Paradise, Once Lost, Now Regained - Sermon for the Ascension of Our + Lord

Eve of the Festival of the Ascension of Our + Lord
May 25^th, A+D 2022
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Paradise, Once Lost, Now Regained.   
Genesis 3:8-23, Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53
Custer, South Dakota

    I ruined everything.  Everything was so good, very good.  But I,... we, wrecked it. 
God had placed us in Paradise, and put us in charge of caring for it.  He made me His right-hand man in Eden, charging me to look after and take care of and enjoy every good thing.  God had given us each other; the woman and I had a beautiful life and future.  But we ruined it.  We lost our idyllic home, and were driven out to find a place to live in a world we had just made hard and dangerous.  An angel with a flaming sword blocked the way back.  But after what we had done, I’m not sure I could have endured the pain of seeing every day that used-to-be perfect garden, now scarred by us.   

   I am Adam, and so are you.  You and I are connected; we are all one man in a sense, one humanity.  We are connected, and I know you have some faint idea of what I did, what the woman and I did.  I am the first Adam, and you have some of me in you.  You share my capacity for ruin. 

    You didn’t wreck Paradise.  But you know that experience, the gut wrenching feeling that comes when something good and beautiful and whole gets broken and destroyed, and you are the cause.  It can be simple, like Mother’s favorite vase, passed down to her from her grandma, who brought it from the old country.  Irreplaceable.  But you just had to play ball in the living room, even though you knew better.  You ignored your mother’s instruction, and you broke it.  You shattered it into a hundred pieces, her favorite heirloom, ruined.  There’s no hiding it.  You feel sick to your stomach, and you hear Mom coming down the hallway.  You ruined it. And you cannot fix it.

   Shattering Mom’s favorite vase or some other precious possession is bad.  But not the worst, not by far.  None of us are perfect, but many people are beautiful, souls with whom you share a precious, wonderful relationship.  Unity and wholeness, with your husband or your wife, with a brother, a child, a friend.  And yet, we wreck things.  The relationship was good, precious, until you ruined it.  You didn’t mean to have an accident, but you did, and your child gets hurt, their body or their mind is damaged for the rest of their life, and you didn’t prevent it.  You love your husband, or your wife, and you never meant to betray, but it happened.  You lost your temper and said ugly words that cut your best friend deeply, and your friendship never quite recovers. 

   Sometimes the ruin spins out of control.  As you’ve seen in Uvalde, Texas this week.  Such wanton evil, such destruction of life.  What brokenness leads a young man to hate and destroy in this way? 

   That is a category apart.  Be thankful to God if such gut-wrenching violence has never touched your life or your loved ones.  And yet, we share this world, and none of us is innocent. 

   You’ve broken things, and relationships.  And you’ve had relationships broken by others.  Sometimes you can patch it up, but the scars and memories remain.  It is one of the sad consequences you inherited from me.  Hurting others, being hurt, ruining things.  Whatever way it goes, whether you are the sinner, or the one sinned against, or whether the ruin is mutual, you know the sickening sadness that follows when a beautiful thing is scarred.

   There is so much scarred beauty in the world that the woman and I left you.  God’s good creation was completely changed.  An environment meant to foster life is now filled with life-threatening weather and dangerous animals.  A human race made for community and love is now threatened by violence, deceit and betrayal.  Beautiful bodies made to live forever now suffer from injury and disease.  There were no death threats in Paradise, in Eden.   But I ruined that. 

    We so much wanted to go back to that horrible moment, and undo what we had done.  To regain our wonderful home and go back to faithfully following God’s instruction.  But we could not.  The way back was barred, and even if it weren’t, we had no way to fix what we had broken.  Indeed, if we had eaten from the Tree of Life while sin still ruled over us, we would have been doomed to an eternity apart from the Lord, forever with the serpent.  So God mercifully barred the way. 

    Our way forward was out into a world filled with pain and struggle and death threats.  But we did go forward, despite the difficulty, forward day by day, with God’s help.  You see, the only reason I can even bear to tell you this story is because God gave us a Way forward, a Way to eventually get back home.  Back to a better home than you can imagine.

   This is why you have gathered here tonight, to celebrate the reopening of Paradise, the final step in the restoration of God’s good creation.  I am the first man, the first Adam.  But not the last.  When the Lord drove Eve and me out of the Garden, the only reason we could go on was because of the promise of a second Adam, a New Man.  God didn’t say the words “New Adam” in the Garden.  That language came later.  But the New Adam is what He meant when He spoke of the Seed of the Woman. 

    And God didn’t even make the promise to Eve and me.  God promised the serpent, the deceiver to whom we listened.  God told the evil one about the Coming Seed; the woman and I just overheard the conversation.  We didn’t completely understand, but we heard the promise, and it gave us hope.  There would be a Seed, One born from woman, the One to bruise the serpent’s head.  In these words, we found hope. 

   In this promise of a Savior, God set me free from my anger against the woman.  Freed by the Promise to love her again.  She had given me the fruit, and I ate, and so we ruined everything.  Part of me so wanted to blame her, forever.  But now I knew from the Lord that she would bring forth a Seed, who would strike back at the Evil One.  We found hope in these words, even though they were hard to understand. New life would come from my wife.  So I named her Eve, mother of all the living. 

   Our promise-created hope survived, even through the curses which the Lord declared to us.  We could endure our expulsion from Eden and face the burdens of living in the world we had ruined only because of the promise of the Coming Seed, the New Man, the New Adam, who would come to set things right. 

   This is the Good News of the Ascension:  The Seed of the Woman, the New Adam, has finished His course.  God’s Son stepped into our course, the way of death, in order to reverse it, with His own suffering and death.  Now, risen from the dead and finished with His 40-day intensive course with the Eleven, Christ Jesus the New Adam re-opens Paradise to humanity.  Jesus ascends to God’s right hand, His rightful seat from eternity.  But now He goes there not just as God’s Son, but also as the Man, the New and Greater Adam, who bears in His body the scars of the serpent’s final bite, the bruises that destroyed Satan’s power over you and me, by the forgiveness of all our sins. 

   Rejoice, the New Adam, God’s Son and your Brother, rules over all things, and prepares a place for you.  The Tree of Life and every good thing awaits you, in the New Eden, God’s heavenly Paradise.  This Promise also carries you today.  Through joys and struggles, despite the brokenness that is still all around you, by trust in Jesus you continue on in Godly faith, hope, and love, because the New Adam has rescued you.     

Praise be to Christ, our Ascended God and Savior, Amen.          

 

Prayer in the Name of Jesus - Sermon for Rogate, the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sixth Sunday of Easter – Rogate
May 22^nd, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Prayer in Jesus’ Name

We recite together from the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Prayer, Introduction and the First Petition, with explanations, (LSB 323-4).

Introduction

“Our Father who art in heaven.”

 What does this mean?

   With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him, as dear children ask their dear father.

 The First Petition

“Hallowed be Thy name.”

What does this mean?

   God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.

How is God’s name kept holy?

    God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

   On the night before His suffering and death, in the upper room with the Eleven, Jesus made a remarkable promise:  Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have asked nothing in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

   To pray in the Name of Jesus is to pray as the baptized. Because it was in and through the water that He put His Name on you, claiming you as His own, a son or daughter of His Father, even inviting you to pray to His Father as your Father. How great are the promises that Jesus makes about your prayers!

     This Sunday, the sixth of Easter, is called in Latin "Rogate." It’s the only Sunday of Easter or Lent that does not take its name from the first words of the Introit.   "Rogate" instead comes from the Gospel for today. It means "pray," or, in our translation, "ask.” Ask, and you will receive.

     Perhaps this promise of Jesus seems too good for you to believe. Maybe your experience in prayer makes you doubt that Jesus really meant what He said about prayer in His Name. Worse, maybe your experience in prayer leads you to doubt your faith, your place in the kingdom of God, since your prayers do not seem to be answered.  Understanding prayer, especially as Jesus describes it, is hard.

    Some years ago in Montana, I had a vicar, a pastoral intern.  One Sunday, while preaching on this same text, the vicar confessed his own prayer struggle. He was a good man, had many talents, and was looking forward to serving as a pastor.  Vicar had also, for a long time, been praying that the Lord would give him a wife.  His prayer went years without answer.  Vicar left his year with us still a single man.  But, the next spring, at the same time he was graduating from seminary and receiving his first call into the holy ministry, God gave the answer he sought.  Through a website for Lutherans, a Lutheran dating site, (I know, who knew?)  our vicar met, and later fell in love with and became engaged to his future wife. 

   From the vicar’s experience we can learn two things:  First, that the Lord normally responds to our prayers through common, earthly means. The role of the Christian is to pray, and to work, to do what is good and logical in search of our desires.   You pray for healing, and you go see your doctor.  Our vicar prayed, but he also sought to meet a good woman on a Lutheran dating site.  God most often uses earthly means to answer our prayers. 

   Second, patience is needed. The Lord does not delay in keeping His promises.  His timing is perfect.  However, our schedule is not His, nor is ours best. The Lord is faithful. He will fulfill his promises.  God will answer our prayers in the best possible way, in His time, on His schedule.

      At the same time, it is also true that the Lord will not give us everything that you and I might ask for. There is another potential problem we must consider.

     To pray in the name of Jesus, who is God, is to pray as the baptized, pure and holy, reborn from above, new creatures with new hearts, who desire all that God desires. Therefore, if we are asking for something bad, we will have to confess that such prayer does not come from you as a saint, from the new person that God has created.  Rather, such a bad request comes from you as a sinner. Such a request is not really a prayer in the Name of Jesus, for we do sanctify the Name of His Father by asking for bad things.

     Simply put, God does not respond to our prayers if they are evil. If my prayers are motivated by greed, selfishness or lust, then they are certainly not asked in the name of Jesus, even if I say that phrase to end my prayer. Therefore, a prayer that we sinner-saints need daily is to ask the Spirit to guide us so that we do not pray wrongly, so that our faithful and good prayers truly sanctify the Name of God.

We recite together from the Small Catechism: The second and third petitions of the Lord's Prayer, with explanations. (LSB 324).

The Second Petition

“Thy kingdom come.”

What does this mean?

     To be sure, the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may also come to us.

How is this done?

     When the heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit so that by his grace we may believe his holy Word and live a godly life, both here in time and hereafter forever.

The Third Petition

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

What does this mean?

     The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.

 How is God’s will done?

     God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when he strengthens us and keeps us firm in his Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.

 

     To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray for the Mission of God. As St. Paul tells us today: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. ³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  And the truth in which we rejoice is this Good News: in Christ, there is salvation for all.  In Christ, God continues to offer forgiveness and new life to all.  And so we pray, “Thy kingdom come, to us, and to all.”  

      To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in unity with Christ. You, the baptized, have been crucified with Christ.  You have been clothed with Christ and sealed with His Spirit.  Therefore, as Jesus prays, so you also pray.  Our Lord’s most intense prayer was offered in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus asked his Father to take away the Cup of Wrath, which was His impending suffering.   “Father, if it is possible, let this Cup pass from me.”  However, Jesus’ prayer did not end there. He continued: "but not My will, but Your will be done. " Thy will be done. As much as Jesus dreaded suffering for the sins of the whole world, He still submitted His will to the will of His Father. So we do, too.  Praying in the name of Jesus is always according to God's will, not ours. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

      Prayer in the Name of Jesus is faithful prayer which knows that the Father has given Jesus Christ into the Cross, to rescue us from an eternity in hell. Such a Father, and such a Savior, now risen and seated at the right hand of His Father, such a God will never abandon us. He will give us His best, always.  Now, we must remember this: as we see in the image of Christ dying on the Cross, often it is difficult to see the good in the outward appearance of a thing. But rest assured, just as Christ on the Cross is truly a picture of God's love for all humanity, so also God's will is better for you than your own will. God may take us into unfamiliar and fearful situations.  But He will be with us, and bring us through.  And finally one day He will bring us to His heavenly home, no matter what happens.  

      To pray always "Thy will be done" is, in reality, liberating. To pray according to God’s will is to recognize that we are both saints and sinners, that from time to time we will err in our requests, due to our weakness, or simply our lack of understanding.  Still, as God’s holy ones, we are free to ask for anything we believe is good, trusting that the Father loves to give good gifts.  He will either give us what we ask for, or something better! After all, he has already given us Jesus.   Prayer in the name of Jesus helps us look to the future with confidence, and live with joy today, whether in this moment we are rich or poor, strong or weak, popular or ridiculed.  We trust, because we know how the story of Jesus ends.  And His story is also our story. 

 We recite together from the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Prayer, Fourth and Fifth Petitions, with explanations. (LSB 324).

The Fourth Petition

Give us this day our daily bread.

What does this mean?

   God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. 

What is meant by daily bread?

   Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. 

The Fifth Petition

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean?

   We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them.  We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.  So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us. 

 

     To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray honestly. This is easy in relation to our daily bread, since we are always getting hungry. Of course, we do need help remembering to give thanks to God for His daily gifts.  To acknowledge that He provides every good thing, whether material, emotional or spiritual.

     It is more difficult to be honest about our sin. For this reason, right in the center of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to say, "forgive us our trespasses," our debts, our sins. Forgive us again, dear Lord, because we are still sinners. To pray in the name of Jesus in this life, as sinner-saints, is always to pray in repentance. Prayer in the name of Jesus is always humble, never proud, never self-promoting.  Rather we always pray as the tax collector prayed: Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.  

     And Lord has mercy, for you! The Lord always has mercy upon us, for the love of Jesus. As sinners, we must always pray in repentance.  As saints, as believers in Jesus, we can pray in repentance, regretting our sins, and yet at the same time praying with confidence and joy, because we know God has taken away all our sins, and given us new life, in Jesus.

We recite together from the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Prayer, Sixth and Seventh Petitions, with explanations.   (LSB 324-5).

The Sixth Petition

“And lead us not into temptation.”

What does this mean?

   God tempts no one.  We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great and shame and vice.  Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.

The Seventh Petition

“But deliver us from evil.”

What does this mean?

   We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

      This life is full of temptations. Satan wants us to submit to evil.  Our wicked foe hopes we will do evil as if we were never baptized and rescued by Christ. The Lord allows us go through temptations.  God’s hope and expectation is that we learn to pass through temptations like minor trials, because He is with us, and always offers us the way of escape.  Our way of escape is Christ himself, our Defender.   Our daily struggle against the devil, the world and our own lingering sinfulness, is way more than we can handle. This is why Jesus teaches us to pray for the help of his Father, that He not let us fall.  This also is to pray in the name of Jesus.

     And grace upon grace, what kindness without end!  Although we should not give into temptation, although we deserve rejection for our daily failures, the Lord is not like that. Even knowing our weakness and the fact that we were not going to stop sinning, He still became our Savior.  And so Jesus teaches us to pray: "But deliver us from evil."   From the beginning, and every day until we reach the finish line, our salvation is a divine work, a rescue that God himself carries out.  It must be, or we will never arrive.  It’s not that we are inert, like a stone or a fallen tree trunk that does not contribute anything to its movement.  No, in Christ we live, and actively participate in the Christian life, fighting every day. But salvation does not come from our struggle to resist sin.  And praise God for this, because our struggle to resist sin and evil is not always so impressive. Our salvation does not come from our struggle to resist sin; rather our struggle is a sign of our saving faith. 

   Despite our weakness, our victory over evil is already finished, in and through Christ. His life of love and good works is our merit before the Father. His sacrifice and suffering in our place is our Absolution, our Justification before the Father.  In Him, through Him, and with Him, the devil, the world and our sinful flesh are defeated, and our future is secure.  And so we are free, free to love and serve without thought to our status before God, because Christ is our status before the Father. 

   While we live here, in a world that proclaims every day a message completely opposed to this Gospel, we need to hear the promise over and over again.  And so, pray the Lord’s Prayer out loud, so it also hits your ears.  Because your petition, that we be delivered from evil, is also a little sermon every time we pray it, a proclamation of Truth.   Because our deliverance is already a fact, in the One who has taught us to pray in His name, Jesus Christ.

We recite together from the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Prayer, Conclusion, with explanation. (LSB 325)

Conclusion

“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.”

What does this mean?

   This means that I should be certain that these petitions are pleasing to our Father in heaven, and are heard by Him, for He Himself has commanded us to pray in this way, and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it shall be so.”

     To pray in the Name of Jesus is to give the "Amen" to everything He has done and said. Amen is a Hebrew word, which has come into Greek, Latin, German, English, Spanish and many other languages more or less the same as it was in Hebrew: Amen.  Depending on the context, "Amen" can mean, “Truly," or even "I believe." It is the response of faith to the Word of God, the joyful affirmation of the People of God to the Gospel. It is the privilege of the congregation to say it, as we have it set many times in the course of the liturgy.  You are also free to say it any time something true has been proclaimed.  When the pastor distributes the body and blood of Christ, the communicant can respond: Amen.  Likewise, in the farewell of the sacrament, when the Pastor says "The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in the true faith, in body and soul, go in peace," it is the privilege of the faithful to respond with a hearty "Amen."

     So too, we end the Lord's Prayer with "Amen," trusting in everything that our Lord Jesus has given us to pray, in His Name, forever and ever, Amen.

 

Convicted and Joyful - Sermon for Cantate, the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Cantate 
May 15^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
Convicted and Joyful      John 16:5-15

 Let us pray:  O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.

    Were you paying attention when we prayed this Collect of the Day earlier?  We all should be paying attention to all the words spoken and sung in the Divine Service, God’s weekly merciful service to us through His Word and Sacrament.  But of course, we’re not very good at paying attention, are we?  Today’s Collect, the summary prayer for this Sunday, is particularly venerable and valuable, and worthy of our attention.  This prayer is ancient.  It’s been around since at least the 700s, and probably was composed much earlier.  The 700s.  Fourteen centuries ago.  The Western Roman Empire had collapsed over 200 years earlier, and Europe was in chaos.  The Islamic conquest of Arabia and North Africa was being consolidated.  And faithful Christians were praying this prayer.   

    Passing the midway point of my 6^th decade, I am more and more respectful of the idea that age should be honored on principle.  However, age by itself doesn’t automatically prove quality, does it?  However, today’s Collect, this 1,400-year-old prayer, is also excellent in its clarity and promise.  Which is always helpful when the Scripture before us is mysterious and profound, as especially our Gospel from John 16 is.  We might even use this excellent Collect not only as a prayer, but also as a guide to help us grasp the gifts from above that Jesus speaks to us this morning.   

    O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Oh, to be of one will.  Our Collect begins with a promise, a statement of fact about God, that He causes the will of all believers to be one.  It is a promise, but one that might give us pause. 

    Because while we say we believe, clearly we don’t all want the same things all the time.  It’s terrific when a group of people all want the same thing, are all working toward the same goals.  A choir in perfect harmony.  A basketball team sharing the ball, making the extra pass, unselfishly working for the best shot.  A congregation responding as one to the need of a member, a neighbor, or a sister church.  Sharing one will is terrific, as long as that will is pointed in a good direction.  As long as the desired goals and outcomes are good. 

    But a shared will can also be ugly.  A mob’s will to seek their twisted brand of justice is ugly, and frightening, whether it happens outside the home of a supreme court judge, or the business of a hated minority, or even on social media.  Minds all together, but twisted to an evil will.  It’s so ugly, we might hesitate to join any group, for fear of what could happen. 

    But sharing one will is not what we usually experience.  Disagreements in groups, in our case, within a congregation, these are more common.  To a certain point, this is good and necessary: often we need to hear a variety of ideas or opinions, in order to make the best decisions and choices.  But we do pray that in the end, when a decision is taken, we can all submit our personal will to the group’s decision, for the good of all.  This is the idea behind the tradition of a rising vote at pastoral call meetings.  Once a candidate wins a majority vote, normally the Circuit Visitor or whoever is guiding the conversation will ask for a second, unanimous vote to call the chosen man.  For his sake and for the sake of the unity of the congregation, we pray that the Holy Spirit will unite us in a pastoral call, and in all our shared decisions. 

    Sadly, this doesn’t always happen.  I dare say every one of us has said and done things in a congregational conversation that damaged Christian unity.  I dare say each of us has gotten angry about a decision, and failed to support it, perhaps even talking to whoever will listen about how it has upset us.  Too often we won’t speak honestly and publicly, but rather prefer to complain and attack behind the scenes, eagerly anticipating the failure of the plan we don’t like.  It is as if St. James, 2,000 years ago, knew how we would be when he wrote:  let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.  An unbridled tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness, staining the whole body, setting on fire our life together.  We’ve all done it.  We still do it.  It’s sinful.  We need to repent. 

    We aren’t good at unity.  And not just because of selfishness, but also from fear and lack of understanding.  So, when we hear in our Collect, and from Scripture, that the Lord makes the minds of His faithful to be of one will, we might doubt our faith.   Can we really say we are believers, when we doubt, worry and squabble?  This problem makes us a lot like the 12 disciples. 

    The Gospels are full of examples where the disciples put their personal interests above the direction Jesus was pointing them.  Today we see them struggling on the night before Good Friday, struggling to understand and accept and stay unified around the plan Jesus was explaining to them.  Things were so bad, they weren’t even “the 12” anymore.  The conversation in our Gospel today comes in the hours after Judas Iscariot, the traitor, had left, to go and plan the arrest of Jesus with the priests.  The betrayer was gone; the fellowship of 12 was broken.  And the remaining 11 are hardly of one will.  How could they be when they fundamentally didn’t understand what was going on? 

    Jesus the miracle worker, the preacher of promise and hope, now was speaking of suffering, of betrayal, of death.  The 11 could not process this.  They were certainly not sure how it would be to their advantage for Jesus to go away.  How could the 11 share one will, when they were so confused and afraid of Jesus’ words?

   Still, the Father of lights is unchanging; His promise stands:  The Lord makes the minds of His faithful, His believers, His followers, to be of one will.  This is the work of the Spirit, who convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.  God’s work of conforming the wills of His believers to His one, good will, begins and ends with the convicting Spirit. 

    Convicted.  Do you like this word?  At least for me, the first associations brought by the word “convicted” are about guilt, and punishment.  Convicted, found guilty as charged.  Standing before the judge to receive punishment.  I don’t want to be a convict.  And yet Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will come, convicting, as if it is a good thing. 

    And it is, in the end, a good thing to be convicted.  To have conviction.  To be convinced of and dedicated to a truth, a cause, a purpose, to share a common will, because the goal is just, the end is good.  Like Ukrainian citizens, young and old, who have the conviction to stand and defend their country.  To be convicted, to be willing to risk life and limb for the cause of justice, this is a very good thing.  And, spoiler alert, the convicting the Holy Spirit does is even better. 

    Concerning sin, Jesus says, the Spirit will convict the world, because they do not believe in me.  Jesus is the center of everything, and His perfect gift comes through believing in Him.  So, faith, salvation, and a Godly will all must begin in the Spirit-worked conviction of sinners.  This is not pleasant to go through, not at all.  Even as believing Christians, the daily conviction of our sins, the repentance the Spirit brings us to again and again, is painful.  And we have the eternal advantage of believing that in Jesus Christ, we can always find forgiveness.  But the unbelieving world must be brought to this knowledge.  Repentance for the unbeliever is truly frightening, like leaning over the edge of a cliff above a bottomless pit, and acknowledging that I deserved to be pushed off the edge.  Unbelievers don’t yet trust that Jesus will come and catch them when they confess their sin, when they confess they deserve God’s rejection. 

    To be of one mind with God about our lost condition apart from Christ is difficult stuff.  But necessary.  And so, the Spirit convicts concerning sin.  The Spirit convicts concerning sin, so that He can then convict, convince, create understanding and trust, concerning righteousness.  Seeing Jesus die on the cross convicted the Roman centurion that this was a just man, a righteous man, the very Son of God, submitting to unjust punishment, for the good of others.  The centurion was blessed to see Jesus win the salvation of the world. 

    We cannot see Jesus, the world cannot see Jesus, because he has gone to the Father.  As Jesus said, you will see me no longer, so the Spirit will convince, create conviction in your heart, concerning righteousness.  The hope-shattering problem of sin is answered by the righteousness of Jesus, poured out for you, and the whole world.  Salvation comes in the perfect gift of Christ’s righteousness, His sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection.  The Spirit’s job is to convict concerning righteousness, that is, to create true, saving faith, by proclaiming this Word about Christ.  As James also says, “Receive the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.”

    Thomas and the rest of the Eleven Apostles believed because they saw and touched the resurrected Jesus.  But the vast majority of Christians have never seen Jesus, and will not see Him in this life.  But they, we, are convicted, and blessed, by the Holy Spirit, concerning righteousness.  The Spirit reveals by the proclaimed Word the soul saving Good News, that Jesus’ freely shares His righteousness with all who hear and believe.  Jesus’ sinless life, His completion of every commandment, His victory over death, all these are yours.  Believe it!  Rejoice and sing!  Cantate!

    Now we are on our way to one will.  What remains is the judgment of the ruler of this world.  We are still afraid to commit our will to God’s, even when we know His is better, because of what our eyes can see.  The world and its ruler, Satan, still look very powerful to us.  But their power is fake.  So, the Holy Spirit of Christ also convicts concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  The evil one who used God’s good law to accuse us sinners now has nothing to say.  The Law of God has been fulfilled, perfectly, for us, by God’s Son.  So, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Satan is convicted, and you are declared innocent, righteous, free.  The Lord God is your strength and your song, and he has become your salvation.  Alleluia! 

    This is the command and promise of God, in Christ Jesus.  And so, even though we started out wanting to avoid conviction, now our prayer springs from new hearts.  Yes Lord, by your grace, you have taught us to love what you have commanded, the defeat of sin and Satan, and the building of your Kingdom.  You have taught us to desire what you promise, which is found in the ongoing proclamation of the Holy Spirit, who fixes our hearts on the true joy which is found only in Christ Jesus. 

    It is good to share one will with brothers and sisters in Christ.  It’s not easy.  But Jesus tells us how to seek it.  When we drink deeply from the well of conviction that the Spirit provides, confessing our sins, clinging to the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, and scoffing at that toothless dragon Satan, we will find our wills transformed, softened, and centered on Jesus and His love for us, and for all people.  And this is where true joys are found, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen.