READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 36:22-28
1 Peter 4:7-11
- St. John 15:26-16:4
Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from
falling away.”
Thus far from God’s Word teaching us what God is going to do for us: send the Helper. Once more, God takes the lower place, beneath us, serving us His own Spirit that we would not fall away. This points us to the Lord’s church and the place where He has chosen to make His Name dwell: Jesus. In our own lives, this should move us to love our church, become a fan of the Divine Service, and be able to explain why we do what we do.
For, today we have come to the Sunday after the Ascension of Jesus. As in, Jesus can no longer be seen as He used to. Which may or may not beg the question, how now are we to distinguish between good and evil; between what Jesus wants and what the devil wants?
Jesus has promised to never leave us and He has gifted us His Word as a seal for that promise, and yet where is He? And at that point, the point of wavering, the point of doubt, the devil steps in. He tempts us to turn away from Christ and his temptation is always the same: “Did Jesus really say…?”
And it is in the Church’s song called the Te Deum, that we sing the words, “O Lord in Thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded”. And it is at this prayer against being confounded, that we, the Lord’s true Church on earth, find ourselves in this life simply because we cannot see Jesus as the Apostles could.
How fragile we are. How true we are of little faith. We are confounded, confused, ashamed. We hear of this on the 9th Sunday after Trinity in the parable of the dishonest manager. He has been found wasteful and turned out. He then comments that he is “ashamed to beg” (Lk 16:3).
Shame is to misrepresent and misunderstand what God’s Will is, a true confounding. The dishonest manager could have made a happy life, begging, as the Lord had just moved his life in that direction. Instead, he was ashamed. So ashamed, he thought he knew God’s will for his life and he was wrong.
Adam and Eve were both naked in the Garden of Eden and they were NOT ashamed. They were both fully known by God and by each other and there was nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. When they took their own will into their own hands, they fell into sin, death, and the power of the devil. Now, they were ashamed and they attempted to cover up their misunderstanding of God’s Will.
Where Adam, Eve, and the manager believe it is God’s will that they be successful and ascend to God on their own, their rejection teaches them otherwise. It is there that they learn God’s true will for them, but it is not their humility and service to Him that pays for their sin, but His.
God’s Divine Service. Not that God is our butler, but that He is the Eternal Giver. There is our distinction that Jesus leaves us in this world: God’s Service to and for us. We know what that is: His Word and Sacraments given to us for our forgiveness and salvation. And God doesn’t waiver on that, we do. So just for our own sakes we add ceremony and celebration to surround God’s Service to us.
Ceremony, meaning those things we add to God’s Word and Sacrament which are neither commanded or forbidden by Him, such as candles, buildings, and lectionaries. And celebration meaning all those Sundays and extra days when we come to church to hear of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Part of that ceremony and celebration is what we do for baptisms. To start off, historically, the confessions of the Church, what she believes, have been called symbols. Our creeds, Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian, are called the Three Symbols of the Church. They are representative of what the true Church believes. Where you find those symbols believed in and confessed truly, you find the Church.
Adding the Lutheran Confessions to them, in the Book of Concord, and we have the Lutheran Symbols. Those important things which we confess, over and over again, which aid our fight against the devil and his will.
And symbols, in a Church of Sacraments, are both spiritual and physical. We have our spiritual words in Holy Scripture, Creed, and confessions, but we also plaster our environment with symbols. Not just any symbols, but those that point us back to our Confessions. Our confession of Christ Crucified.
What are those symbols? Not just art and fabric, but physical. Bowing, folding hands, crossing yourself. While they may seem superstitious, these are means of focusing your body and mind on the truth. For we bow at things like the Name of the Trinity, we fold our hands when addressing and being addressed by our Lord, and we cross ourself whenever the wonderful Name of Jesus, which was given to us in our Baptism, is named among us.
We form these pious habits like God’s own armor upon us. We ingrain them into our bodies and souls to bolster faith and have the Word of God among us. From Psalm 31:1, “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be confounded”. “As it is my eager expectation and hope”, confesses St. Paul, “that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil 1:20).
We pray to never be confounded, because we always are. Look at our Old Testament reading again. What is it that we have done to earn God’s action? We have profaned His Name, we have a heart of stone, and we dwell in an unclean nation.
Moving to our Epistle from St. Peter, what is it we have done there? We have failed to see the end is near, we lack self-control and sobriety, our love for others has failed, and we have not glorified God through Jesus Christ. In our sin, we are slaves to sin and sons of our father, the devil.
We do not speak the words of God freely, writing them on our doorposts, or putting them on our hearts. We go to hear them, sure. We have a Bible sitting around, maybe. But these simply become talismans, good luck charms. We pay lip service to the Lord, but our heart is far from Him.
And our lips keep moving, even in our sin, even in our guilt. We continue in our sin and would do so even if we could eat from the Tree of Life, condemning ourselves for eternity, self-justifying the whole way down.
As Ezekiel said, though, God is acting, and there is one hope He gives us in the midst of our incessant babble: forgiveness.
From Ezekiel 16:62-63, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”
Did you catch it? Two things, first God causes us to be confounded, not because we are right or are on to something He can’t control, but because of our sin. First, He confounds our sinful speech and second He atones. And in the face of that atonement, that forgiveness, no words can hold up.
This is why Jesus sends the Helper to us. Not to help us out of tough situations, not to help us when we just can’t even, and not to help us when we need a boost. He sends the Helper to help bear witness about Jesus. Specifically, what was talked about in Ezekiel. That we bear witness to the Lord’s great act of Salvation, even with our bodies.
When we are given power from God, it is to do impossible things, but not the variety we think up. Ephesians says we are given power specifically to allow “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:16-19).
That is, you are given power for God’s purpose, for His Will. And His Will is to break and hinder every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. This is how we truly know God is breaking into the world, that His Word has gone out to the ends of the earth, and is working on creating faith, forgiving sins, and granting eternal life.
Witnessing about Jesus is the marker and now, in faith, we want to be there, using the right words, and acting the right way. We want to not only be in His Word, but IN His Word; body and blood, life and soul. In faith, we believe that it is The Word alone that has the power to do all things. It creates all things that exist and it proclaims justification for those in Christ Jesus.
Our Large Catechism says, “If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are at every moment aimed at you [Ephesians 6:16], you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible. But there is no reason why we walk about so securely and carelessly, except that we neither think nor believe that we are in the flesh and in this wicked world or in the devil’s kingdom.” (LC V:82)
And baptism brings us to faith, to Jesus, and in His Word. And while we are there, we are raised and taught new words and nurtured in the New Life. And to comfort us, we have been given the rite of Baptism by the Church. In this rite, we have been given words to properly align us, as in the Divine Service.
If you would like, please join me on page 270 of the hymnals and we will go through it as the Church.
Zion Lutheran Church, do you renounce the devil?
Yes, I renounce him.
Do you renounce all his works?
Yes I renounce them.
Do you renounce all his ways?
Yes I renounce them.
Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?
Yes, I believe.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead?
Yes, I believe.
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?
Yes, I believe.
You are made witnesses.
Amen.
Alleluia…
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