The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
*The Word = Spirit* *The Word = Life* Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus says to us, “*The Spirit is the Giver of Life; the flesh is NOT useful for anything. The Words I have spoken to you: Spirit it IS and Life it IS*.” Dear Christian friends, Ask any or all of the children who have gone through confirmation class, “What does the word ‘is’ mean?” Every child give tell you the same answer. After the drilling I have put them through, they all might yell the answer at you together with one voice, “Is means IS!” Why is important that “Is means IS”? Because “IS” does NOT mean “represents,” especially in Greek (the language of the New Testament). “IS” also does NOT mean “compares to” or “symbolizes” or “reminds us of.” Most especially, “Is” does NOT mean “isn’t.” Why is important for your children that “Is means IS”—so important that I would yell the sentence at them and require them to yell it back at me? “Is means IS” holds the same importance for them as it does for you: our Lord Jesus held up a piece of bread and said, “*This IS My body*” Matthew 26:26). After that, He grabbed a cup of wine and said, “*This IS My blood*” (Matthew 26:28). When Jesus spoke these Words to us, He was NOT telling us “This symbolizes My body” or “this represents my blood” or “this reminds you of My body” or “this compares to My blood.” Is means IS. In an explicable and miraculous manner, you eat the body and you drink the blood of your crucified Lord when you come to Holy Communion. Nothing less. We all know that many Christians balk and protest those Words of Jesus. There is no sense in spelling out all the reasons why. You and I should simply listen to the Scriptures and content ourselves with thinking in the following manner: · First, we should say to ourselves, “If my Lord Jesus were to hand me stick and say, ‘This is the key to the door of heaven,’ I would NOT say back to Him, “That’s not a key; it’s a stick!” What would I do? I would carry that stick right up to heaven’s door, I would poke that stick right into the keyhole, and I would expect the door to open because Jesus said it would open. The very best thing I can do with the Words of Jesus is to trust that they will do what He says they will do. · We should then look at the bread and wine of the Holy Communion and think along the same lines: “Jesus says the bread is His body. He says the wine is His blood. He went on to say that this bread and wine—this Body and Blood—have been given to me for the forgiveness of my sins. Get out of my way, thou human thinking! Stand aside, foul reason and fallen logic! Tell me no more lies, O eyeballs of mine! Faith goes where my human sensibilities are forbidden to go! The very best thing I can do with the Words of Jesus is to trust that they will do what He says they will do. After all, is means IS." Now let’s add today’s Gospel into the mix: Jesus says here, “*The Words I have spoken to you are spirit and life*.” Same sentence again, this time more literally and less smoothly translated from the Greek: “*The Words I have spoken to you: Spirit it IS and Life it IS*.” What is Jesus saying to us? Jesus is telling us that He wants us to think about His Scriptures and His preaching and His proclamation of forgiveness in the same manner that He should think about the Holy Communion. The bread: My body it IS. The wine: My blood it IS. My Word: Spirit it IS and life it IS. It will be very difficult to spell out for you every single reason why these Words of Jesus are so immensely important for you, but let me take a whack at a few of the high points: “*My Words are Spirit and they are life* .” 1. These Words allow us to think that we receive essentially the same gifts from Him in the sermon and in the proclamation of forgiveness as we receive in the Holy Communion. Some of you do not yet commune. In each of your cases, we should change that as soon as possible, because no one should absent themselves from the gifts of the Lord. Even so, while you are yet heading toward the Holy Communion, Jesus’ Words guard you and sustain you and keep you along the way. In hearing His Words, you receive the gift of the Spirit. In hearing His Words, you receive the gift of life. 2. These Words announce to us that our faith does NOT create or validate the gifts of God. Stated another way, Jesus wants you to know in today’s Gospel that His Words unfailingly deliver Spirit and Life to you whether you believe or do not believe. The same is true of the Holy Communion: the bread IS Jesus’ Body whether you believe it or not; the wine IS Jesus’ Blood whether you believe it or not; these things ARE given for the forgiveness of you sins whether you believe it or not. In the same way, today’s Gospel teaches us that the Word of Jesus IS Spirit in us and IS Life for us whether we believe it or not. “*The Words I have spoken to you: Spirit it IS and Life it IS*.” Is means IS. Faith does NOT create these realities for us. Faith merely grasps ahold of and receives the benefit of the gift that God has given. Jesus speaks in this clear and emphatic manner because He wants to comfort and sustain us, even when our faith struggles with weakness and doubt. Jesus does not want us to think that His gifts depend upon the strength of our faith. Jesus wants us to know that He continually delivers spirit and life to us through His Words, precisely so we may believe. 3. These Words assure us that we do not need to go chasing after some Pentecostal experience, just to feel like we have God’s Holy Spirit. The Words of Jesus unfailingly deliver the Holy Spirit to you, just as the Words of our Lord faithfully deliver life to you. You do not need to search inside of yourself to try to detect the presence of the Spirit in your life. You do not need to believe some nonsense teaching that would have you think that the Spirit will speak inwardly to your mind or tug at your heart like a kite on a string (If memory serves well, I got that last tidbit from the Billy Graham Association). You have the Spirit, no matter how unspiritual you may feel. You have the Spirit because have the Words of Jesus. Therefore, you have life. “*The Spirit is the Giver of Life*,” says the Lord. “*The Words I have spoken to you: Spirit it IS and Life it IS*.” The very best thing we can do with the Words of Jesus is to trust that they will do what He says they will do. Christ Jesus our Lord is smarter than all the rest of us combined, and it simply requires too much energy to argue with Him. Far better that we simply open our ears and open our mouths and allow the word is to mean IS. Tragically, not everyone will do so. As you heard in today’s Gospel, “*After this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him*.” Each of us has that same, abiding freedom to leave, even today. But what will turning away accomplish? In that event, we would receive the opposite of the Spirit—shall we call it spiritlessness?—and the opposite of life, which is death. Far better that we believe, confessing the faith of the Twelve: “*Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God*.”
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