Just as part of being a responsible American citizen means voting, volunteering, paying your taxes, etc., so too part of being a responsible member congregation of the LCMS means voting, volunteering, financially supporting our district and synod, etc.

That means I spent my last weekend at the English District Convention, representing Faith Lutheran Church, in around 11 hours of meetings, sometimes voting on things as unexciting as:

“That English District Bylaw 6.2.5 be amended as follows: A vacancy in any regional manager position on the District Endowment Fund Manager Board shall be filled by appointment by the District President, subject to approval by the Board of Directors… [it goes on for a good bit after that].”

In the midst of all of these meetings and endless resolutions and votes, I was reflecting on the readings that we’re going to have through July.

Starting on July 13th (or 12th for you Saturday 5:00 PM folks), we’ll be reading through the book of Colossians in our Epistle readings, and those readings lead us up to the climax of the letter in chapter 3, which begins: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” So here, Paul encourages us to not worry about earthly things, but to set our minds on the things that are above—to live our lives always remembering which things actually matter.

There might seem to be some sort of contradiction here. After all, can we honestly say that amending English District Bylaw 6.2.5 is really “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God”? To that effect, can we say that any of the meetings we have—either at a district convention or even just in our congregation (we have plenty of meetings of our own)—can we say that these really are “things that are above,” or would we be better off shredding our bylaws and never having another meeting again? We might, in the midst of yet another meeting, feel like these things don’t matter—and, in a sense, I suppose they don’t. On the Last Day, I doubt English District Bylaw 6.2.5 is going to be on anyone’s mind.

Yet maybe it will be. After all, God has called us not only HIS people, but also his PEOPLE— that is, the God who calls us also unites us, and so as God’s people we are called to walk in unity. Thus all the boring business of our church and synod may not feel important, and responding to that email or volunteering to serve on that committee may not feel like you’re doing something significant—yet by doing this business, we are working to help the Church to continue to walk in unity, as it has been called—and that certainly is one of the higher things!

-Pastor Duncan