The Feast of Pentecost
KEEP My Words Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus says it twice in today’s Gospel: “*Keep My Words*.” Speaking in this manner, Jesus is essentially saying to us, “Treasure My Words in your heart and in your mind. Use My Words to order your days and your deeds. Obey My Words; bend your will to My Words; shape your speech so that your words mirror My Words; love My Words; believe My Words; entrust your life, both now and forever, to My Words.” All of this is bound up in this twice-stated phrase from Jesus, “*Keep My Words*.” Why is it important to KEEP the Words of Jesus? It is only important if you love Him and want to be with Him. Jesus explains: “*If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…* *whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words*.” Dear Christian friends: Next Sunday is confirmation day. Confirmation means, among other things, that some of our fellow Christians will present themselves before the altar for the first time, in order that they may receive the Holy Communion that Jesus gives us. Today is a good day to think about how we all might prepare ourselves for the high, holy gift of our Lord’s dear body and precious blood. Preparation is a good and healthy thing, not only for the first-timers, but also for the rest of us who have already received. Today’s Gospel can provide you with good help for your preparation, if you will accept the help. Our Lord Jesus spoke today’s Gospel on the very night He was betrayed, which was also the night He took bread and wine and said to us all, “This is My Body. Eat it. This is My Blood. Drink it. I am giving these things to you for the forgiveness of your sins.” You, Sister Christian, and you, Brother Believer, have been given those Words. Rumor has it that you also love Jesus and His Words. Jesus says to you in today’s Gospel, “*If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…* *whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words*.” What help can today’s Gospel give to your preparation for Communion? · First, today’s Gospel has the power to make you uncomfortable and even sorrowful, which is another way of saying that this Gospel has the power to show you your need for the Holy Communion. · Praise be to God! Today’s Gospel also carries with it the divine gift of faith, which Jesus earnestly wants you to have and to keep, so that you may be truly worthy and well-prepared for His Body and His Blood. “*If anyone loves Me,*” says the Lord, “*he will keep My Word…* *whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words*.” In light of these Words from today’s Gospel, you can prepare yourself to receive the Holy Communion by asking yourself one question, “Have I kept and do I keep Jesus’ Words?” 1. Asked another way, Have I treasured the Words of Jesus in my heart and in my mind? Have I used the Words of Jesus as a way of ordering my days and my deeds? Have I faithfully obeyed His Words and bent my will to His Words and shaped my speech so that my words mirror my Lord’s Words? Your honest answers to such questions probably will not make you feel very good about yourself. The bad inward feeling that arises as a result of such personal questioning? We call it regret. We call it contrition. We call it the recognition of personal guilt. Do not ignore that feeling and do not pretend that feeling does not matter! That feeling—that realization of your sin—is the Holy Spirit’s good gift to you. When God’s Word and Spirit have made you aware of your sin, even to the point of making you feel pained by it, then the first step of preparing for the Holy Communion is complete. The Holy Communion is the Body and Blood of our Lord, given for the forgiveness of your sins. Praise and thanks to God the Holy Spirit! He lovingly makes us aware of our sins! Otherwise, we would never make time to come and to receive the medicine we need. Continue forward! Prepare yourself to receive the Holy Communion by asking yourself a second time, “Have I kept and do I keep Jesus’ Words?” 2. Asked another way, Do I love the Words of my Lord—at least enough that I am willing to hear them and not reject them as foolishness? Do I believe the promise that my Lord Jesus speaks to me in the absolution at the beginning of worship, even though I sometimes struggle with doubt? Am I able, at least in my better moments, to trust the Words of Jesus for the preservation of my life, both now and forever? Rejoice when you are able to say to yourself, “Yes, I believe the Words of Jesus!” When you are able to say such a thing to yourself, then you can feel glad and thank God that the Holy Spirit has indeed given you the precious gift of faith, through the power of His Word! The Spirit’s gift of faith will serve you well because the Spirit’s gift of faith makes you truly worthy and well prepared for the Meal of the Lord. Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed fine, outward training, but that person is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these Words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins” (IV). These Words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these Words has exactly what they say: “Forgiveness of sins” (III). Next Sunday is confirmation day, but today is a more important day than merely the Sunday before confirmation. Today we mark the Feast of Pentecost. Today we rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who has richly been poured out upon us by the Father and through the Son. God the Holy Spirit promises to help us to prepare for the Body and Blood of the Lord. We might go so far as to say that the Spirit actually does all of the preparation for us. After all, what job was the Holy Spirit sent to do in our midst? · It is NOT the Spirit’s job to bring out the best in us. If that were the case, the Spirit would have nothing to do, because we know that nothing good lives in us, that is, in our sinful nature (Romans 7:18). · Rather, it is the Spirit’s job to bring us the best of Jesus. As you heard in today’s Gospel, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to teach us all things and bring to remembrance all that Jesus has said to us. It is the Spirit’s work to keep us firmly founded upon the forgiveness and peace that Jesus earned for us by His death and resurrection. The stirring of the Spirit makes us ready to receive the Holy Communion, through His work of contrition and His work of faith. The Spirit alone makes it possible for us to love Jesus and keep His Words. “*If anyone loves Me,*” says the Lord, “*he will keep My Word*” and we must think that such keeping comes about only by the indwelling Spirit, whom God has given. Happy Pentecost, Christians! Happy Holy Spirit Day. Probably the best way to keep the feast is for each of us to try and stay out the Holy Spirit’s way and allow Him to do the work He was sent to do. You will be blessed the results of His labor, if you will allow it.
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