Considerably revised, but the same basic point.
ER
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
The Letter and the Spirit
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 the devil
(1 Peter 5:8) and the world (John 15:18) continually 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 destructive bodily sins, such
as laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, sexual unfaithfulness, and so on.
· Our sinful and fallen minds will also attack us. Our
minds not only tempt us with greed and lust and other selfish thoughts, but
they also attack us with doubt in God's promises, boredom concerning
worship, a know-it-all attitude, or 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 tempted to think that our emotions
indicate of God's feelings toward us. Our emotions want to deceive us into
thinking that when we are sad or lonely, God is therefore far from us, has
forgotten us, or is angry with us; when we are happy and unburdened, it must
mean that God is pleased with us.
These many temptations-these personal temptations of body, mind and
emotion-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 us, but
while they are condemning us they are simultaneously providing us help and
support in our 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.
· For example: You do not need to lay awake at night
wondering, "Should I cheat on my spouse?" or "Should I steal from my
neighbor." You already know very well that God has said, "You shall not
commit adultery" and "You shall not steal." Not only do the commandments
forbid physical sins, but they also provide you with a strong curb and a
powerful help against your temptations. When you feel yourself bodily
tempted, 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!"
· Another example: God has said, "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 run off
into thoughts of greed, malice, revenge, or other selfish desires. 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 discontent by saying, 'You shall not covet.' 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).
The Promised Holy Spirit Provides You With Greater Gifts
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, especially on those rare occasions when we are willing
to use the commandments in a good way, 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 body and mind like an invading army. Turbulent emotions so disturb
our minds that we cannot think and they so tie our bodies into knots 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 imprisoned (Colossians 2:8) by the deceptions
of emotion-driven worship.
· Worst of all, our emotions want to deceive us into
thinking that when we are sad or lonely, God is therefore far from us or has
forgotten 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 the commandments can defeat. You might
possibly beat your body into submission and take your thoughts captive, but
who can master the inner storms of emotion? Even if we put on a good face
and outwardly pretend nothing is 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 therefore believe it, whether or not you inwardly feel any better
about your personal situation.
· The Spirit came to you in the Invocation at the beginning of
worship, reminding you with the sign of the cross that you are the Baptized
of Christ, adopted and named the children of God, belonging to the household
of heaven forever.
· The Spirit spoke His great peace to you in the Absolution,
announcing that all your sins of body, mind and emotion are fully forgiven
"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
· Through the readings and the sermon, the Spirit speaks to you the
demands and the promises of God, teaching you and filling you with His
living Word so that you may "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).
· In Holy Communion, the Spirit serves you the body and blood of your
Lord Jesus, by which you receive in your mouth the same rich forgiveness of
Christ that has been spoken into your ears.
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. This Spirit "dwells with you and will be in you,"
so that you will not be thrown down and destroyed by your enemies. Because
of this, none of your enemies-not even your most powerful emotions-can rule
over you any more. Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________
'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise
noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such
gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_
_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as
for quoting or use in a congregational setting
_with_or_without_attribution_.
Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list.
Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster.
Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>
For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach
For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at:
Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
