Pentecost - 24 May 2015 – Year B

Pentecost - 24 May 2015 – Year B

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation is written in the Gospel reading for today with special emphasis on John 15: 26 -27 & John 16: 13 – 15:

“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”

Let us pray: Father, guide the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts that your Word may ignite the flame of your Spirit of truth in us as our Lord and giver of life. Amen

I want to live the victorious Christian life. I do, I really do. I want to be one of those super-Christians to whom others look up, with a faith that never wavers, and who always knows just the right thing to say. To stand up and preach like Peter on that first Pentecost, to speak in tongues, to be Spirit-filled. A Christian that God can really use—and one he can be proud of. A Christian others look at and say, “Wow! Being a Christian is cool. I want to be a Christian just like him.” So come, Holy Spirit. Please. Fill me up and start a fire in my heart and life. I’m ready to go.

But is that really what the victorious Christian life looks like? If so, I never will attain it. For rather than being like this, I’m more often like the apostles who were habitually filled with fear and doubt, and whose hearts today were filled with sorrow. I’m more often like the prophet Ezekiel, looking around at the world and seeing only dryness and death. I see the wreckage of life. Embattled families and marriages. The carnage of wars and natural disasters, of terrorism and hatred. I see churches sacrificing the truth for the wreath of popularity. I see my own struggle with sin, which so frequently gets the better of me and I can’t seem to overcome, no matter how hard I try. The victorious Christian life seems like a myth.

What about you? Are you weak, tired, struggling, doubting? If so, today is for you. Pentecost is for you. To set the record straight: To teach you the truth about what the victorious Christian life really looks like, and—best of all—to give that life and victory to you. It’s not something you do. For the victory has already been won. It’s what we’ve been celebrating this entire Easter season—that Christ’s death and resurrection is our victory over sin, death, and the devil. And so Pentecost is not about leaving that all behind and now putting the obligation on us to follow in Christ’s steps and be victorious. Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit taking what is Christ’s and giving it to us. It’s the continuation of Easter in our lives. It’s about showing us that we live the victorious Christian life in the glory of the cross.

In our Gospel text, only hours before he’ll be arrested, Jesus tells the disciples what they should expect, (not many days after, after he’s died and risen and ascended), when this day of Pentecost comes. He tells them in the Holy Gospel that when he sends the Holy Spirit, this is what he’ll do: “he will bear witness about me [Christ]. . . . He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (15:26; 16:8).

The Holy Spirit will bear witness of Christ and convict of sin. You know, those are not two different works—bearing witness and convicting—but one and the same work. For this convicting is done as the Spirit takes us to the cross and shows us the truth of our life-stealing sin, the life-restoring righteousness of Christ, and the life-assuring defeat and judgment of Satan.

The Spirit bears witness to the fact that the victory I cannot win has been won for me by Christ, there on the cross, once and for all. Through that gracious victory not only do I now live, but my life is one of peace and assurance, because the life I live is a life lived in Christ.

So it’s not that the victorious Christian life is a myth; it just looks different than many people think: Because it looks like the cross. It’s not lived above and beyond the problems of this life, as if we Christians can somehow float above them. No, our life is solidly grounded; it’s lived exactly in the midst of life’s many challenges.

Friends, it was for this very reason that Jesus came, taking the form of a true man, into our midst and gave life to all who were dried out, chewed up, and spit out by sin. He came and planted his cross in the midst of our lives, dying for us that we might rise with him to a new life. A new life, not with our heads in the clouds, but with our feet firmly planted on earth, living the cross-life, the Christ-life.

This does not mean that we’re victorious when we stop sinning (which is impossible), but when we repent of our sins and receive the forgiveness and victory of Christ. When we fall on our knees and hear those wonderful words “I forgive you all your sins,” and the Spirit takes the atonement and forgiveness of Christ and gives it graciously and abundantly to us unworthy sinners. The Spirit, Jesus says, “will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (16:14).

How often we fall into the disillusion that we become victorious when we grow up morally and stop needing to rely on Jesus so much. That human piety is not only false, but is a sin in itself. We’re victorious when we rely on Jesus more and more, every day. Every day remembering our Baptism and who we are as children of God. Every day dying and rising with Christ. Every day receiving his victory, life, and salvation. Growing not up and away from him, but growing into him. The Spirit taking the life of Christ and giving it to you and me, as written in the text; “He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Friends in Christ, as Christians we are always up for public scrutiny, and the way we live can be an important witness to those around us; but personally, God’s Word continually reminds us that we are not victorious Christians when we attempt to attain a state where our faith is the marvel of others. Our Christian victory can only come when we, who are weak in faith, (and that’s all of us), take refuge in our Saviour, who gives and strengthens our faith. We are strong when we take refuge in the body and blood of our Saviour, on the cross and on the altar, given and shed for you. The Spirit taking the salvation of Christ and giving it to you. “He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

But that’s not all. This victory of Christ given to you and me also then bears fruit in our lives. “You also will bear witness,” Jesus says, “because you have been with me from the beginning” (15:27). Jesus disciples were soon to learn as they were about to face much opposition and persecution, we are victorious not when our life is problem-free, but when we forgive and do good to those who sin against us. We are victorious not when we have everything we want, but when we serve others and make sure they have what they need. We are victorious not when others look up to us, but precisely when they don’t have to—because we are down with them. In the muck and mire, in the blood and carnage, in the sin and wreckage of life, bringing Christ and his cross of victory to a world in need of hope. To a world filled with dry, dead people.

When Ezekiel looked at that valley, he saw death. We see it too. But God sees life waiting to happen. Life through his Spirit, giving the gift of life. As Ezekiel would tell you, when the Spirit comes, life happens. The life of Christ. The life of our Saviour, who came to us and hung on the cross as a bag of dry, dead bones. Then he came out of the valley of the shadow of death alive and now gives that life to us.

And so in the words of our text, “it is to your advantage that [Jesus] go away” (16:7), for he has sent us his Spirit of life. “The Lord and giver of life,” as we confess in the Nicene Creed. And in him all things are ours, for Christ is ours, and we are his; and so we are victorious. We may not look it. We may not feel it. We may not think it. But the Spirit of truth reveals the truth that you are: Victorious in Christ. Amen

The love and peace of our great Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen