of congregations, pastors, and commissioned workers, through whom the Lord in His mercy bestows forgiveness, life, and salvation upon all of us, and whereby He would bless all those whom He will yet call to Himself in love.