Spirit of Unity [Pentecost]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 11:1-9

• Acts 2:1-13

• St. John 14:23-31

To you all who are baptized into the fiery and powerful Spirit of the true Son of God:

To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

Who speaks to you today, saying,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

 

In its own small way, Pentecost marks the end of the official Easter season and is its climax, in that God, in Christ, hands over the Keys to His kingdom to His Church. And not just any Church, but the One Body, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism Church. In fact, unity is what makes the Church Church. For there are many talents, many members, but only one Spirit.

 

Note that all the men at Pentecost, in Acts today, spoke every language. It was not “to this man one language and to this one, another”, dividing the tongues, as it were. In the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Jesus gathers and unifies the entire world, causing His Word to be spoken in every language. On top of that, He also gives to us a new language: His own.

 

In one of my favorite things the Holy Ghost does for us, He forces the broken and corrupt things of this world to do His Will. In the midst of the multiplicity and degeneration of language, God does not forsake, but rather sanctifies our words for His churchly use. This is why we don’t all have to know and speak Hebrew or some other heaven-language in order to know, understand, and hear God.

 

Though the Holy Ghost caused the multiplication of language, He did so in order to reveal our hatred of Him and to prove that He is a merciful God by bringing us back together, in spite of language barriers. All this to prove that He is the God Who forgives and creates unity, even in a world that is undividedly against Him.

 

However, unifying languages is one thing, but sanctifying them is quite another. So it is that speaking about God only through the crucified Christ, becomes a foreign language to the world. Despite the fact that God uses words we understand, talking about a self-sacrificing God is an other-worldly topic.

 

This is why, when first coming into the Church, it is discomforting and off-putting. Because in the Church of the Holy Ghost, a new song is sung with words that we aren’t used to. Its not that we don’t know the words or understand them, its that we can’t believe that God acts in the way that the words say He does.

 

And since God acts in unbelievable ways, Word and Sacrament, faith must be given in order to believe. As Judas, not Iscariot, asks Jesus today in v.22 of John 14, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Which is what prompts Jesus’s answer in today’s Gospel and He answers with the unity of the Holy Ghost.

 

Repent. How is Jesus going to accomplish unity? You barely make friends with other people, much less those who claim to be Christian. It is usually your mode of operation to anti-socially distance people. You find one thing to agree on and are immediately repelled by others. If the Christians can’t find unity, what hope is there for the rest of the world?

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed took bread and prayed for our unity saying, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:11). He also said whoever does not gather with Him, scatters (Matt 12:30).

 

And according to Jesus’ prayer, this unity is achieved by Jesus giving us His glory (Jn. 17:22), by Him dwelling in us (v.23), and us dwelling in the Trinity (v.21). All this so that there may be one flock and one Shepherd (John 10:16), for there is only one way to forgiveness, life, and salvation: Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

 

What we see and hear from Jesus is His usage of the preposition “in”. Jesus has introduced this peculiar phrase before where something physical dwells or is in something else physical.  If we page back to St. John 15, we find Jesus talking about the vine and the branches. Back further still, St. John 10:38, Jesus says that the Father is in Him and He in the Father.

 

Now, this would be easy to understand if Jesus had stopped there. Since we know that the Father did not take on flesh as the Son did, it is easy for us to picture a spirit dwelling in a body such as Jesus’ body. But He takes this phrase even further. In John 6:56 and also in his first epistle, chapter 4, St. John continues this line of thinking.

 

And in both places, we are left with a quandary. No longer is it simply a spirit, but a man dwelling in us, for I John 4:2 says, “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” and John 6:56 says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” This also does not go unheard by St. Paul as he says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”. And, Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

 

The New Testament is littered with phrases like these so that we do not make the mistake of believing that the unity Jesus is praying that His Church be in, is simply intellectual or spiritual unity. Instead, the Word of God causes us to believe in a true union of the flesh with God. That, just as Jesus was both God and man, a full union of both, so in Christ, are believers assumed into God, body and soul. Being baptized into Jesus is not only a public and symbolic way of saying, “We agree with Jesus”, but being baptized is to be placed, body and soul, into the crucified and resurrected Body of Christ.

 

If it were simply a matter of spirituality, St. Paul could have said so as he does in Galatians 3:26 “For ye are all the children of God by faith”. There was no need for the Apostle’s to be putting the idea of “corporeal” or “bodily habitation” within the minds of their hearers, but there it is.

 

So then, reading passages such as Romans 6:3 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death” takes on a completely physical and bodily meaning. Being in Jesus and believing in Jesus now must take on a fleshly tone. No longer are we separated from God as the heavens are from the earth, but we are joined to Him, bodily. As our own flesh is close to us, so are we to God, in Jesus.

 

In the Incarnation of God, Jesus causes all things to bow towards His Will of salavation for all. True unity, therefore, comes as a gift from God through His Crucified Son.  Just so, Faith and Salvation must be given by Jesus, for it is only He that possesses all things from the Father (Jn. 17:10).

 

So where do we find this “corporeal salvation” to be given by God? It is found in the very promises of God. In Baptism first, as that is the Christian’s primary reception of Faith and Salvation (Mk. 16:16) into his body. But we also have passages about hearing God’s Word and being saved that way, which is great. The embodied Word of God does not just act, but He also speaks, preaching His Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, so we would then agree with St. Paul that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing [comes through] the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17; c.f. Jn. 8:51); “word” of course meaning His Gospel preached.

 

And the final, ultimate expression of God’s physical indwelling and gift giving comes in the form of the Body and Blood of Christ Himself! Jesus doesn’t simply speak of washing, or of forgiveness, or of feeding His Flock, but He physically does these things. Salvation, found in the Body of Christ alone, is now given through the Body and Blood of Christ on our lips and on our tongues.

 

We must conclude then, that true unity, found in believing what God says, through His Son, is true and so these physical means of salvation are what unifies His Church on earth. This is how we “keep Jesus words” and find an answer for St. Judas and for us. 

 

So how does Jesus manifest Himself to us and not to the world? If we Love Jesus we will be treasuring His Word, baptizing, and Communing, at His Word. You will not find this unity, nor the Holy Ghost, outside the Church. The outward forms of this unity: baptism, the Creed, and the Supper are not charms, but ways of life. They are the manifestation of Jesus Christ in our midst and evidence of the Holy Ghost among us and not the world.

 

[For] Today the Spirit of God who brooded over the waters of a lightless creation

Swoops down with tongues of fire to kindle faith in the re-creating work of Christ.

 

Today the Spirit of God who made the tower-builders into foolish babblers

Unites believers in the univocal language of the church-building grace of Christ.

 

Today the Spirit of God who came mightily upon the deliverers of Israel

Falls upon the apostles to proclaim the deliverance from sin we enjoy in Christ.

 

Today the Spirit of God who endowed with wisdom the builders of the tabernacle

Imparts the saving wisdom of the Word made flesh who tabernacled among us.

 

Today the Spirit who gave the law to Israel on two tablets of stone

Gives hearts of flesh for hearts of stone in the [sacrament of His Table].

 

Today the Spirit whom unfaithful David prayed the Lord would not take from him

Pours himself into sinners that they might sing of the faithful love of their Husband.

 

Today is Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the Passover resurrection of our Lord

When we are made holy by the holy-ing Spirit of the Christ who gives us the Father.

 

Today is Pentecost.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

 

 

Church, like I said [Easter 7]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 36:22-28

• 1 Peter 4:7-11

• St. John 15:26-16:4

 

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

In the Name…

To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you”

In these words from the Gospel, Jesus is predicting the future, once again. And the future He predicts is not very rosy. However, we know Jesus, the God-man, is not about fear and loneliness, but comfort and togetherness. Somehow, this passage about predicting our future suffering has got to be more than just “knowing the future”. Indeed it is, for Jesus does not just tell us about the future, He goes there with us, every step of the way.

How He does this is through His Incarnation, His being made man. With His own unique, reasonable Body and soul, God places Himself in time, becoming subject to its flow, all in order to do His work that the Holy Ghost might remind us.

So, as we stare at the extinguished Paschal candle, reminding us of Jesus’ Ascension to God’s Right Hand, we are once again drawn to Jesus’s words about the Last Days and this time we live in, seemingly “without Jesus”. This time, though, St. Peter joins Jesus in our Epistle Reading from today, saying, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers”. 

Now, at first glace, we take St. Peter at his word and simply add these qualities he lists to the never ending list of personal traits that we need to work on and will probably never get to. But at least we know about them and can say that we’re in favor of them. That’s the same thing, right? However, this does not lead us to Jesus’ Ascension, neither does it illuminate anything about Easter or Jesus, for us.

And, while self-improvement is on Jesus’ radar as He is teaching, vastly more important to Him was His work in getting to Easter, His Ascension, and Pentecost. So, St. Peter’s words are significant to us, not only because of how we see the world acting in its death throes, but because we have just celebrated the Ascension of Christ and determined that after the Apostles saw Jesus ascend, they immediately went about offering church Services in the whole world.

Whoa, whoa. Ease off the gas pastor. That’s not what it says there. The church wasn’t even around during Apostolic times, at least not as we know it, right? The Apostles weren’t offering old dusty sermons in old and busted churches with old and moldy hymnals. They were preaching on the streets, holding secret, illegal gatherings, and having adventures defying the government. There were miracles and mighty signs that followed their preaching confirmed their message. Not like today.

So you say. But if you take a romp through the Book of Acts, you will find a very different picture of what you think the Apostles were doing. St. Mark gave us a clue on Ascension night when he said, after the Ascension, the Apostles “…went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs” (Mk. 16:20) in that preaching is the job of the priests and priests work in the Temple, or Church. 

In all of the Apostolic sermons in Acts, the end goal that is revealed to us is baptism. After the sermons, the hearers asked, “what do we do now”? The Apostolic reply was always “Be baptized” (Acts 2:38, 8:12, 9:18, 10:48, etc). Of course Baptism is the Way to be united with the Body of Christ, the Church, and is what gives salvation (1 Pet 3:21), so why wouldn’t they be baptizing?

There were also readings (Acts 15:31) and hymns and prayer (Acts 14:23). All of the Book of Acts sets itself up to drive home the point that the Church, as even we would recognize it, was alive and thriving from Day 1. In fact, immediately after Ascension and Pentecost, the Apostles set out to devote themselves to the doctrines, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42).

So it comes to our attention that, somehow, the Apostles knew how to conduct the Divine Service right away, felt it was important enough to devote themselves to, and believed that this is what Jesus taught them to do. At least, that’s what their actions sound like to me and I hope, what they sound like to you.

The Church of Christ who devotes herself to Word and Sacrament did not evolve into what we know today, it was revealed more and more as time went on. Meaning, it was immediately present, as you would recognize it, as the Apostles, Christ’s chosen pastors, began to teach and preach the Gospel in its purity and truth in that first century. Which is why St. Peter can tell us to basically calm down as the world destroys itself around us, because, though Jesus has ascended, you don’t have time to worry about what the world does.

You don’t have the time, because God is going to Church and you must be there as well. You don’t have the luxury of falling into despair about this or that political ploy, because you have hymns to sing, loudly. You don’t have time to invest in the devil’s wiles and temptations or any other great shame and vice, because you have a place where you are needed with your prayers.

In our Alleluia Verse, taken from St. John 14:18 “I will not leave you comfortless” or as orphans. So when St. Peter tells us to be calm, our self-control and soberness stems from the safety offered in our Lord’s Orphanage: His Church and His Divine Service to us. 

For we are orphans of the world. It has left us on the doorstep and in the wilderness unwanted and unloved. It will continue to expel us from luxuries it enjoys and continue to hate and shun us. Worse than that, we are from the world, and even though we gather here, our sinful desire to be a part of the in-crowd overtakes us and we mimic the world, in our sin.

Repent. We desire to be in, but not in the way Jesus wants us in. We desire to be special, but not in the way Jesus makes us special. We desire to be at peace, and the first thing we are more than willing to give up to be at peace is Jesus.

Dear Christians, Jesus has not left us without a ship in the port or a bed to sleep in. In fact, the promise in Ezekiel 36, heard in our Old Testament reading today, is that we are going to be gathered by God. He is going to gather us and, gasp, baptize us, see v. 25. You know, like gathering around a font of water someplace?

Modern day Jews are waiting for this gathering to happen in Jerusalem. The Apostles asked Jesus to restore His kingdom to Israel in Acts 1. But instead of that poor way of doing heavenly things only in a physical way, show of power and might in war and wealth, Jesus is going to do things His Way.

And we find this Way, and His instructions on How-To-Church, in Jesus’s last will and testament which He left to His Apostles and to us, in His Gospel. I mean, the real sense and meaning of the word “Gospel”, St. Luke 24:47 tells us, where Jesus is sending His Apostles out to preach the Gospel and that Gospel is the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, by Grace, through faith. 

So how did the Apostles come to interpret that the forgiveness of sins and the Gospel needs to be given in Church? All we need to do is look back on what Jesus said in the Gospels and remember. In St. John 5:24, “Whoever hears my Word and believes already has eternal life”. In v.25, even the dead can hear this Gospel which Jesus preaches. The same Gospel we hear.

Already in St. John 4:1, Jesus was baptizing everyone through His disciples. And finally, there is the Last Supper where Jesus says “Do this…for the forgiveness of sins”. Thus, when the Apostles are told to remember Jesus words and keep His commands, they formed the institution that grew up around those things of Christ, in order to do just that.

While Jesus wants an improved life from us, He wants a perfect life from us even more so. Thus, it falls within His work to give us that life, uniting with us in Baptism. This, God doesn’t just know the future and give us good things to do as we pass the time till it gets here. God acts now and places Himself within the past in order to get to the future with us along for the ride. God doesn’t just speak comfort, but offers it to you in a washing of rebirth and renewal, and in a seat at His Table. 

So, by the Grace of Christ, we are able to hold onto our sanity, self-control, and sobriety in the face of false scarcity scares, false flags, fake news, and fake people. It is not that they don’t affect our lives by their “magnanimity”, but that Jesus gives us better things to do. Things that do not come up empty when accomplished, but instead fulfill the Word of Christ in our hearing, giving us eternal life with Him away from all this.

Ascended to Church [The Ascension of our Lord]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Numbers 21:4-9

• James 1:22-27

• St. John 16:23-30

First thing this evening, I want to impress upon you the importance of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, for you, and then explore what the ascending, or “lifting up”, of Jesus truly means.

 It benefits us to be reminded of three things we gain because of our Lord’s Ascension to the right hand of God. First, that Christ our Helper and Savior has gloriously and physically, out-in-the-openly conquered and triumphed over all His enemies: the devil, death, and hell, as He said in Ephesians 4:8, “…He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive…” that it may neither hold nor keep us any longer.

 Second: the other part of Ephesians 4:8 is that Jesus gives gifts to men. Meaning that He has procured those gifts with His Body and Blood and sends them to us by His Holy Spirit through the means of the Spirit.

 Third, in His Ascension, Jesus becomes our constant and sleepless Intercessor, Mediator, and Advocate with God the Father in Heaven. These three main benefits are why we gather this evening, because these three benefits are exactly what is offered in the Divine Service found in Christ’s Church. This is why you are here now and every time Service is offered.

 As for the Ascension itself, I want to clear up some misunderstandings that some false teachers teach. And we will begin seeking after the Truth with these words of Jesus from St. John 12:32 “and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”. 

 Now many hear this and rightly believe that God is high and lifted up. The highest of the high; above all things. And rightly so, for the Bible in many places describe God as such. In Genesis 14:18, Melchizedek is described as “priest of God Most High”. In Exodus, God reveals Himself to Moses on a mountain and those are usually high up. 

 Isaiah is famous for his revelation of God “high and lifted up” upon His throne, in 6:1. To cement this truth that God is “on high”, all temples and churches dedicated to false gods, in the Bible and history, are all in high places, attempting to get as high as they can. 

 Of course this fails, but for our purposes the doctrine is clear: God is on high. Jesus ascends to “on high”. Jesus is God. Simple. Easy. Yes, I believe.

 Yet, herein lies the temptation to sin. God is on high, all well and good, but I am not. I can reach the heights of the false gods, but I cannot reach up to God. Which makes us sinfully conclude that God is far off and uninterested in anything but abject submission from us peons. In sinfulness, we let Him have it His way, then. God is up there and we’re down here. God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world and we don’t have to deal with God except on our own terms.

 In this way, we wrongly believe that God is only high and lifted up in power and majesty and when He is, He is only a tyrant and warmonger, punishing the children for the sins of their fathers to the third and fourth generations (Ex. 20:5). In the upside-down world of sin, this is your truth.

 When we repent of our sins, we are shown the better way. Jesus is God, but Jesus is also true man, born of His mother. So when we see Jesus ascending to the right Hand of God, it is not only God returning to His throne in heaven, but a man going with Him!

 Now Jesus saying “when I am lifted up from the earth” is not only referring to His Ascension we celebrate this evening, but to when the world lifted Him high up upon the cross. For that quote in John 12 goes on to verse 33, where Jesus explains this “high and lifted up” business, saying, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die”.

 It is true that God is high and lifted up, on His throne, in heaven, but God is high and lifted up also on earth. John 3:13 says, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man”. And the descended Son of Man suffers, is crucified, and dies. 

 You want to worship God on high? You want glory to be to God in the highest? You want to be drawn to Christ along with all men when He is lifted up? Then you must gather around the crucifix. You must gather around that symbol which directs you to the highest mountain on earth. The highest place is where the Most-High dwells and the Most-High dwells with men.

 Not only does He dwell with men, but He eats and drinks with them. He leaves His cloak of the pastoral office (2 Ki 2:13), His doctrine (Acts 1:1), and His baptism of the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:5) behind in the care of men, such that the highest place on earth be reached by all people at minimal effort.

 For now that the Most-High and the dwelling place of the Most-High is with us, the highest place we can ascend to is the Divine Service where, in Body and Blood we taste the delights of heaven where God is on His throne. And because God is on His throne in mercy as the Lamb Who Was Slain, all is right with the world, because through Him the world is not left alone, but redeemed and comforted in peace.

 In this way, the Way of the Crucified God that is high and lifted up upon the cross, the benefits of Christ’s Ascension come to us. The mountain of God (Rev. 21:10) is His Church, His Bride. Jesus may ascend to the Right Hand of God, but that Right Hand is upholding, defending, and administrating His Church on earth. 

 The fruits of His victory over sin, death, and the devil are offered in Word and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit reveals Himself in those same gifts, and our Advocate, Intercessor, and Mediator kneels down with us in prayer before the Most-High Who has descended even to this Altar. 

 Yes, the Lord Ascends, but in Christ, He unites His Ascension with His Descension, just as God and man in Christ are united and a man now has ascended to heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God, ruling all things.

 

Sanctified beforehand [Easter 6]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Numbers 21:4-9

• James 1:22-27

• St. John 16:23-30

Our Lord teaches about prayer today and it is your Small Catechism that should be used as a prayer-book. For, Jesus just doesn’t teach us the Lord’s Prayer, but gives us life and His Church to continue to teach us to pray. As the nation celebrates Mothers today, we find mothers mentioned in the Small Catechism and should pray for them.
 
Yet, one thing that we never ask God for is parents, specifically mothers. We don’t get to choose them and we certainly don’t get the choice of having them or not. The way the world is ordered, we are given parents without our consent (the horror). Which does not mean that we are being oppressed, but exactly the opposite. In the family, God curbs our sinful selves into His proper order.
 
that Proper Order is “honor your father and mother”. This is one example of how the Father loves you, that He answers your prayer for a holy and right life even before you pray for it, even before you come into existence. So it is that this existence, this life begins with family and it is exactly that institution that our country and culture has failed most miserably.
 
Now you say, its not so bad. Anyone can be a parent if they choose. There is no Family Police breaking down doors, preventing families. There are no barricades or glass ceilings to break through. There is nothing stopping a family from coming into existence.
 
So you say. But do you see the world through God’s eyes? Yes the family is not oppressed per se, but neither is it promoted. You would think the very backbone of the country, the family that produces new tax cattle, would be treasured and held more closely. But in these grey and latter days, it is merely one choice among many on the clearance rack.
 
Yes, the family and its value is there on the national culture shelves, but things that do not sell go on that shelf. What’s put out front, on the end of the aisle, and at the check-out lane, the “impulse buy”; those are the things that sell. What’s put in those places? Not family, not motherhood, and certainly not God or prayer.
 
You would be hard pressed to find a vocation as essential as mothers. We know its essential because everyone has a mother. Adam knew this when he named his wife Eve, calling her the “mother of all the living” (Gen 3:20). This is the value of mothers, then, that they are the ones to fill the earth and subdue it. A single person may make a small difference and lead a satisfying life, but one mother can raise multiple lives and make a multitude of difference.
 
Repent. We pray to God and ask our heavenly Father for things in Jesus’s Name, but are completely disappointed with them when we receive them, if not outright reject them. Back to Adam and Eve as our example: Adam did not value Eve as a mother enough. He did not give her children right away, he did not guard and protect her from danger, and he threw her under the bus when they got caught at the tree.
 
So our prayers ascend to God, “What are we to do?” The culture battle is lost, there is no persuading anyone anymore. What do you do with a failed institution? You replace it with a better one.
 
With this in mind, we return to the Lord to teach us just what we are to replace the world’s idea of a mother with. But since God is “father” and “son”, what does He know about it? 
 
We forget all too easily that the feminine, motherhood comes from God. He made Eve, after all. Jesus even describes Himself as a mother hen in St. Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
 
Does this prove God is a woman? No. It proves that God understands best the need for a father and mother such that He sends His Son to purchase and win for us a sanctified life which fulfills the Fourth Commandment. Our heavenly Father does not pick a father or mother and make them strong, but sends His Son Whom He has made strong for Himself (Ps. 80:17).
 
He is made strong for Himself in order that He might be made man, be raised by His own mother and father, suffer, and die. In this sacrifice, His holy, innocent, and precious Blood covers the multitude of sins, even those aimed at God’s ordering of father, mother, and family. For just as our heavenly Father is our father, no matter the state or condition of our earthly father, so too do we have a heavenly mother, regardless of the state of our earthly mothers.
 
That of course is the Church of Christ. The Bride Whom the strong Son offers His life up for “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Eph 5:25-27).”
 
The Bride who births Children of God through Holy Baptism. The Bride who nurtures and raises up sons of God by Word and sacrament. The Bride who educates by gathering around the crucifix so that if any is bitten by sin, they may look upon it and live.
 
The Bride who reminds her children of their natural face of sinfulness, that they might seek the Lord and His forgiveness, offered freely. The Bride who prays, non-stop, for the Church of God in Christ and for all people according to their needs.
 
This Bride, is our answer to the world’s “motherhood”. This Church, whom Jesus dies for and the Holy Spirit creates, is the answer to all prayers. It is the life that God gives to replace what the world has corrupted. And because we are a part of that corruption, we need to be given the things that we pray for.
 
And so, the Lord says in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”. Meaning, that if you have faith, God will give you a clean heart and right desires. He will not let your private desires run rampant and destroy. But He will remake your sinful desires into His holy desires.
 
And what are His holy desires? That every evil plan and purpose of the devil be destroyed. That we should fear and love God alone. That anger and contempt for father and mother, fatherhood and motherhood, be cast far from us. Instead that we honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.
 
Why? Because it is the Lord’s will to give you His kingdom and His kingdom consists of the Lamb Who was slain, sitting on the throne and the Lamb’s Bride, made ready by Faith (Rev. 7:10; 21:2, 9). The very existence of heaven is a marriage feast.
 
Dear Christians, Deuteronomy 7 tells us that “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery” (Deut 7:7-8).
 
No, it was not that you were praying for the right things first, then God said, “Hey! I like this guy”. First, it was a loving God, then a very good creation, then God’s compassion upon sinful humanity. First God loved us from the beginning. Second, He makes a perfect, orderly world for us, in faith. Third, He sends His Son to reorder our hearts and prayers back to His good and gracious will, so that, in His Grace, we may pray for whatever and receive it.
 
God loves us first and knows our prayers. He answers them first, before our prayers. We continue to pray to remind us of that, so that we receive our mothers and all things with thankfulness. Thankfulness that there is still a godly life of faith to be lived, in the midst of satanic attacks and propogandist, worldly culture. 
 
thankfulness that, in loving the Son, Jesus Christ, in His Church among His holy things, we find that we also are loving the Father and the Spirit and are finding strength in our families, even our Church family, which both our mothers gave to us at God’s Word.
 
 

The Good Paraclete [Easter 5]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 12:1-6

• James 1:16-21

• St. John 16:5-15

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

In the Name…

To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

 

The Name or title, there is “Paraclete” in the Greek. Yes it is translated as “helper”, but that is only part of the meaning of that title. Another part is “comforter”, which we also may be familiar with as it is in our favorite Psalm, “…thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” You will also need the word “advocate” in your heads for today.

 

All those definitions are part of the root meaning behind the title “Paraclete”, but you may be interested in knowing that, as a title or a name, St. John is the only person to use it in the entire Bible. Job uses it as well, in 16:2, but in the negative. This rarity of usage is going to help us define this Name that the Holy Spirit takes upon Himself.

 

There Job says, “I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.” He calls his “friends” who have come to comfort him in his loss and disease, miserable comforters. They are not just “miserable”, they are “evil”, “troublesome”, “laborious” comforters. 

 

Now, a simplistic summary of Job and his evil comforters is this: Job spends his time lamenting his misery, but confident God has made him righteous, and his friends spend their time trying to convince Job that he is evil and deserved the miseries he got.

 

So it is, in casting doubt on God’s justification by faith of Job, his friends are preaching evil comforts. In attempting to call evil what God has declared good, they are teaching evil. Job cries out for the Good Comforter, the Good Paraclete for he believes in Him. He says in v.16: “Even now, my witness is in heaven. My advocate is on high.”

 

God’s Word presents us with the lie, the evil comforter, next to the truth, the Helper Jesus sends, that the truth might shine even brighter for you. The lie is the “Evil Paraclete” who comes to drown us in a sea of sins. These are not false accusations, either. Every one we have committed and every one deserving of eternal punishment. The devil does not need false witnesses against us.

 

But it is not our sins that drown us, but the guilt and despair that comes from the accusations, because they hit home. In front of our Judge, we have no case and no hope for reprieve. We know the Prosecution has an airtight argument. We cry out together with Job: “The Lord has delivered me into the hands of unrighteous men and thrown me to the ungodly” (Job 16:11) with Job in v.11.

 

At the end of that chapter, Job then unwittingly comes to the solution and makes a demand from the courtroom. In a moment of clarity amidst his suffering, he prophesies saying in 16:21, “O that a man might plead with God As a man with his neighbor!”

 

What an interesting idea! That God would converse with man, not through a whirlwind, as He did with Job and Israel in the wilderness, but with a mouth, face-to-face. Job confesses in 42:5, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” And confirming this fleshy confession, the Lord answers Job’s prayer for relief for himself and his friends. Not just relief, but forgiveness.

 

Repent. Yes, the Comforter comes to comfort, but comfort from what? From only earthly troubles? Was Job only complaining about how his family was gone and his body hurt? No. Job complained about the righteousness that God promised to him not manifesting itself in his life. Job took God to task and said if Your righteousness is mine, then where is it?

 

Dear Christians, going back to our favorite Psalm, 23:4, the comfort of the Lord that you plead for so much is a rod and a staff, instruments of correction and punishment. We beg God for comfort in our affliction (Ps 119:50). Ecclesiastes 4:1 says, “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.”

 

No comfort from heaven and no comfort from earth. So it is that at the proper time, the Good Comforter has come. And He has come in the true sense of the Good Paraclete. For “paraclete literally means “called next to”, as in the Lord will be called to be next to us and He will be calling us to be next to Him.

 

Jesus, our Advocate as St. John says in 1 John 2:1 and 2, “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins…”, is called next to us. He is called not as life-coach or as a spirit or angel, but as a man. He is called to be born of a virgin and be made man. This is as “next to us” as you can get.

 

But wait, there’s more. He gets even more “next to us” in assuming our nature into God. Meaning, He feeds us His Body and Blood and baptizes us in order that we become a part of His Body; more Christ-like. 

 

Second is His call to us to be next to Him. This is His Spirit’s call of the Gospel, the call to convert from unbelief to belief. For He calls you to His eternal glory in Christ (1 Pet 5:10). The call is first a call to repentance, for Jesus “…came not to call the righteous, but sinners…” to repentance (Mk 2:17).

 

This Call is no small thing. This calling from God to repent and believe the Gospel has the same power behind it that made all things. As we hear in Genesis 1, when God calls something, it is what He says. However, just because there is infinite force behind the call, does not mean that it is irresistible.

 

For God calls out in peace and calls you for peace (1 Cor 7:15). The Call is an invitation to be with Him, to feast with Him for eternity. As St. Matthew says 22:4, “Tell those who are called…Come to the wedding feast.” And this feast is meant to gather. For the Helper calls, enlightens, sanctifies, and gathers the whole Christian Church on earth, as Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without price.”

 

Here now is the true call of the Good Paraclete, the Good Shepherd: “Come”. Not “wait till you’re ready” or “make yourself ready” or “just admit that God hates you”, but a pure, unconditional invitation. What is the subject of the call? All that glorifies Jesus, as He said in the Gospel today.

 

The Evil Paraclete calls for silence just as the Apostles were called and charged to not speak or teach in the Name of Jesus at all (Acts 4:18). Because silence leads to unbelief and a resisting of the Call and “…none of those men who were called shall taste my banquet” (Lk. 14:24).

 

The True Paraclete, however, proclaims the Lord’s death until He comes, in the Lord’s Supper. The Good Paraclete calls out and gives God’s justification of sinners by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake. The Helper then gathers these Called ones into His Called Body, His Church, where His pure Gospel is taught and His sacraments administered according to it. 

 

Maybe we are not as bad off as Job, but there still resides in us the sin of an evil comforter. In Christ, God leaves us a true comforter. He does not leave us comfortless or as orphans (Jn 14:18), but sends Himself to purchase comfort for us upon the cross. 

 

This purchase is then forwarded infinitely in the Paraclete, Who desiring to glorify Jesus and hand over what is His (Jn 16:14), creates the Holy Church where the Holy Gospel, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Supper is made to graft you into the True Vine. 

 

By these things, the Paraclete calls you out of your unbelief. By immersing yourself in these things, you find yourself called next the Holy Spirit. For the true calling and comfort of God is only found in Christ and therefore only found in the gifts He gives. Such that, when we are guided to the Word and Sacrament, we know and believe that we are being guided to all truth and therefore know that the Paraclete is among us.