1. Corinthians 2,12-16. Pentecost

1. Corinthians 2,12-16 2923

Pfingstsonntag 44 

Germanus, Bishop of Paris, ✠ 576 

28. Mai 2023

1. ℣ The Spirit of Yahweh fills the world: Hallelujah!:

℟ Let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!! (Wisdom of Solomon 1,7 lxx; Psalm 68,3). 

O Heavenly Father, You have sent forth Your Son; renew the face of the earth, and fill the hearts of Your faithful, so that faith and love abound within us.  Amen. (Psalm 104:30; Liturgical text Versicles)

2. »Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of Yahweh so as to instruct Him? [Isaiah 40,13] But we have the mind of Christ.« 

 3. On Pentecost we remember and celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised to send Him while teaching the apostles on Maundy Thursday. Ten days following His ascension to the right hand of His Father, Jesus fulfilled this promise: the Father sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. This Old Testament feast commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, and is also the harvest of first fruits. It takes place 50 days after Passover, and it is the second of the three great feasts where the Jews go to celebrate in Jerusalem. 

4. Jesus summarized the Torah with this simple sentence: love God, and love your neighbor. The desire to keep the Torah is easy, but to actually do it is quite demanding. Israel found this out over and over again; God sent numerous judges and prophets to call them to repent of their sins of not loving God and their neighbors. The fallen human heart is stubborn, and we don’t heed the word of Yahweh or the Spirit of Yahweh. We are inclined to be content and happy in our sinfulness, which primarily elevates ourselves as a god and our desires before others. Left unchecked, it is easy to see how this will quickly spiral downward with more and more harm befalling our neighbor. Humanity’s wickedness became so horrible 10 generations after Adam, that Yahweh destroyed the population of the world, with a global Flood; He only spared 8 people: Noah and his family. The Prophets detailed a number of depravities that were prevalent in Israel as a result of ignoring the two great commandments of love. We only need watch the TV news to see man’s sinful inhumanity to man manifest itself. 

5. Yahweh’s punishment on sin was so devastating, that He promised never to wipe out humanity again, and the sign of that promise is the rainbow. Yahweh is a merciful God, but sin has to be atoned for. He gave the Torah at Sinai, and in that Divine covenant there were animal sacrifices to cover mankind’s sin. But that covenant was also intended to teach and prepare mankind for the great sacrifice, that of God Himself. The Father sent His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice that would cover and redeem all sin, for all people, for all eternity. Jesus fulfilled that promise at Passover. 50 days later, the promise of Pentecost was fulfilled when the Father sent the Holy Spirit. 

6. Jesus told the apostles: »When the Helper arrives, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness about Me« (John 15,26-27). »When the Spirit of truth arrives, He will guide you into all the truth« (John 16,13). 

7. On Pentecost the apostles preach to the Jews in Jerusalem that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead (Acts 2,23-24). They proclaim that His crucifixion was the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2,23). Human wisdom says the crucifixion must be punishment for a man who has broken the law and deserves condemnation from God.  Spiritual wisdom, however, is that the crucifixion is the sacrifice acceptable to God that redeems all sinners from their sins. The Holy Spirit teaches this and creates faith in this. Many who heard this were cut to the heart and brought to repentance (Acts 2,37). 3000 were then baptized. The Holy Spirit was working through the preaching of the apostles, bringing the people to repentance and pouring Himself upon them at their Baptism. Peter reminded the Jews: the promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit is for you, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself (Acts 2,38-39). 

8. We confess in the Creed: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. The Holy Spirit gives and sustains faith in Jesus and the eternal life that proceeds from Him. Paul says of this: »In Christ you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Christ, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance« (Ephesians 1,13-14). The Holy Spirit has called us to faith, sustained it and washed away our sins in our Baptism. 

9. Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

And make our hearts Your place of rest, 

Come with Your grace and heavenly aid, 

And fill the hearts which You have made. (Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest lsb 498,1 2006 Rabanus Maurus 776-856) 

This is most certainly true. 

11. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O God, the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful, visit us, we pray Thee, with Thy love and favor; enlighten our minds more and more with the everlasting Gospel; graft in our hearts a love of the truth; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness and of Thy great mercy keep us in the same, O Blessed Spirit, whom with the Father and the Son together we worship and glorify as one God, world without end. Amen. (Pentecost, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.) 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

 

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

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