Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Romans 8,1-2.10-11. The Feast of Pentecost

Monday, June 9, 2014

Romans 8,1-2.10-11. The Feast of Pentecost

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Romans 8,1-2 [3-9] 10-11 3214

Pfingstsonntag 043

William, Archbishop of York, 1154

8. Juni 2014

1. O God, who upon this day has taught the hearts of Your faithful people, by sending to them the light of Your Holy Spirit; grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior (The Book of Common Prayer 147). Amen.

2. »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.«

3. There is an old Medieval belief that the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, but „The world is changed. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth“ (LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001). Who today would ascribe to Queen Elizabeth II the power to heal by the grace of God? The belief in regal healing hands has a long history that goes back to the Medieval Era, the reigns of the Roman emperors, Egyptian pharaohs and Babylonian kings. In fact, one of the oldest sources of kingly healing is found in the Book of Job: »For God wounds, but He binds up; He shatters, but His hands heal« (Job 5,18). It comes as no surprise, then, that Jesus’ hands touched and healed numerous afflicted people in the Gospels.

4. We normally think of healing in terms of physical maladies and afflictions, but there is a spiritual and mental aspect to healing, too. Our Gospel Lection for Pentecost touches on this where Jesus promised: »Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give peace to you as the world gives it. Let not your hearts be troubled or afraid« (John 14,27). Life in this world is fraught with hardships, disappointments and tribulations. Such is life on a world that is cursed on account of our sinfulness. It would be easy to accuse God of abandoning us in our time of need, ignoring our pleas for help or right out blame Him for all the evil things that befall us. Such approaches actually reveal how little we fear, love and trust our Heavenly Father. Such accusations fail to take God and His Providence seriously.

5. So it comes as a shock when the Apostle Peter lumps us all together with the 1. century Jews as those who are responsible for the death of Jesus. Surely, not we, who love Jesus! How can we be accountable for His death? We weren’t even there! Ah, but we are sinners whom Christ came to save, and therefore our sinfulness is responsible for His death. The Apostle Paul prosecutes our sinful crimes before the heavenly court: »None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God« (Romans 3,10-12.22-23).

6. Into this mass of sinful humanity appeared Jesus. He is the Son of God and the Son of the king. His kingly rule is not one of armies, swords and horses, but one of healing the mind, body and soul. Jesus’ hands are the hands of the king, and therefore He has the hands of a healer. The Apostle Paul tells us that: »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Since Christ is in you, although your body is dead because of sin, the Holy Spirit is life because of righteousness.« Fifty days after His resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon His apostles at Pentecost, and the world was changed forever. The Holy Spirit inspired and empowered the apostles to preach the gospel in diverse languages to the nations, and they proclaimed: »Everyone who calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself« (Acts 2,21.38-39).

7. This apostolic proclamation at Pentecost continues even 2000 years later. You were separated from God the Father. You were cut to the heart as the law revealed your sinfulness. You were downtrodden and broken by the world, and may still be trampled underfoot by this wicked world. But the King has arrived, and He has healing hands. Your debt has been paid. Your sins have been forgiven. Your sinfulness has been covered. Jesus’ healing hands became the crucified hands, and thus they became the healing hands par excellence. These are the hands that sent forth the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit speaks through His chosen ministers to preach the gospel, to absolve sinners and to tell of all the great deeds of Christ Jesus.

8. Thus Jesus promises us peace. This does not mean we will be immune from suffering, sickness and tribulation; yea, we may have more of such things because we bear the Name of Christ, but Christ has overcome this wicked world, sin, death, hell and the grave. His victory is your victory. His peace reigns in your life even when all hell is raging around you. Pentecost shows that the Holy Spirit creates order out of chaos, brings peace where there is division and plants the gospel, waters it and nurtures it in the hearts and minds of people. He does this for you even yet today. He will not stop, but He will work within you, and upon you, with the Holy Scriptures and the Sacraments until you stand in the very presence of the Triune God in Paradise. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, Creator of faith, fill the hearts of Your faithful and ignite in them the fire of Your Divine love so that we trust on Christ for our salvation. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Cofield,David. The Hands of a King. http://www.grijalvo.com/Hfz000/hfz000_2002_J_D_Cofield_Hands_of_a_King.htm

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, June 9, 2014

Romans 8,1-2.10-11. The Feast of Pentecost

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