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!)
As I went to and from a hospital visit in Jacksonville on Friday morning, I drove by road‑signs for the unincorporated community of Concord in Cherokee County. You may or may not know, as I did not know on Friday morning, that there are two other unincorporated communities named “Concord” in the State of Texas: one in Leon County, and the other in Rusk County. The one in Rusk County reportedly was named “Concord” after the general harmony that the early settlers had, while the one in Cherokee County may have been settled by people from Concord, Massachusetts, which association apparently gave the Texas community its name, while the Massachusetts community reportedly was named “Concord” in appreciation of the English settlers’ peaceful acquisition of land from a native leader in exchange for such things as wampum. Ultimately, the name “Concord” itself comes from a combination of the Latin words for “with” and “heart”, and “concord” refers well to people’s being of one “heart” or “mind” or “accord”, like the Eleven apostles were said to be of one “accord” or “passion” in today’s First Reading (Acts 1:12-26). Their unity arguably was an answer to the portion of Jesus’s so-called “High‑Priestly Prayer” that we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, in which He prayed that they continually might be one, just as the God the Father and God the Son are one. In a portion of that prayer that we did not hear this morning but do hear on this same Sunday in another year of our Three‑Year Lectionary Series, Jesus likewise prays that we, who believe in Him through His apostles’ word, also might be one (John 17:20-26). Ultimately this morning we realize that “By His Word, Jesus makes us one”.
As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus first prayed for the Father to glorify Him, so that Jesus could glorify the Father, as He was doing by completing the work that the Father gave Jesus to do. Then, Jesus prayed for the apostles, to whom Jesus had manifested the Father’s Name and who had kept the Father’s Word, that is, not only tried to observe the Word, but also to take care of it and to guard it. They received the Father’s words from Jesus and came to know and believe the truth. Jesus asked the Father to keep them in His Name that they might be one. Similarly, Jesus later in the Prayer also asked that the Father would sanctify them—that is, make them holy—in the truth, in His Word. God’s Word of truth is vitally connected to knowing and believing in God and being one with Him. As the Lutheran Confessions correctly expound the Word of God, they are, for good reason, referred to by the name “Concordia”, especially reflecting the confessors’ agreement and union in those writings based on the Word of God.
Of course, there has been dis‑agreement and dis‑union in the world almost from the beginning. When the first man and woman plunged humanity into sin and so broke fellowship with God, they could not even agree on whom to blame! When our recent Special Voters’ Meeting revealed dis‑agreement and dis‑union in our Pilgrim congregation, there rightly were and still are calls for unity. As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus prayed for such unity, and we also have prayed and do pray for such unity. True unity comes from and is based in God’s Word. Organizational structure—whether of the Missouri Synod, of the Texas District, of this Circuit, or of this congregation—organizational structure alone does not make us one. “By His Word, Jesus makes us one”. The Augsburg Confession says that the unanimous pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments are sufficient for the true unity of the Church (AC VII:2), and that statement is correctly understood not as a minimum standard but a maximum standard, as agreement in all articles of teaching and administration (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration X:31). Each of us should care about the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments, because, regardless of how we might have voted, each of us is a sinner who deserves death and damnation and so needs the Gospel and Sacraments for the forgiveness of our sins.
In today’s Gospel Reading, we heard Jesus refer to His apostles as those whom the Father gave Him out of the world. No one comes to God on his or her own, but the Holy Spirit calls and thereby enables us both to be sorry for our sinful nature and all of our actual sin and to trust that, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, God the Father forgives us. When we so repent, then God does so forgive us. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God. As we heard Jesus say, the Son existed before the world began, but the Son took on human flesh in time. The Divine and human natures are Personally united in the man Jesus, and so all of the Divine attributes are in a sense “given” to His human nature, including God’s glory. As the Divinely‑inspired St. John tells it, Jesus is glorified especially as He is lifted up on the cross, loses His life for the sins of the world, and draws all people to Himself (John 12:23-33). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus spoke as if He had accomplished all the work that the Father gave Him to do, but only later, on the cross, did Jesus truly “finish” His work of redeeming us from sin and death (John 20:30). Then, Jesus was raised from the dead, showing, in part, that God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. God’s love for us in Christ leads to our knowing and loving Him, including our receiving His forgiveness through His Word and Sacraments.
We heard how important the Father’s Word through the Son and His apostles is! The ministry of Word and Sacraments is so important that on the basis of Holy Scripture Judas was “immediately” replaced with Matthias. Creating faith when and where He pleases, the Holy Spirit works both through the reading and preaching of God’s Word to groups such as this group and through the application of the Gospel to individuals: with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are the Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of our sins. We are baptized and absolved in the Triune Name, and from this Altar we partake of the Blessed One Who comes in the Name of the Lord. In all of these ways God dwells in us, and thereby He unites us with Himself and so also with all others who believe and confess the Truth of His Word.
No human power, wisdom, or skill establishes such unity, only God’s grace and power establish and preserve unity in Christian teaching and practice (Pieper, I:34). Reflecting on our life together in this congregation, as I drove back from Jacksonville on Friday morning and the road‑sign to Concord in Cherokee County pointed to the left, I thought about how I might prefer instead the road‑sign to Concord that I passed on the way to Jacksonville, which pointed to the right. (Because, if you are going to turn one direction or the other for “Concord”, surely turning to the right is better than turning to the left!) In fact, for unity as a congregation, Pilgrim arguably does not need to turn either to the left or to the right (confer, for example, Deuteronomy 5:32), but we need to continue faithfully preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments, trusting God to establish and preserve our unity in teaching and practice and in our confession of the same, with all that it entails. Faithful teaching and practice will bring about and reveal dis‑unity with un‑faithful teaching and practice. Jesus Himself said that He did not come to give peace on earth but division (Luke 12:51). Such division brings persecution like that we heard described in today’s Epistle Reading, but, as also described there, we can rejoice and be glad that God’s glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6‑11). Even hidden under suffering is God’s gracious gift of eternal life, which we possess already now, even though we will not experience it fully until the Last Day.
There is one way to God-pleasing “concord”: “By His Word, Jesus makes us one”. We thank and praise the Father, for saving us for the sake of His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are open to instruction in the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, to let the Holy Spirit work in us. We each examine ourselves, what we individually believe and confess, to make sure that we are in line with them, and then we act accordingly. And, for all of our failures, with daily contrition and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins. May the Lord so have mercy on us all!
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 + + +
