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1 June 2014
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!
This
seventh and final Sunday of the Easter season is a bit awkward and confusing. For Jesus has ascended to the Father, but the
Holy Spirit hasn’t yet come down at Pentecost.
For the Lord’s first disciples, this was not only awkward and confusing,
but scary. Maybe the appearances of
Jesus weren’t real. Maybe this promised
Helper to come is equally unreal. But
what is most certainly real is that the Church has a lot of enemies: the mighty
Roman Empire that put the Lord Jesus to death on a cross, and the entire Jewish
establishment, that could now point to the death of Jesus as “evidence” that He
was a false Messiah. The Church had
become a target.
But
the disciples had something more powerful than their doubts and fears, namely,
the promise of Jesus, the Word of God.
They could trust His Word and look to the future coming of the Holy
Spirit. “But when the Helper comes,”
Jesus had told them, “whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you
have been with Me from the beginning.”
And history was to prove our Lord’s words as the Holy Spirit did come
and embolden the once-frightened apostles with their death-defying and
world-changing confession of Christ.
And
even as we bridge Easter and Pentecost, we bear witness to Jesus today, and we
do so on this Lord’s Day by welcoming our newest Christian, Clara Hart, in the
holy waters of Holy Baptism. For the
Holy Spirit has descended upon her according to the holy promise and Holy Word
of God, the Helper, the Spirit of truth.
All of our Lord’s benefits that He earned at the cross have been given
in their fullness to Clara, and she has received those gifts in faith. And she too bears witness about Jesus Christ
by her very existence, by her baptismal regeneration, by her faith, which like
her very life, is a gift given to her purely by grace. Clara is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and she
is a living reminder of the Lord’s promise, fulfilled in her and in all the
baptized: “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.”
People
who are filled with the Spirit of Truth cannot but speak the truth. This is why all baptized Christians are
confessors: confessors of their sins, confessors of Jesus Christ, confessors of
the one true faith. This is why the Lord
tells the future recipients of the Holy Spirit “you will bear witness.”
And
sometimes, as our Lord warns, that witness causes people to hate us and to oppress
us. “I have said these things to keep
you from falling away,” says our blessed Lord.
“They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills
you will think he is offering service to God.
And they will do these things because they have not known the Father,
nor Me.”
A
few days after Anna gave birth to Clara, another Christian woman, Meriam, gave
birth to a baby girl named Maya. Meriam,
a young doctor, gave birth to Maya while chained to the floor of a filthy dungeon
in Sudan where she lives with her 20 month old son, imprisoned away from her
husband, under a sentence of death by hanging before which she is to receive 100
lashes – all because of her confession of Jesus, all because she trusts in Him alonefor
her salvation. Meriam was given an
opportunity to walk free, simply by denying Christ. She calmly and steadfastly refuses to renounce
the faith of her Lord, the faith of her baptism.
“Indeed,
the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to
God. And they will do these things
because they have not known the Father, nor Me.” Meriam and her family are witnesses about
Him, for they bear the Helper, the Spirit of Truth sent by the Father. And unlike Meriam’s stony-hearted captors who
do not know God, this family has hearts of flesh, careful to obey the Lord’s
commandments, bearing the promise: “You shall be My people, and I will be your
God.”
Such
is the Spirit put into each one of us at Holy Baptism. For if we were to rely on our own reason or
strength to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, we would most certainly fail. As we confess: “I believe that I cannot by my
own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but
the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts,
sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
Being
kept in the one true faith is the work of the Helper, dear friends! This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth,
promised by our Lord Jesus Christ, sent by our Father in heaven, and poured
into us at Holy Baptism! The power and
courage of the confession of our sister Meriam has been given to our sister
Clara, by the word and promise of Him who was crucified for us and who rose
from the dead!
We
do not know what life has in store for Clara, nor for us. We do know that it is getting more and more
difficult to be a Christian in our decaying culture. We do know that we Christians are
increasingly challenged as to whether we will fall away or remain in the faith
of Jesus Christ, the faith of Holy Baptism, the faith of the one holy catholic
and apostolic church. Most of us will
never be called upon to display the steadfast confession of Meriam and of the
many martyrs and confessors of our faith throughout the ages. But we do have this comfort, dear friends,
the Lord has sent us the Helper. The
Spirit of Truth is in us and with us, just as “He calls, gathers, enlightens,
and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus
Christ in the one true faith.”
Our
little sister in Christ bears the name “Clara.”
This is Latin for “clear” or “bright.”
Her name is a reminder to all of us to be clear in our confession of
Christ, who is the very light of the world.
And today, Clara has been given not only a new heart and a new spirit,
but another new name as well: “Christian.”
She is a believer, confessor, and witness to the grace and mercy of the
Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, our crucified and risen Savior, “the
world’s Redeemer, the lover of the pure, the font of heavenly wisdom, our trust
and hope secure.”
St.
Peter’s Spirit-inspired words become more relevant with each passing day in
this corrupted and fallen world: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore
be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers…. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery
trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were
happening to you. But rejoice insofar as
you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His
glory is revealed.”
This
inspiring and inspired courage to face the lash and the noose with the calm
faith of our dear sister Meriam is the work of the Helper, dear friends. It is the Spirit who calls us and keeps us in
the only faith by which we have salvation, the one true faith of Jesus Christ
and faith in Jesus Christ. It is the
clear and bright faith of Clara, and of all of us who have been baptized into
Christ.
God’s own child, I gladly
say it:
I am baptized into Christ!
He, because I could not
pay it,
Gave my full redemption
price.
Do I need earth’s
treasures many?
I have one worth more than
any.
That brought me salvation
free.
Lasting to eternity!”
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.
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