Sermon: Cantate (Easter 5) - 2019

19 May 2019

Text: John 16:5-15 (Isa 12:1-6, Jas 1:16-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

“Nevertheless,” says Jesus, “I tell you the truth.”

For the second week in a row, our Gospel involves Jesus preparing His disciples for a change in how things are going to work.  For He is going to be crucified, rise from the dead, and then forty days after His resurrection, He will return to the Father.  The disciples are being kicked out of the nest and will have to fly on their own.  They are about to graduate and will no longer be students.  They will make the transition from disciples to apostles, from hearers to preachers, from seminarians to pastors.

No man in his right mind would not be terrified by this.  And Jesus recognizes this.  And so He assures them that He is not disappearing from them.  And He has not disappeared from us either, dear friends!

For Jesus is the Word made flesh, and He is present wherever and whenever His Word is proclaimed, and His flesh and blood are present.  In other words, Jesus is here with us, in space and time, whenever two or three gather for the Divine Service, when His Word is read and preached and taught and heard, and when His Holy Supper is distributed “for the forgiveness of sins.”  

Our Lord also sends us a “Helper” to guide us through the perils of life in this fallen world, to point us to that which is right and true, to lead us out of temptation, to draw us to the Holy Scriptures and the Sacraments, and to direct us to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself!  And this Helper is the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon the Church at Pentecost – even as we will soon call this wondrous blessing to mind yet again, when the Word of God exploded into every corner of the world, defying even the barriers of tribe and tongue.

And even though the idea of graduation, of their beloved Teacher ascending into heaven, of the changes that this will bring to them – which for nearly all of them would include martyrdom of some sort – causes sorrow to fill their hearts, “Nevertheless,” says our Lord, comforting them with His Word, with His promise, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away.”  For in this change, the Holy Spirit would accomplish things through the work of the apostles that they could not then imagine.

And, dear friends, this is what “faith” is.  Faith is believing without absolute proof.  Now, people mock faith, people think that faith is primitive and contrary to science.  But these same people walk into a room and turn on the light switch.  Why do they do this?  Because they fully expect the light to go on.  They have faith that this will happen.  They cannot absolutely know that this will happen – and sometimes it doesn’t.  But nevertheless, they still live by faith in something.

Or someone!  Every time someone cashes a paycheck, he is putting faith in the promise of another person: faith that his employer will indeed convert the piece of paper, bearing a promise and a signature, into money.

We all indeed live by faith.  It would be impossible to function without faith – for we live in the present that is always moving into the future.  And we have faith in what our eyes and ears tell us.  Even walking a single step is an act of faith.

And so Jesus calls His disciples – including us – to trust Him.  He is the Creator of the world.  There’s a plan.  He’s got it all under control – even when it looks like it isn’t.  And to keep us in the faith, the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit of God who hovered over the waters in the beginning, and who hovers over the baptismal waters that were applied to us – the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”  “This is most certainly true,” for He is, as our Lord calls Him, “the Spirit of truth,” and our Lord Himself says, “I tell you the truth.”

This is our culture’s current crisis, dear friends.  We live in an age in which people believe that there is no truth, but rather there are many truths.  If two plus two equals four for you, then that’s fine for you.  But you better not jam your mathematics down other people’s throats.  For who are you to judge if another person’s truth is that two plus two equals five.  

Of course, with math like that, you might not want to drive over any bridges.

We can have faith, dear friends, precisely because we believe that there is a truth, an objective reality that transcends our desires, our feelings, and even our existence.  Isn’t it interesting that when our Lord was put on trial before Pontius Pilate, the tormented governor asked Him, “What is truth?”  

And so we believe Jesus is telling us the truth, and we believe that the Holy Spirit guides us into truth, and we believe that our struggles in this world are truly to our advantage – even if we are tempted to think otherwise.  For no matter how grim things are, how divided our culture and our country have become, no matter how shockingly and rapidly that we have seen things fall into chaos – our Lord Jesus Christ has it all under control.  The Holy Spirit is guiding us to where we need to be, where it is to our “advantage.”  The Greek word that John uses here – under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – translated as “advantage” –

actually means: “lots of things working together for good.”  

And once again, dear friends, think about all the little things in your life, this decision, that happenstance, this chance meeting of a person, that choice instead of the other choice – that all conspired to bring you to eternal life in Christ.  How arrogant we are if we think that we did this!  How silly it would be to claim that we made some kind of decision for Christ.  All the while, the Holy Spirit has guided you into all truth, and led you to Jesus Christ, who forgives your sins, who makes you into a new person, who promises you victory over death and the grave, who offers you His body and blood week in and week out, who hunts you down like a Shepherd, and keeps you in the one true flock by means of His Word and Spirit!

And Jesus knows that we can’t handle everything all at once.  And so He asks us to trust Him, one step at a time, as all of those little things are worked to your good, to your advantage.  Jesus asks you to trust Him, and He sends us the Holy Spirit as a mentor, a guide, and a true Helper.  For “when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”

And that, dear friends, is what the Christian life is all about: a relentless search for the truth – not your truth or my truth or some silly fantasy that two plus two equals five.  Rather, we want to know what is objectively and eternally true: how we got here, why the world is the way that it is – including us – and where are we going.  To desire anything less than the truth is to deny to ourselves what it means to be truly human.  

And so we are led by the Spirit, led to Jesus, led to the Holy Trinity in whom we have communion, to the God who created us, loves us, redeems us, and brings us to Himself – where we will live eternally as we were meant to live.  This is where we are headed in this little ship we call the Church.  This is where we are all being led in this little flock following our Good Shepherd.  This is what awaits us when all the little pieces come together – all to our advantage: “All that the Father has is Mine,” says our Lord Jesus, “therefore, I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”  To you, dear friends.

And this is the truth that has been revealed by Jesus by means of the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Scriptures, and received by your believing hearts.  Though we cannot bear to hear all of the truth now, this is the truth that our Lord declared  to the disciples, and declares again to us.  

And though in this fallen world, sorrow fills our hearts, “Nevertheless,” says Jesus, “I tell you the truth.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.