210613 Sermon on Luke 14:15-24 (Trinity 2) June 13, 2021

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Birds of a feather flock together. People with the same tastes or interests gather themselves together. Oftentimes you can just look at a person and know a lot about them. What kind of clothes do they wear? How is their hair cut? Do they have piercings or tattoos? With simple questions like these you will have a pretty good idea of what their social class is, what kind of work they do or don’t do, who their friends are, what their family life is probably like, etc. You will also know if you are one of them. If they are from your class of people, then you are more likely to interact with them. If they are from a higher social class, then you might be a little bashful. If they are from a lower social class, then you mightdistain them.

Nobody has to teach us to do this kind of thing. We all do it. We were already doing it by the time that we were in middle school. By the time we got to high school the social classes were almost set in stone. There were the rich kids, the poor kids, and the kids in between. Each group dressed and acted in a different way. Each group protected themselves from the others. Each group regarded themselves as the best for one reason or another.

It was therefore dangerous to go from one group to another. If you left your own group and started associating with another group, you might not be accepted by the new group. Plus, you might not be welcomed back into your old group. Haven’t you ever heard the saying, “Be careful who you associate with”? If you start hanging out with losers, other people will see it, and then what will they think of you? People will start to say, “Oh, you’re one of them!” Some people don’t care what others think of them, but most people care intensely about such things.

Let’s apply this to Jesus’s story in our Gospel reading. A man put on a great banquet. This must have meant that he was a man of means. It also appears that there were formal invitations that went out. This also indicates that the man was from a certain class. Finally, the excuses indicate that the people to whom the invitations went were probably from the same class. These were people who could afford to buy new fields and big machinery. But the man’s invitation was rejected by these people.

Then an entirely different class of people ends up getting invited in. The servant is told to go out quickly into the streets and alleys. “Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” The man needed to have more guests. But the servant had already done that! Now what? “Go and beat the bushes! Compel them to come in!” You won’t find members of the country club hanging out in alleys and in the medians of highways. If you round up people from such places you are going to find that they have different problems than the country club variety.

So perhaps, when everything is said and done, everybody ends up being happy. The man who puts on the banquet ended up with a bunch of losers. They’re happy enough, getting a free meal out of the deal. Those originally invited are happy too. They weren’t hurting for food. If they could afford those big ticket items, certainly they could go to a nice restaurant. Plus they didn’t need to pollute themselves by hanging out with people who were poor, crippled, blind, and lame. They probably laughed at the man who had invited them when they heard about that ridiculous gathering. They thanked their lucky stars that they hadn’t accepted it. Everybody’s happy.

But Jesus is not just talking about social dynamics with this story. He is talking about the kingdom of God. This banquet, you might say, is the wedding feast of the Lamb in his kingdom which has no end. These people are not being invited just for a meal. They are being invited to salvation.

But there are social dynamics involved, even with the invitation to salvation. The old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together,” holds true here too. The thing that is different is the feather. What tastes and interests hold together the group who would be at the wedding feast of the Lamb in his kingdom?

These tastes and interests are obvious and distinct from the ways that we associate otherwise. Believing Christians are concerned about Jesus and his teachings. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will I be ashamed when I come in the glory of the Father.” Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world. He has come to destroy the works of the devil. He has come to redeem us and make us holy. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are being conformed to Jesus’s image. We learn from Jesus, and we teach others what we have been taught. This is what holds Christians together as a group.

However, it is all too easy to make a Christian congregation into something else. One of the biggest issue at the time of Jesus and the apostles was how the people of God were all descendants of Abraham. They were from one people. They had their customs and norms. They also had Moses and the prophets. Moses and the prophets testified to Jesus being the Christ. But they rejected Moses and the prophets. They stuck with their own Jewish standards instead.

This is the background to Jesus’s story today. If there is any royal people among human beings, it would have to be the Jews. They are the chosen nation. They were given the Law and the promises. These are the people who should be invited to the banquet. They are the right people. They have the right standing. But when the fullness of time came and the Son of God was born under the Law to redeem us from the Law, they didn’t recognize the time of their visitation. They did not recognize the banquet. If anything they noticed that their one-time, Jewish friends, people like Paul or Peter who became Christians, were associating with loser Gentiles who ate unclean food and were uncircumcised. It didn’t take a lot of convincing for them to reject this invitation. They much preferred their own customs that they had made for themselves.

The same thing can and does happen today, but the roles have changed. Gentiles have been grafted into the vine of salvation. Most of us, through our ancestors, have been grafted in. We have the treasures that once only belonged to the descendants of Abraham. The invitation to salvation sounds forth among us.

How is it received? And how do we react when people from another class begins to hear the call and are ushered in?

The middle class has gotten tired. There are a lot of things besides the Gospel call that they would rather spend their energy, money, and time pursuing. Allegiances to other things has grown strong among our respectable, middle class folks. The thing that should unite all Christians is very weak. Believing in Jesus, loving his words, carrying one’s cross, loving fellow members of the congregation has not been the main concern. Family, 401Ks, inheritances, vacations, sports, new cars, and any number of other things get top billing. From one generation to another we are getting weaker and weaker. So, to answer our first question, the invitation to salvation has not fared well among our people.

And what would our reaction be to a different class of people hearing the call and entering in? The people from our own class and those who are from a higher class than us are not interested. They have stuff they’ve bought that they’d rather be engaged with. What would happen if poor people started to come to our congregation—people who are not of our socio-economic feather?

In the abstract we all think this would be just great. The more the merrier. But what if they didn’t dress like you or talk like you or have the same problems as you? What if they were poor, crippled, blind, and lame? What if they came from the highways and byways?

I’ve seen with my own eyes the way that we receive members in our congregation from our own class of people versus having visitors from a different class of people. There is a lot more warmth with the former than there is with the latter. In a way this is natural. We have an easier time talking to people with whom we have a lot in common. We are somewhat at ill ease with people who are different from us.

But it is very important for us to recognize as a Christian congregation that we already are supposed to have those things that hold us together, and those things do not have to do with the way that we dress or speak or what we enjoy doing with our free time. We are one body and have one Spirit. We were called to one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Being disciples of Jesus, believing that Jesus is Lord, is what is to hold us together. This transcends and is separate from any other social factors that we might otherwise have.

This can and will put us in a tight spot when our loyalties are tested. There may very well be members of this congregation who don’t care very much about what we teach, how we pray, or the life that we share in common with Jesus. What might be important to them are other factors. For example, this place might hold a lot of memories. Maybe friends go here. Maybe the socializing is nice. If other people started to come this might throw the whole thing out of whack—at least to their thinking. So, in such a case, who are we going to associate with?

There are only two possibilities and only one right action. The two possibilities are to be with those who believe in Jesus or to be with those who believe in whatever else. Christians have no other choice than to rejoice in and support their fellow believers—no matter who they might be. If they do not do this, they are simply showing their colors as ones who despise the master of the banquet who invited them.

When John received a revelation from God, a vision of heaven, this is how he described it: “After these things I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing in front of the throne and of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They called out with a loud voice and said, ‘Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb.’”

These people of heaven, these people who have received and embraced the invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb in his kingdom which has no end, are totally varied. As John says, there are people from every nation, tribe, people, and language. What unites them is what they cry out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

Among these people will be rich people, poor people, and people in between. There will be white people, black people, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Most of them will have lived earthly lives where they were poor, crippled, blind, and lame—at least metaphorically speaking. As Paul says, “Not many who are wise, not many who are strong, not many who are born with high status” are Christians. God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chooses the lowly things of the world, and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are, so that no one may boast before God.

So we are presented with a warning from Jesus today. We must not do as the vast majority of the Jews did. We must not despise the invitation to salvation because we prefer other things, and because we do not want to associate with the lowly. If there are those who come to church who are not from the same background as us, we dare not give them the cold shoulder, glare, or look down at them. If anyone were to do that, then every true Christian must take the side of the weak and despised rather than sticking together with their friends.

Do not be ashamed of Christ, of Christ’s words, and of whomever he might call to be his disciple—no matter who he or she might be. If the person has become a disciples of Jesus, then whatever is truly offensive or evil about them is forgiven, and they are in the process of being healed. This means that they are in the same boat as any one of us as Christians.

210606 Sermon on 1 John 4:16-21 Luke 16:19-31 (Trinity 1) June 6, 2021

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One reading sticks out more than the others today. What sticks out in that reading is punishment. The rich man is in torment in hell. He just wants one drop of water from the tip of Lazarus’s finger. This is what you might call the ultimate punishment. Punishments have a way of capturing our attention.

I remember as a kid that Mom and Dad didn’t really care too much about seatbelts. That is, they didn’t care too much until the law added punishment. They didn’t want to get a ticket, and so we all had to start wearing our seatbelt.

Punishments have an effect on people’s behavior. We don’t want to be punished, so we will change our behavior accordingly. But normally and naturally there is some resentment that goes along with this. Criminals resent the state for having caught them and punishing them. Children resent being punished by their fathers. Sinners resent being punished by God.

So, what might we do about this? How about we just get rid of punishment? That, in fact, would be wonderful. It is truly desirable. There’s just one problem: People do things that they shouldn’t do. They do bad things rather than good things. If everyone just did what they were supposed to do, there would be no need of punishment. Since people do bad things, there will always be a need for punishment so that people’s lives and livelihoods may be kept safe. The evildoer has to think twice about whether he should carry out what he wants to do, because the consequences might not make it worth it.

Now let’s think about the punishment that we heard Jesus speak about. The rich man is being punished, but one might wonder whether the punishment fits the crime. We are not told much about the man except that he lived well, and there happened to be a beggar who lived outside of his estate. When he died he went to hell and now lives in torment.

Although we might not be so sure that the punishment fits the crime, the rich man does not seem to doubt the justice of it. His thoughts turn to his brothers. He knows that they are living just like he did, and so he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn them. If they were to find out about the punishment that is in store for them, then they would change their behavior.

Maybe; maybe not. Threatening punishment will not always work. The best that it can ever do is to make someone conform outwardly. Even then, the whole thing has to make good sense. It is arguably more comfortable to ride in a car without a seatbelt, but seatbelts make it much more likely that you will survive in a car crash. That is why the law was passed, punishing those who weren’t wearing their seatbelt. Pretty much the whole population was brought around to wearing seatbelts—and it wasn’t just punishment that did it. People came to see the good sense of it.

It’s not always like that. There was once another law in this country (in fact, it was an amendment to the constitution) that prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol. The law carried with it punishments, but it never took hold of people the way that the seatbelt law did. This is because the sale and consumption of alcohol can be a harmless pleasure. Regardless of the punishments, people broke the law. They wanted to do what they wanted to do. Punishment just made them get sneaky about it.

When it comes to the way that the rich man was living, we are dealing with things that are perhaps even less harmful than alcohol. The man liked nice things. He accordingly took good care of himself, while the beggar sat outside his gate. I doubt that threats of the severe punishments of hell are going to be able to reform most people into mere outward compliance in such a things. Perhaps if a person could see the punishments, that might work. But even if the threats somehow did work, there would be a great deal of resentment. People don’t want to give their money away. Perhaps you can make them do so by holding a gun to their head so to speak, but they will remain awfully bitter about it.

This demonstrates the truth of an old Lutheran saying (but, in fact, it just comes from St. Paul): New life cannot be brought about by the Law. New life can only be created by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. The Law and its punishments have their place for evildoers. Punishments set limits and boundaries that help to preserve life for others. But the threat of punishment cannot make anybody truly better. The best case scenario with the application of the Law is that a person outwardly complies. But because the heart isn’t in it, the person is always going to be looking for shortcuts and loopholes.

In the case of the rich man, if he could do it all over again, perhaps he would like to know how much money he should give away or how much help he should give Lazarus. If he were ever given that figure, you can be sure that he would give that amount and not a penny more. The rest would be for him. With this second chance he would continue to live just as much for himself and for his own happiness as he did the first time. His concern for his own happiness would require that he do what has to be done so as to avoid punishment. But he wouldn’t like it. He would resent Lazarus, the requirement, and God who has given it.

What is required of us is not just a penny here and a penny there. In fact, what is required of us is so great that nobody can render it. To use the language from last week: We have to be born again. You, like Nicodemus, might wonder, “I’m not supposed to enter into my mother’s womb a second time am I?” In like manner we might say, “I’m not supposed to care for everybody who happens to cross my path am I?” Or again: “I’m not supposed to sell all I have, give it to the poor, and follow after Jesus am I?” Or, following the example of the widow who gave her last two mites, her whole livelihood, we might say, “I’m not supposed to do that am I?”

With man all these things are impossible. It’s about like trying to shove a camel through the eye of a needle. With man all these things are impossible. With God nothing is impossible. Along these same lines we might also add that with the Law and with punishments none of these things are possible. Punishment and more punishment and more punishment for the failure to do that which is impossible for us to accomplish is only going to bring about more and more sadness and despair. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear no matter how much you beat it and whip it. The change that is required is too radical for mere punishment to accomplish.

To bring about this change in us is why God became man, why he died on the cross, killing sin, and why he was raised from the dead. What is required of us Christians is what Jesus has accomplished for us and gives to us. By baptism we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. We die to sin and are resurrected to newness of life. We are born again—not by entering into our mother’s womb a second time. That would just be another fleshly birth. What is born of the flesh is flesh. What is born of the Spirit is Spirit. We are born again by the water and the Spirit. Thereby we are made into children of God.

In our epistle reading the apostle John says, “We have come to know and believe the love that God has in us. God is love. And so he who remains in this love remains in God, and God remains in him.” The apostle’s claim here is quite extreme. When you remain in God’s love that he has for you, you abide in God, and God abides in you. God is in you—assuming, of course, that you have come to know and believe in God’s love for you. God is in you. You are in God. This is not something we would know or believe unless it were revealed to us like St. John does here.

There are tons of demands in the New Testament, and in Jesus’s talks in particular, where requirements are laid upon us that flesh and blood cannot tolerate. The requirements are too much for us. But this does not make the requirements go away. If we do not fulfill these requirements, then we will end up just like the rich man. Why did he go to hell? Because he liked nice clothes and delicious food a little too much. How in the world can we reform ourselves so that we can gladly forego these things and care for the poor Lazaruses around us? More punishments? More severe and vivid threats of punishment? No, these do not have the power to change in the radical way that we need to be changed. It’s impossible. But nothing is impossible with God, and, as the apostle John says, God is in you.

And not only is God in you, but God is linked particularly with love. God who is in us does not make us into the stereotypical superheroes or X-men where we can do unusual, physical signs and wonders. These flashy signs are less than the miracles that God would work in us. Because what God would work in us is that we would love our neighbor, love those around us. This means that we will give our money away. It means that we will forgive those who trespass against us. It means that we will love our enemies. God, who is in us, can and will accomplish these things.

You might be thinking, “I can’t do those things.” That might especially be the case if you think specifically about your own life. If you think about how much money you have. If you think about that specific person who has hurt you so much and so repeatedly over the years. How can I let go of my riches? How can I forgive this terrible person?

Let me ask you a question: Have you prayed for God to do this in you? Here we have a risky prayer, because God just might decide to grant it! There is a goodly part of us that wants to cling to our riches not just until we are plopped in the grave, but even beyond the grave. There is a part of us that loves to sip on the sweet nectar of righteous anger against the one who has sinned against us. How can we let go of these delightful, pleasurable things? This demon, it seems to me, can only be expelled by prayer.

Our sanctification is accomplished only with prayer. No amount of threatened punishment, no amount of learning, no amount of striving can accomplish what only God can do. We are new creatures. God is in us, and we are in God. God is love. We need to pluck up the courage to trust in God’s love in us. This love can do miraculous things in us. It might not make us leap over tall buildings or speak in tongues, but there are greater gifts than these. And the greatest of all gifts is love. God is love.

And so you might try this out: Pray for God to sanctify you. Pray for God to do those things we have talked about today that are impossible. Don’t be surprised if God grants your requests.

210530 Sermon on Isaiah 6:1-7 (Trinity Sunday) May 30, 2021

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In many situations in life we are able to disassociate ourselves if we really want to. We can leave. It might be hard to leave, but if things get bad enough we can do it. If our work gets bad enough, we can quit. If our church does things we don’t like, we can quit going. If our marriage gets dysfunctional enough, we can get divorced. If our own children get unruly enough, we can cut them off from our lives. These are terribly dreadful things, and hopefully we never have to do it. But the option is there if we ever really need it.

Having the option of getting out of a situation gives us a lot of peace and comfort. There are some situations, though, where we are no longer in control. These are the most frightening situations for us. Not being able to get out of a life-threatening situation is very scary. Not being able to get out of a terminal illness is very scary. These things can be so scary that people will deny the reality of the situation right up until the end. They will hold out hope that somehow, someway, they will regain control of their lives and leave behind whatever it is that is threatening them.

What about our relationship with God? Is God someone we can leave behind? Is God someone we have the freedom to disassociate ourselves from? The way that we all think by nature is that we can. Ideally our lives will be such that we can just be glad that God is who he is and we are who we are so that we can peacefully coexist. This is how we are with our other relationships in life. Hopefully they go how we want them to go, then we won’t have any problems.

But sometimes there are problems. Then what? We’re not unreasonable people. We’re willing to negotiate. And so we might negotiate with God. “I’ll do this, God, if you’ll do that. I really don’t like the situation I’m in, so please get me out of it, then we’ll go back to our happy relationship.” With this understanding of the situation we still have our rights. We have our say. We hope that God will come around to our way of thinking.

We can take this one step further. We still believe that we are in control when we essentially tell God to take a hike. If God does or says something that we really don’t like, we can say, “Well, if God is like that, then I don’t really want to believe in someone like that.” There is a belief that God is kind of on the hook. We can threaten to leave him if he doesn’t do what we think. We act as though he were just another one of the relationships that we have otherwise. We don’t want to have to disassociate ourselves from our work, church, or family, but if it gets bad enough we will. Then God will be sorry.

Well, not really. That’s not how it works. If it did work this way, then God would not be God. You would be God. You would be the one in control. You would get to decide whether God’s words and actions are acceptable. You set the tone, and it’s up to God to decide whether he has the good sense to agree with you.

The fact is that you aren’t in control. You can’t disassociate yourself from him. You can’t leave the situation. This is always a very uncomfortable position for us human beings to be in, as I’ve already mentioned. We don’t like being in a situation where we can’t get out.

We can see this with Isaiah’s experience in the temple in our Old Testament reading. God revealed his glory to Isaiah. He was high, and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the immense building. Strange creatures appeared to him, angels, called seraphim. The word “seraph” means “to burn.” These burning ones had six wings. With two they covered their face. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. One called to the other and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Saboath! Heaven and earth are fully of his glory!” Their voice was such that it shook the doorframes. The building was full of smoke.

Imagine that you are seeing all of this. It would be one thing if you were sitting there with a bowl of popcorn and watching it on the screen. Here’s the thing about watching movies: You can leave the theater. You can turn off the TV. You know that you can put a stop to it. It’s another thing when these things are happening before your eyes. There’s no place to go. There’s nothing that can be done. God is forcefully thrusting himself upon Isaiah, and there is nothing that he can do to change that.

So he responds: “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Sabaoth!” Isaiah’s emotional state is like a person who found himself on the 110^th floor of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. There is burning. There is smoke. There is nothing that can be done. He is doomed.

Maybe you are thinking, “Ew, yuck! If that’s how God is, then maybe I need to think about cancelling my subscription. I’m not sure if I want a God like that!” But you saying this to yourself does not alter the situation one bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the World Trade Center on September 11, a lot of folks retreated into some kind of a fantasy. It really doesn’t matter what fantasy they distracted themselves with. No fantasy was changing the reality of the situation. The building was coming down.

So also, God is how he is. He is holy. He is utterly incompatible with sinners. As we will sing in our closing hymn today: “Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.” You can entertain all kinds of fantasies, but fantasies come to an end. The building came down. You will see this God sooner or later. You won’t be able to turn it off or change the channel.

Now perhaps some honest fellow out there is thinking to himself, “What are you about preacher man? If you’re trying to get people to believe in God, you’re doing a terrible job. You won’t get a lot of people to sign up the way that you’re talking.”

I am aware of this reaction, and it doesn’t change the message I have to give. In fact, it is the main point of what I have to say today. Nowhere in the Scriptures will you find God telling his disciples to go make his message sound better. Those who make God’s message sound better are liars and false prophets. They make a good living, and you can find them in king’s houses wearing soft clothing. God’s prophets are like John the Baptist. They say things like “The ax is already at the foot of the tree. The winnowing fork is in his hand. The grain will be gathered into the barn, but the chaff will be burned in the unquenchable fire.”

They are like the prophet Isaiah. Later in this same chapter we hear God commissioning Isaiah. God asked, “Whom shall I send?” And Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me!” Then God told Isaiah what to do. He told him that Isaiah was going to preach, but the people wouldn’t understand. They will hear, but not hear. They will see, but not see. Their heart will grow calloused. This is the passage that Jesus quotes when his disciples ask him why he speaks in parables. The Word is to be spoken. Not everyone will believe it, but it is not to be changed on that account so as to make it more palatable or believable. God speaks the truth. Those whom he converts by the power of the Holy Spirit believe that truth. The rest will remain in their fantasies until they can remain in their fantasies no more.

Here on Trinity Sunday we are dealing with a truth that many have tried to make more palatable or understandable over the years, and there are many groups who continue to do this to this day. The teaching of the Trinity is not at all sophisticated. The teaching of the Trinity is two simple truths that the Bible is very emphatic about.

The one truth is that God is one. There is only one God. There are not three Gods. “Behold, the Lord your God is one,” God says. That’s one truth.

The other truth is that God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Think back on the many Gospel readings we have had from John these past five weeks. How many times does Jesus speak about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? At the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples to baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The teaching of the Trinity is nothing other than pointing out these two facts, these two, obvious, biblical truths: God is one. God is three. You might wonder: “How can this be?” I don’t know. Over the years there have been countless people who have responded, “Well, I wouldn’t do it that way. God has to be one or the other. He can’t be both. Some other way has to work better.” This is an understandable impulse. We all have it. It’s the way that our flesh thinks. But it’s not the way that God has revealed himself.

The farthest that we can go in understanding this mystery is what the Athanasian Creed says, which we confess today: “The Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.”

God gets to define himself. He is not some plaything or concept that we can do with as we see fit. In that case, we would be god, and God would be our own creation. It matters very little whether anyone agrees that God is the way that he is, or whether anyone likes it or not. God is who he is, and you aren’t going to change that. You can pretend that you can change it, but eventually your pretending is going to have to come to an end.

It’s the same way that God is holy, holy, holy. The voices of the angels shake the massive doorframes of the temple—if the angels can do that, what can God do? You are not in control. God is who he is and does what he does and says what he says, whether you like it or not. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

The Bible also says that God is kind and merciful to those who fear him, whereas the proud he sends empty away—lost in the imagination of their hearts. And so God has mercy on Isaiah, who feared him so greatly. God sends one of the seraphim with a coal from the altar. He touched Isaiah’s mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

Here’s the nice thing about taking God at his Word, and not trying to figure out if you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not: When God says gracious, saving things, these are just as true as when he reveals his terrible, awesome glory. The God who frightened Isaiah is the same God who said to him, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

There is something very frightening about not being in control, but there is also something very comforting about not being in control. If you are in control, then how are you going to fix the mess you’ve put yourself in? Are you going to defeat the devil? Are you going to defeat death? If you’re the one who is in control, then it’s all up to you.

But God is in control, and this is what he has revealed to you: He has fulfilled the Law. He has suffered the consequences of your sin. He has defeated death as the punishment for sin. He has made you a child of God and has prepared an eternal inheritance for you. These things are no less true than the God of power and might whose angels shook the temple.

So if something like September 11^th comes upon you, if you or someone you love is stricken with a terrible disease, if you are stuck in misery with no conceivable way out, then you should know that you are dealing with the same God who showed up while Isaiah was in the temple. God is God, not you. Don’t think you get to define God according to your own thoughts of what you think is best or acceptable. We know from the Bible and from our own experience that God has put his saints through some painful and frightening things. You don’t have to pretend that you are not dealing with God in these situations.

But it is important to also know the invincible and almighty truths that God has spoken too. God most certainly will save those who believe in the only begotten Son whom the Father has sent because he loves the world and does not want it to perish. God most certainly will save you who believe. We just don’t know when or how. He might save you for a continuation of this earthly life. He might save you after you have died. He might have you get out of the burning building. The burning building might come down to the ground and he will raise you from the dead. We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

210523 Sermon for Pentecost, May 23, 2021

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There are three great festivals that the Christian church celebrates every year: Christmas, Easter, and today’s festival of Pentecost. During these festivals we often learn and speak about the significance of them. Therefore, with Christmas, we learn how very changed the universe has become by the Son of God being joined to our human race and born of the Virgin Mary. By this union of God and man in Jesus Christ we have been intertwined with God.

At Easter we consider the way that Jesus achieved atonement and justification for all people, for all sinners. He suffered and died on the cross on Good Friday. He rose from the dead on Easter. Because of him all who believe in him will overcome sin and death and rise again to new life.

So what about Pentecost? Before we speak about its significance for us, perhaps we better briefly speak about what happened. Whereas most people can tell you what Christmas and Easter are about, they get a little hazy with the events of Pentecost. The timeline goes like this: On Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to his disciples on many occasions, in rather unusual ways. For example, he didn’t seem to walk down the street or go from one place to another like a normal human being. He appeared to his disciples in a room where all the doors and windows were locked. He appeared to two disciples on the road, but they didn’t immediately recognize him. For forty days Jesus did this. Then he ascended into heaven.

Fifty days after Easter Sunday is when the events happened that we heard about in Acts. The disciples and many Jews from around the world were gathered in Jerusalem for the Old Testament feast of weeks. While they were all gathered together there was a strange blowing of wind, tongues of flame, the ability to speak in other languages, and Peter testified that the only Savior of the world was the one whom these Jews had crucified about seven weeks prior. Peter told them that although they had crucified the Lord of Glory, they and their children should believe in him, be baptized, and be saved. And so it was that 3,000 were baptized that day. Thereafter they continued to gather to hear God’s Word, to pray, to eat together, and grow in grace.

These are the events of Pentecost. What is the significance of this festival? There are two things that are especially important. First, we learn more about the Holy Spirit. Second, we learn more about the Christian Church. We’ll begin with the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is a festival that is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the word “spirit” we might just think of an energy or a force. That’s not altogether wrong, because most certainly the Holy Spirit works within a person. But this “spirit” is not just an energy. He is true God—just as much God as the Father or the Son is.

With the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not talked about as much. The Bible has much more to say about the Father and the Son. The prayers we pray in Church are most often addressed to the Father, sometimes addressed to Jesus, much less so to the Holy Spirit. Our chief hymn today is unusual in the way that it is a prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord.” The vast majority of our hymns are not addressed to the Holy Spirit.

This is not an accident. It is not dishonoring the Holy Spirit. It is a recognition of the Holy Spirit’s proper work. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit manifests himself in the rushing wind, the ability to speak in tongues, and the divided flames of fire. But of whom does the apostle Peter speak, when he stands up to address the crowd? He does not speak to them so much about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes the apostle Peter to speak about Jesus. He urges the people to call on the Name that is above every name so that they too may be saved. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit’s choosing, some of them believe, are baptized, and saved. Others remain in their unbelief. The Holy Spirit saves. The way he does it is by creating faith in Jesus with his almighty power.

This brings us to our second point today: At Pentecost we learn more about the Christian Church. The Christian Church is the Holy Spirit’s own creation. The Christian Church consists of all those individuals who believe that Jesus is their Savior from the devil, death, and hell. By the preaching of God’s Word the Holy Spirit creates this faith in Christ. This is the only way that anybody can be a Christian. Being a member of a congregation does not make a person a Christian. There are no works that a person can perform in order to become a Christian. The only way that someone can be a Christian is by God’s action, the Holy Spirit’s action, in announcing God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates Christians by preaching, by baptizing, and by the giving of Jesus’s body and blood in the Sacrament.

Notice that as a Christian congregation these are the very things that we do. I suppose that the sky’s the limit for what a congregation could do. I suppose a congregation could teach math, be an amusement park, cure cancer, or bring about world peace. These are not what Jesus has given to us. Frankly, even curing cancer or bringing about world peace are not important enough. Something more important happens with the preaching of Christ the crucified, with baptism, and with the Lord’s Supper. The Holy Spirit works in these things by his almighty power to make sinners trust in Jesus. Thereby the devil is defeated with all his lies. Hell is shut. Heaven is opened. And people are made into children of God, with Jesus as their brother. There is nothing higher or more important than this!—not even curing cancer or world peace.

Now at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you might be thinking, “He’s drunk”—or something along those lines. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. How can water or bread and wine do such great things? How can a humble, little building, with such ordinary people, have the Holy Spirit in it? Not everybody was converted on Pentecost either—as you heard in our reading from Acts.

But it doesn’t really matter what people think. What is important is God’s action. The Holy Spirit who was at work at Pentecost and who saved those people, is the same Holy Spirit who is at work today among us. Through the preaching of Christ he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Holy Christian Church on earth and keeps us together with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Things of cosmic importance happen here. The devil is renounced, the one true God is embraced, sinners are given the true body and blood of their Savior for the forgiveness of their sins. The Holy Spirit is to be praised for doing this work to you and among us as a congregation.

We began today by speaking about the relevance of the three great Christian festivals. Christmas is important because God becomes one of us, so that we could become children of God through him. Easter is important because this is the way that sinners are redeemed and set free from the Law that would otherwise require our death and drag us down into hell. Pentecost is also very relevant and important. In Pentecost you see how the Holy Spirit distributes Christ’s salvation, and how it is received by the Holy Spirit’s power in those whom he has chosen to receive his grace. The Holy Spirit continues to do this work today among us. “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all your graces now outpoured. On each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart. Alleluia, alleluia!”

210516 Sermon on Ezekiel 36:22-28

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King David was an exceptionally keen observer of mankind. There is nobody else who even comes close understanding the way that people are, except, perhaps, the apostle Paul. But I’m quite sure that even Paul learned what he knew from David’s psalms. So I’d like to begin today with some of David’s thinking concerning man.

The psalm I’d like to look at is Psalm 36. The Hebrew wording is a bit obscure for the very first verse of this psalm, so it gets translated in different ways. I prefer the older translations where the psalm begins this way: “My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly.” The source for David’s knowledge of wickedness is none other than his own heart. So what does he learn about wickedness in that heart of his?

Answer: There is no fear of God before his eyes. The lack of the fear of God is the only way that we can make sense of sin at all. If we feared God we would be too frightened to do anything against his commandments. It’s when the cat’s away that the mice will play. The thought of punishment for what we do wrong is mysteriously absent from our minds. That’s why we are willing to break God’s commandments. We do not fear him. We’ll get away with whatever we want to do.

David continues: “He flatters himself in his own eyes until his abominable sin be found out.” Despite our lack of fear, despite our sins, we go about most our days feeling like we’re not too bad of people. Sure, we sin. We’re disappointed with ourselves. But it’s not that big of a deal. We’re all in this together, and if I compare myself to others, I’m probably doing a better job than they are.

This train of thought will keep chugging along for who knows how long. There’s only one way to make it stop: “He flatters himself in his own eyes until his abominable sin be found out.” When what we have done in secret, when what we’ve done that we don’t want anybody else to know about, finally comes out—to others or to ourselves—then our self-flattery collapses. It takes a heavy dose of reality, an unmistakable sign of badness, to make us stop flattering ourselves. But this is rare. We get so good at lying to ourselves that we can become impervious to the truth.

David continues: “The words of his mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit. He quits being wise and doing what is good. He plots harm on his bed. He puts himself on an evil path. He does not hate what is evil.” We lie to ourselves. We lie to others. We know what we are supposed to do, and we don’t do it. All the while we flatter ourselves in our own eyes.

At this point there is an abrupt shift to a totally new topic. He looks in a new direction. David sings: “Lord, your mercy reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness, to the skies. Your righteousness stands as strong as the mountains. Your judgments are like the great deep. You save both man and beast, O Lord. How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of Adam find refuge under the shadow of your wings.”

At the beginning of this Psalm David is looking in here: “My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly. There is no fear of God before his eyes.” Then he looks to his God and he says, “Lord, your mercy reaches unto the heavens, and your faithfulness unto the clouds.” In here is wickedness and deceit. In him is mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgment.

This is not surprising. We are talking about two very different things, are we not? We are one way. God is another. We all know this. But when it comes to salvation, we necessarily are putting mankind and God together. What is the bridge that we need to build between us and God, between us and our justification?

The answer is that there is none. It’s like it is in David’s psalm. First he describes man. Then he speaks of God’s mercy. There is an abrupt shift. There is no conjunction, no link. The only way that we are saved is by God’s action, by God’s mercy, quit apart from ourselves. There’s nothing that can be done with man to make him truly better or more loveable. That’s like trying to polish a turd. Nothing can come of that except more and more filth.

The reason why I have brought this up using Psalm 36 is because we see the same thing in our Old Testament reading. Ezekiel was a prophet while the leaders of Judah were being held captive in Babylon, the temple back in Jerusalem was destroyed, and this people of God appeared to have no future and no hope. The reason why the people were in this terrible position was because they had been flattering themselves in their own eyes, and even their abominable sins couldn’t make them second guess themselves. God then punished them until they had nothing left.

This is the background to our reading this morning. Then this is what the Lord God says, “I am about to act, O house of Israel, not for your sake, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you have gone. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I reveal myself as holy in front of their eyes through you. I will take you from among the nations. I will gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you to your own soil. I will sprinkle purifying water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurity and from all your filthy idols. Then I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will carefully observe my ordinances. Then you will live in the land I gave your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

I’d like you to notice why God acts the way that he does. He’s quite emphatic about it. He’s going to act because of his holy name. He is not going to act because the house of Israel had learned their lesson and reformed themselves. If the Israelites were responsible for doing anything, it was to profane God’s holy name among the Gentiles. To profane something is the opposite of consecrating something. It is the opposite of it being holy and divine. The people of Israel had treated God’s name as though it were nothing. Instead they had relied on their military, diplomacy, and economy. Along these lines they flattered themselves in their own eyes. They thought nothing of God’s name. When they were conquered by outsiders, everyone else also thought that this God of theirs must not be very good. Nobody was satisfied with God’s holy name at that time—neither the people of God nor the Gentiles.

So God says to these people, I’m going to act. I’m not going to act because you are good. I’m not going to act because you have reformed yourselves. I’m not going to act because you’ve been trying harder. Then, when he reveals his plan, it turns out to be the most gracious thing a person could imagine. “Your mercy, O Lord, reaches unto the heavens, and your faithfulness unto the clouds.” God was going to bring them back to their own land and make of them a nation again. This meant that God was going to give them back their stuff. But these blessings that have to do with this body and life are nothing compared to the other things he would do for them.

He was going to sprinkle purifying water on them. He was going to cleanse them from their filthy idolatry. He was going to give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them. He was going to take out that nasty, self-flattering heart of theirs, and give them a heart of flesh. He would give them his own Holy Spirit, so that they would walk in God’s statutes and obey his commandments. He would be their God, and they would be his people.

Here we have a description of something that is hardly less than heaven itself. There is no gift that God can give us that is better or higher than the forgiveness of sins followed by our sanctification. This is literally what will happen with the resurrection from the dead and the life everlasting. Our stupid, cold hearts are going to be renewed in love. All things will be made new. But none of this came about because of mankind making a new beginning or turning over a new leaf. It solely happens by God’s grace, and even in spite of man’s actions getting in the way.

That God’s grace works in this way is very important for you to see for at least two reasons. First of all it is important so that you take God at his Word towards you and you are not waiting around to try to make yourself good enough. God causes his Word to be brought to you. He has caused it to be brought to you, if nowhere else, already in your baptism. That baptism works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it. So believe it. Who cares if you are a turd? Who cares if you are soiled with sin? Where does God say that he will save those who save themselves? Nowhere! It’s quite the opposite, in fact. If we want to talk about the way you are, then we’re going to have to go by the descriptions that David and Paul have. Those are not very flattering depictions. The only one who can save and does save is God, and he does it through his promises in Christ.

The second reason why it is important to see how you are saved solely by God’s grace and despite yourself, is so that you can better understand your emotions as you live your Christian life. Those who believe in Christ do not lose their self-flattering Old Adam. He remains in place just as much as he ever did, but in Christians he must contend against the Holy Spirit who is to rule over him. When we become Christians it is inevitable that our self-flattery will continue. It will just put on a different dress. We’ll look at ourselves and say, “My, what progress you are making! Just look at yourself! You used to do this sin and that sin, and now look at you!” Or, perhaps what is more to the point: “Just look at how much better you are than everyone around you! They must not be as good of Christians as you are! Oh, if only everyone could pray like you, avoid sin like you, discipline themselves like you do!”

This kind of thinking is poison. It is an attempt to try to find something in here that makes me acceptable to the one up there, but there is only One who can do that. But here’s the thing—and it’s a really important lesson to learn—we like flattering ourselves in our own eyes, even, and especially, as Christians. We like feeling like we are on the way up. We like feeling like we are getting stronger and stronger, holier and holier. We like believing that since we have done so much polishing we aren’t a turd anymore.

And so when some abominable sin comes along that cuts our self-flattery short, that is very, very depressing. It feels terrible. We feel as though we must not be Christian anymore. Amazingly, the Gospel isn’t very attractive in such a state of mind. We preferred the old Gospel when we were feeling good about ourselves, and now when we feel terrible about ourselves, it doesn’t have that old zip and joy.

This, however, is a very subtle trick of the devil and our Old Adam. Christ does not lose his power to save when we are feeling bad about ourselves. In fact, we quite possibly might be in a better spot when we don’t want to look at ourselves and polish ourselves because we don’t like what we see there. Then we might look to our beautiful Savior. God does not wait around for us to take the first step or reform ourselves. He isn’t waiting for us to feel good about ourselves and the religious choices that we have made. He acts because of his own holy name, which we have profaned.

And so it may very well be that we do not feel forgiven or holy or strong or what-have-you. The Holy Spirit’s comfort is different from the world’s comfort. You can read what Luther has to say about that on the back of your bulletin later. The Holy Spirit’s comfort is such that when we are weak, then we are strong. It is not when we are gushing all over ourselves about how wonderful we are and how much progress we have made that we are strong. That’s what the world always thinks. Rather, it is when we are weak and He is strong, that is when we have no other choice than to rely on God’s grace. And blessed are you if you rely on God’s grace—even when you do not feel like it. You will find that he (as opposed to us) does all things well.

210509 Sermon on John 16:23-33 (Easter 6) May 9, 2021

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210502 Sermon on John 16:5-15 (Easter 5) May 2, 2021

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Sermon manuscript:

The psalmist says, “For you, O Lord, are the most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” Again, it says, “The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory is higher than the heavens.” In one of our songs in the liturgy we sing something similar: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!” God is glorious. The Christ is glorious.

The apostles had thought on Holy Week that this glory had only just begun for Jesus, and therefore also for them, his friends. Holy week was a good week for Jesus until that terrible night when he was betrayed. He had ridden into Jerusalem with palms and praises. He had routed his enemies who tried to slip him up with trick questions. So when Jesus tells them on the night that he was betrayed how he was going away from them, sorrow filled their hearts. The believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the one God had promised from the beginning. This Christ is supposed to be king. How can there be this talk of him going away? A kingdom was going to need to be built. How could it be built without a king?

This is the concern that Jesus is addressing in our Gospel reading today. He was going to go away. He wasn’t going to remain with them in the same way that he had before. He was going to die, be resurrected, and ascend to the right hand of God the Father. But he was not going to leave them as orphans. He was going to send the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Counselor or the Helper. Surprisingly, they will be better off when Jesus goes away, because if he did not go away the Holy Spirit would not come to them. But if he goes away he will send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would lead them into all the truth.

Jesus told the apostles that he had many things that he would like to say to them, but they could not yet bear what he had to say. This is because the disciples were still stuck in the notion that Jesus was going to create an earthly kingdom. They thought that he would be like King David. He would kick out the Romans and make all the Gentile nations pay tribute. They, as his friends, would be given high positions in the government. A new and glorious day was dawning. It was morning again in Jerusalem. Blow the trumpets; raise an army! Let’s get this glory show on the road.

But this was not how Jesus would have it go. This is not how it did go. No armies, no purple robes, no parades of goosesteppers. Without these things we can’t help but think that the whole enterprise was downgraded. It went from being a great kingdom to be a merely spiritual kingdom, which, to many minds, sounds like a pretend kingdom. Meanwhile, what happens to these apostles? According to tradition Peter is crucified upside down. Andrew is crucified on an X shaped cross. Thomas is skinned alive. Paul is beheaded. What kind of kingdom is this? It hardly appears to be even an imaginary kingdom.

But appearances can be deceiving. That which is seen is temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. What is given to the apostles, and therefore also to the Christian Church even down to our own times, is not a step down from a physical kingdom, nor is it something imaginary. It is such a kingdom that triumphs over all enemies.

Psalm 2 is a very important prophecy about Christ’s kingdom. In this psalm it says, “Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples grumble in vain? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers join together against the Lord and against his Christ. They say, ‘Let us tear off their chains and throw off their ropes from us.’ But the one who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. He speaks to them in his anger and in his wrath he terrifies them. He says, ‘I have installed my King on Zion, on my holy mountain.’” The kingdom of Christ is such that the greatest nations cannot do anything against it. The Lord laughs at them when they try to resist him.

In Daniel chapter 2 there is a prophesy about Christ’s kingdom that uses picture language. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, receives a vision of a proud and glorious statue. It represents the greatest civilizations that have existed on this planet. Even such a proud civilization as our own might be thrown into the mix. Our civilization believes it can conquer the universe, bend the laws of physics, and defeat death if only it believes in itself and never gives up. But this glorious statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees has clay feet. And there is a stone that is not cut with human hands that struck the magnificent statue and it all came down in a heap.

That stone is Jesus Christ, who became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, not by the will of man, but by the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus’s kingdom is such that it is an everlasting kingdom. No matter how conceited mankind might get in his belief in his own power, the Kingdom of Christ is greater.

By his Gospel and by his Sacraments, Jesus makes people into children of God. By the Spirit and by the water we are born again. Being baptized into Christ we are crucified together with Christ and raised together with Christ. Just as Jesus will never die again, so also we will never truly die. Jesus has defeated death. Whatever powers and authorities there might be in heaven or on earth, they will all be put under Jesus’s feet. These are things that the mightiest of empires that have existed on this earth cannot even dream of accomplishing.

So you must not think that Christ’s kingdom is an imaginary kingdom. It is more real than the things we can see and taste and touch, because one day these things will be brought to an end. Christ will be king, world without end. And the authority that Jesus gives to those who confess his saving Name is also tremendous.

Jesus gives to his Christians what he calls the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Those keys open and close heaven and hell. What greater power could any king or president or emperor ever dream of? And yet this power is given to even the poorest, weakest, humblest Christian. When a Christian speaks God’s Word to someone, that Word accomplishes what it says. If it says that the unrepentant cannot enter the kingdom of God, then that is how it will be. If it says that whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, then that is what is brought about. There is nobody on earth—no matter how rich or powerful a person might be—who is outside the jurisdiction of Christ’s kingdom. The humbles Christian may speak to the kings of the earth, and sooner or later they will come cringing to him.

Of course, now, in the hour of darkness, the high and mighty will not see this. They will not imagine that the Word that is spoken to them is God’s Word. They will think it is merely a man-made word. They will not think that it has any authority. They will smirk, bemusedly, at a Christian who makes such exalted claims.

Think of how Pontius Pilate treated Jesus. Pilate asked Jesus, “So you are a king are you?” Mm hmm. Jesus told him quite plainly and rightly—we are not in the business of lying, after all—that his kingdom was not of this world. If his kingdom was of this world he would command his angels who would fight for him, but his kingdom is not of this world. And I’m sure Pilate said, “Mm hmm.”

Eventually Pilate put a sign on Jesus’s cross that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” He meant that sign to be a sneering, sarcastic sign. It was intended to say, “Look at this stupid, deluded man. He thinks he’s a king.” But in actual fact that sign spoke the truth. There on that cross was not just the king of the Jews, but the king of heaven and earth. Holy, holy, holy, heaven and earth are full of his glory. He died for sin. He was raised for our justification. He ascended in triumph. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning and ruling in his Kingdom on earth by the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of his Sacraments. And he will come again with power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end.

So do not think that Christ’s Kingdom, wherein he reigns and rules by means of words, is somehow less powerful or less real than a kingdom that is ruled by guns or even nuclear bombs. The Lord, who sits in the heavens, laughs. He holds them in derision. Jesus speaks the truth when he says to his disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” It is to their advantage because Jesus sends the Holy Spirit.

And let’s say a little something about the work that the Holy Spirit does according to Jesus’s words. He says the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Foolish men, women, and children think they have a pretty good handle on what sin is, what righteousness is, and what judgment is. This is especially true of the high and mighty. They think they know these things quite well. In fact, they think they know these things so well that they can’t help but scowl at Jesus’s explanations of these words.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in him. “Well, I don’t know how much of a sin that is! I think I could come up with some juicier ones than that!” Our reason imagines that so long as we don’t murder, rape, or steal, we must be a jolly good fellow. God, however, does not look at these outward things. He looks at the heart. And there he sees how man truly is. He hates. He’s lazy, He’s a slave to his passions. And on top of all that he’s proud of it all to boot! There is only one way to be saved from this horror show that exists in every single one of our hearts—and that’s by faith in Christ.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning righteousness because he goes to the Father and we will see him no longer. If our reason doesn’t care for Jesus’s definition of sin, it only gets worse with his definition of righteousness. What on earth does Jesus’s going to the Father have to do with righteousness at all or with the righteousness of any one of us?

Here Jesus speaks in parables so that the truth may be hidden from those to whom it has not been given. Jesus going to the Father includes all that he has done for the salvation of the world. Included in these words are Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus did not do these things for himself or for his own righteousness. He had no need of such things. But we do. The only way that any descendant of Adam and Eve can be righteous is through Jesus’s righteousness that is offered to all and received by faith. We see him no longer. We hold to him by faith.

Finally the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Judgment has to do with knowing what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. Here too the world has a pretty good idea of what is right and wrong, good and bad, thank you very much. What is right and good to them certainly doesn’t include listening to a crazy preacher talk about an imaginary kingdom for twenty minutes, and then eating a wafer and taking a sip of wine. They know of better ways to spend their time. They’d rather watch sports, or watch TV, or sleep. But they know not what they do. Their judgment is way off. They don’t know what’s what.

Here’s what’s what: The ruler of this world, the devil, has been judged. The one who has judged him and condemned him is the Lord Jesus Christ. The story line for our existence is not the progressive march of civilization. What is good is our God, what is bad is the devil. What is wise is God’s Word. What is foolish is believing in idols.

With these words Jesus tells us the work of the Holy Spirit. It is wonderful to me that he hides these things from the wise and prudent and reveals them to babes. The world believes that it is invincible and eternal with its wisdom, power, and might. That is not surprising, really, if you only consider how we think of ourselves. We all think that we are quite something. We all think that the world would be a whole lot better place if everyone would just see how smart we are and agree with everything we think.

But it is different with those who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit. They know their sin. They know the only One who is righteous. They know that they’d better stick with him if there is to be any goodness whatsoever. The work of the Holy Spirit is glorious. He works miracles as he breaks our stupid pride. Such is the work of Christ’s kingdom.

“You, O Lord, are the most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!” Amen.