Psalm 118,16.24.26-28; Wisdom 1,7. Pentecost

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 118,16.24.26-28; Wisdom of Solomon 1,7 3217

Pfingstsonntag  043 

Quirinus, Bishop of Syscia in Pannonia, Martyr 304

4. Juni 2017 

1. О Lord Jesus Christ, Almighty Son of God: We beseech You, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, through Your Word, so that He may rule and govern us according to Your will, comfort us in every temptation and misfortune and defend us by Your truth against every error, so that we may continue steadfast in the faith, increase in love and all good works, and firmly trusting in Your grace, which through death You have purchased for us, obtain eternal salvation, You who reigns, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Pentecost) 

2. The Spirit of the Lord fills the world, and that which contains all things has knowledge of the Voice. The right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly! This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Blessed is he who arrives in the Name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and He has made His Light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to You; You are my God; I will extol You. 

  3. Our Introit begins the celebration of Pentecost by saying: »The Spirit of the Lord fills the world, and that which contains all things has knowledge of the Voice.« Pentecost is the 50. day after Jesus’ resurrection and the fulfillment of the promise He had given to the apostles at His ascension: »Remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit has clothed you in power« (Luke 24,49). „Let us here consider what are common expressions for the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father (John 15,26), the Spirit of virtue and a Commanding Spirit (Psalm 1,12.14)“ (Basil 8 ¶ 1), the Author of Holy Scripture (2. Timothy 3,16; 2. Peter 1,21), Paraclete (Comforter, Counselor and Advocate) (Isaiah 11,2; John 14,16; 15,26; 16,7), the Spirit of Christ (1. Peter 1,11), the Spirit of Life (Romans 8,2), Teacher (John 14,26; 1. Corinthians 2,13) and several others. 

4. The Holy Spirit was sent to continue the ministry of Jesus after His ascension. The Intorit says of this: »The right hand of the Lord exalts and doses valiantly!« The Holy Spirit, as we confessed in our Nicene Creed, is God, specifically the 3. Person in the Trinity. The primary work of Jesus was to justify us and make us righteous by His crucifixion and resurrection; the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to flesh out this justification by sanctification and making us holy. St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Galatians: »Walk by the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace;  patience, kindness and self-control« (Galatians 5,16.22-23). And to the Ephesian Christians he writes: »Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God« (Ephesians 4,30.32; 5,1). And again to the Roman Christians: »The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words« (Romans 8,26). 

5. Pentecost is rightly seen through the eyes of today’s Introit: »This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.« On Pentecost the Holy Spirit poured out Himself upon the apostles with such power and glory that tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they began to speak in other languages (Acts 2,3-4). These apostles then went forth in Jerusalem and preach the gospel in 15 distinct languages (Acts 2,9-11). 

6. The Corinthians Christians had gotten too caught up in the particular spiritual gift of speaking other languages; it was using division in their congregation (1. Corinthians 12,4-7). It had gotten to the point that they marveled in speaking different languages over the proclamation of the gospel. Paul thus told them: »In church I would rather proclaim five words of the gospel than ten thousand words in a foreign language« (1. Corinthians 14,19). Paul reminds us all that on Pentecost, the true gift was not the different languages the apostles miraculously spoke but the very gospel they preached. The languages served the preaching of the gospel. Paul then reminds us that there are even greater gifts of the Holy Spirit: »If I speak in the languages of men, but do not have love, then I am a noisy gong. If I preach and understand all mysteries and knowledge and have all faith, but lack love, then I am nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it isn’t arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way or rejoices a wrong doing. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never ends. As for preaching, it will one day pass away; as for languages, they will cease. So now abide in faith, hope and love, but the greatest of the is love« (1. Corinthians 13,1-2.4-8.13). 

7. For God so loved the world that on Pentecost He sent the Holy Spirit, so that the apostles could preach the gospel of Christ crucified to people in their native language and that in hearing they would believe that in Christ they are forgiven and redeemed. God’s love is eternal. 2000 years later the Holy Spirit is still working to proclaim the gospel to people in their native languages. The gospel continues to spread around the world through preaching the Word and translating the Scriptures into languages people can easily read and understand.  

8. The Introit reminds us: »Blessed is He who arrives in the Name of the Lord! We bless You from the house of the Lord.« Many of the Jews at Pentecost lived across the vast stretches of the Roman Empire; they did not know about Jesus or what had recently transpired. Thus St. Paul: »Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved [Joel 2,32]. But how are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel [Isaiah 52,7]! So faith is created by hearing the Word of Christ« (Romans 10,13-15.17). The Holy Spirit was sent and the apostles preached in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit sent  the apostles to preach the gospel throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. The Holy Spirit sows the gospel north, south, east and west. Today, you have heard the gospel again. Pass it on, pay it forward, in the situations and places you find yourself in. The Holy Spirit has put you there for a reason: bear witness to Jesus.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, sent for by the Father, draw near to us and pour out upon us Your holy power, so that our consciences are comforted in the gospel and that we then encouraged to tell others of the great love of God shown to us in Christ Jesus.  Amen. 

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 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Volume 3. M. F. Toal, D.D. translator. Copyright © 1959 Henry Regnery Co.

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.