Grace and peace to you from God our Father, who is the Creator of this Church, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Foundation. Amen.

Building projects are great. Whether building something simple like a birdhouse, or expensive like putting an addition onto your home. Building projects can be fun, invigorating, relationship building, and good, healthy hard work. Building projects can also be hard on a relationship. Imagine a married couple repainting their basement. The wife doesn’t think her husband’s use of a paint roller is very professional – he misses a lot of spots. She wants to avoid conflict so when he goes to work in the morning, she repaints his portion of the walls. The husband also wants to avoid conflict. So, the next time they have to repaint something and his wife asks him, "Honey, which color and painting technique do you like best?" he wisely replies, "Whichever one you like best, dear." Smart guy.

There can also be difficulties and hard feelings in the church family when it comes to building projects: choosing the color of the carpeting, what kind of sound system will be used, should we add a staffed nursery or not, who is going to do the work, how much money this project is going to cost, and the list could go on and on.

Sure, there are difficulties with any building project, whether it be in the home or in the church. One thing can be certain with every building project, though, and that is growth. The family is building on because they need more room for their growing family. The congregation is adding Sunday School classrooms because there has been tremendous growth in the numbers of young families with children coming to church. The congregation is constructing a whole new church building because there is the potential for increased growth. When we are building something, it means that we are growing or expecting growth.

We have seen tremendous growth in this congregation over the past few months. The Lord has graciously brought all these gifted and talented people to us who are willing and eager to serve their Lord. God is truly blessing Epiphany Lutheran Church.

This morning, as we celebrate our congregation’s seventy-eighth anniversary, we recognize that we are in a building project of sorts. We are building Christ’s Church. In order to build his Church properly, we are using the right tools and we are working together.

I do a little woodworking when I have the time. Like many people, if I can’t find the right tool for a project I just use something else – a vise grip for a hammer, a screwdriver for a chisel, a knife for a screwdriver; and if you break off the tip, it’s an improved screwdriver. I learned from my dad that you can use duct tape, wire, and baling twine to fix just about anything.

Sometimes you can get away with using improper tools and still complete the job. But usually the result is an inferior completed project and even broken tools. If you are going to do a good job in building something, you need to use the right tools.

In the same way, some problems of the soul are just not made for mere human tools like reason, psychology, or emotions. These tools can seem to work for a while, but compared to God’s tools, they are duct tape and baling twine. They work for a while, but they are not the best solution. Some people also try alcohol, drugs, or other addictions to hide or escape their problems.

There are times when we need psychiatrists, psychologists, AA meetings, behavioral medicines and counseling. But these tools can only help cover over our guilt, mask our hurts, or help us to overcome the physical aspects of addictions or depression or difficulties in our marriage. They cannot deal with the spiritual aspects of our lives as God’s children.

All of us, at times, try to solve our problems on our own. Our pride, ego, and stubbornness get in the way. The Master Architect and Builder, our friend Jesus, is not impressed by our feeble human efforts as he watches us try to rectify our problems without him. He sees the blisters popping up in our minds as we mull over our regrets and guilty feelings. With sadness he watches when people try to resolve their hurts with drugs or alcohol. With thoughtful concern he sees the frustration caused by chiseling at guilt with blame and excuses over and over again with no real progress.

Those are inferior tools. That’s why Jesus gives us the right tools for building his Church. And wow, what a difference they make. They are so much more powerful and effective. They make the job easy. We use the hammer of God’s Law to knock down our walls of pride that tells us we don’t need God; the crowbar of God’s Law to rip apart our stones of apathy that tells us that we don’t need to belong to a church because we can worship God in nature; the chisel of God’s Law that digs down deep to find the hidden sins that we don’t want to admit.

We use God’s tools of his sacred Word, holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper to build us up and comfort us. God designed these tools to make a difference in our lives. They are the only tools that can really eradicate guilt, fear, and shame in our lives. Everything else we use either tries to hide our guilt or make it worse. God designed these tools to give forgiveness, love, joy, and peace.

The right tools worked for the apostle Paul. Paul learned to use God’s Word instead of human wisdom. He wrote to the Christians in Corinth: "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

Paul was not an eloquent speaker. He was nervous and timid, but with Jesus’ Word in his hands and in his heart, he created and built up churches all over the Mediterranean world. Wow! No amount of rhetoric and psychobabble would have done that. Rhetoric or psychological counseling without Christ is like a placebo someone might take instead of real medicine. It looks like it will work but that’s all. What works is the simple, powerful message of God’s incredible love for lost people.

Just like Paul we see incredible things happen in our lives and in our church when we use the tools Jesus has given us. I have worked with a number of couples whose marriage was almost certainly headed for divorce. Through counseling with God’s Word, their marriages were saved. Amazing! One alcoholic man came home to find his wife, children, and furniture gone. He finally gave his life and his alcoholism over to God. Now he is one of the most active and faith-filled men in his congregation. Powerful! A woman attended group therapy sessions for post-abortion syndrome for 10 years. She stopped going two weeks after she learned that she was forgiven for her sin through Jesus’ death on the cross. Incredible!

Baptism holds that same power. A father brought his deathly ill daughter to the foreign missionary, hoping that he could do something, anything for his daughter. The missionary offered to baptize the little girl to create faith in her Savior and have her sins washed away. The father refused. He didn’t believe his daughter was sinful. The missionary replied, "If she isn’t sinful, she won’t die." The missionary knew the passage well, "The wages of sin is death." The father left. After about an hour he returned to the missionary, with tears in his eyes, requesting baptism for himself and his daughter. Does baptism really have the power to create faith, wash away sins, and give strength to fight the devil? Absolutely! Jesus uses baptism to give us assurance that our own decisions could never give.

Jesus gave the Lord’s Supper to remove the sin that keeps happening in our lives. The Lord’s Supper is his tool for removing guilt over a bad week. When you go to the Lord’s Table and drink from the well of his forgiveness for sins you have committed, you don’t feel the need to drink your problems away. When a husband and wife hurt each other, they gather at the Lord’s Table and receive together the forgiveness that enables them to pardon one another.

These are the right tools that each one of us has in this congregation. We use these tools to build up Christ’s Church. We can use these tools separately and individually, but we can use them more effectively and efficiently, if we are working together to build Christ’s Church.

Paul tells us in our sermon text that we build Christ’s Church upon the foundation of God’s Word, written by the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the most important stone of this building. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple to praise and glorify the Lord. In him, we too, are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives his Spirit.

Anniversaries are special - whether we are talking about wedding anniversaries or anniversaries of congregations. An anniversary means that those involved have done the hard work necessary to stay together and work together, even though life together can be difficult and challenging at times.

As we celebrate our seventy-eighth anniversary today, we remember those members who have come before us, who have done the hard work of establishing this congregation, putting up these walls, and keeping this congregation a place of lively ministry. It hasn’t been easy. Ministry seldom is.

This is why we need each other. On our own, we could never attempt to support a church, a grade school, a high school, and missions in our synod. But together we can do great things. "In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

Together we have 140 children in our school that are hearing God’s Word daily. Together our Teens are becoming more active in ministry and more excited about their own Teen Room in the Parish House. Together we are inviting our neighborhood children to Easter Vacation Bible School to learn that Easter isn’t about bunnies or chocolates, but about a risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

Together we are working to have great education programs for our children like Boy and Girl Pioneers and Sunday School. Our leaders and teachers are working hard to make these programs new, creative and exciting. Separately, we could never run a church, but working together we are accomplishing great things for God’s kingdom. Our average worship attendance is up to 160. Last year we averaged 25 for Bible studies. Now we are averaging 65 in all of our Bible studies. Working together, since last June we have added 26 new members and 39 souls to our congregation’s care.

Working together we are offering more refreshments and potlucks, so not only is our church growing, but also our waistlines. Working together we are offering beautiful music, awesome worship, dedicated Christian education (and every once in a while I try to throw a good sermon in to keep up with all of you gifted people.) Working together we offer counseling for homebound members, families, and troubled teens. Christ is allowing us to rescue people from hell so that we may see them in heaven. Together we are growing Christ’s Church.

One thing I have noticed about most of the members at Epiphany – you don’t just come to church for one hour a week. Your church is a part of who you are. I think that says a lot about you … and a lot about Christ’s Church.

As I said earlier, I’ve tried my hand at building things, but I’m usually not very good. So here are some helpful hints I’ve learned about building things. If it's electronic, get a new one ... or consult a twelve-year- old. Stay simple: Get a new battery; replace the bulb; see if the tank is empty; try turning the switch "on"; or just paint over it. Always take credit for miracles. If you dropped the alarm clock while taking it apart and it suddenly starts working, you’ve healed it. Regardless of what people say, kicking, pounding, and throwing sometimes DOES help. And finally, work in the kitchen whenever you can ... many fine tools are there, it’s warm and dry, and you are close to the refrigerator.

I like these hints. I use them whenever I can. The best hints for building anything permanent and worthwhile, though, is to use the right tools. Christ has given us the right tools. And we use these tools as we work together. It is a lot simpler to finish a project when others are working alongside of us, helping us, and encouraging us. And we work knowing that we have a final, lasting, great goal that we are working towards – building Christ’s Church. There is nothing more worthwhile than that. Amen.

You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, working together to build up Christ’s Church. Amen.