“The Day of Pentecost”
Original sermon given June 5, 2022, written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live here
“The Day of Pentecost” John 14.8-17, 25-27
In the name of the Living God and His risen Christ. Amen.
Jesus’ words to the disciples, his words to us in these chapters are some of the most beautiful and comforting, frightening and challenging, profound and mysterious words in all of scripture. Christ promised to leave them, but not abandon them. He exhorts them to love him by loving his words and doing his words, but also reminds them that it’s the Spirit who works through them. He acknowledge the turmoil of their unsettled hearts (he’s about to be betrayed and killed; they’re about to be scattered and eventually killed for his name), but at the same time speaks of peace and comfort and enduring faith. He speaks clearly of the power of the Evil One—the prince of this world, while also asserting that Satan has no claim on Jesus—or those who follow Jesus in faith and love.
It’s beautiful and comforting, frightening and challenging, profound and mysterious…just like our Christian lives. Who here has not felt these things as a Christian—perhaps even all this at once? To be bearing the burden of caring for a dying parent, while lifted and free with the word of the gospel. To be suffering and in pain, while clinging to the knowledge that nothing can separate you from God’s love. To weep deeper than the world does at injustice and turmoil and death (No! This is NOT how it is supposed to be!), but to also hope deeper and more fully than the world ever could (God is still at work; it will one day all be restored).
Our lives, led by the Spirit, are led through these seeming contradictions—just as the disciples were on that night when Christ was betrayed, that night when salvation was at work through the cross and suffering.
The work of the Holy Spirit is so often confusing and complicated for us. Part of the problem is that the Spirit is the shyest person of the Holy Trinity—just doesn’t like to talk about himself all that much. Even his nickname is vague. “Paraclete.” (MS Word doesn’t know what to do with it. I get both a red line under it and a green one when I type it in word! Suggested replacement words: “Parakeet” and pair of cleats!) Paraclete literally means “to call alongside”, or “one called alongside to help” [Bartelt, CJ41:2, p. 137ff]. Any translation only gets us to one aspect of the Spirit’s work: Advocate, Comforter, Consoler, Encourager, Helper, Intercessor, Guide? But no translation captures it all.
I’m going to offer something straight-forward for you, today, to understand the work of the Spirit. “Now that the resurrection life [of Christ] has been given and proclaimed, the Spirit causes us to understand Jesus and to carry out his mission. We get it, and we get on with it” (Bartelt, 139). We get it, and we get on with it. That’s what the Paraclete does.
We get it. We get it for ourselves. The Spirit creates and sustains faith in Christ Jesus for us. That Christ’s life lived was really the life of God among us. That his blood shed really reconciles me to the father. That his cross really was the working out of God’s saving plan for me. That my crosses are similarly his work on me and in me. That his resurrection is true, and because he lives, I too will live. Jesus said it this way, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” We get it, through the Spirit’s work.
We get it, and we get on with it. In the OT the Spirit comes upon Judges and prophets to give them power and wisdom to carry out the mission (Bartelt, 137). Christ Jesus has bodily ascended to the right hand of the father, but this is a goodthing, for now he has sent his Spirit to us, so that we can be Christ’s bodily presence in our place and time, in wisdom and power, here and to the ends of the earth. The Spirit walks alongside us, moves within us, through Christ’s word and sacraments, to empower us to get on with the father’s business: in witness and word and work. We get it and we get on with it.
This is important in the life of the church, and in our lives too. The Spirit’s presence with us, through the word of Christ and his gospel for us, is the only thing that can help us navigate the most beautiful and comforting, frightening and challenging, profound and mysterious moments of life. Come Holy Spirit, and come soon.
John 14.8-17, 25-27