The Cost of Discipleship - June 26, 2022 - Third Sunday after the Pentecost (Proper 08) - Text: Luke 9:51-62

I have told this story before, but it is worth telling again. There is a story about a young college man, a Christian man, who got a summer job working in a lumberjack camp. This particular lumberjack camp had a reputation for being a real tough camp, the roughest, toughest lumberjack camp in all North America, full of only the vilest of heathen men. After the summer ended all the friends of the young college man were curious as to how the he had fared at the lumberjack camp. They wondered if he got beat up for being a Christian. One day one of his friends ask him, “did they make fun of you or persecute you for being a Christian?” The young man answered, “no, they never caught on.” The question we might ask is, “is this young man really a Christian?” or does he merely confess to be a Christian with his lips, but his heart is far from the Lord. This morning with the help of the Holy Spirit we hear what Jesus means when He says, “Follow me.” And we will better understand the true cost of discipleship.
 

The question we might get from our text for today is, “What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?” Our text for today is sandwiched in between the disciples argument about who is the greatest and Jesus sending out the seventy-two to go and proclaim the good news of salvation. In their argument of who is the greatest, Jesus explained to His disciples that greatness, that is spiritual greatness, is not measured in human terms, but that greatness comes in having faith as a little child, which truly speaks of infant baptism. His concluding words are, “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great” (9:48c). Here we have our first hint at what discipleship means.
 

Our text begins with telling us that Jesus’ time to be taken up to heaven was approaching. That means that we are approaching the time for Jesus’ death on the cross. We are also told that Jesus is resolute in His going to Jerusalem, which is where we know that He was to be crucified. As He is heading for Jerusalem, He needs, either to go around Samaria, which is the long way, or to go through Samaria. However, the people of Samaria did not welcome Him, because He was headed toward Jerusalem. Now, here in this text, we get a glimpse of the character of the disciples (v. 51-56). James and John, the ones that Jesus affectionately called the sons of thunder, react by wanting to send down fire from heaven. They want a show of power.
 

The Samaritans did not welcome Jesus because of who He was, the proposed Messiah. Remember, there was a continual battle going on between the Jews and their “half” cousins, the Samaritans. Neither liked the other. And here we see that just as many of the Jews did not believe in Jesus, so neither did many of the Samaritans. Jesus knows that He did not come to destroy the Samaritans, but to save all people, thus He rebukes His disciples and turns to go another way.
 

All of this brings us to our lesson in discipleship (v. 57-62). “57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’” (v. 57-58). This first man wanted to follow Jesus, but He did not understand the cost of following Jesus. Jesus wanted to make sure he understood exactly what it would cost before making such a commitment. The cost of following Jesus is the cost of giving up everything, including a “permanent” place in this world, a permanent place to sleep, a roof over your head and a nice cozy bed. To us the question might be, “Are we ready to give up everything in this world, the luxury of a bed, and a roof over our heads, even our status quo, for the sake of following Jesus?”
 

Continuing on in our text we read, “59To another [Jesus] said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ 60And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God’” (v. 59-60). Jesus calls this second man, but he has an excuse. His excuse is that he still has family to take care of, but after his family obligations are complete, after his father has died and he has buried him and completed the required number of days morning, then he will follow Jesus. Jesus’ response might sound a bit crass, “leave the dead to bury their own dead,” but He wants us to understand that to be His disciple means He comes first. To us the question might be, “Are we ready to give our lives for Jesus now or is something else standing in our way? Do we want to put off being a disciples until a more opportune time?”
 

Continuing on His journey, we read, “61Yet another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ 62Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (v. 61-62). Here again, this third man steps forward and volunteers his service, yet, he too has an excuse, he needs to go back and say good-by to his family. To us the question might be, “What is standing in our way of being disciples of Jesus? Are we too busy with the things of this world?”
 

One, two, three; three strikes and they’re out. Each of these three incidents teaches the same lesson; true discipleship of Christ implies a denial of self and all earthly ties, and in certain circumstances even the obligations of blood-relatives. Service to Jesus requires an unconditional allegiance.
 

In our epistle lesson for today, Paul outlines the difference between being a disciple, a servant of Jesus and walking away from such service. He uses the terms, living by the Spirit or living by the flesh, that is our sinful nature. Listen again to what Paul tells us, “13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:13-25).
 

So, what does this mean, to be a disciples of Jesus? To be a disciple of Jesus means to recognize that it is not we who choose Jesus in order to follow Him, but rather that He has chosen us. He chose us through His Word. He chose us at our Baptism. He chose us and gave His life for us. He gives us forgiveness of sins and faith. He is the one who does everything for us and gives to us everything that we need. He does, He acts.
 

Jesus calls us to faith and He calls us to discipleship. When it comes to being a disciple of Jesus we are reminded that we cannot compartmentalize our lives. We cannot be like the young college student in our opening story, that is we cannot be a Christian only when we are at church and then not be a Christian when it might be difficult to be a Christian. We cannot divide our lives and the times of our life as such: this is work time, this is family time, and this is Jesus time. Jesus calls us to lifetime discipleship, that is that all our of life and all parts of our life are lived as a disciple. When we work, we work as a disciple. When we are at home, we are a member of our family as a disciple. When we play, when we do whatever we do, we do all as a disciple of Jesus. Our lives are lived in such a way that they say, “I am a disciple of Jesus.”
 

Finally, Jesus is not a now or later proposition. At the beginning of our text we read, “51When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (v. 51). The time is now, there may be no tomorrow. About this, we rejoice. We rejoice, because we are New Testament Christian. We have God’s Word which tells us that everything has already been accomplished for us. Jesus has given His life for ours. Jesus has paid the price for our sins. Jesus has suffered and died on the cross for us. Jesus has told us, “Your sins are forgiven.” Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus has ascended into heaven. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to work faith and strengthening of faith in us. The Holy Spirit works in us so that we are disciples of Jesus. Jesus has promised that He will return.
 

The cost of true discipleship is your life. And this is not a half and half proposition. A person cannot be a Christian part of the time and say leave me alone the rest. We are either one hundred percent God’s, or one hundred percent not His. So, whose are we? What do our actions confess about us? What does our stewardship confess about us? What does our Divine Service attendance say about us? What does our Bible Class attendance say about us? What does our participation and volunteer service at church say about us? Are we trying to be a part time Christian. Are we only lukewarm for the Lord? Can we relate to these words from Revelation where God says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15,16). Unfortunately, because of our inborn sinful nature, we are poor Christians, but take heart, because we have a God who does not do fractions. He did not die a little for us. He did not give us some forgiveness now and some later after we “make the cut”. We have a God who gives us the whole lot of His grace and forgiveness and a whole lot more. We have a God who is not lukewarm. We have a God who is not our God just part time, only when we are at church. We have a God who is always our God, one hundred percent of the time and one hundred percent our God. We have a God who has given us His everything, once and for all. The cost of discipleship was the price of His one and only Son. And He paid that price for us. I now live, because He lives in me.
 

We are disciples of Jesus. By faith in Him, faith given to us by Him, we are His disciples. We may not be perfect disciples and we will never be perfect disciples, at least not this side of heaven, but we have our Lord’s promise that He will be with us. He will continue to work on us to mold us into being the disciples He wants us to be. He will continue to help us as He has paid the price for our discipleship.
 

My prayer for each one of you is that the Holy Spirit might continue to work in your lives, working faith, strengthening your faith, and keeping you in faith so that you do have your eyes looking forward in service to Jesus and His Kingdom. So that ultimately we might all together stand before the Lord’s throne and say, with all the saints, “to Him be the glory,” for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Deviled Ham - June 19, 2022 - Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 07)/ Father’s Day - Text: Luke 8:26-39

This morning as we begin our Pentecost season we also have our social holiday of Father’s Day. So, just as last month we rejoiced in our mother’s on Mother’s Day, so this morning we rejoice in our father’s saying, “Happy Father’s Day” to our father’s. We are glad you are here and have brought your families with you.
 

Just as a reminder, today we begin the non-festival part of our Church year, meaning that we have had all our celebrating in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, so that now we are in the Pentecost season and the Sundays after Pentecost. Our liturgical color is green and will be green for another twenty-four Sundays. And let me remind you that the color green is the color of growth. I say all this to help us understand that this is the season of the Church Year that we are to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and in our faith in Jesus as our Savior. Which brings us to our message for this morning. Previously in our growing in the knowledge of the Lord, that is last week in our Gospel reading we heard the message of God’s three in one nature that is that we worship a Trinitarian God. This week we move to the disciples landing the boat opposite Galilee.
 

The landing reception Jesus and His disciples received was that they were met by a demon possessed man. What a reception. Interestingly enough Luke tells us that this man had been demon possessed for some time and the people of the town had tried to deal with him as best they could, at least humanly speaking. Luke makes note that there had been unsuccessful attempts to chain the man (v. 29), both for his own good and for the protection of the townspeople.
 

This man has been demon possessed so long that he has lost all shame. At this time we are told that he now lives among the tombs in the grave yard which is considered to be living in unclean places, meaning that this man is in a constant state of spiritual uncleanness. His complete shame is seen in the fact that we are told that he no longer wears clothes. Actually this scene is quite a warning to us in our world today. The temptation and lure to evil abounds in our world and once a person begins to go down that road it is indeed difficult to turn around.
 

Of course, as we have been seeing, following along with Jesus, for Jesus to approach this demon possessed man, for Jesus to venture into a place of uncleanliness is not a problem, because Jesus is perfect cleanliness, and He is the One who brings cleanliness. As Jesus approaches, the demons recognize Jesus, which is kind of interesting as we will see that the people of the town do not want to recognize Jesus and as the Jewish religious leaders the Pharisees and teachers of the law never recognize Him either, yet these demons, these minions of Satan do recognize Jesus and they are afraid of Him. They are afraid of Him because they already know of their eternal demise.
 

The demon recognizes Jesus and begs Him not to torment them. Jesus asks the name of the demon and we are told his name is Legion which is really more of a description than a name. His name indicates that this man is possessed not by one demon but by many demons. This possession by many demons again shows us that the road of evil quickly leads to more and more evil.
 

Finally, as Jesus commands the demons to come out of the man and honoring the request of the demons to not be tormented, Jesus casts the unclean demons into the unclean swine. And yes, here I have to say it, this is the first mention in the Bible of deviled ham. The demons enter the pigs which rush down the steep bank and into the lake where they are drowned.
 

So, Jesus has landed in the country of the Gerasenes and having had His first reception into town being made by the demon possessed man, now He is ready to have the rest of the town receive Him. As the people of the town come out to greet Jesus they now find the once demon possessed man sitting at Jesus’ feet and in his right mind. While this is going on, the herdsmen who had witnessed Jesus cast out the demon and watched as their livestock committed suicide, told everyone what had happened.
 

The townspeople feared Jesus, probably because of their superstitions. These were simple people who had seen demon possession, but now they were seeing something even greater, great enough to cast out the demons and this frightened them.
 

Their response to these events was that they asked Jesus to leave. They did not want anything worse to happened. They were afraid for their lives. And so Jesus honored their request and returned to the boat to leave. As Jesus got ready to leave, the previously demon possessed man asked to go with Jesus. He knew who had saved him. He knew his Savior. He also knew his former life and did not want to return to being demon possessed.
 

Jesus tells the man to return to his people as a missionary. Here we see Jesus’ love for these people, even though they asked Him to leave, He wanted to make sure they heard the good news of forgiveness and salvation. And as a response of faith, the man did return to his home. He did rejoice in the Lord. He did proclaim throughout the city what Jesus had done for him.
 

So, what does this mean? Again, with the reminder that we are in the Pentecost season and the fact that this is the season, the time of the church year that we are to grow in our Christian faith, in our knowledge and understanding of our Lord, here again we see that Jesus shows Himself to be divine, to be truly God through the signs, wonders and miracles He performs. We see that He is truly God with power even over demons. We see that He is truly God as even the demons, even the minions of Satan himself recognize and fear Him.
 

The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament all pointed to Jesus. The laws regulating clean and unclean, or clean things and common things all pointed to the distinction between the common or unclean things of the human world and the Holiness of God Himself. God is holy. We human beings live in a world tainted by sin and there were many ways one might become unclean, spiritually unclean and not worthy of entering the presence of the Holy Lord until returning to a spiritually clean state. As for Jesus Himself, He is truly God. He is truly Holy and so Jesus brings good news, Jesus brings cleansing to the unclean, especially to Gentiles, even more especially to us.
 

Just as the townspeople in our text who were confronted with Jesus rejected Him, or at least asked Him to leave from their presence, so too even today when people are confronted with Jesus too many either reject Him or ask Him to leave from their presence. Personally, I believe this rejection is because people know in their hearts that Jesus is the only One True God and as they are worshiping false gods and idols in their own lives they know their uncleanliness in standing before Jesus and rather than confess their sins they would rather He simply leave them. And yes, even as Christians there are times in our own lives when we reject Jesus. We reject Him while we revel in our sin, not wanting to admit nor confess our sins. We reject Jesus when we fail, neglect, and outright refuse to make use of the means of grace, that is when we neglect our own reading and hearing of God’s Word, when we neglect to remember our Baptism, when we neglect confession and absolution, and when we neglect partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
 

And so, for us in our world today, just as Jesus sent the healed man back to his own town to share the good news of salvation with his own family and friends, so too today, Jesus continues to send missionaries in His name and with His Word, even to us. And at times, through our vocations, as the Lord heals us of our spiritual sickness of sin, doubt, despair, and sometimes even outright unbelief, so He sends us through our vocations to be missionaries to our family and friends, to our coworkers and those whose lives we touch.
 

It has been said that seven days without the Lord makes one weak, meaning weak in faith. During this Pentecost Season, it is especially important that we continue to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace, being in Divine Service and Bible class every Sunday, reading God’s Word every day, and hearing it proclaimed every Sunday, remembering our baptism, confessing our sins and hearing His Word of absolution, and partaking of His body and blood in His Holy Supper, because for us too, seven days without the Lord makes us weak and vulnerable. God has given us His means of grace so that we might be strengthened and kept in faith. And it is through these means of grace that God comes to us to give us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give, blessings He earned for us on the cross, giving His life for ours, especially faith, forgiveness of sins, life in this world and even more eternal salvation. Our response of faith, our response to all the good gifts and blessings our Lord gives to us is to desire even more to be where those blessings are distributed so that we might be given even more. Our response of faith is to be given too! Our response of faith is like that of the previously demon possessed man, to be with Jesus.
 

As our great and loving God strengthens and keeps us in faith through His means of grace, then He also sends us out in our vocations to be ready to give an answer for the hope and joy we have in Him. God does not ask us to be confrontational nor in your face about giving an answer for our faith in Jesus. He simple asks us to live lives of faith. He asks us to be given the gifts He has to give. He asks us to always be ready to give an answer for our faith and why we live lives of faith. And as He asks us to always be ready to give an answer, He also is ready to actually give us the words to speak in answer. Those words we are to speak are His Words which He gives to us and here we are back to the means of grace, His Word which we read and hear are the words which He gives us to speak.
 

Paul gives us our words of hope in our Epistle lesson for this morning. Paul’s words are the very words which our Lord gives to us to speak when asked to express what is the hope that we have. So we may give an answer for the hope that we have we may say as Paul says, “4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal. 4:4-7). We are children of God, brothers and sisters of Christ, bought back by the blood of Jesus, forgiven and made saints. What a great God we have, a God of love and forgiveness. How can we not rejoice and say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.

Before Abraham Was I Am - June 12, 2022 - Holy Trinity Sunday - Text: John 8:48-59

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost Sunday and the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that person of the trinity of whom we describe as being the third person of the trinity, the Comforter, the Counselor, and the One whose work is sanctification which is the giving and strengthening of our faith. This week, before we get into the Pentecost Season and the Sundays after Pentecost, we take one Sunday to rejoice in and talk about the trinity of God as today is what we call Holy Trinity Sunday.
 

Interestingly enough, the Old Testament speaks about the trinity of God and in our Old Testament reading for this morning we hear of the trinity of God described as wisdom. King Solomon describes wisdom as creating the world. Of course, we understand that wisdom is most certainly God as there is and can be no true wisdom apart from or outside of God. Yes, there can be some human, sin tainted knowledge, but the Lord and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true Wisdom. Thus, as Solomon says about Wisdom, “25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, 26before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world” (v. 25, 26). In other words, Wisdom is God, who was there creating the world.
 

Further, Solomon continues speaking about Wisdom saying, “27When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master workman” (v. 27-30a).  In other words, the Wisdom of God established the laws of nature.
 

Indeed, as Solomon describes Wisdom, we know that Wisdom is God and as we see, moving into the New Testament, God in Jesus is true Wisdom, thus we know His words are true when Jesus says He is truth and when He says He is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is God. God is wisdom. Jesus is wisdom incarnate as He is God incarnate.
 

Moving into our text in our Gospel reading we come to a very usual scene, that is that the Jews, especially the Pharisees and teachers of the law are questioning Jesus and we see the Wisdom of God in Jesus in His answer to the Jews. Jesus answers the Jews by contrasting Himself with them. The Jews accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan and being demon possessed. The Jews despise the Samaritans because they were not pure blooded Jews as they thought themselves to be. The contrast is that Jesus loves all people and Jesus came to save all people. The Jews speak evil of others. The contrast is that Jesus speaks well of all. And the Jews seek their own glory. The contrast is that Jesus seeks the glory of God the Father.
 

The Jews believed that they had an eternal inheritance in heaven because of their birthright, that is that they were born of the family line of Abraham. They believed theirs was an entitlement based on genetics. They continually failed to understand that the covenant God made to save the world was not a covenant based on family line, or genetics, but was a covenant based on faith, a covenant the children of Israel constantly broke and ultimately gave up. Jesus speaks of a covenant of faith and eternal life through faith in Him.
 

When Jesus speaks of faith and eternal life, the Jews only see death and their claim is son-ship to God the Father through Abraham. Again, the Jews continually look for salvation in the wrong place. Now, before we proceed, let us understand that there are many in our world today and even among us who are like the children of Israel. And it is not if, but how often do we get ourselves pointed in the wrong direction, thinking perhaps that since our name is on the roles of a church that means we have eternal life. Or, thinking that if we are living as good citizens, not being bad people that we might think we have eternal life. Very much like the Jews, we get it wrong when we fail to understand that God’s covenant with us is a covenant of faith, a covenant which He makes with us and one which He confirms through His Word and Sacraments, a covenant which He delights to make with us and one of which we delight to be apart through our desire to be continually in His Word, hearing His Word in Divine Service and Bible Class, remembering our Baptism, confessing our sins and hearing His Word of Absolution and partaking of His body and blood in His Holy Supper. Indeed, there are too many among us in the Christian Church today who are no different in their lives and actions than the Jews of Jesus’ day.
 

The Jews continue to show their misunderstanding and their lack of knowledge and faith as they question Jesus concerning His claim of Messiahship. And so, Jesus declares His eternal presence with the words, “I AM.” The words, “I AM,” harken back to the name the Lord gave to Moses in the wilderness when Moses asked who he should tell the children of Israel sent him and the Lord said, “Tell them I AM has sent me.” Indeed, Jesus is rightfully claiming that He is “I AM,” He is truly God in human flesh.
 

With Jesus claim, the Jews, not believing Him, accuse Him of blasphemy and want to stone Him, but in His divinity He hides Himself and walks right through them, which you would think would be a clue of His divinity, but as usual, they just simply cannot see what Jesus so well demonstrates time and again to them, through the signs, wonders, and miracles He performs. They do not believe and cannot believe that Jesus is the Messiah, God in flesh.
 

What does this mean? Today on this Holy Trinity Sunday we rejoice and celebrate Jesus dual nature that is that He is truly God and truly human, as we confess in our creeds, that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We rejoice and celebrate that as true man He lived perfectly for us in our place obeying all God’s laws and commands perfectly. We rejoice and celebrate that as true God He defeated sin, death and the devil.
 

On this Holy Trinity Sunday we rejoice and celebrate that Jesus is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the trinity of God. As we confessed in the Athanasian Creed we do believe in a God who is three persons in one Godhead. We confess that the One God we worship, while being a God of three persons, that the three persons of the trinity are never divided, but always united, so that were the Father is, there is the Son and the Holy Spirit; where the Son is, there is the Father and the Holy Spirit; and where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Father and the Son. We also celebrate that there will not be an eternal life in heaven test so that we have to completely and fully understand and explain this trinity of God.
 

On this Holy Trinity Sunday we rejoice and celebrate God in Jesus living for us, taking all our sins upon Himself, freely, of His own free will, not by compulsion or coercion so that He might suffer the price, the penalty, the cost of eternal death and hell for us. He died for us the most cruel of deaths and yet most especially we celebrate His rising from the dead for us, thus defeating sin, death and the power of the devil.
 

On this Holy Trinity Sunday we rejoice and celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit who gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. It is the work of the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts, minds and eyes to see that Jesus is who He says He is, that is that He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, even God Himself in human flesh and blood. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith and the faith He gives we rejoice that He gives through the outward means that He has given, His means of grace. We rejoice that as infants, through the simple earthly element of water and His Holy Word, even His name being put on us, we are given faith. Through confession and absolution we are given forgiveness of sins. Through our reading and through our hearing the preached Word, we are given and strengthened in our faith. And through our being given His body and blood, in, with and under the simple earthly elements of bread and wine, in His Holy Supper we are given and strengthened in faith. And certainly as we are given and strengthened in our faith through these very means our desire is to be active in making regular and diligent use of these means so that we might be given even more of the good gifts and blessings our Lord has to give to us.
 

On this Holy Trinity Sunday we rejoice and celebrate that the Holy Spirit stirs in us to confess our faith with our mouths and to confess our faith through our living lives in response of faith. Indeed, as Paul reminds us that along with creating us to love us, that God created us and redeemed us so that we might do the good works which He prepared in advance for us to do, good works which show forth the faith that He has given to us, good works which work to extend His kingdom on earth by calling others to faith, and good works which give glory to Him and Him alone. Indeed, it is not a have to but a get too and something we simply cannot help but accomplish.
 

Jesus is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, demonstrating His divinity by the signs, wonders and miracles He performed. In His divinity He lived the perfect life demanded of Adam and Eve, demanded of all of Israel and demanded of us, for us, in our place. Jesus is true man, born of the human woman, the virgin Mary, demonstrating His humanity in that He was locally present, was tired, hungry and wept, and died on the cross. In His humanity He substituted, traded His perfection for our imperfection. Jesus is One with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus, true God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world, took on human flesh and blood in order to fulfill God’s promise to send a Savior. He was believed in by Abraham, demonstrating that Old Testament salvation was dependent on faith just like our New Testament salvation. Old Testament faith was in the promise of a Messiah and our New Testament faith in the fact that Jesus is our Messiah. And He gives glory to God through His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection. Today we celebrate the trinity of our God especially in the incarnation and the person of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the gifts God so lovingly lavishes on us through His means of grace, faith, forgiveness, life, even eternal life and salvation. And most certainly as we celebrate we are moved to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Peace - June 5, 2022 - Pentecost Sunday - Text: John 14:23-31

Today we celebrate Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ promise while He was with His disciples was that after His death and resurrection, He would send the Helper, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that helped the disciples to put together all the pieces of what they were missing from Jesus’ teaching while He was with them. It was not that Jesus was missing something in His teaching, it was that they did not understand because of their own human sinfulness and failings. This morning in our text we have another word from Jesus to His disciples with His promise to send the Holy Spirit and we have a word about the work of the Holy Spirit.
 

Last week we heard Jesus’ words of prayer for us. Jesus prays for us that we might grow in our faith and as we heard, we grow in our faith through prayer, meditation and affliction. We grow in our faith as we have an urgency about making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, an urgency about reading our Bible, having personal and family devotions, being in Divine Service and Bible Class as often as offered. We grow in our faith as we are in prayer and communion with Jesus. And we grow in our faith through our clinging to our Lord in times of affliction. It is this urgency which flows out of our hearts as a response to the faith our Lord has first given to us, always pointing to Jesus.
 

It is Jesus who first loves us and He shows His love for us in the giving of His life for ours. We are raised to believe that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. David reminds us in Psalm 5:5 “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” David reminds us that not only does God hate the sin, He even hates the sinner. So, how can this be we might ask? This is one of those great paradoxes that we have to leave in tension and live with it. God hates the sinner. Jesus loves us and gave His life for us, the sinner. God loves us only because of Jesus’ work for us, the giving of His life for ours. Jesus and God are one, so how can this be? As always, thanks be to God that there is no test and that we do not have to fully understand Him in order to have access to eternal life. And even though we might not fully understand how this works, when we remember that God does not live in time as we do, but that God sees all things at the same time, then we can begin to get an understanding that God loves us because Jesus died for us and at the same time, Jesus died for us because God loves us. Again, with the pointing to Jesus.
 

God is the prime mover. God created the world. Mankind brought sin into the world. God promised to send a Redeemer. God gives us, each one of us life at conception. God gives us new life through Holy Baptism and His Word. God gives us forgiveness as He gives His only Son on the cross. Jesus gives Himself. Following His resurrection and ascension, He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter, the Counselor.
 

Today we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to give faith. Jesus tells us this by saying, “26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (v. 26). The Holy Spirit will and has, given the apostles and writers of Holy Scripture the Words to write so that we might have them for ourselves, that is, He has given us the inspired Word of God. It is through this Word as a means that He comes to us to give us faith. As always, we remember that God’s Word is a Word with authority and power. God’s Word effects, accomplishes what it says. When God speaks to us in His Word, the Word He speaks happens. When God says we are given faith, we are given faith. When He says we are forgiven, we are forgiven. Thus, the work of the Holy Spirit is to give faith.
 

Further, the work of the Holy Spirit is to strengthen faith. Here we are reminded of our need to make regular and diligent use of these means through which the Holy Spirit comes to give us His good gifts and blessings. Just as we would not stay away from the grocery store or the farmers market, but make regular trips so that we might have physical food to eat, so we are to make regular trips to the Lord’s Word, to His Holy Absolution, to His Holy Supper, and remembering His putting His name on us at Holy Baptism, that we are His, because He has claimed us. Through these means and through our making regular (and when I say regular I mean every day and every Sunday) and diligent, meaning often, use of these means the Holy Spirit uses to strengthen us in faith and keeps us in faith.
 

The Holy Spirit also stirs in us, that is He motivates us, to obedience and works of service. We do good works only because the Holy Spirit works good works in and through us and it is these good works which show the faith we have in our hearts. Jesus says it this way in our text, “23If 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. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (v. 23b-24). Our faith or lack of faith shows in our actions. But let me caution you here, let us not confuse social good works with what are truly good works in God’s eyes. Social good works are those works which may be done for self recognition or that may flow from guilt or from a belief that God needs us to do something for Him. True good works in God’s eyes are those that are motivated by Him, worked in and through us by Him and give glory to His Holy Name, meaning that very often they are what we do without even realizing it.
 

And the Holy Spirit gives us peace. The peace that the Holy Spirit gives is not simply an earthly peace, not simply a short time of calm and serenity, it is not a peace of a quiet day or a quiet evening with all the kids out of the house or in bed asleep. No, the peace that the Holy Spirit gives is a peace that passes all understanding, it is that peace Jesus won for us on the cross. It is the peace of knowing our sins are forgiven and that we have eternal life with Him in heaven.
 

Jesus is accused of a lot of things in our world. He is accused especially by those who fail to read and listen to His Word. Jesus is accused of not claiming to be God; of not claiming to be the Messiah; of not being anything more than a mere human being who was a good man and a good teacher. The fact of the matter is, if you read His Word, Jesus made sure that we would see that He is God and the Messiah. He always made His promises before fulfilling them, so that we would know that what He says is true. He made a promise to send the Holy Spirit. And He did send the Holy Spirit.
 

Again, He made sure we knew it was going to happen before it happened so that we might believe it when it did happen. He promised that He would take care of our sins. He promised that He would suffer and die on the cross. He promised that He would rise again. And all these things that He promised came about just as He had promised. This is what He meant when He explained, “29And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” (v. 29).
 

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with suggestions that we are to do something and here I am speaking mostly in spiritual terms. Listen to the preachers of the so called successful churches, those churches that have given in to the sociological suggestions of how the church should be, those that point us to ourselves and what we have to do. There are those which would have us believe that we can be the people God’s wants us to be, when in reality our sinful nature keeps us from being right before God. There are those who would challenge us to be about living a life of purpose. We are asked to make a decision for Jesus; to commit our lives to Him, to make Him Lord of our lives, and so forth. What all these suggestions boil down to is that the world tells us we are to actively work for our salvation, in other words, they all point us to ourselves.
 

The challenges is always, were is the focus? When we focus in on ourselves, all we find is our sinful nature rearing up its ugly head. We try, but we fail. We simply cannot be the people God would have us to be, or for that matter, the people the world would have us to be. Left to ourselves and our own devices, we would be eternally lost. Thanks be to God, thanks be to Jesus for sending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves us to respond in faith. Thus, we turn the focus where it needs to be, where it will give us the greatest comfort and peace. We turn the focus back to Jesus.
 

Because Jesus loves me He died for me. He died for me so that I might not suffer eternal death and hell, but so that I might have eternal life with Him in heaven. He did this, not because I am deserving, but because of His great love for me. A love that comes from the fact that His death alone makes me lovable. And here again we get back to that paradox of earlier.
 

Because He loves us Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to us to work and strengthen faith in us and to give us peace. Certainly we have some peace of mind, that is, some earthly peace, but even more important, the Holy Spirit gives us true spiritual peace, the peace of knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we have eternal life.
 

Because Jesus loves us, by the work and power of the Holy Spirit we are obedient to Him and we do works of service for Him. Notice how important our focus is and where it is. Our focus is always on Christ, always on God, always on our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We human beings are fickle and we can and we do get it wrong. We get it wrong when we depend on our emotions. We get it wrong when we think we can save ourselves or for that matter, when we think we can do anything ourselves. We get it right, however, when we focus on our Lord. Jesus gets it right. He always has gotten it right and He always will get it right. He is never wrong, thus we are never wrong when we put our focus on Him, and on Him alone.
 

Just how important is this focus? Our lives depend on it. Do you remember as a child, out on the playground, usually two children would be chosen to be captains and to pick teams. Do you remember when your best friend was picking and you wanted so bad to be on their team. As a matter of fact, you actually chose in your heart to be on their team. Unfortunately, the other captain picked you. So, it really did not matter who you chose, only who chose you. In the same way, it does not matter if we choose Jesus, or if we think we are choosing Him. What matters is that He has chosen us and He has. Just as we saw this morning, Jesus chose Palmer and put His name and water on her, so too at our Baptism He shows His choosing us by putting His name on us. Notice, the focus is not on me, not on us, but on Him. We can get it wrong, but He always gets it right. How eternally safe and secure we are, knowing that God has done everything for us. And now, He continues to send us His Holy Spirit to work in us so that we might, yet imperfectly, do those things that bring glory to Him. Certainly we rejoice and say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.