Holy Trinity Sunday – 27 May 2018 – Year B

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 3^rdChapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1–17:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teachercome from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but youdo not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

This morning we once again heard how Nicodemus came to Jesus by night.  Once again we have the opportunity to realise that there were honest Pharisees … men who were eager to hear and consider Jesus in an honest and fair way.  Nicodemus had heard of the miraculous signs and the teachings.  He knew that Jesus was no ordinary rabbi.  He was ready to hear Jesus and consider His teachings.  Nicodemus’ greeting indicates that Nicodemus thought of Jesus as a man of God.  In time, the Holy Spirit would convince Nicodemus that Jesus actually is God.

Jesus responded to Nicodemus by telling him that the Kingdom of God comes by way of a new birth.  ³Jesus answered him, ^{(John 3:3)}“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  There are several characteristics of birth that come to mind when we hear Jesus say this.

Birth is an activity that is totally passive for the person being born.  Under normal circumstances nine months and one day before birth, a person does not even exist.  He or she has no choice as to how his or her parents meet, or how or when they come together.  When the pregnancy comes to full term, the baby does not crawl out of the womb, but is pushed out by the mother.

Our entry into the Kingdom of God is a process that is totally passive on our part.  We cannot choose to enter the Kingdom of God.  Instead, the Holy Spirit calls us into the Kingdom of God by the Gospel.

Birth also introduces every person to an entirely new existence. Food and oxygen no longer come through the umbilical cord.  Instead a person must suddenly eat and breathe.  The body no longer floats around in a warm, protective fluid.  Now there is gravity and the air is colder.

Our entry into the Kingdom of God introduces every person to an entirely new existence.  We are now part of the body of Christ.  We now have eternal life in Him.

Nicodemus struggled with the idea of being born into the Kingdom of God.  He said to him, ^{(John 3:4)}“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”With these words Nicodemus confesses that he does not understand.  It is as if he said, “Jesus, You are using the idea of birth in a strange, new way.  I don’t understand.”

⁵Jesus answered, ^{(John 3:5–6)}“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.With these words, Jesus teaches that there is a fundamental difference between the birth that brings us into this world and the birth that brings us into the Kingdom of God.

If Nicodemus were to enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, it would just be another birth into this world and notinto the Kingdom of God.  Before God he would still be ^{(Ephesians 2:1)}“dead in the trespasses and sins.”  When Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,”we should remember the words of the Psalm, ^{(Psalm 51:5)}“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”.We are all born into this world as sinners.

Instead, Jesus teaches a different birth … a birth of water and the Spirit … a birth that sounds a lot like baptism.  He is describing this birth when He says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  This is the birth into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus compared His teaching about the new birth to the wind. Jesus continued and said, ^{(John 3:8)}“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”Even today, with our weather forecasting technology, we don’t always get it right.  Any meteorologist will tell you that there is still a lot about the weather that we don’t understand.  So with these words, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he doesn’t need to understand the new birth any more than he understands the blowing of the wind.  It is enough to believe that the Holy Spirit provides the new birth as the entry into the Kingdom of God.

Nicodemus can’t keep up with Jesus.  He is honest enough to admit his confusion by asking,^{(John 3:9)} “How can these things be?”Although this question indicates the confusion of Nicodemus, it also indicates the respect Nicodemus had for Jesus.  Rather than surrender to his confusion in frustration and leave, he continues to trust Jesus to teach him.

Jesus continued to work with Nicodemus by revealing the cause of the problem.  Jesus answered him, ^{(John 3:10–11)}“Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony”.Nicodemus does not understand because he resists the testimony of Jesus and the prophets who came before Him.  The teachings of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the psalms all point forward to the Messiah.  As a Pharisee, Nicodemus has most of these writings memorised, he has even taught on them, but he has not receivedthem.  Nicodemus struggles with the teaching of the Holy Spirit because He has not received the main teaching of God’s Word.

Jesus then proceeded to give Nicodemus the central teaching of the Bible.  He continued and said, ^{(John 3:13–15)}“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”.With these words, Jesus identified the Son of Man as the Son of God Who descended from heaven and took on the flesh of man in order to become the Son of Man.  He then stated that this very same Son of Man will be raised up on a cross just as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness.  The result of the work that the Son of Man does on the cross will be that all who believe in Him will have eternal life.

Jesus then went on to proclaim what many people call the “Gospel in a Nutshell.”  He said, ^{(John 3:16–17)}“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” With these words, Jesus teaches that God shows His love toward us by sending His only begotten Son into the world in order to save the world from sin. The mission of the Son is not to condemnthe world, but to saveit.

So Jesus was teaching Nicodemus that all human beings are born of the flesh.  This means that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.  We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation.  But the Father of all mercy and grace has sent His Son Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sin of the whole world that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The reason Nicodemus had such trouble believing in the new birth of water and the Spirit is that he was concentrating so hard on the law contained in the teachings of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the psalms that he had not noticed the Gospel in those writings.  He did not receive the good news that the promised Messiah would not come to condemn the world, but to save it.  Since he had not received the testimony of the salvation worked by God, he could not deal with the new birth into the family of God.

We can give praise to Almighty God that Nicodemus eventually did receive the testimony of God’s Holy Scriptures.  We know that he eventually became a Christian for the account of him in today’s Gospel is not the last time we read of him in Holy Scripture. We hear of him one last time shortly after Jesus died on the cross. ^{(John 19:38–39)}After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. ³⁹Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight”.It is so interesting that it is a couple of Pharisees who supervise the burial of Jesus in the tomb.

The account of Jesus and Nicodemus can teach us a great deal on this Trinity Sunday.  Jesus taught that God shows His love for us by sending His only begotten Son into the world in order to save the world.  He taught that, like the serpent in the wilderness, the Son would be raised up on a cross in order to save the world from sin.  He taught that the Holy Spirit gives the gifts of salvation to us by giving us a new birth into the family of God.  The struggle of Nicodemus shows us that if we reject the work of any one of the members of the Trinity, we reject them all.  On the other hand, when the Holy Spirit brings us into the family of God by the new birth, we receive all the blessings that our gracious Triune God has for us … including forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. We have indeed been blessed by God the Father’s grace for God the Son’s sake through God the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Amen

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

Pentecost – 20 May 2018 – Year B

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 2^ndChapter of the Book of Acts: Verses 1–21:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested¹ on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues ^las the Spirit gave them utterance. 

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” 

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. ¹⁵ For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 

¹⁷ “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, 

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, 

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

and your young men shall see visions, 

and your old men shall dream dreams; 

¹⁸ even on my male servants and female servants 

in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 

¹⁹ And I will show wonders in the heavens above 

and signs on the earth below, 

blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 

²⁰ the sun shall be turned to darkness 

and the moon to blood, 

before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 

²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

No matter how often we read the Bible … no matter how familiar we are with its message, it always has something new to teach us.  Over the years the account of that special Pentecost in Acts 2 has often had new things to teach me.

One of the things that many people do not know is that, although this Pentecost was very special, it was not the first Pentecost.  The Lord instituted Pentecost about the same time He instituted Passover.  Pentecost was originally called the Feast of Weeks.  Since the Feast of Weekscomes fifty days after the Feast of First-fruits,people began calling it Pentecost based on the Greek word for fifty.  Pentecost and the Feast of weeks are the same festival, and the Jews have celebrated Pentecost ever since the days of Moses.

Pentecost is also one of the three feast days that required the presentation of the males of Israel.  The Law of Moses said, ^{(Deuteronomy 16:16)}“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths.”The Feast of Unleavened Breadis one week long and begins the day after the Passover.  The Feast of Weeksor Pentecostcomes fifty days after the Feast of First-fruitswhich happens to be the first Sunday in the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  TheFeast of Boothsis about six months after the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now, if we overlay these Festivals over the life of Christ, we learn that Jesus died on Passover, and He rose from the dead on the Feast of First-fruits.  Then, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a special way fifty days later, at Pentecost.  The faithful Israelites who followed the instructions God gave to Moses would be in Jerusalem on those special days.  This means that the faithful who presented themselves in Jerusalem according to the instructions given in the Law were witnesses in Jerusalem for the crucifixion and resurrection as well as for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the following Pentecost.  In this way, the Holy Spirit gathered His Old Testament Church together to hear about ^{(Acts 2:11)}“the mighty works of God”. God, the master strategist, had this all worked out thousands of years before it happened.

One could be forgiven for visualising this as a time when the Holy Spirit was poured down on all present, including the Apostles. If we go back into the Gospel according to St John, we see that the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles prior to this special day. It happened on the day that Jesus rose from the dead.  ^{(John 20:19–23) “}On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus had already given them the Holy Spirit on the day of the Resurrection.  He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In light of this it could be assumed that the Apostles were on a heavenly mission to provide reassurance and guidance to those who were overwhelmed, doubted or confused at the Pentecost event.

As humans reading of events outside our earthly realm and understanding, we can become so distracted by the wow factor of the sound like a mighty rushing wind, the divided tongues as of fire, and the apostles speaking in other tongues,that we don’t notice the major miracle of Pentecost.  This miracle showed up in the response of those who gathered on that day.  They came together.  They heard the mighty works of God.  Then they responded. ^{(Acts 2:37–41)}“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” ⁴⁰And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” ⁴¹So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls”.There is the great miracle of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit added three thousand souls to His church on that day.  Pentecost is not about the Holy Spirit poured out on the Apostles.  It is about the Holy Spirit poured out on those three thousand souls.

Much is written about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, but it is best summed up by the eminent 16^thcentury theologian Dr Martin Luther in his explanation to the third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “the Holy Spiritcalls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith”. The Holy Spirit’s manifestation on Pentecost is an example of that.  1500 years earlier, the Holy Spirit worked through His servant Moses to establish feasts that would gather these witnesses from the Old Testament Church to Jerusalem so that Luke the Evangelist could write,^{(Acts 2:5)}“Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.”It was not an accident that these men were in Jerusalem on this day. The Holy Spirit had called together the Old Testament Church to tell them that the long-awaited Messiah had come in the person of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit was getting ready to convert the faithful of the Old Testament Church into the faithful of the New Testament Church.

That is the reason for the supernatural signs described in today’s reading.  The Holy Spirit was gathering His church together so that they could hear the call of the Gospel.  As the people of the Old Testament church drew near to the house, they encountered people who told them who Jesus was and what He had done for their salvation. These people did not speak in the lofty language of the Hebrew of the temple, nor did they speak in the street language of Aramaic, or the commercial language of Greek, or even the legal language of Latin, but each one heard the story of salvation in his own native language … the language he learned from his mother and father in the home of his childhood.  Each one heard in his own language ^{(Acts 2:11)}“the mighty works of God”. 

All these amazing things were the Holy Spirit’s means to accomplish the goal of gathering together His Old Testament Church and telling her that her waiting was over … that the New Testament had begun. The Pentecost Pilgrims and other righteous people who gathered together on that day had been looking forward to the Messiah.  They had been keeping the ceremonial law of the circumcisions and the sacrifices and all the other customs as a reminder that one day Messiah would come and fulfil all the law and offer Himself up as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Their faith looked into the future to the Messiah who was to come.  Now the Holy Spirit gathered the church together to tell her that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  He is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one.  On this one particular Pentecost the Holy Spirit called together the Old Testament church and transformed her into the New Testament church.

Amid all the amazing things that happened on that Pentecost, it is easy to confuse God’s goal with the means that He used to accomplish that goal.  After all, this is exciting stuff … a sound like a mighty wind … the appearance of what looks like flames of fire … the sudden ability to speak and understand a foreign language.  It is easy to get distracted by all these things and forget the main goal … the goal of creating faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  That was the goal of the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost long ago, and it is still His goal today.

Amid the signs and wonders of that special Pentecost, there were still those who resisted.  There were men in the crowd who mocked and said, ^{(Acts 2:13)}“They are filled with new wine.”In any crowd there will always be those who resist the call of the Gospel.

This can be a great comfort to us as we confess our faith to the people we meet in our lives.  Sometimes, they will be interested and want to know more.  Other times they will reject our confession. When that rejection comes, we can take comfort in knowing that even when there was the sound like a mighty rushing wind, the divided tongues as of fire, and the apostles speaking in other tongues,that there were some people who resisted their message.  We should expect that and continue to confess our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. 

On the day afterthat special Pentecost, there was no sound of a mighty wind.  The tongues of fire had gone away.  People spoke simply in their own language.  Never the less, the Holy Spirit was still at work.  The story goes on after today’s Second Reading and says,^{(Acts 2:47)}“The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.God’s Church still had His Word and the Holy Spirit continued to work through that Word. 

The Holy Spirit still works through the Word of God to this day.  It has always been that way and it will always be that way.  The true sign of the Holy Spirit at work is the proclamation of God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit points to Jesus who is the God-Man who saved us from our sin with His suffering and death on the cross and promises us life everlasting with His resurrection.  The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word when we hear it with our ears … when we read it with our eyes … when we experience that Word in the water of Holy Baptism … and when we receive it with the true body and blood of Jesus in the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper.  The Holy Spirit is at work when we confess our faith before each other and when we confess our faith before those who do not know Jesus.

            On that special Pentecost, the Holy Spirit used light and sound to call the Church to hear the proclamation that the Messiah they had been waiting for had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  The Holy Spirit transformed the Old Testament church into the New Testament church and the Holy Spirit continues building the New Testament Church to this very day.  The Holy Spirit still calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, sanctifies, and keeps us in the true faith.  As He gives each of us new birth into the Holy Christian Church, so He also calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies that whole Christian Church on earth and keeps her in the one, true faith.  In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all our sins and the sins of all believers.  On the Last Day, He will raise all the dead and give eternal life to all believers in Christ.  This is our sure legacy of true peace.  Amen.

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

Easter 7 – 13 May 2018 – Year B

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 17^thChapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 6 – 19:

⁶ “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Today’s Gospel once again places us in the upper room on the evening before Jesus died for us on the cross.  Judas has left the gathering and is on his way to the authorities to meet up with the band of soldiers that he will lead to Gethsemane in order to betray Jesus. Jesus has pretty much finished the teaching He intended to give His disciples in that place.  He is almost ready to go to Gethsemane where He will be arrested.

Jesus, knowing that His disciples were about to experience three of the scariest and loneliest days of their lives, has one last thing to do before they leave for Gethsemane.  He prayed to the Father on their behalf and He allowed the disciples to listen in. We call this prayer Jesus’ high priestly prayer and the Gospel for this day is part of that prayer.

This prayer teaches us much about Jesus’ attitude towards us.  This is the evening before His death on the cross and He knew it. We could certainly understand if He were totally focused on His upcoming suffering and death.  But He’s not - His concern is for His followers.  Later on, in Gethsemane, He will pray for Himself, but there in the upper room, just before they leave for Gethsemane, He prayed for those who will feel so alone and so frightened during the coming days – the days of His gauntlet of sorrow, suffering, and death – the days of His wait in the tomb.  He prayed for those who will hide behind locked doors until they see Him face-to-face after His resurrection.

This prayer is for us as well.  Although Jesus has never left us, He has taken His visible presence away from us. He has ascended into heaven and although He is with us, we cannot see Him.  He has not yet come to take us into our eternal home.  So we find ourselves in a time of waiting for Jesus to reveal Himself.  We are in the time of “Now, but not yet!”  He is with us now, but we can not yetsee Him with our physical eyes. He has given heaven to us now,but we can not yet experience it as we will in eternity.  All of Christ’s gifts already belong to us now, butwe can not yetexperience them to the fullest.  So we live in the time of now, but not yet. Jesus’ prayer is for all those who wait in the world of now, but not yet.

While we live in this earthly tension of the of the Christian life, we also live in the tension of being in the world, but not of the world.  We are like resident aliens – people who reside in one country, but are citizens of another.

One of the problems we have is that, even though we are aliens in this world, we expect to get along with it.  We expect to prosper in a world that is not our home.  The ‘New Thought’ movement, claiming to be Christian, has gained a massive following across the world. The ‘prosperity theology’ they preach claims that when you become part of God’s family, your wealth, health, prosperity and standing in this world will be elevated beyond your wildest dreams. Your relationship with your spouse will blossom and your children will rise up and call you blessed. This deception tells us that God wants nothing but material and social prosperity for us. This deception tells us that worldly success indicates a superior standing with God.

Jesus has a different teaching.  In His prayer, He prayed, “The world has hated them because they are not of the world.”  That does not sound at all like the prosperity we hear so much about from this world.  Because we are resident aliens in this world, the world is out to get us.  The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature, constantly confront and attack us.

Sometimes the attack is direct.  Martyrs died in Roman arenas and Nazi gas chambers.  In modern times, governments and terror groups use aircraft, rocket technology and suicide bombers to destroy Christian communities in their own countries.

Other times, the temptation is more subtle.  The evil forces in this world use enticements and pleasures to draw us away from God. There is the deception that makes a sin seem so harmless, so good, so desirable at the time.  While we consider the temptation, everything looks good and pleasant.  This has been a weapon of evil from the very beginning in Eden: ^{[Genesis 3:6]}“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate”.  Temptation always seems like a good idea at the time.  It would not be tempting if it didn’t.

The very nature of this world of sinful.  Whether we are citizens of this world or citizens of heaven, we will sin while we live in this world.  Even we who are bound for heaven must mourn with Paul ^{[Romans 7:19]}“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”  We are saints in God’s eyes for Jesus’ sake, but we continue to sin.  We are in the world, but not of the world.

The people of this world operate on a spectrum of beliefs when they deal with sin.  At one end of this spectrum are those who have deceived themselves into believing that they do not sin.  This typically involves a dilution of God’s justice.  They either tone down God’s law to the point they can keep it or they get rid of God’s law altogether. 

The Pharisees are examples of this.  In spite of the fact that they studied the Scriptures constantly, they interpreted the law in a way that made it doable.  They saw the law as something they could actually keep.  They made keeping the law into an external activity designed to impress everyone so that they would become objects of praise for their good works.  In fact, they were in denial about their true status in the eyes of God.

At the other end of the spectrum are people like Judas.  Judas is an example of despair.  Judas did not deny his sin at all.  He understood that he deserved punishment.  In his case, the evil forces of the world convinced Judas that his sin was more powerful than God’s forgiveness.  Instead of repenting and asking for forgiveness, he hung himself. There is great controversy in the speculations why Judas did what he did, but in his human reasoning he allowed the evil one to justify his actions. His regret was so great that he believed he was beyond forgiveness and took his own life. The very same tragedies are occurring in alarming proportions in our communities this very day.

The people of this world stand all along this spectrum.  Some are quite proud of their own righteousness.  Others don’t really care.  Still others destroy themselves in despair.  Eventually, they will all stand before God and realise their failings, some claim that it will be too late, maybe it will, but I choose to have faith in the extent of God’s love and mercy.

When the Holy Spirit works faith in us so that we place our trust in Jesus Christ, a new way opens before us.  Our citizenship is no longer in this world.  Instead, it is in heaven.  We live in this world as aliens.  When the forces of evil overwhelm us and we sin, we have an ambassador with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  

The Holy Spirit has given us the sight to see our sins and mourn our inability to keep God’s law. He has made known the reality of the punishment that our sins deserve.  However, instead of driving us into despair, our sin drives us to Jesus Christ.  The depth of our sin shows us the height of His love – the love that sacrificed itself on a cross in order to free us from the guilt of our sin – the love that revoked our citizenship in this world and made us citizens of heaven.  By the Holy Spirit’s power, we do not deny our sins, but readily confess them before God.  By the Holy Spirit’s power, we find ourselves offering God the highest praise as we beg, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Jesus prays for us. In His high priestly prayer He prayed that the Holy Father will keep us in His name.  In this way, we will have, by grace, the unity that the Father and the Son have by nature.  As we look at the words that Jesus used: Holy, Father, and Name, we see that Jesus’ prayer is a variation on the beginning of the prayer He taught us: “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.”  As we listen to Jesus’ prayer, we learn that the closer we are to the Father, the closer we are to each other.  When the Father keeps us in His name, then we are at one in Him.

How did Jesus keep us in the Father’s name?  His prayer tells us that as well.  He prayed to the Father, “I have given them your word.”  He kept them in the Father’s name by teaching them the Father’s Word.

He still works that way today. God’s name is kept holy when the word of God is taught in its truth and purity,and we, as the children of God, let our Heavenly Father speak to us through it’s heavenly declarations. It is God’s Word in Divine Service, in Bible Study, and in family and private devotions that keeps us in the Holy Father’s name.  The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to revoke our citizenship in this world and establish and maintain our citizenship in heaven.

Jesus, our great High Priest loves us so much.  When any normal person would be concerned for his own upcoming suffering and death, Jesus was praying for us.  He was praying that we would remain in the Holy Father’s name by the power of His Word. He was about to go to the cross in order to make it so that we would be in this world, but not of itand He prayed to His Father to keep us that way.  Amen

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