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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. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Do you thirst? For what do you thirst? When we are particularly dehydrated, we may long for water, and, in other circumstances, we may strongly desire different beverages. In the Gospel Reading for today, the Day of Pentecost, we hear Jesus say that, if anyone thirsts, he or she should come to Him, and that the one who believes in Him should drink. Now, we might think that Jesus would make more sense if Jesus were to say that the one who thirsts should drink, and that the one who believes in Him should come to Him, but that is not what Jesus says, and what Jesus does say does make sense. Although for other reasons Bible translators and interpreters vary in their translation and interpretation of these verses, Jesus is perhaps bestunderstood as making two similarly-structured but also differently-structured statements, both of which statements relate to the Old Testament’s teaching about Jesus as the source of living water and to the Divinely-inspired evangelist St. John’s explanation of that living water as the Holy Spirit. So, considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Drinking of the Spirit”.
In some ways, three different feasts or festivals are involved this morning. In the Church Year, today is the New Testament Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of the Easter Season but arguably also a New Testament feast or festival in its own right, indicated in part by the red paraments, red for such things as the tongues of fire in the Second Reading. That New Testament Day of Pentecost came, as we heard in today’s Second Reading (Acts 2:1-21) on the Old Testament Day of Pentecost, and Jesus spoke the words of today’s Gospel Reading on the last day, the great day, of the Feast of Tabernacles. While different, all three feasts or festivals relate to harvests of a sort, specifically the gathering-in of those harvests. Notably, the Feast of Tabernacles also recalled the people of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness, after the Exodus and before they entered the Promised Land, including God’s providing water from a rock that Moses was to strike with his staff (Exodus 17:1-7; confer 1 Corinthians 10:4). Apparently, the ceremony of the Feast came to include processions with water and wine that were poured over the altar, and the rite of the Feast came to include the people’s singing from Isaiah the verse that says, “With joy you [all] will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3 ESV). Reportedly that ceremony and rite were done once each day of the Feast’s first six days, then six times on the Feast’s seventh day, and not at all on the Feast’s eighth day. In the absence of the procession, all the more striking would be Jesus’s words, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him drink, the one who believes in Me.”
In some cases of those people who have not come to Jesus here today, we might rightly wonder whether they thirst for God at all. Likewise, in some cases of those people who do thirst and so have come to Jesus, we might rightly wonder whether they believe in Jesus and so are drinking of the Spirit. As the medieval English proverb says, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink! But really, instead of wondering about others, we should ask ourselves to what extent we individually thirst and so come to Jesus; we should ask ourselves to what extent we individually believe in Jesus and so drink of the Spirit. Is the Spirit a drink we might have once a week? Or, do we drink of the Spirit multiple times every day, do we drink of the Spirit as if our eternal life depends on our drinking of the Spirit, as in some sense it does? Already in the Old Testament, in calling His people to repent, God through the prophet Jeremiah condemned the people for forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13), and Jesus likewise graciously calls and so enables all people, including us, to turn from our sinful nature and actual sin, and so to turn from the temporal and eternal death that we deserve, to turn to Him, from Whom flow rivers of living water.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely-inspired evangelist St. John connects a particular “giving” of the Holy Spirit with Jesus’s “glorification”. You may recall that especially in St. John’s Gospel account Jesus’s “glorification” is His death on the cross for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. God in human flesh, Jesus lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and He died for our failure to live that perfect life. In our place, Jesus died the death that we deserve to die, and then He rose from the dead, in part showing that God the Father had accepted Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf. Such are the mighty works of God proclaimed by faithful preachers in every language! When we repent, then God forgives us all our sin, whatever our sin might be. As today’s Gradual quoting from Romans reminded us, with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Romans 10:10). Out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace, God forgives us through faith for Jesus’s sake. On the cross, Jesus handed over the Spirit (John 19:30), and, from His pierced side, came out blood and water (John 19:34).
We should not be troubled by more than one “giving” of the Holy Spirit, Who has been present and active in the world even before the beginning, when He was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2). In today’s Old Testament Reading (Numbers 11:24-30), the Lord gave gifts of the Holy Spirit to the seventy elders of Israel, and they prophesied, showing that they had the Spirit, but they did not continue prophesying. In today’s Second Reading, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled Jesus’s apostles so that they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance, though we are not told explicitly whether the apostles continued to speak in other languages (but see 1 Corinthians 14:18). Yet, even earlier, on the evening of the day of Jesus’s resurrection, St. John’s Gospel account records Jesus’s breathing out the Holy Spirit on His disciples as He sent them with the authority to forgive and retain sins (John 20:21-23), as in our time is done in private absolution and excommunication by the apostles’ successors, pastors, who are given gifts of the Holy Spirit in their ordinations, which the liturgy of Divine Service, Setting Three, well recalls by its three uses of the Salutation, with the congregation’s referring to the pastor’s “Spirit”.
Whether the gift of the Holy Spirit to the seventy elders, whether the gift of the Holy Spirit to the twelve apostles, or whether the gift of the Holy Spirit to countless pastors, the gift of the Holy Spirit is for the benefit of God’s people, who themselves receive the Holy Spirit from God the Father through God the Son (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7), so that God’s people can believe in Jesus and confess Him (1 Corinthians 12:3). In some cases eight days after we are born of human flesh, we are born of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5; Matthew 28:19), and the living water Jesus gives us becomes in us, as it were, a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). Some congregations leave their Baptismal Fonts open and have water bubble up, so that those passing by can recall their baptisms by dipping in their fingers and then making the sign of the cross. As the placement of the Baptismal Font before the rail suggests, Holy Baptism brings one into the family of the Church and generally grants access to the family meal of the Sacrament of the Altar. At this Rail Christ’s Body in the bread and Christ’s blood in the wine sate our hunger and slake our thirst for His righteousness (John 6:35; Matthew 5:10), forgiving our sin and so also giving us life and salvation.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus cries out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him drink, whoever believes in Me.” We who thirst so come, and, believing in Him, we so drink of the Holy Spirit. As described in the book of Revelation, with the Holy Spirit, we in the Church call for others who are thirsty to come and take of the water of life without price (Revelation 22:17). But, as happened both with Jesus after the words of today’s Gospel Reading (John 7:4044) and with His apostles in today’s Second Reading, not everyone whom we call will come and believe and so drink of the Holy Spirit. But, as we prayed in today’s Collect, we rejoice in the Spirit’s consolation. Like the people celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles sang, with joy we draw waters from the well of salvation!
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 + + +