The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Exaudi - June 5, 2011

The Church Season of Easter
The Seventh Sunday of Easter  - Exaudi
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (June 5, 2011)
One Year Series

Readings:   
        Ezekiel 36:22-28           
        Psalm 51:1-12       
        1 Peter 4:7-14       
        John 15:26 – 16:4

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 15th chapter of St. John, especially the following verses.

John 15:26-16:4 (ESV)

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. 1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

Alleluia!  Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Last Thursday we celebrated the Day of Ascension.  When Jesus ascends into heaven, the disciples were full of joy. It is not the reaction we expect. Jesus is gone. He won’t appear among His children the way He appeared those thirty-some years that we read about in the Holy Gospels. The disciples should be sad. All they have are His Words and their memories.

So it is with us when it comes to our Lord’s Ascension. Ascension Day is one of the principal high feasts of Christ. It’s a feast full of joy and anticipation. There is joy because Christ will come again the same way He left us. There is anticipation because the promised Paraclete as it is written in Greek, or translated Helper, or Comforter, He will soon come to kindle the fire of Christ’s love in His bride, the Church.

Yet we treat our Lord’s Ascension as if it’s nothing special. Jesus is gone. Everybody look busy. Now that he’s gone, we can go on living our lives as if He were never here with us. Our Lord promises the Helper. But sometimes we fail to see much help in the Church today. Saint Peter says in the Epistle, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Peter pictures a Christian congregation that loves one another. God’s children take care of each other, using the talents He gives them to bear one another’s burdens. Nevertheless, hospitality without grumbling and ministering to each other as good stewards sometimes does not happen. We know when someone isn’t speaking to someone else. We could be helping each other with the talents God gives us, but there’s always the chance that our talents will go unnoticed. On the other hand, perhaps someone will take advantage of our gifts, expecting someone else to bear a burden for good.

The reality is in God’s Holy Church, there is no need of large bank accounts, fancy cars, and continuous revival meetings to see faith in action. This is a Spirit-filled congregation. The Holy Spirit here witnesses not of Himself, but of Jesus Christ. Consider the Helper as one pointing back to our Lord. The Paraclete, the helper, the comforter, does not want to separate “true” Christians from “false” Christians through some sort of miraculous sights and sounds. The Paraclete comes to call us by the Gospel, enlighten us with His Gifts, make us holy and keep us holy in the Christian Church to life everlasting.

There is no better comfort than Jesus Christ. Jesus wins the victory over sin, death, and hell for you. His blood covers your sin, giving you His righteousness. Jesus ascends into heaven so you too might ascend with Him in body and soul on Judgment Day. As Christ reigns in heavenly joy, so shall you live and reign with Him. This joy is yours now through faith. This joy in its fullness is yet to come, when Jesus descends as He ascends. Jesus gives you forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Holy Supper. Jesus goes on your tongue, into your body, and into the world as you live according to your calling in life. He loves us with an undeserved and everlasting love. You show your neighbor this love through works of mercy as evidence that faith lives in you.

But we see that left to their own devices, the disciples were bound to fail. With the Spirit of Truth Who proceeds from the Father, the disciples will witness everything they saw and heard concerning Jesus Christ. They saw everything our Lord did. Their eyewitness account makes them true apostles of Christ. What they saw and what they heard, they will proclaim to the ends of the earth. We walk in their footsteps. None of us, unlike the Apostles, witnessed our Lord doing marvelous signs. We have the sure and certain Word of God that proclaims Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and hell. The Christian Church preaches Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the comforting witness the Holy Spirit sends us.

We pray that Christ’s ascension is not a time of worry, doubt, anger, and frustration. Christ’s ascension is a time of expectant joy. As we hear in Psalm 27: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Your face, Lord do I seek; hide not Your face from me.” The Lord does not hide.  He shows Himself in Word, water, bread, and wine. When you see these Holy Things, you know and believe the Holy One of God is present not in an “I’ll be here for you” way. He is truly, bodily, certainly present. Jesus is here today to take away your sin and doubt, replacing them with everlasting life. Jesus is here to give you the sure and certain hope of comfort that comes only from the Spirit of Truth.

We pray that the King of Glory would not to leave us without consolation but send us the Spirit of truth Whom he promised from the Father. The promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming on Pentecost is the coming of consolation among the Christian Church. The Spirit’s consolation is Jesus Christ, truly present in preaching, in Baptism, in Absolution, and in His Holy Supper. Instead of sadness, the Church rejoices because Jesus abides with us in the simplest of ways. With His simplicity there is profound joy; the joy of forgiveness and new life, and we hear that through the Holy Spirit who conveys the promise won by Jesus Christ.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
+SDG+