The Feast of Pentecost You Renew the Face of the Ground Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today is Pentecost, the Day of the Holy Spirit. I hold the opinion that no one needs the renewing work of the Holy Spirit more than me. You might disagree. You might feel convinced that no one needs the Spirit renewal more than you. Today’s Introit from Psalm 104 is good for us both to pray: “When You sent forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” Dear Christian friends, When God says His Spirit “renews the face of the ground,” it sounds like He is speaking about His creation, that is, this physical world in which we live. But the Scriptures teach us to believe that there is a close parallel between creation and salvation; that creation and salvation look very much alike. You might even say that God’s creation is the elder sister to God’s salvation in Christ. The two sisters look like sisters. • Remember, for example, our Lord’s famous Parable of the Man Planting Seed (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23). Some seed fell on the path, some on the rocks, some on thin soil, and some on good ground. At first, this might have sounded like a lesson in farming. Jesus made the connection between God’s creation and our salvation when He said that the different types of soil represent the different of people who hear the divine Word. “As for what was sown on good soil,” says the Lord, “this is the one who hears the Word and understands it” (Matthew 13:23). • St. Paul makes the same connection between creation and salvation when he declares in the power of the Spirit, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Again, “What counts is the new creation” (Galatians 6:15). The connection between creation and salvation gives us a good angle for hearing today’s Introit: “When You sent forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” These Words do more than speak about God’s creation. These Words indicate that we need God the Holy Spirit, not only to get us started, but also to keep us in the one true faith every moment of every day of our lives. • “When You send forth Your Spirit, they are created.” These Words ring of the miracle of Baptism, where God the Holy Spirit creates and implants the good gift of faith; where God the Spirit makes us His new creation through water, similar to the way that He created Eve through the rib of Adam (Genesis 2:21). • This Psalm also states, “You renew the face of the ground.” These Words let us know that the Spirit’s Work continues long after the baptismal water first sprinkles the brow. Working through the living Word of preaching, working through the presence of the Living Christ in Holy Communion, working through the ever-flowing well of Baptism, God the Holy Spirit “renews the face of the ground.” That is to say, God the Spirit continually gathers the stones and pulls the weeds and shovels the horse manure so that our littered hearts and eroded minds may somehow become good soil. “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it” (Matthew 13:23). If you want an illustration of the Spirit’s continual work of renewal, come visit my little piece of land over on route W. It must have once been a garbage dump. Every year I gather old trash from the surface of the ground. Every year the ground spits up more trash. So it is with you; so it is with me. Our thorns and rocks are endless. New trash continually vomits from the depths of our being. The pollution of sin and unbelief so continually clogs our brains that we might not even realize it. Here is a frightening little story to show you what I mean by that last point: When I was a child, I met a pastor whose reputation was nearly legendary because he practiced closed communion. I remember my mother’s hushed voice telling me about him as he entered the room. To a little Lutheran who had never heard the words “closed communion,” the man was Hercules. I felt admiration and fear. Some thirty years later, long after I entered the Holy Ministry, I received an essay this pastor had written in retirement. He had changed his mind about closed communion, but not because he had been studying the Scriptures. He changed his mind because his daughters had departed from the faith and could no longer receive the Lord’s Supper from their father’s hand. The man was torn between our ancient faith and practice, born of the Scriptures, and his offspring. The poor pastor found it easier to change what he believed, rather than to accept the reality of his loved ones’ unbelief and sin. I am not saying that this man fell from the faith. He simply allowed his love for something else to cast a shadow over his love for the divine Word. Stated another way, he ended up thinking the thorny soil (Matthew 13:22) was the most important thing. You feel tempted to do the same. So do I. The word for it is idolatry. How desperately we each need God’s Word and Promise in today’s Introit! “When You sent forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” Today is the Feast of Pentecost. • Pentecost is when the birth and life and death and resurrection of our Lord all come home to roost personally for you and personally for me, delivered to us by the Third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. • Pentecost is about the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the ways that the Spirit loves to work—through the Word, through the Holy Baptism, through the Holy Communion. In and through these things, God the Holy Spirit comes to us. When He arrives, His duffle bag is full of all the best things of Jesus—Jesus’ forgiveness, Jesus’ strength, Jesus’ life, Jesus’ love, Jesus’ steadfastness under temptation—even when He was tempted by His family (John 7:1-6). At Christmas, we rejoice that our God is not at all disgusted by His creation. He has every reason to be disgusted, but He is not. God loves His creation so dearly that He lowered Himself into it, somewhat like a scuba diver into a cesspool. In Epiphany, we rejoice (among other things) that our God absorbed into Himself all our sin, all our filth, all our rocks and thorns and spiritual infertility. Jesus took everything we have so that He could give us everything He has, perhaps somewhat comparable to going “all in” at a poker game. In Holy Week and Easter, we rejoice that our God crucified everything that once spelled disaster for us. In Holy Week and Easter, we rejoice that everything stays in the tomb except for Jesus and those whom He has purchased for His own. Jesus sold the entire farm along with the cow to buy us, a handful of charlatan beans. Today is the Feast of Pentecost. At Pentecost, we rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why do we rejoice in the gift of the Spirit? Because “When You sent forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” Eventually, every Christian must arrive at Pentecost. Stated another way, every Christian is a field that is in constant need of the Spirit’s careful and loving attention. • Dear sister, do not set your mind upon thorns and weeds. They threaten to chock and destroy the good seed that has been planted within you. Thus it is written, “The cares of the world… choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). • Dear brother, do not convince yourself that the seed of the Word will do well enough without the Spirit first removing the rocks from your ground. If you love the rocks and the stones too much, you will endure for a while, but when trouble arises, you will fall away (Matthew 13:21). • Dear Christians, one and all, allow God the Holy Spirit to do His good work for you, pulling the weeds and culling the rocks and shoveling whatever He sees fit to shovel in your direction. He will make your soil good. “As for what was sown on good soil,” says the Lord, “this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23). You each are the baptized of Christ. That means you each have this Pentecost promise from your God, and your God loves to fulfill His promises: “When You sent forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
