This is a draft. I am not sure I like it. We will have to see if it survives
until Sunday.
ER
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! In today's Gospel, Jesus
says to you, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Then He speaks
a great promise to you: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth."
Dear Christian friends,
We Christians must accept and fully resign ourselves to the fact that we are
going to be attacked relentlessly by our enemies. Not only shall our enemies
the devil (1 Peter 5:8) and the world (John 15:18) continually afflict and
torment us, but we personally will also be a constant source of temptation
and aggravation for ourselves:
· Our sinful and fallen physical bodies will relentlessly
afflict us, not only with their aches and pains and injuries and illnesses,
but also with their ongoing love affair with such destructive bodily sins as
laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, sexual unfaithfulness, and so on.
· Our sinful and fallen minds will also attack us. Our
minds not only afflict us with greed and lust and other selfish thoughts,
but they also attack us with doubt in God's promises, with boredom
concerning God's worship, with a know-it-all attitude, or with a callousness
toward "the living and abiding Word of God" (1 Peter 1:23).
· Like our corrupted bodies and our corrupted minds, our
sinful and corrupted emotions will likewise attack us with regularity. Our
emotions will throw us onto the up-and-down roller coaster of one day
feeling happy and the next day feeling nothing but loneliness or sadness.
Worse than this, we are continually assailed by the devilish temptation to
think that our emotions provide us with an indicator of God's feelings
toward us. That is to say, our emotions want to deceive us into thinking
that 1) when we are sad or lonely, God is therefore far from us, has
forgotten us, or is angry with us; and 2) when we are happy and unburdened,
that must mean that God is pleased with us.
These many terrible temptations-temptations of body, mind and emotion, which
are rooted in our own personal sin and unending weakness-these terrible
temptations show us no mercy or rest in their attacks against us.
Your Lord Jesus understands very well this merciless burden and
on-going attack. Jesus says to you today, "If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments." Then He promises you, "I will ask the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth."
Jesus' Commandments Help You Combat the Temptations and Assaults of Your
Body and Mind
When Christians think of Christ's commands, they mainly think of
the Ten Commandments and the condemning accusations of sin that these
commandments level against us. Stated another way, we Christians do not
commonly think of God's commands as a source of relief, protection, or
defense. Because of our guilty consciences, we are well acquainted with the
fact that "the Law always accuses" (Apology IV.38). St. Paul says that "the
law brings wrath" (Romans 4:15) and exposes our sin (Romans 7:7).
The good news for you is that God's commandments do more for you
than condemn your sin. Yes, the commandments incessantly condemn your sin,
but while they are condemning your sin they are simultaneously providing you
help and support in your time of need. The commandments of God offer you a
strong wall of protection and safety against the very things that would seek
to overwhelm you and destroy you with their relentless temptations. That is
to say, God's Ten Commandments help you curb and bind and combat the
temptations of your decaying body, your ever-wandering mind and your
domineering emotions.
· For example: You do not need to lay awake at night
wondering, "Should I cheat on my spouse?" You already know very well that
God has said, "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Not only does
this commandment forbid your unfaithfulness to your spouse, but it also
provides you with a strong curb and a powerful help against your
temptations. When your body feels like it wants to go astray, you can point
to the commandment, beat your body into submission (1 Corinthians 9:27) and
insist against your temptations, "By no means, my body! God has forbidden
such things and I require you, my body, to keep these commandments. Do not
commit those deeds which the commandments forbid!" (Of course, God's
commandments do not apply to temptations toward sexual sin alone, but also
against every other bodily temptation we suffer.) In this way, God's
commandments provide you with a strong tool and weapon to combat your bodily
temptations.
· Another example: God has said in His Commandments, "You
shall not covet" (Exodus 20:16-17). Here again, God has given us a strong
help when we suffer the torments and temptations of our sinful minds, which
continually want us to run off into thoughts of greed, malice, revenge, or
other selfish desires. When we suffer such afflictions, God's commandments
provide us with backbone and strength, so that we may stand up under our
temptations. You can say to your fallen mind, "Be still! God has forbidden
your never-ending discontent by saying, 'You shall not covet.' Therefore
remain silent my sinful mind, and tempt me no more." In the same way that
God's commandments provide you with a weapon and tool against your bodily
temptations, so they also provide you with a weapon and tool against your
mental temptations, so that you may take "every thought captive to obey
Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
A loving mother or father or older sibling would certainly speak certain
commandments to a child: "Do not touch the hot stove!" or "Stay away from
the busy street!" Such commandments are not spoke arbitrarily, but lovingly.
They are laid upon the child for his protection and safety. In the same way,
Jesus says to each of us in today's Gospel, "If you love Me, you will keep
My commandments." Jesus tells you to keep His commandments because of His
great love for you; because these divine commandments provide you with a
strong defense against your temptations of body and mind; because Jesus
lovingly uses these commandments to protect you and keep you safe against
your enemies.
The Promised Holy Spirit Provides You With Greater Defense
Against Your Emotions
Unfortunately, there are limits to what God's Commandments will do
for us. The Commandments wills serve us very well against the temptations of
our bodies and minds, but our sinful and corrupted emotions are an untamable
beast that no law or command can control. The greatest part of our emotional
temptations is that we do not really want to admit that our emotions can be
sinful or misleading. It is relatively easy for us to identify the
temptations of our bodies and the sins of our minds, but the temptations of
our emotions are much more crafty in their assaults against us.
· When we feel good, we want to think that whatever makes
us feel good is therefore a good thing (1 Corinthians 15:32b).
· When we feel angry, we generally feel in our anger
(Matthew 5:22).
· When we feel lonely, our loneliness very easily takes
over both our bodies and our minds, like an invading army. Turbulent
emotions disturb our minds so that we cannot think and tie our bodies into
knots so that we cannot eat.
· Wars have been fought because of emotions. Families
have been divided because of emotions. Entire congregations have been
bewitched (Galatians 3:1) and taken captive (Colossians 2:8) by emotions,
foolishly deceived into thinking that the best forms of worship allow
emotions to be unleashed in dancing and swaying and other acts of
exuberance.
· Worst of all, our emotions want to deceive us into
thinking that 1) when we are sad or lonely, God is therefore far from us,
has forgotten us, or is angry with us; and 2) when we are happy and
unburdened, that must mean that God is pleased with us.
Your Lord Jesus knows that your turbulent and vagabond emotions hold you
under a tyranny that not even divine commandments can overcome. You can beat
your body into submission and you can take your thoughts captive, but who
has ever mastered the inner storms of his emotions? Even if we put on a good
face and pretend nothing was amiss, we inwardly rage or weep nonetheless.
Jesus knows that about you and He knows that about me. Jesus
promises all of us in today's Gospel, "I will ask the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth."
By this indwelling and ever-present gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus
powerfully overcomes for us the tyranny of our emotions. By the miracle of
faith that the Holy Spirit brings to us through the Word, we know and
believe that God is pleased with us, not because of what our emotions tell
us, but because Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) By His
gift of the Holy Spirit, who will be with you forever, Jesus binds and gags
your emotions for you, so that you may hear God's Word of forgiveness and
peace and believe it, whether or not you inwardly feel any better about your
personal situation.
It has been famously said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Praise be to God! Your Lord Jesus has asked His Father, and the Father has
given you the Holy Spirit. Because of this, none of your enemies-not even
your favorite emotions-can rule over you any more.
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