Good Fear - Sermon for the 1st Sunday after Trinity

First Sunday after Trinity, June 19^th, A+D 2022
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Good Fear - Genesis 15:1-6, 1 John 4:16-21, Luke 16:19-31

 What are we afraid of? 

 What should we be afraid of? 

 Is fear good, or evil? 

 Can we be fearless? 

 

   Fear.  Perhaps the poor man Lazarus didn’t have much fear, for he had nothing to lose.  Maybe he was too busy suffering to fear.  Certainly all the fears that typically torment us had already come to fruition in his life… poverty, sickness, being an outcast from his community…  I don’t want to suggest somehow that Lazarus had it good in his poverty and illness.  But as a penniless, friendless, disease-ridden beggar, would Lazarus have feared that things would get much worse?  The prospect of his own death likely wasn’t as intimidating for Lazarus as it is for us.  For he had been dying a little bit, every day, for a long time. 

    What did the rich man fear?  Anything?  He was wealthy enough to throw extravagant parties for his friends.  Life was good.  Certainly the rich man didn’t demonstrate a pious fear of God.  For the rich man, like Lazarus, was an Israelite, a blood descendant of Abraham.  And the LORD God had called all the children of Abraham, all the people of Israel, to cultivate a soft spot in their hearts for the poor and lowly and down and out, just as the LORD had demonstrated when He rescued them from suffering and slavery in Egypt. 

     But the rich man did not care for the poor and lowly.  Maybe he was totally heartless.  Or maybe not totally heartless, but rather afraid to get involved with the problems of others.  He certainly did not get involved personally with Lazarus, for example, maybe taking a plate of leftovers out to feed him.

    “Now understand me,” the clothed in purple might plead, “I allow this sickly beggar Lazarus to lie at my door, and pester my guests for charity, as they come in and out to my parties.”  “But get involved with Lazarus myself, to actually connect with him and help him in some concrete and intimate way?  No thank you.  Too messy.  He’s covered in sores!  That’s just too much to ask, don’t you think?” 

    Whatever his motivation, in the end the rich man was not afraid of ignoring and neglecting his brother, the poor Israelite lying at his door.  Besides, he had a party to host, and guests to impress.  

    The rich man’s wealth, and his failure to get involved in the needs and suffering of his neighbor Lazarus are clues to his eternal fate, for they reveal his true god, his idol.  Earthly wealth and prosperity are so enjoyable, right now.  Just a few months of inflation eating away at the buying power of our income has totally absorbed our attention and changed the political calculus of our nation.  Material wealth and comfort can easily get in the way of focusing on the one truly needful thing, which is a good relationship with the One who does the final accounting, the reckoning that really matters. 

    The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gives every blessing we have, and sees how each one of us uses the blessings He showers down.  The Giver of every good gift blesses us, that we might in turn be a blessing to others.  Almighty God sees everything.  And He can and does count everything, because His heart is concerned for those who suffer.  God sees.  He counts.  And there is no escaping His reckoning, His judgment. 

    Three thousand years ago, when the Word of the Lord appeared to Abram, God knew that Abram was afraid.  The LORD had given Abram great wealth, and great promises.  But he was afraid of old age, and biology, the facts on the ground, facts which spoke against the promise God had made to him.  Abram and Sarai were old.  This one-flesh couple, who would later be renamed Abraham and Sarah, had been married many decades.   But they had no children.  God had personally promised Abram that they would have children, indeed, a huge number of descendants, a great nation would come from them.  Even more, God promised that through Abram’s offspring, His seed, every family on the earth would be blessed.  Abram was torn, it seems, between these wonderful promises, which he wanted to believe, and the reality of his childless marriage to Sarai.   So the Word of the LORD comes to Abram and calms his worries: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  The Lord’s gentle words lead Abram to confess his worry:  I know what you promised, LORD.  But I still don’t have any children, and I don’t see how Sarai ever could. 

    In response, the Word of the Lord doubles down on the promise:  Fear not, “your very own son shall be your heir.” ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ And [Abram] believed the Lord, and [the Lord] counted it to him as righteousness.  Abram believed the Word of the Lord, and so God declared that he was righteous, that He and Abram were in a good relationship, simply because Abram believed the Promise.       

    Fear not, the Lord will fulfill His promises.  The Lord will provide for every need of His faithful people, and most especially, He will provide for our greatest need. 

    And what is our greatest need?  Is it to have splendid banquets filled with wonderful friends?  These are indeed blessings from God.  Heaven, after all, is described as exactly that, a never-ending wedding feast for all the friends of the Bridegroom.  But that’s heaven.  On earth, feasts, while wonderful, are not the most important thing.  The rich man focused on this very thing, enjoying splendid feasts with friends, and he ended up cast out of God’s presence forever, separated from it by a chasm, able to see into Paradise, but never to enter. 

    Is our greatest need health and a full stomach?  These are indeed important blessings, which the Lord loves to provide.  But they are not our greatest need.  Lazarus lacked both, and yet he is forever blessed, receiving every good thing at Abraham’s side in heaven. 

    No, our greatest need is to hear the message of Moses and the Prophets, the message the rich man did not hear and believe.  It is the two-part message that is the over-arching theme of all of Scripture, the message of sin and grace.  Moses and the Prophets tell of our rebellion against God, and His unexpected mission to rescue us rebels, despite who we are and what we do.  Moses and the Prophets speak the message of Law and Gospel.  They proclaim the reality of our sinfulness, and the just consequences sin brings to us.  And they also announce the lovely message of God’s mercy and grace, given to us in the Seed of Abraham, that One special descendant, who would be a blessing to all families on the earth. 

    The Law of God rightly fills us with fear, not because it is bad or unfair, but rather because we are broken and rebellious.  The Gospel, the Good News, the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, drives out fear.  Because the Gospel is the declaration that the sinless Son of God is our righteousness.  He is the Promise that Abram believed, and consequently was counted righteous before God.  Jesus Christ is your Promise, and your Righteousness, just the same.  By faith in Jesus, you, like Lazarus, are truly a child of Abraham, a member of his family, which is the family of God.        

    So, what are we afraid of?  There are good reasons to fear.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, after all.  Righteous fear confesses our greatest need is a solution to our sins and our sinfulness.  Righteous fear knows that knows there is no reason to hope in ourselves.  Righteous fear cries out to God for mercy. 

    And to all who call on the Lord for mercy, the Word of the Lord made flesh, Jesus Christ says: Fear not.  I am your shield.  I am your great reward, freely given, because my Father is merciful.  Fear not, I am your blessing.  In Me your sins are atoned for and your seat at the heavenly banquet is guaranteed.  I have loved you unto death, and to new life.  I have loved you this way, so that my love could drive out your fear.         

    The fear of the Lord that leads to repentance and faith is good, good for sinners.  Even though we have been saved, been declared saints by God, we are also still sinners.  So, this Godly fear continues to be necessary in our lives, until we reach the Kingdom of Heaven. 

    But there are other fears that the Lord would like to help you leave behind.  Are you afraid your sin is too much to be forgiven?  You are a big sinner, no doubt.  So am I.  But our sin cannot be bigger than God’s Son our Savior.  His blood covers all sin.  So confess your sins, and hear His Word of forgiveness, free and full.  For Jesus’ sake, God reckons you righteous. 

    Are you afraid of suffering?  Because we are not yet perfected, we all do.  But Jesus Christ has passed through all suffering, removing its power over you.  You will suffer in this life.  But Jesus is with you in the middle of your suffering.  Fear not, He will not leave you.  He will bring you through suffering to joy. 

    Are you afraid of loving your neighbor, afraid of getting involved in their problems?  Because we are not yet perfected in love, we all fear the messiness of caring for others.  But the Word of the Lord tells us the way to overcome this fear.  We love because He first loved us.  So, to better love your neighbor, get more of Jesus’ love for you.  Come and get His forgiving love every opportunity you have, and He will turn you into the neighbor-loving child of God that He desires. 

    Are you afraid your friends and family will think you are weird if you truly strive to make the Word of the Lord the center and focus of your life?  You’re right, some of them undoubtedly will.  But don’t fear being weird for Jesus, the Word made flesh.  True wisdom looks like foolishness to the world.  Fear not.  Dare to be a fool for Jesus.  And maybe, through weirdo you, your friends and family will hear the Word, and be drawn to salvation by the love of God revealed and delivered in Christ Jesus. 

    Perfect love drives out fear.  We have not and will not achieve this perfection in this life.  But we can see perfect love in Jesus, who died and rose again to reveal God’s perfect love for us.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, and rest in the promise that God counts His perfection as your perfection.  By His Spirit He will drive out your fear and forgive your failures, every day, until that Day when He calls you to Himself, to take your place alongside Lazarus and Abraham and all the faithful, Amen. 

The Feast of the Holy Trinity
June 12, A + D 2022
Look to Jesus, Lifted Up for You  (John 3:1-17)

Again with the serpent raised on a pole. 

   In the year 2000, we moved from Pennsylvania to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I began studying at Concordia Theological Seminary. My first class, as it is for most, was Biblical Greek, a six-week make-or-break intensive course, the traditional summer baptism by fire at Fort Wayne.  A bunch of men, ages ranging from mid-twenties to middle age, thrown into studying a strange language with complicated grammar, and even a different alphabet.  It’s quite the challenge. 

    To relieve stress from class, many of us used to go to the seminary gym to play basketball. One afternoon, I stood looking at the logo of the seminary, which was painted in the center circle of the court. It consists of a biblical verse, in Greek of course, a globe, a cross with three circles, and next to it, a serpent. I understood everything, except the meaning of the snake.  I asked a second-year seminarian who passed by about the snake.  He looked at me in surprise and said: “It’s a reference to Jesus. You know, like He says in John 3.” “Oh yeah, of course,” I nodded.  But I did not know.     

    In 2000, I was 34 years old, 34 years mostly quite active in the Lutheran Church. But I had no memory of this biblical account.  I went to find the reference, and, as we heard 5 minutes ago in today's Gospel, it’s true. Jesus makes a comparison between the time when Moses raised a bronze serpent on a pole and his own death on the Cross of Calvary. How strange that I had no understanding nor memory of this serpent reference, especially considering that it is mentioned only two verses before the most famous verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16:  For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  God's act of love, the giving of his Son, was not giving Him to us as a friend or teacher or counselor, although Jesus is all those things.  No, in John 3:16 Jesus is talking about how the Father gives the Son into the suffering of the Cross. This is Love. This is Salvation. Like the snake on a pole.  How strange! But maybe not so strange that I had forgotten, or perhaps ignored this story.  Maybe I found it uncomfortable.   

    The mystery of the Holy Trinity, which we celebrate today, is beyond our understanding. One of the central points of the entire teaching of Moses was that there is only one God:   Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one, (Deuteronomy 6:4).  At the same time, the Bible teaches that God is also a plurality.  The One true God is more than one in some real and important way.  The first hint comes right away in the first chapter of Genesis.  And God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.  Genesis 1:26 is the first of many Old Testament verses that suggests this plurality, which Jesus fully revealed in Matthew 28:  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  

    With human logic we cannot understand how the one true God can also be three distinct persons. This can be disturbing to our small minds. But perhaps not as off-putting as the story of the fiery serpent, made of bronze, put up on a pole by Moses, to rescue those rebellious Israelites who had just been bitten by poisonous snakes.  These punishing serpents were sent by God when Israel complained against the Lord and his representative, Moses.  A horrible death penalty for rebellious sinners, very harsh.  Then it is undone simply by a glance at a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole. 

    Do you remember the story? We heard it just three Sundays ago, the Old Testament reading for the Sixth of Easter, from Numbers 21: 4-9.  Let's hear it again: The Israelites were continuing on their pilgrimage in the desert, and the people became impatient because of the journey. ⁵ So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.” They were referring to the manna, the daily bread the Lord gave to them with the morning dew, bread from heaven, sent to sustain them in the barren desert.  The LORD was not pleased with them.   

 ⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. ⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

    What a harsh and strange episode.  Which is harder for you, to contemplate that the one true God is, at the same time, three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or to consider that God did this thing with the serpents?  And then He inspired Moses to record this strange story, a story about the sin of the Israelites and the wrath of God, wrath which was reversed by a simple glance at a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole. 

    However this fiery serpent story strikes you, Jesus used it.  Jesus himself connects the bronze serpent
with His central work, His being raised up upon a Roman cross to fulfill the justice and love of God, and thus save the world.  If you are a mathematician or you really like logic, perhaps the fact that God is one being, and at the same time is three persons, bothers you more. Or perhaps snakes are scary and disgusting to you.  Either way, the good news today is that the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the story of the fiery serpent on a pole are inseparably intertwined. 

    Ok, maybe I should say this is the Law and the Gospel of today.  That is, the complete proclamation of the will of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this Law and Gospel is what cannot be separated from the snake on a pole, which points us to the Cross and the substitutionary death that Jesus Christ suffered. 

    Although it is difficult to contemplate, Jesus Christ is our serpent.  He isn’t made of fiery bronze, but He did cloth and hide the fiery reality of God’s glory within the human flesh He took from His mother, the Virgin Mary.  In the person of Jesus, the Holy, Holy, Holy God became a human being, to take our place under the wrath of the Holy, Holy, Holy God.  He was raised on a pole with a crossbar, lifted up to suffer the wrath of God in our place. Look at Him!  The message of the Holy Spirit, today and every day, is that in the once for all raised serpent named Jesus, God has given us salvation. As Saint Paul explains:   God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.   (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

    Through your baptism, the Spirit has united you with Christ, joined you to his Cross, and to his Resurrection. Look at your Snake, who has saved you. For you, Jesus swallowed the venom, down to the last drop in the chalice, so that now, the chalice of the Lord carries the medicine of immortality, the New Testament in the blood of Christ that forgives all our sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.  

    So look to Jesus, lifted up.  Do you think of sin but lightly?  Have you been taken in by the lie that all these laws in God’s Word are really no big deal?  Look to Jesus, lifted up, suffering in your place, and see how seriously God hates sin.  Have you fallen into habitual sins, so much that you can’t imagine life without them?  Do you gossip and run people down all the time?  Do you mock others, other souls for whom God died?  Are you engaging in sex outside of marriage, whether in the flesh or on a screen?  Do you steal from work, or cheat on your taxes?  Woe to me, and woe to you:  for sinners cannot stand in the presence of God, and live. 

    Jesus was lifted up to set you free from sin.  He does not set you free to sin.  Jesus lifted up calls you to leave sin behind and walk with Him in holiness.  Look to Jesus, lifted up for you, and repent.  Repent of your sins and your sinfulness; ask the Holy Spirit to help you leave them behind.  Repent, look to Jesus, and be healed.  Forgiven.  Right now, for real.  In Christ, you are forgiven and set free from bondage to sin.  Stop clinging to your sins and look to Jesus, lifted up, to take away your sins, and set you free.

 

   Are you lonely, isolated, even in the middle of a room full of people?  Even in the midst of your family?  Satan and the world and especially today the digital unreality that so entices us, these all seek to isolate and separate you, from other people, and from God.  Isolation leads to death.  Loneliness is crushing, but you are not alone.  Look to Jesus, lifted up, for you.  God’s Son, who from eternity enjoyed perfect love and community with the Father and the Holy Spirit, became utterly alone, dying on the Cross, rejected and cut off from humanity.  Even more, for an intensely dark time, Jesus was separated from the love of God.  Jesus was completely alone, abandoned by His own Father, so you don’t ever have to be. 

    Jesus loves you.  He has given you His Spirit, and He has made you a member of His family, the Church of the formerly lonely, this messy bunch of sinners, who are just as afraid of loneliness as you are, but who, like you, have been found by Jesus.  Look around at your forgiven family, and look together, to Jesus, lifted up, for you. 

    Are you tortured by guilt?  Or maybe by another person, who is supposed to love you?  Do you feel you are you losing at life?  Look to Jesus, lifted up, for you, and know that His loss is your victory.  His death brings you life.  His suffering wins you glory. 

    Look to Jesus, who by the Holy Spirit has given you the new birth of Water and the Word, washing you clean and claiming you for His Father at the Baptismal Font.  Look to Jesus, ascended on high to the Father’s right hand, and yet also present, invisibly but truly, in the bread and wine, present to forgive, restore, and empower you to live another day, another week, as His beloved disciple, His little brother or sister, a Christian, bound for eternal joy and glory, come what may. 

    Look to Jesus, lifted up for you, and know that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit has loved you, in this way.  God has loved you, and does love you, and will love you, in Christ Jesus, for eternity.  To Him be the glory, dominion and praise, today, and forever and ever, Amen.         

The Lutheran Pentecostal Church - Sermon for the Day of Pentecost, June 5, A+D 2022

Festival of Pentecost, June 5th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Pentecostal Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
John 14:15 - 31 and Acts 2:1-42

 Text Expositions:  Each section of our readings from John and Acts are briefly explained.  Then the Sermon follows.  

John 14:15 – 24

    “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What does Jesus mean?  Moses’ Law? The Ten Commandments?  Well, yes, but much more.  Every time John’s Gospel uses commandment or command, there is a close connection to Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection, which is the love of God poured out for us.  Jesus had said the commandment He received from His Father was to lay down His life, and take it up again, to die and rise again.   Preparing the Eleven for the Suffering and Cross they would witness the next day, Jesus tells them to hang on, to trust that this Cross, commanded by the Father, is good, and that no matter what, Jesus will come back. 

    Hang on to the Cross.  This is great advice, especially as Jesus goes on to talk about His Father and the Holy Spirit.  One goes there and the other comes here, one true God doing so many things, so hard to understand.  Hold on to the Cross, for there you see God clearly, fulfilling all His commandments, especially the Gospel commandment, eternal life. 

John 14:25 – 31

    More Trinitarian circles – I go to the Father, the Spirit comes to you, and yet I will come to you.  It’s hard to understand.  But don’t give up on following the Words of Jesus.  Because all this mysterious teaching flows through and keeps us connected to His Cross.  The devil rules this world and makes threats at you.  But you are baptized into the Cross.  God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are on your side.  And so Jesus rises to go meet His persecutors, to be arrested, in order to save His enemies, including us. 

Acts 2:1 – 13

    When the day of Pentecost arrived, they, that is the disciples of Jesus, the 120 men and women of the infant Church, were all together in one place.  Pentecost was a wheat harvest festival, one of the three pilgrimage festivals of Israel.  This is why there were Jews in Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world; they were in town for the Pentecost wheat harvest festival. 

    The 120 disciples were all together in a house near the Temple; God had brought all the pieces together to kick start His Church.  On Pentecost the Lord makes several plays on words.  “Spirit” also means breath, and wind, and so the Holy Spirit announces His arrival with a mighty wind.  “Tongue” means both the language we speak, and also the muscle in our mouth that, along with our breath and voice box, we use for speaking.  God is a consuming fire.  So the Holy Spirit comes down and settles on the disciples in flames shaped like tongues, and gives them the miraculous ability to proclaim God’s mighty deeds in languages which, the moment before, they had not known.  

   A congregation comes running to see what’s going on, and are amazed to hear a bunch of rednecks speaking all of their native languages.  They ask the Lutheran question:  What does this mean? Some make a snide joke: “They are filled with new wine.”  But no matter, God has gathered the exact people He intended, so that Peter can preach to them.   

Acts 2:14 – 21

   What does Peter preach?  A Health and Wealth Gospel?  Seven steps to a better you?  Old fashioned fire and brimstone: you better shape up or else?  A mystic message, that if you pray hard enough, you too can experience these wondrous signs?  No, Peter doesn’t preach any of these.  The Holy Spirit inspires Peter to proclaim the Good News, about God’s Mission to pour out His Spirit on humanity, so that all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved. 

Acts 2:22 – 36

     First Peter preached from the Old Testament Prophets to explain the wonders the people had just heard.  Now he connects the Old Testament to Jesus, crucified and resurrected.  God’s Truth revealed and fulfilled in the Word made flesh.  The Miracle Worker sent from God, known to all, who was crucified and killed, according to God’s plan.  God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, had been working toward this goal, and now it was complete.  Let all the house of Israel, indeed, let the whole world therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.”

Acts 22:37-42

    There can be no sharper Law – you rejected and killed the Holy Son of God.  The gathered crowd, some of whom had mocked the miracle of languages, now is cut to the heart.  Woe is me; I am lost.  I am guilty of the blood of Jesus.  “Brothers,” they cry out to the Twelve in desperation, “what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

     And so the Church of Christ was off and running.  Three thousand baptized that first Pentecost, billions more since then.  The faithful have always followed the same pattern of that day, focusing on the four pillars of the life of the Church, the Apostles’ teaching, recorded for us in the New Testament, the fellowship, that is the life of mutual care and love within the Body of Believers, the Breaking of Bread, the earliest shorthand term to refer to the Lord’s Supper, and the prayers, the communal prayers of the congregation, which enliven and instruct the individual prayers of the Christian.  So they did, and so we also do, by the guiding of the Holy Spirit, until Jesus returns to take us home.   

 Sermon

 Welcome to Our Savior’s/Redeemer Pentecostal Church!  The Spirit has gathered us from the four winds, to hear Him continue the miracle of tongues in our midst, and to receive His charismatic gifts. 

 What?  You gotta problem with that?  Did you not leave the house this morning expecting to come to a Pentecostal church?  Does talking about miracles of tongues make you nervous?  Do you prefer your preachers to lack charisma? 

    Word meaning always get corrupted, especially good Biblical Words that Satan wants to confuse and rob from us.  This certainly applies to the events of the first Christian Pentecost, where the disciples received the gift of speaking in other languages.  “Pentecostal” now is usually understood quite differently.  And yet I assure you that rightly understood, we are, as a Lutheran congregation, truly the Pentecostal church.  Truly we benefit from the gift of tongues.  Indeed, we have all the charismatic gifts, Spirit-delivered to us week after week, that they might renew us, and also be manifest in us in our daily lives.

    To say “charismatic gifts” is a bit redundant.  Charismatic means gifted, because charisma means, biblically, a gift.  To say “charismatic gifts” is to repeat oneself: “gifted gifts.”  Regardless, we are certainly a charismatic church, because we come together to receive God’s gifts.  Gathering to receive good gifts from God defines who we are as Church. 

    Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives miraculous gifts, amazing occurrences that attract attention, like the rushing wind, the tongues of fire and the gift of languages, which enabled the disciples to proclaim the mighty works of God in many languages, all at once.  Like Jesus with His miracles, the Spirit used these amazing signs to get people to listen to the saving Word of the crucified and resurrected Christ.  The Spirit always gives gifts to connect us to Jesus.  Like forgiveness, adoption by God, peace, joy, and zeal.  Yes indeed, we are a charismatic church, for we daily and richly receive tremendous gifts from God the Holy Spirit. 

   And we benefit from tongues, or languages.  The gift of languages serves the purpose of expanding the Mission of God to reach more and more people groups, in their own language.  God wants all people to hear the Good News of Jesus in the language of their heart.  What began as an instantaneous miracle at Pentecost has continued through less spectacular means, as the Church has translated the Bible and gone out doing missions in an ever-increasing list of different languages.  English didn’t exist in 30 A.+D., but no worries, the Lord has been working through the centuries to ensure that you can gather to hear of Him in your own language.   

    Our Lutheran shorthand for what God does when we gather is “Word and Sacrament Ministry.”    Which is the same thing as a “Biblical Pentecostal Ministry.”  For the Holy Spirit, after attracting a crowd with the wind, flames and languages, quickly moved on to the main events:  St. Peter was moved to preach the cross and resurrection of Jesus for salvation, cutting sinners to the heart, and making them cry out:  Brothers, what must we do?  Cross centered preaching, forgiveness, Baptism: what began on Pentecost continues today.  The Pentecost Church was and is the Church of proclaiming Law and Gospel, human sin and God’s grace, the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.  Preaching Jesus leads to Baptism, to the public declaration by God that this one, this sinner, is mine, forgiven, restored, gifted by me, for eternal life in my kingdom. 

      The true Pentecost Church is centered around the Apostles’ teaching, the proclamation by the church founders chosen by Christ, who constantly preached from the Old Testament to prove the Good News of Jesus and His forgiveness.  The Pentecost Church walks in fellowship, caring for one another, correcting one another, loving one another.  The Pentecost Church breaks bread together, not just at potluck meals, but also and most importantly the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, bodily present, another miracle, in the Supper of Our Lord.  The Pentecost Church prays, first together, and also individually, always calling on the Name of the Lord, for our protection in the faith, for the expansion of Christ’s Church, for the relief of sickness and suffering, and for the return of Jesus. 

    This is who we are.  This is who you are.  Not because of anything you have done, not because of some impressive gift you bring to the table.  No, we are the Pentecost Church because Jesus has come to us, and is still coming to us, with Gospel gifts.  Jesus is always sending His Spirit to give us breath and life, today, and forever and ever, Amen.