Sermon: Pentecost (Trinity) – 2024

19 May 2024

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 (Ezek 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Pentecost was an Old Testament feast, fifty days after the Passover.  It was an early harvest: the first-fruits of the season.  It was a celebration of the Lord’s goodness, as seeds that were sown ripened into fullness.  But it was also a celebration that many more crops were yet to come by God’s grace.

Jesus compared Himself to a seed: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  Our Lord died and was buried.  He was sown into the ground.  But like a buried kernel of wheat, He re-emerged from the earth, vibrant and alive.  He became “the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep,” says St. Paul.  And the harvest is only beginning, dear friends.

When we think of Pentecost, it’s easy to get caught up in the miraculous details of the “mighty rushing wind” that came from heaven and “filled the entire house.”  We think of the weird sight of what looks like flames dancing around the apostles’ heads.  And then there is the mysterious ability to instantly speak in foreign languages and to be understood by people from all nations at the same time.

These are indeed glorious signs of the work of the Holy Spirit, but they are not the Spirit’s actual work.  For the Spirit of truth came to the apostles for a reason.  He came to guide the church into all the truth.  He descended upon them so that they would preach and be understood.  The Holy Spirit came so that the apostles could preach Christ crucified to all the nations without the barriers of language and national differences getting in the way. 

For where did foreign languages come from in the first place, dear friends?  Why are we divided by nationality?  They are a result of our ancestral sinfulness at the Tower of Babel.  The Lord confused our languages to frustrate our plans to rebel against Him.  And this impediment has been a curse: a cause of hatreds between peoples.  The Holy Spirit restores unity among the nations not through worldly means, not by big-talking politicians and conquering armies – but through the supernatural preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, Him who is the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The Holy Spirit comes to glorify Jesus, to take what is the Son’s and to give it to you.  For the Son has come to give us life, and to give it abundantly.  And as all of us live under the curse, not only of the tower of Babel, but also of the fall in Eden, we all need what the Spirit causes preachers to proclaim.  We need Jesus, the first-fruits of the dead.  We need the resurrection.  And it is because of this need, and because of our Lord fulfilling it, that the church has Good News, dear friends, and not just for us, but for the entire world!

Sadly, the world thinks preaching is a negative thing.  Even some people in the church think this way.  How sad!  Sometimes preaching is seen as scolding or condemning.  It is seen as boring words about religion or some nonsense that happens to come from the Bible.  Or worse yet, it’s wasting time babbling about things that don’t matter.  But do you know what actual preaching does, dear friends?  Preaching raises the dead.  For the Father has declared the resurrection to Jesus, and Jesus has declared it to you.  Our sins are forgiven, the curse of death is reversed, and we are empowered to walk out of our own graves – by the preached Word!  Preaching raises the dead.

We see preaching in action in our Old Testament lesson, as Ezekiel was commanded by the Holy Spirit to go to a massive cemetery in the desert.  These bones weren’t even buried, but were “on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.”  God asks him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” 

Ezekiel was commanded to preach Good News to these dead bodies, to these dry bones, to these lifeless and hopeless remains.  “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.”  And there is a promise that goes along with this proclamation of the Word of God, dear friends.  “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live,” promises God.  This word “breath” is the same word in Hebrew as the word “spirit.”  The breath of the preached Word gives the living spirit to the dead bones, and causes them to reassemble and resurrect.

This is not some kind of esoteric symbolism, dear friends.  This is a literal promise of God.  Jesus did not symbolically rise from death; He conquered it by means of His sacrificial blood, by stomping upon the head of the Serpent, and by His triumphant literal bodily resurrection.  He is the first-fruits, the beginning of a great harvest. We share in His death and His resurrection because of our baptism, as Paul teaches us.

And so preaching raises the dead, filling us down to our very bones with the breath of the spirit, with the Good News of Jesus Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit, spoken into reality through the prophetic Word of God, preached by His called servants.  “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

This is why we preach, dear friends.  It is not to bore you, harangue you, or scold you.  I’m not here to make you laugh or to guilt you into a being better.  I’m not here to entertain you.  I am here to proclaim the prophetic Word of God to you, both Law and Gospel.  I’m here to convict you “concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”  I’m here to remind you that you are a bag of bones, dry and dead inside, because of sin.  But I am also here to remind you of Jesus, of His promise, speaking by His authority, by the Holy Spirit, by virtue of my office, to say to you, specifically to you on this day and in this place: “Thus says the Lord” and to fulfill the Father’s will by the Spirit’s action to bring you the life-giving words of the Son: “because the ruler of this world is judged.”  We are victorious over sin, death, and the devil, dear friends.  And this is why our bones will live!

That is the Good News that we preachers are proclaiming this very Pentecost day all over the world, in every language and place known to man.  That death-raising Good News resounds in Algiers – the one in northern Africa, and the one in West Bank New Orleans, transcending all tribes and tongues, bearing the same message of Good News, and the same prophetic Word that literally raises the dead.

So hear the Word of the Lord, O my people.  Hear the Good News of the cross and the empty tomb, of forgiveness, life, and salvation, of the Holy Spirit’s coming upon you at your Holy Baptism, and its being fanned into flame within you by Word and Sacrament.  Hear the Word of the Lord, and live!  For the Lord has commanded me to say to you, dear friends, not my words, but His promise: “Behold, I will open your graves,” says the Lord, “and raise you from your graves, O My people…. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O My people.  And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live…. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

And St. Peter also speaks prophetically to us by means of God’s Word, dear brothers and sisters, speaking the unbreakable promise of Jesus by the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost, and again on this Pentecost: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  This is the Word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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