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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Yes, we can and should still share that greeting on this the fiftieth and final day of this great season in which we especially celebrate the festival of the Resurrection of our Lord! And yet, today in a sense we also transition to the next season of the Church Year, the Season after Pentecost, the non‑festival half of the Church Year. Where the first half, the festival half, of the Church Year especially focused on the life and work of Jesus Christ, the second half focuses more on Christ’s Church and the work of the Holy Spirit. For probably three years of His life and for most of His formal work, Jesus had been with His disciples and they had been with Him, until, by way of His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, He returned to His Father, as was necessary for Him in order to send from the Father, at the appointed time, the long‑promised Holy Spirit, or “the Spirit of Truth”, Whom Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading also twice referred to as “the Helper”. Mindful that that once‑coming “Helper” is now present and working even in this time and place, this morning we reflect on the Gospel Reading under the theme “The Helper is Here”.
As has been the case the past three Sundays, today’s Gospel Reading comes from St. John’s Divinely‑inspired and largely unique record of Jesus’s teaching in the upper room on the night when He was betrayed. Our appointed Gospel Readings have jumped around a bit in that section, which, as is evident today, is rich in teaching about the at‑that‑time‑still‑future special coming of the Holy Spirit. (The Holy Spirit, of course, had been present and active in the world since the world’s creation [Genesis 1:2]!) As we heard in today’s Second Reading (Acts 2:1‑21), however, fifty days after Jesus’s Resurrection the Holy Spirit came as promised in that special way and began doing the work that Jesus described in the Gospel Reading: work both toward the believing disciples, the Church, and toward the unbelieving world. The Holy Spirit’s presence and work are what matters, whether the word Jesus uses for the Spirit is more or less transliterated as “Paraclete” or variously translated, as in other cases, as “Comforter” (KJV, ASV, and AAT), “Counselor” (NIV), “Advocate” (NEB), or, as we have it, as “Helper” (also NASB and NKJV).
Who do you consider to be a helper? What do you consider helpful? We would probably say that the answers to those questions depend on the context and the circumstances. If we were in court and had a great lawyer who helped win our case, we would probably say that the lawyer was a helper and that lawyer’s services were helpful. A certain degree of such “legal” context and circumstances is relevant to the term Jesus uses in referring to the Holy Spirit as “the Helper”. At first listen, we might not think that the Holy Spirit’s “convicting” (or “bringing to light”, “reproving”, “exposing” or “cross‑examining”) sin, righteousness, and judgment sounds to us to be all that helpful, but, to the extent that even we who believe are still by nature sinful, we need that work of the Holy Spirit—it is helpful. For, that work of the Holy Spirit shows us our sin and leads us to repent, so we find Christ’s righteousness and are not judged.
Today’s Gospel Reading contains much both about the inner workings of the Godhead and about the relationships among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. For example, today’s Gospel Reading says the Spirit proceeds (“goes out”, “comes”, or “issues”) from the Father, and for centuries there has been division over whether the Spirit proceeds only from the Father or from the Father and the Son, as we confess in what we call the Nicene Creed. Perhaps ultimately that division is over a distinction without a difference when it comes to us and to our salvation. What matters to us and to our salvation is that we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin for the sake of Jesus’s death on the cross for us, and want to do better than to keep on sinning. Whether or not the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or whether the Father or the Son pours out the Spirit or the Spirit pours Himself out (see Luther, ad loc Titus 3:4-8, AE 58:209), the Spirit bears witness about Jesus, guiding into all the truth, speaking what He hears, glorifying Jesus, taking from what is the Father’s and the Son’s and declaring it. When, by the Spirit’s power, we repent and believe, then our sin is forgiven, we receive Christ’s righteousness and are not judged. And, the Spirit so works through God’s Word and Sacraments.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus spoke truly about the Spirit of Truth and His work guiding into all the truth. The Holy Spirit declared to the disciples‑turned‑apostles the things that were and still are to come, and they themselves bore witness (John 19:35; 21:24; Acts 5:32). As Ezekiel in the Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 37:1-14) prophesied the Word of the Lord to a valley full of very dry bones and the breath (or Spirit) entered them and they lived, so the apostles spoke—and their successors, pastors today, also speak—the Word of the Lord and people otherwise by nature dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5) have new life. As we sang in the Introit (Psalm 102:24, 27-28, 30), When the Lord sends forth His Spirit, He renews the face of the earth.
That Jesus went away as He did so the Helper could come to the apostles as He did is also to our advantage (expedient for us, for our good). Even though we are not filled with the Holy Spirit in such a way that we speak in languages native to other people without first learning those languages, the Holy Spirit is poured out on us in the washing and renewal of Holy Baptism, justifying us with God by His grace and making us heirs according to the sure and certain hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7). No other anointing is necessary (confer 1 John 2:20, 27)! “The Helper is Here” in the water of Holy Baptism. “The Helper is Here” in the bread that is Jesus’s body and in the wine that is Jesus’s blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. The Spirit, the water, and the blood all bear witness, and all are in agreement (1 John 5:6-8), and so day by day the Lord adds to His Church those who are being saved (Acts 2:42, 47; confer 5:14 and 11:24).
The once‑coming “Helper” came in a special way on that Pentecost Day nearly two‑thousand years ago, and that same “Helper” is also here, present and working even in this time and place. By His working through Word and Sacraments we repent and believe and have all that we need, including great joy. The Proper Preface of the liturgy in the Service of the Sacrament on this Pentecost Day will remind us that “the whole earth rejoices with exceeding joy” that “Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who ascended above the heavens and, sitting at [the Father’s] right hand, poured out on this day the promised Holy Spirit in His chosen disciples” (Lutheran Service Book: Altar Book, 234). Earlier in the Service of the Word we prayed in the Collect—and we know God heard and will grant—that “in our day by the same Spirit” we will “have a right understanding in all things and evermore … rejoice in His holy consolation” (LSB:AB, 707).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +