✠ Psalmody: Psalm 27:7a, 8–9a; 1a; Psalm 47:5; Psalm 68:17b–18a; Acts 1:11; John 17:12a, 13a, 15
✠ Lection: Ezekiel 36:23a, 23c–28; 1 Pet. 4:7b–11; John 15:26—16:4a
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Through the gift of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins, was raised on the third day, and ascended into heaven, we have been given the great gift and treasure of faith. It isn’t a generic faith that can be confused with just being optimistic. We don’t skip about through life as the blind fools that unbelievers view us as. Our hope isn’t a religious opiate, a mind-hazing smokey weed escape, or a cultish stint of day drinking in vain grasps of feeling good. Such empty means give an outlook on life that has no true object in which we place are to place our hope. We do not trust the highs, the buzzes, the feelings, the escape, or even the universe. We trust God. True, saving faith, which is gifted to you from Him, is belief and trust in what He has truly done on your behalf. It is true, rightly-founded, real hope. It is confidence. It is intentional action in everyday life built upon that hope. It is confession of transcendent truth to ourselves and to others.
Our Lord Jesus Christ bestows hope in His sure promise that He would send the Holy Spirit from the Father to His Church after His ascension. Thus, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. And we say so in our confession, joining our voices with one accord in the Nicene Creed. To confess the Holy Spirit is to confess that to which the Holy Spirit Himself testifies; that which saves; that which gives hope. There is only one truth, one Jesus, of Whom the Spirit bears witness. Having the gift of the Holy Spirit within you means that you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This heart, this Spirit dwells in every Christian. It is a glorious wellspring aching to burst forth in the joy of the Good News that Christ has paid the price for sinners. The Holy Spirit doesn’t dwell silently within you. Within the living Body of Christ, that is, within the people of God, it is by our lives, our confession, that He makes plain the salvation of God.
Our gift of faith from God is neither a drug nor a simple cuddly blanket to help us not to be scared of the dark, or to stay cozy in front of the TV, for what good is a cuddly blanket in the face of all that this world surely brings? The blanket does well by emboldening the one clinging to or under it, yet the only thing it may truly guard against is the cold night air. The Holy Spirit and the faith He bestows are true blessings in times of both peace and war. True faith must be put to use, exercised, tried, and refined, for we tend to allow it to tarnish and collect much impurity due to disuse and misuse. Gold is made pure by burning off its impurities, by removing the things that rob the precious metal of beauty and worth. Faith as God intends becomes something of worth to you when the things contrary to it are taken away, and just as fire can bring great pain and agony, the refining process often causes you, who still bears the old Adam, the same. More often than not, when the Holy Spirit sanctifies a sinner, the process is searing fire. But, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Dear Christians, you have a faith that is meant to endure, even its testing, implying things will come that call for being endured, because faith is in vain if it doesn’t continue steadfast through all this world brings unto the very end.
Realize that the world’s slanderous labels are cast upon God the Holy Spirit and His Church because mankind, striving to make a name for ourselves, demanding credit for having advanced so magnificently into the 21st century, believes it is warranted to boast as being more enlightened than the Almighty Creator Himself. The world sees that there are some who call themselves Christians, even “churches”, that are willing to get with the times, to embrace sexual perversion, to cast blame where it is unwarranted, to ignore individual responsibility, to affirm that up is down, that down is up, to support lies against nature, to defy the witness of the Holy Spirit for the sake of worldly acceptance. Narratives spewed through biased media say that those who don’t affirm and support the abominations of the fallen world are the ones in error even when nature itself testifies against it.
Then, there’s God. Further revelation from the True God, not from the ones we fashion in our likeness or to our desire. He is The Maker of Heaven and Earth, including every husband and wife, every boy and girl, every conceived human being, no matter their level of mental clarity or gender dysphoria. The answer why the True Church of God does not conform to this world is The Holy Spirit, the Counselor Who gives strength and courage in truth; He Who has been sent to you, not to give you help where you just fall short and aren’t able to complete good works on your own power, but to give you all that you need to face persecution, slander, temptation, confusion, discord, misinformation, ridicule, suffering, death, and even the revolt against what is good within your own flesh. He strengthens for battle without and within. The Lord and Giver of Life blesses you with the courage you need to face all things and the courage He has in store for you is able to fill you with boldness that doesn’t shrivel in fear but goes forward cheerfully to face yourself and the world. What He gives you is enough not just to face death once, but 100 times even. For how can any of this world truly harm you if the Creator strengthens you with His power in the face of all that comes, promising that your sinful flesh shall, too, be overcome? If your own wicked heart hurls condemnation at you, know that God is greater than your heart, and He knows everything. However the your flesh, the devil, and the world may come against you and your true confession that you speak from His Word inspired from on high, hear more, dear little children, that you are of God and have overcome evil in Him, for He Who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Those believing they are doing God, be it any god, true or false, a service by speaking or acting against the true confession to which you courageously hold as you stand upon the Lord’s teachings, they are God-fearless in a spirit of error. So, don’t think that the Gospel being proclaimed into such dark opposition, as the darkness grows, is something that will ever be easy and unopposed. The Gospel’s success isn’t the Christian’s responsibility; only its proclamation and faithfulness. Take courage, not in your own source, but from the Holy Spirit and what He testifies to you about Jesus. Go boldly into the world everyday knowing that the fruit the Lord seeks comes by His hand, by His Spirit, through bold confessions of the truth. Have the truth reign in your hearts, in your home, in your days, and upon your lips, because you will need such widespread strengthening of the Lord in all that still lies ahead. The battles aren’t yours to win or lose. They’re yours to fight as He gives them to you. Stand firm in the one true faith, no mere drug or blankie, that is being refined in you by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and in His use of the Word and Sacrament amidst all the trials in your life. In them, the Comforter is most certainly always with you!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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