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21 May 2023
Text: John 15:26-16:4
(Ezek 36:22-28, 1 Pet 4:7-14)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“I have said these things to you,” says Jesus, “to keep you from falling away.” St. John records Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit, and we have heard these promises over the past three weeks. John recorded these words of Scripture – under inspiration of the Holy Spirit – as he explains: “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name.”
“So that you may believe.”
People “fall away” from belief, which means falling away from life, because they fall away from the Word of God as it is read here, where Christians gather around the altar, the font, and the pulpit. It’s important to reflect on why we come to church.
We don’t come here to impress anyone, to make God think we’re pious, to make our children moral citizens or “good people,” to be politically correct (whether liberal or conservative), to put on a show for our neighbors, to continue a family tradition, or because it is the American thing to do. We don’t come here to feel good about ourselves or to get a pep talk about worldly wealth. And if this is the real reason you are here, you won’t last long. You will fall away. And you will forfeit your eternal life.
The Good News is that sometimes we start coming to church for one reason, but then the Holy Spirit grabs us, drags us to Jesus, whose Word changes us from the outside, to bring us ever closer to the Father. The Word of God (which includes the Sacraments), is supernatural. The Word causes us to have faith, to hunger for more, and to become more alive than we ever were before. It is not because we are better than everyone else. Rather, it is because we are “poor, miserable sinners” and we know it. The Holy Spirit convicts us, and we see ourselves for the walking death that we are. And so, like the many people we meet in Scripture: the blind, the deaf, the mute, the leprous, the lame, the broken, those cast out of society, those with regrets and sorrows, those oppressed or possessed by demons – even those who have died; we are brought to Jesus. And Jesus gives us new life by His Word!
How sad that so many do “fall away.” We see that in the Bible too, as St. John also records. When Jesus told His followers that they would be eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and this would give them eternal life, and He would raise them up on the last day, many of His disciples “no longer walked with Him.” These were (in John’s words), grumblers. Jesus says to them (and to us): “Do not grumble among yourselves.”
And this, dear friends, is also why you need to know the Word of God. For over and over, the children of Israel grumbled in the desert. And the grumblers and their leaders eventually fell away – some quickly and dramatically, and some slowly and gradually – until their faith died, along with their souls.
We come here because it is a hospital for sinners. If you think you are a “good person,” if you think you are better than the rest of us, then you will think that you don’t need to be here. You will resent all of these hypocrites and people who are beneath your dignity. You will invent reasons to resent your pastor – especially if you are engaged in a pet sin that you are holding onto and justifying. You will collect grievances against other members. You will be the classic grumbler.
Dear friends, you are here, and you are listening to the Word of God right now, because Jesus does not want you to fall away. You may find your faith slipping. You may find your grip loosening. You may find your discipline lacking. And you can see it. Well, that’s good. That means the Holy Spirit is diagnosing your problem by means of the Word. You need to listen to the Word – and keep listening. Keep coming. Don't grumble. Don’t make excuses. Don’t justify yourself. Repent and commit to come here each and every week, to hear the Word of God, and to be transformed by the renewal of your mind – all by the work of the Spirit, through the Word, and all by Jesus and Him crucified for you.
My job as the shepherd is to keep you in the flock and to point you to “green pastures and still waters.” The grass is the wheat that becomes the Bread of Life. The life-giving waters were placed on you at baptism, when you became “God’s own child.” You may be tempted to leave the flock, whether out of boredom, grumbling, or other priorities. Dear friends, this flock is your very life. Don’t take my word for it: listen to Jesus. “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away.”
Jesus says that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, “will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” In other words, you remained. You did not wander. You did not grumble and walk with Jesus no more. So don’t let that happen, dear friends. Continue in your walk with Jesus and with the flock. Continue to hear the voice of your Good Shepherd, the voice borne by the Holy Spirit. Don’t let something silly rob you of your life. Don’t be the foolish sheep who leaves the flock, only to be a meal for the wolf.
Jesus says that there will be trouble in the lives of Christians. It is not always easy to walk with Jesus. The world considers attacking us to be “service to God.” Jesus says, “They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”
Our reading from St. Peter the apostle elaborates on what our Lord means – also by the Spirit’s inspiration: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” You members of this congregation have been placed into a Christian family. Don’t grumble against each other. Love indeed covers a multitude of sins. And grumbling is the opposite of love covering sins. Grumbling will make you self-righteous and convince you that you are too good for that pastor, for those people, for that church. Your spirit will shrivel and shrink, and you will become a lost sheep. You will wander where you should not go, and you will be eaten.
Stay in the flock. Stay in the Word. Stay in the sacramental fellowship of your parish church: not for the sake of tradition or family or routine. Not because you are just looking for a club to belong to. For this is a hospital. We come here to receive the very procedure that allows us to live another week.
St. John tells us that after the grumblers got mad at Jesus and walked with Him no more, Jesus asked the Twelve: “Do you want to go away as well?” Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life.”
Treasure these words, dear friends. Treasure the Word of God. Come to where the Word is taught and taught properly. Come to where the Word is proclaimed and proclaimed boldly, for you. Come to where you are protected from the wolves of this world. Don’t be a grumbler. Don’t let pride or misplaced priorities be the spiritual death of you – whether sudden and rooted in anger, or gradual and rooted in distractions.
For it is in Jesus, the one to whom the Spirit guides us, that the prophecy of Ezekiel finds its fulfillment: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…. I will put My Spirit within you.”
Once again, dear friends, “I have said these things to you,” says Jesus, “to keep you from falling away.”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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