LSB Pentecost B Sermon -- John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

May 27, 2012 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA

[Jesus said:] “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me…. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.”

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest,

And make our hearts Your place of rest;

Come with Your grace and heavenly aid,

And fill the hearts which You have made.

For centuries, the Church has prayed this petition on the Day of Pentecost. The prayer requests the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Church offers it, trusting a promise that Jesus has made to His followers. That promise is what you heard this morning: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.”

Jesus’ made His promise to send a Helper, the Spirit of truth, as He completed His work of salvation for the world. The Father had sent His Son with a task: redeem the world that languishes in sin. That is what Jesus had spent His life doing, living in full accordance with the Father’s will. His atoning work culminated in sacrificial death, so that those who were cursed to death because of sin could live. Jesus’ rising from death and ascending to His Father brings His task to completion. That is what Jesus discloses to His disciples in the Upper Room on the night of His betrayal, the night when His salvific acts reach their fulfillment.

To You, the Counselor, we cry,

To You, the gift of God Most High;

The fount of life, the fire of love,

The soul’s anointing from above.

Jesus says: “But now I am going to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.” Jesus leaves His disciples. That fact troubles their hearts. It saddens them. But Jesus’ promise restores their joy. It tells them that they will be assisted from heaven above. A Helper will be given to them.

But no ordinary Helper will be given! No, they will receive “the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father”. The Spirit of truth comes with a particular purpose, just as Jesus had come with a particular task to fulfill. Jesus speaks of that task: “He will bear witness about Me.” The Helper will give assistance to the disciples, so that they can fulfill the charge that Jesus had given them: “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” The disciples’ purpose does not come to an end with Jesus’ departure. Their reason for existence does not crumble down and disappear. Just the opposite: with Jesus’ departure, the disciples go out to fulfill the office that He has entrusted to them; the Helper from above who is at their side will lead them to do so.

In You, with graces sevenfold,

We God’s almighty hand behold

While you with tongues of fire proclaim

To all the world His holy name.

The Helper’s arrival and the beginning of the disciples’ executing their charge is what you heard of this morning in the narrative from the Acts of the Apostles: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The Helper arrived with a divine flourish! He brought the assistance needed for the disciples to do what their Lord had commanded. The testimony of the crowds that experienced this event reveals that: “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” The disciples bore witness of what Jesus had done to bring salvation to the world, so that the prophecy is fulfilled: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The carrying of that witness into the world brings knowledge of what Jesus has done. It brings wisdom and knowledge, something that the world does not have in itself. This is what Jesus declares: “And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.” The Spirit’s witness about Jesus brings this knowledge to light. The world hears about sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is the witness that the disciples bear: the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name; the teaching of the way of life that Jesus has established; the proclamation of Jesus’ victory over Satan. Those who receive that Spirit-led witness about Jesus are led from death to life.

Your light to every thought impart,

And shed Your love in every heart;

The weakness of our mortal state

With deathless might invigorate.

Taking people from death to life: that is the Spirit’s task. He is “the Lord and Giver of life” as the Church confesses in the Nicene Creed. Ezekiel’s vision of dry dead bones depicts the Spirit’s work. The world is like those dry dead bones that Ezekiel saw. There are sinews, flesh, and skin on them. But what the prophet says is also true: “But there was no breath in them.” The world is dead in sin. People’s acts of transgression bring down the curse of death upon them. But Jesus has brought life into the world, the life that God bestows. He has died and has risen. It has happened, so that people can live. Life is given when the Spirit brings the witness of Jesus’ work for salvation to the world. Life is given when the Breath of God fills people.

The divine command is issued: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” And what happens? Invigoration. Resuscitation. New birth. You are no longer like the dead bones that Ezekiel saw. No, you are like the newly-revived bones: “the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” Through the Spirit’s witness about Jesus, life comes to you. The Spirit bears that witness through the Gospel, the statements which testify of the mighty works of God that Jesus performed for you. You have heard and received them. The Spirit has borne that witness through the Gospel words preached by disciples, through the Gospel words accompanying the waters of Holy Baptism, through the Gospel words spoken in the Lord’s Supper. He has fulfilled Jesus’ promise: “He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.” He takes the life that Jesus has earned and gives it to you.

Teach us to know the Father, Son,

And You, from both, as Three in One

That we Your name may ever bless

And in our lives the truth confess.

The change from death to life that the Holy Spirit has worked in you is a matter of the soul. Now your soul is revived. Now you know the identity of Jesus. Now your hearts and minds know what He has done to bring salvation to you. But it is a matter of the body, too. You are led to confess the truth about Jesus in everyday living. It happens as your actions reveal that Jesus establishes a way of life for His disciples. What you do in obedience to Jesus’ commands shows that He is your Lord. They demonstrate your identity as His followers.

This is why our confirmand will be asked the same question that countless others have been asked before: “Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?” The truth confessed about God is not just found in the heart or soul, but is shown in word and deed. Word and deed are areas where the Spirit has influence and guidance among the Lord’s faithful. So the Psalmist says: “O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me.”

Drive far away our wily foe,

And Your abiding peace bestow;

With You as our protecting guide,

No evil can with us abide.

Because the Spirit has given you life, such statements about the divine presence are not constricting or unwanted. No, they are what Jesus’ disciples pray for. It is what you ask for. Your desire is to walk the way of life that Jesus has given you. You want to be faithful. You want to be Jesus’ followers. You seek to live righteously as your Lord has done. You do so in anticipation of what awaits, what has been achieved and won for you by Jesus’ actions. Your hope is in the salvation that Jesus has earned. It is the hope that the Spirit has created in you. Living in that hope, you act as His disciples, holding on to the witness of what Jesus has done and keeping His instructions and commands.

Without the Spirit’s work, none of this would be so. You would be dead and helpless. But you have been revived. You have the Breath of God in you. The witness of Jesus has been borne by the Spirit and brought to you. The Spirit has disclosed the mighty works of God to you. He has given eternal life to you. He has made you members of the great company of believers. You have been set apart, made holy. Now you can utter the truth about Jesus with your mouths and in your living. So you confess and ask for on this Day of Pentecost, as the Lord’s faithful have done before you.

Praise we the Father and the Son

And Holy Spirit, with them One,

And may the Son on us bestow

The gifts that from the Spirit flow!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

LSB Easter 7B Sermon -- John 17:11b-19

May 20, 2012 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA

“I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.”

On this Seventh and final Sunday of Easter in 2012, you hear Jesus praying for His disciples. You have heard a portion of Jesus’ prayer offered to His Father on Holy Thursday, the night on which He was betrayed by Judas. Jesus prays for His disciples as He reaches the culmination of His redemptive work on earth, including His death, resurrection, and ascension.

In His prayer, Jesus refers to what He had done among His disciples during His time on earth. Jesus says to His Father: “While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Jesus summarizes His work. With authority Jesus had kept His disciples in the Father’s name. He had acted like a shepherd, guarding or keeping watch over those put under His charge. And like a good shepherd, Jesus had not lost any of the sheep, any of the disciples except for Judas, the one whose treachery the Scriptures had foretold.

From Galilee to Judea, Jesus had led the Twelve. He had taught them the Father’s will. He had given correction and rebuke when necessary. He had commended and praised right belief and action. Jesus had given the disciples a new identity by calling them to follow Him and to know what He reveals. He mentions this in the prayer: “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” The eleven faithful disciples had a new origin: they were born of God, born from above, born anew. Now they stood against the world and those who were not of God.

But something was about to change in this relationship that Jesus had with His disciples. It is the reason for Jesus’ prayer. After speaking of what He had done while with His disciples, Jesus says: “But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Jesus is leaving His disciples. That would transpire in the next weeks, beginning with His betrayal. Jesus is meant to suffer, die, be buried, rise again, and to ascend to the Father. It is what the Church has celebrated during these past weeks of the Easter Season.

So what would this change bring to Jesus’ disciples? They would not have Jesus there keeping them in the Father’s name. They would not have Jesus there guarding them. Their shepherd was leaving them. But He was not abandoning them. That is seen in the words that Jesus speaks. Though He leaves, Jesus does not let His disciples fend for themselves. No, He establishes a continued protection for His disciples, turning them over to the care that His Father provides: “I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Now Jesus’ disciples were under the protection of their Father in heaven, the One who had given them new birth and received them as sons of His divine household.

What Jesus does for the Eleven has also happened for you. It has happened in the way established by the Father and enacted by the Son. You have not had Jesus with you as the first disciples did. But what Jesus says about the Eleven has been done for you: “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” The word of the Father has been given to you. You have received the testimony of God about His Son. That is what Jesus’ disciples have deposited into your possession.

You heard Jesus pray for His disciples, but you also heard of what they were charged to do. Jesus’ prayer said: “As You have sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” Jesus sent His disciples into the world with a purpose: to bear witness to what they had seen Him do and to hand down the word that He had given them. When Judas, the son of destruction, was replaced, Peter makes note of that task: “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until all the day when He was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection.” That was the disciples’ mission, the charge given them by Jesus.

Sanctified in truth and bearing the word of the Father, the disciples did so. They proclaimed the testimony that the Father gave about His Son. The divine testimony about Jesus’ identity and the work that He did was the content of their preaching. In that content there is truth and life—the truth and life that you have received. John makes that clear: “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because He has not believed the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” That is what the disciples carried into the world despite its hatred of them. That is what the disciples brought to others, so that they would receive the word of the Father and be sanctified in its truth.

So that word has come to you. What it did for the Eleven, it has done for you. The word of the Father has been given to you. You have received the testimony of God about His Son. And what Jesus says about such people stands true for you: “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” You have a new origin. You have a new identity. You no longer belong to the world and its antipathy toward God. That’s what you once were. Dead in sin. Blind to righteousness. Ignorant of God. But now you belong to God. Now you are of God. Now you share the life of God.

What happened to you? You received the word of the Father: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life….” You possess the life that Jesus earned by His death and resurrection for your sake. But that does bring opposition. What Jesus says is true: “the world has hated them because they are not of the world.” Yet, you are not left to fend for yourselves. No, Jesus’ prayer to the Father is offered on your behalf: “I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.” And how is that keeping done? By what Jesus petitions His Father to do for you: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

The Father’s testimony about His Son sets you apart for life. Its truth brings you holiness. It establishes a right relationship between Him and you. Holding fast to that word, you will possess the life that it brings: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life….” It is how you fulfill the description given of those who are blessed, as the Psalm declared: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on His Law he meditates day and night.” Receiving that testimony and word, you live under the Father’s protection.

What Jesus prays for you actually is done. And not only is prayer offered on your behalf, you have the ability to ask for yourself: “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.” The Father’s word made known to you discloses His will. So you can ask Him according to His will. Ask for guidance. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for protection. Ask for the trust and confidence in His promises. It will be given to you. For you have the Son and have life. You have the testimony about the Son and His work for you. And you have the word of truth that sanctifies and sets you apart.

The Father’s will is for you to be united with Him and His Son. The Son’s will is for you to be united with Him and each other. So you are prayed for: “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” It will be so, as you abide in His word and believe in the testimony about Jesus. You are not left alone, but have God on your side. The world may hate you, but the Father has sealed you in His love. The evil one tries to deceive, but you are preserved from him. So it is as the Father keeps you in the name that He bestows to you. Sharing the same faith as the apostles, receiving the same word of truth from the Father as the apostles, believing the same testimony of Jesus proclaimed by the apostles, you will be one, sanctified for eternal life, kept in the faith, and never lost.

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

LSB Easter 6B Sermon -- John 15:9-17

May 13, 2012 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Jesus’ words tell about the relationship that He has with His Father. Hearing them at the tail end of the Easter Season, after being exposed to the life of Jesus from birth to death to resurrection, you grasp what He is saying. It is much the same way that the Eleven who heard these words of Jesus on Holy Thursday began to understand what He meant.

Jesus says that the Father has loved Him and that He has kept the Father’s commandments and abode in the Father’s love. Signs of that had been given throughout Jesus’ ministry. They came when the Father made declarations about Jesus: “This is My Beloved Son, with Him I am well-pleased.” Jesus declares: “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus speaks about His relationship with the Father regarding His actions: “If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father.”

Speaking this way, Jesus makes known the bond that He has with the Father. But now, Jesus says that bond is reflected in another way: “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My commandments and abide in His love.” The bond that Jesus has with His Father is reflected in the bond that He has created with His disciples. Just as the Father loved Jesus, so Jesus loves His disciples. Just as Jesus abode in the Father’s love and kept His commandments, so Jesus’ disciples will abide in His love and keep His commandments. The relationship that Jesus has with His Father now stands as the pattern for the relationship that He has with His disciples.

But how is this so? Can people establish such a bond? Is it possible for humans to create a relationship that is like the eternal unity and love that is found between the Father and the Son? Such questions must be answered negatively. No, that is not feasible. No, they cannot initiate such a relationship much less maintain it. But note that Jesus does not tell His disciples that they must start such a relationship. He does not instruct them to create such a bond. No, He says something much different.

After Jesus describes the relationship that He has with the Father, He says: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” Jesus does not describe the relationship that He has with the Father so that His disciples would hear about it and lament that they could never have such a bond. No, Jesus tells this to bring joy to them. Then Jesus follows up that statement about joy with a declaration about what He has done for His disciples: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down His life for His friends.” Jesus speaks of the love that He has loved the disciples with. It is the greatest of all loves: He dies for them so that they may live. That is what His entire time on earth had led up to. Just hours before He performs this, Jesus reveals to His disciples what He does for them, an act that cannot be surpassed.

This act done by God’s Son establishes a bond between Him and His disciples. It is how these imperfect humans are shown a love that is deficient in no way. It is how they are brought into relationship with Him, a relationship that reflects that which exists between the Father and the Son. So Jesus says: “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” Jesus has established the relationship with His disciples. He has revealed what He has done for them. By His choice, they have been chosen and appointed to share in the new life that He gives.

But Jesus’ words do not speak about the Eleven in the Upper Room only. No, they also speak about you. The relationship that He establishes with the Eleven is established with many more. That is what Peter, one of those who heard Jesus’ words in the Upper Room, declares: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him…. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” Peter’s words reveal the expansive nature of Jesus’ work: it is meant for people in every nation; it has application to all who believe in Him.

Peter’s statement is complemented by what John, another of those who were in the Upper Room, writes: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.” Belief in Jesus’ identity, including His relationship with the Father and what He has done to redeem the world, is found in those who are born of God. Again, this speaks of divine action creating and establishing the bond that Jesus has with His disciples. By His choice, others have been chosen and appointed to share in the new life that He gives. Their selection is enacted as Jesus comes to them: “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.” Those who are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection have this relationship with Him established.

This is what has taken place for you. You have not established a bond with Jesus, but He has established one with you. He has chosen and appointed you to be His disciples. He calls you to be His friends. Like the Eleven in the Upper Room, you have all that Jesus heard from the Father made known to you. Receiving the Gospel of Jesus, you hear what He did to display the love of the Father to mankind, even the laying down of His life: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him…. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear….” This is what the apostles bore witness to, as they were chosen: “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that [Jesus] is the One appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.” In this testimony, the Spirit is present: “And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” That is how you have been born of God and led to belief in Jesus.

By Jesus’ choice, you also have been appointed “that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” Jesus gives you this instruction: “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” Jesus does so because you are now in the relationship that reflects the one He shares with the Father. You are made to be like Him: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Your will and desire is to act like Jesus does. It is what the apostle describes: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” That is the charter for the life of discipleship that has been given to you by Jesus’ choice and appointment. Because you desire the same relationship and bond with Jesus as He had with His Father, you seek out what is necessary to maintain it and you look for ways to live it out.

Such will and desire is not naturally yours, but it has been created in you. It moves you to abide in Jesus’ love. It leads you to the places where the Spirit is found, the One who delivers the merits of Jesus’ perfect to you. It brings forth the fruit of good works that you bear as you “love God and obey His commandments.” When such things are lacking, when the evidences of this relationship with Jesus are not seen or when it seems challenging to live as He did, then you are led to pray as you did this morning: “O God, the Giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them.” And you trust that such prayers are answered, for your Lord said: “whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”

Your effort does not create or maintain this bond between you and Jesus. No, that quickly becomes quite evident, even during your best attempts. Every one of your failures, every time that your actions look nothing like the love that Jesus has for you, every venture away from abiding in Jesus’ love—these all point out the deficiencies that are in you. But note well again what Jesus says concerning you: “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.” That perfect love which is deficient in no way has established the bond with you. That perfect love which is deficient in no way overcomes what is lacking.

Jesus has acted for you. By His choice, Jesus has made you His friends. By His choice, He has laid down His life for you. Jesus has made known all that His Father has said: the promise of life everlasting for you who have been born of Him, who believe that He is the Christ, who will overcome the world through faith and reliance in Him. And all these things about what He has done for your sake, Jesus has spoken to you: “that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

LSB Easter 5B Sermon -- John 15:1-8

May 6, 2012 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Jesus uses another well-known image to describe Himself, to testify about His identity: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” It is an image familiar to His audience—the eleven disciples in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday. How many vineyards had they walked by in their three years together as Master and Disciples? How much of the vine’s fruit had they consumed together, including the Passover cups they had just drunk?

But Jesus is also taking His audience back to the Scriptures, to a depiction that the Lord had given about His people of old. Several times, the Lord speaks about Israel as a vine, one that He Himself has planted. This was an image of the Covenant Relationship that the Lord had with His people. He was the source of their life. He had given them that special identity. But over and over, the people had grown unruly, going outside of the boundaries that the Lord had set, producing wild fruits of idolatry and other sins.

But Jesus notes that this time is different. The Lord had planted another vine, and He is it: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” He is present in the world as the Agent of the Lord’s Covenant, the one through whom that Covenant is fulfilled. Unlike Israel, Jesus does not go wild. He does not grow in unruly ways. No, He shows perfect obedience, perfect actions completely in line with His Father’s will. The fruit that Jesus bears is the salvation that He has achieved and the life that He bestows.

So Jesus says: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” But He also says more. Jesus discloses the identity of people who are connected to Him: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Jesus says that His disciples are branches. They are connected to Him. They abide or dwell in Him. And vice versa. He is connected to them. He abides or dwells in them. This is a relationship that Jesus reveals. It is a Covenant relationship. They are tied, one to the other. Without branches, Jesus cannot be the “true vine”. Without a vine, the disciples cannot be “branches”. Jesus’ identity and the disciples’ identity are interwoven.

The vine and branches image speaks about your connection to Jesus. You have been incorporated into the covenant that Jesus fulfilled. He has made you part of it, so that you can share in the salvation that He has achieved and the life that He bestows. Being a branch of the true vine is accomplished for you. That is what baptism brings to an individual. Baptism unites the person with Jesus. It is how they are made Jesus’ disciples and have a new identity granted to them. New life is made theirs, as they are incorporated into the Covenant.

But Jesus is not silent about what this new life is like. He speaks about branches who are connected to Him, the vine: “Every branch of Mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” As branches, Jesus’ disciples are to bear fruit. They are to live as He establishes. They are to act as He did. Jesus’ disciples will not do exactly like He did, but they will have the will and desire to fulfill the Father’s commands and be empowered to do so.

How is this possible for the branches? Because they are connected to the source of life. Jesus makes that clear: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” By themselves, the branches do nothing. They have the power and ability to do nothing. But connected to the vine, the branches bear fruit. Jesus’ disciples show true love for God and for one another. They make the confession about the identity of Jesus and His Father: “In this the love of God was manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” They also love one another: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

This is what Jesus—the “true vine”—produces in His disciples—“the branches”. Note that well. The fruit that the branches bear is produced by the vine. It is the outcome of being connected to Him. That is the meaning of Jesus’ words: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Without the connection to the vine, there is only death for the branches: “If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” They are cut off from the life source. They are sundered from the power and ability that Jesus bears.

So Jesus warns you who have been baptized and given the identity as His branches. If you cut yourself off from Jesus, your identity will be lost. That cutting off is seen when you take up deliberate sin, when you decide to go back to the identity that was once formerly yours before Jesus made you His disciples. The cutting off also happens when you absent yourself from the way that Jesus bestows His power and ability to His branches: through the reception of His Gospel, the words of promise, life, and forgiveness. When this occurs, the withering begins.

There is nothing in yourself that will produce the fruit that Jesus expects from His people: the true confession about Him and love for one another. The apostle wrote: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and He in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.” But that true confession can only occur when one hears the testimony about Jesus’ identity through the Gospel. The love for one another only comes as we have received and continue to receive it from God: “We love because He first loved us.”

But Jesus’ desire is not that you be cut off from Him. No, He wants you to be true branches of the true vine. It is also the desire and will of His Father. So Jesus has established ways for you to maintain the connection with Him. There are hints of that in His words: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of Mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear fruit…. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.” The pruning and the abiding in Jesus’ words are the way that the branches maintain their connection to the vine.

What is the pruning? It is the process of removing parts of your life that are not in accordance with the Father’s will. This is what happens when the Law of God is spoken and applied to you. Your faults are pointed out. Every time that you strayed from the path of righteousness is revealed. Sin and guilt are highlighted. But this is done so that you can receive correction and absolution. Does it sting? Yes, indeed it does. John’s audience did not take pleasure in hearing a statement like this: “If anyone says, ‘I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” No one enjoys being rebuked or reproved. But after it happens and your fault is forgiven, you are then sent on your way to follow more faithfully as Jesus’ disciple. So that instead of being completely mired in what does not please God, you begin to be freed of that burden.

What is the abiding in Jesus’ words? It is what takes place when you frequently hear the accounts of what Jesus has done for your salvation and His teaching about the new life that He has given to you. The Spirit of God is present in those words, just as John wrote: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God….” The Spirit of God motivates and empowers you to fulfill the divine will: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” The words of Jesus that you hear are not empty phrases or just a series of vocables. No, they are dynamic and powerful, carrying His Spirit to you, so that you can be productive branches.

As you participate in these things, then you begin to bear fruit. You begin to act in ways different from your former lives. Now you can confess that God has become man and find it a mystery that brings life to you and not just a confounding thing. Now you find that dependence on another for your existence is your desire. Now the will of God seems pleasing to you. Now you find being under a discipline or rule as beneficial and good. Now you begin to see sacrifice and giving as something worthy for you to do. Now you experience love as something you both receive and show. These are the changes that happen when you abide in Jesus’ words and are pruned by the Father. And out of them comes a behavior, actions that please God. When that happens, you are not cut off from the vine but are thriving branches.

This is what Jesus wants you to hear, so that you can prosper in the relationship that He has established with you. The Father prunes you, as His Law is spoken and corrective is given. You do abide in Jesus, as your ears hear His Gospel, the words that testify about His identity and acts. A new life is created in you, a new life established through the covenant relationship that you have with Jesus. His words are true: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” So you will bear fruit and prove to be His disciples. Do so now, for it is what the true vine and the vinedresser desire for you, the branches who have been given life and salvation.

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

2012 LWML Zone Spring Rally Homily -- Isaiah 12:1-6

My parish's LWML society hosted their Zone's Spring Rally on May 5, 2012. To begin the day, Morning Prayer was said. I gave the following homily based on the 1-Year Lectionary Propers for Cantate Sunday:

May 5, 2012 at LWML Philadelphia Zone Rally – Mechanicsburg, PA

“Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

“Sing Your Faith” is the theme given to this Spring Rally. As you have gathered for Morning Prayer to begin the day, you have been exhorted to do just that. In the traditional lessons for Cantate Sunday, which falls tomorrow morning, the prophet Isaiah and the psalmist have both directed you to sing to God.

But what shall you sing? And why should you sing? The Scripture readings this morning answer those questions. You are not told to simply make music, as enjoyable as that might be. No, you are told to sing particular lyrics, lyrics of praise directed to God Himself. So you heard in the psalm: “Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of His name; give to Him glorious praise! Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies come cringing to You. All the earth worships You and sings praises to You; they sing praises to Your name.’” And the prophet said: “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Praises are sung to God because of what He has done. “He has done gloriously.” So you are to praise Him. “Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of His praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.” So all peoples are to praise Him. The glorious actions are the acts of salvation that the Lord has performed. They are the basis for your singing today. It is no coincidence that Cantate Sunday is a Sunday of Easter: Jesus’ dying and rising to life again, so that the dead may be brought to life, is the glorious action that deserves praise. All should laud Jesus’ act; yes, even those who do not believe or benefit from it. But for you who have died and risen with Jesus, united to His death and resurrection in baptism, there is more than ample reason to have the lyrics of praise flow from your mouth, for you to join in the chorus that resounds in all the vault of heaven: “Christ has triumphed! He is living!”

You have been led by the Holy Spirit to know and trust in what Jesus has done, in the glorious acts that He has performed. What Jesus said about the Spirit’s work has taken place among you: “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.” The glorifying of Jesus that the Spirit has brought to hearing souls includes the confessing of what Jesus has done: He has died and risen to bring salvation to you. The declaration that the Spirit has brought to your hearing includes the promise of what awaits because of Jesus’ action: you will rise from death because the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered it.

So you do not keep silent. No, you speak with by the Spirit’s power what He has made known to you. You confess it with your own lips. What the Spirit has revealed to you through the Gospel has become the lyrics of your songs of praise directed to the Lord. They also form the lyrics of your songs of trust, as it was for Isaiah: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.”

But what the Spirit has made known to you has also become the lyrics of your songs of testimony, of witness, of proclamation. The prophet gives you the command: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is exalted.’” Your praises are not silent, but audible. They are not of the mind only, but of the mouth. You are not mute. You speak with the Spirit’s powerful voice that strikes and convicts the world: “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” You bear that witness with your song.

As you “sing your faith,” you are heard. Your confession is heard. Your testimony about the Lord is heard. The people of the world hear the Gospel that you proclaim about Jesus: “He has done gloriously. Great in our midst is the Holy One of Israel. Christ has triumphed! He is living!” And some who hear will be brought to faith in that Holy One of Israel, the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Then they also will be led to join in the praises that are directed to Him, that are their own lyrics of trust, their own confession and testimony.

So do as the prophet exhorts: “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Follow the command of the psalmist: “Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of His name; give to Him glorious praise! Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies come cringing to You….’” Your Lord has risen from death. Your Lord has routed your enemies. And by His grace, your Lord has called you and all the Church to “sing your faith” with all His people, even those who will believe through your lyrical proclamation of the Gospel.

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.