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.