The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

I delivered the following sermon at a Divine Service commemorating The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession at St. John Lutheran Church in Centerpoint, IA on Saturday, June 25, 2022

Matthew 10:26-33; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Nehemiah 8:1-2, 5-6, 9-12

 

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

“I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.” Notice that the psalmist doesn’t say “I might speak,” or even “I should speak,” but rather “I will speak.” You will speak too. But what will you speak? You must know that you will speak something, even if you do not speak at all. And what you speak or don’t speak, that is your confession.

The Greek word that is translated confess or acknowledge in our Gospel reading is ὁμολογέω, which literally means “same word.” The Latin confiteri, from which our English word confess is derived, also means “same word.” Thus, to acknowledge or to confess means “to say the same word.” When you confess your sins, for example, you are “saying the same word” that God has said about your thoughts, words, and deeds, that they miss the mark His holy Law demands. However, you also confess your faith, and when you do you “say the same word” that God has said in His Word, in His Son Jesus the Christ. So, whether you confess your sins, or your faith, or remain silent, you are always making a confession, you are always saying something. But are you saying the same word that God has said?

We Lutherans identify as a confessional church. We begin our confession saying, “We believe, teach, and confess,” and then we say the words concerning what we believe, teach, and confess. We say the same word that God has said in His word. We are a confessional church because we say with our mouths, and also with our deeds, what we believe in our hearts, and we teach the same to our children and to each other, and we confess the same before our neighbors, our enemies, the world, even before kings. In so doing we stand with Christians of all times and all places, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Peter, Paul, and all the Apostles; with Polycarp, Perpetua, Felicity, and Ignatius; with Jan Hus and William Tyndale; and with Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, John the Steadfast, Frederick the Wise, Martin Chemnitz, and so many others.

Truly, all men are confessional, whether they acknowledge it or not. But what do they confess? Tragically, many do not “say the same word” God has said in His Word, but they deny it, despise it, contort it, and contradict it, and they encourage others to do the same. They say that what God has declared evil, even an abomination, is good, while they call the good things of the LORD and His word evil. They make their confession in words and deeds, and even without words and deeds. Our Lord has said, “Everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.” To confess or to deny, these are the only possibilities. In our corruption, we like to believe that we can stand in some neutral gray area and avoid making a confession, but this is a lie and a deception of the devil who conspires with our sinful flesh and fallen reason. The Lord has also said that “he who is not with me is against me,” and that the neutral and the lukewarm he will spit out of His mouth. When it comes to your confession, what comes out of your mouth and the deeds that you perform before men, there is no gray area and there is no fence-straddling. You will confess. But what will you confess? Will you say the same word that God has said? Or will you say another word.

It would have been easy for our Christian forebearers to remain lukewarm. The Romans were polytheists, they had no problem believing that there were more gods in the pantheon than they were aware of. Like the Greeks before them, they even had altars and temples to the unknown gods, just in case. In this sense the Romans were exceedingly tolerant. What the Romans wouldn’t tolerate, however, was the exclusive confession of the Christians that their God was the only true God, and that the only way to Him was through His Son Jesus Christ, who was also God as a man. Your average Christian could get by if he would only confess perhaps one or two of the Roman gods, or Caesar as a god, by burning some incense before his image, yet countless faithful chose hefty fines, imprisonment, and death rather than go against their confession, their conscience, and their God.

Though it should have been, it really wasn’t all that different for the Reformers of the 16^th century. The chief difference was that it wasn’t polytheists and pagans that were pressuring our Lutheran forebearers to compromise their confession, but the temptation and the threat came from within the Church itself. There was no argument concerning how many gods there were. The Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds had locked down the worship of the “Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity” over a thousand years earlier. What was at stake for the Reformers was not the Trinity or the two natures of Christ, but the very heart of the Christian faith, that men are justified freely by God’s grace alone, apart from works, through faith in Jesus Christ.

October 31, 1517 was not the beginning of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but it certainly got the attention of the Church of Rome. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses Against Indulgences wasn’t a problem for Rome because of its doctrine, but because of its practical effects. Countless variant teachings were permitted by Rome and were accepted as quaint, provincial eccentricities, but to raise doubt concerning the buying of indulgences hit the Roman church in a place it couldn’t ignore, the treasury. Luther was debated for a while, but when his teachings caught on with the laity and with dukes, princes, and electors, Luther was excommunicated, and the Pope demanded that he recant. In 1521 before the Imperial Diet at Worms Luther made his confession, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” Luther said the same word that God had said before the king and emperor. Then he was stolen away by men under orders of Frederick the Wise and was kept and protected at the Wartburg castle near Eisenach.

Even this was still not the beginning of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. That would come roughly nine years later on June 25, 1530 at an event we commemorate this day, when the German electors, princes, and estates presented a written and spoken confession of their faith to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in Augsburg. It was an irenic confession intended to demonstrate that what was believed, taught, and confessed in their territories was only that which the Christian Church had always believed, taught, and confessed. From the Preface: “It shows, from the Holy Scriptures and God’s pure Word, what has been up to this time presented in our lands, dukedoms, dominions, and cities, and taught in our churches.” They made their confession before the king and emperor, and it still stands, “a confession that will even prevail against the gates of hell, with the grace and help of God.” They were right, for their confession was nothing more than the same words God has said in His word.

 “[You and I] will speak of [God’s] testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.” If you say the same word that God has said in His word, then you are guaranteed of at least two things: First, your confession is true and immovable, and you have nothing to fear. Second, your confession will be opposed – perhaps fiercely so – by men, the world, and Satan. But you will speak. You will confess, even if you say nothing at all. The list of things you will confess is lengthy: That there is one God who is the creator and sustainer of all things. That He created all things by the power of His eternal Word. That He created each kind and species of life unique and distinct, able to reproduce its own kind, and that He created human beings in His image, male and female, and joined them in marriage and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply. That all men are conceived and born bearing the stain of original sin and belong to the devil until God claims them as His own in Holy Baptism and the blood of Jesus. That God is the giver of all life and that all life is sacred from conception in the womb to burial in the tomb. These truths you will confess in word and deed, and for your confession you will be opposed by men, the world, and Satan.

The early church and the 16^th century were alike, and also very different, in a number of ways. They were alike in that Christians had to confess what they truly believed before kings and emperors at risk of their livelihoods and life itself. They were different in that the pressure came from the government in the early church, and from the church itself in the 16^th century. Today you will confess before kings and emperors once again, but this time the pressure to compromise your confession comes from both the government and the church. You will make your confession at the risk of your livelihoods and life itself. You will lose friends and make enemies. Your families will be divided. You may lose your license, your job, or your business. You may become a social pariah and have horrible epithets flung at you destroying your good name and reputation. You may be fined or imprisoned. Mobs may seek to vandalize your home, your church, your business, and harm your family. “Have no fear of them,” says our Lord Jesus, “and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” That is to say, if you believe, you must confess. And your Lord Jesus will confess you before His Father in heaven.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 1)

(Audio)

Luke 16:19-31; 1 John 4:16-21; Genesis 15:1-6

 

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

In many ways, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a conflation of several of Jesus’ main teachings. It includes Jesus’ teaching about the one thing needful – namely, faith in the Word of God. It also includes Jesus’ teaching against the love of mammon, or wealth, and the praise of men. It includes Jesus’ teaching on mercy, compassion, and love for those who have nothing. And it includes Jesus’ teaching that “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Additionally, outside the Book of Revelation, this story includes, perhaps, the clearest teaching we have on what we can expect after death – and that teaching comes from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Himself.

To summarize a story that you likely know very well, there was a rich man who dressed well and feasted sumptuously every day of his life. Now, there is no condemnation of being rich and dressing and eating well; indeed, some enjoy such blessings from God. Likewise, there is no explicit statement indicating that the rich man was mean or selfish or an unbeliever. All that we know is that there was a poor man named Lazarus who begged near his gate, who desired only to glean from the leftover scraps from the rich man’s feasts. For all we know, the rich man was unaware of Lazarus, or maybe he ignored him. Whatever the situation was, the poor man simply wasn’t on the rich man’s radar screen.

As the story goes, both men died. The rich man found himself in torment in hades, and Lazarus found himself reclining upon the bosom of Abraham, a place of comfort akin to the paradise promised by Jesus to the repentant thief on the cross. We see that the rich man considered himself a believer, for he appealed to Abraham as “father,” and, in turn, Abraham answered him as his “child.” Yet, even in hades, the rich man, if he noticed Lazarus at all, considered him of a lower status than himself, as a servant. He asked father Abraham that he might send Lazarus to serve him by cooling his thirst with a few drops of water.

Now, if we were to dissect the story thus far in light of Jesus’ teaching elsewhere in the Gospels, we would discover that the rich man, while not entirely without faith and love, placed his faith and love in created things above and before God, the Creator and giver of all things. We see this in the fact that the rich man feasted sumptuously every day, presumably even on Sabbaths and Holy Days – there was no fasting for this son of Abraham. Further, he did not show love for his neighbor in need; perhaps he did not even recognize his needy neighbor. Lazarus, on the other hand, was not after the man’s riches, or even his sumptuous feast, but desired only “to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table” – that is, the scraps that would be thrown to the dogs, the crumbs that fell from his master’s table.

In hades, the rich man pleaded with father Abraham for mercy, whereas mercy is precisely what he failed to show to Lazarus, the archetypal poor man, in his life. Even in torment, still he did not consider Lazarus in mercy, love, and compassion. Further, the rich man was looking for comfort in Hades, just as he had in life, in all the wrong things – not in the Word of God, but, rather, in physical comfort. And, since his priorities were out of order, and he had made of physical comforts an idol, father Abraham directs him back to what the rich man truly loved saying, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

Then, perhaps one of the most chilling statements in Jesus’ story are these words of father Abraham, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” On one level, this may very well indicate something real and true about the relationship of paradise and hades, or heaven and hell. While, on another level, and probably more to the point, there is a great separation between trust in wealth and material possessions and trust in God’s Word. The former brings only death and damnation, while the latter gives life and eternal salvation.

Upon that invalidating judgment, the rich man began to plead that Lazarus be sent to his brothers. See, he is caring and compassionate about some people – people like himself. Father Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” That is to say, let them hear and trust in the Word of God which testifies about Jesus. Shockingly (not really), the rich man objects saying, “No! Not the Word! There has to be some other way! I know, why don’t you send Lazarus back from the dead? Then they’ll believe! Anything but the Word of God!” Truly, good works, genealogy, piety, tithing, speaking in tongues, meditation, giving to the building fund, serving on council, attending lots of Bible studies, coming to church every Sunday, visiting the homebound, giving to charity, even feeding and clothing the poor, and anything else that you can think up, dream of, or imagine that you might place before and above faith and trust in the Word of God – these, no matter how good they may be, will not deliver you to Abraham’s bosom, paradise, or heaven; they will not deliver you to Jesus. Indeed, Abraham replied, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets [if they do not hear and trust in the Word of God], neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

You see, the rich man wasn’t a bad man, he was just an idolater, just like you are too often tempted to be. For, the first and most important Commandment is “You shall have no other gods.” Luther explains this commandment in the Small Catechism saying, “You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Did you hear that? “Above all things.”That is to say that nothing, absolutely nothing, not even good and beneficial things, are to be permitted to get between you and God.

For, when things do get between you and God, the inevitable consequence is fear. Does this surprise you? Perhaps you think that I must be wrong about this? However, is this not what St. John is teaching in today’s Epistle: “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. […] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” The commentary in the Lutheran Study Bible on this passage is spot on: “Love is the work and will of God and the fruit of faith in God for the salvation of every human. In this, there is no fear. Jesus is God’s perfect love that has come to seek and to save, not to condemn. In Christ, God’s love reaches its goal; love is perfected in us when we believe in Jesus and no longer fear that God might still be angry with us because of our sin.”

If you have placed your fear, love, and trust in something other than God and His Word, then your love is compromised, because you can only love others when you have been loved by God and have loved Him in return. “We love because He first loved us,” writes John. Indeed, it is with His love that we love others – that we are able to love anyone at all. Therefore St. John continues, “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.” And so, the rub of all this is that, if you love God, you will love others. In fact, it is in loving others that you love God. That is why no one can hate his brother and love God. Hate is the antithesis of God, and hate is what your enemy, the devil, would have you feel, and be, and harbor in your heart against your brother and your neighbor. And, the only cure for hate is repentance and forgiveness. Therefore, if you harbor any hate against your brother or your neighbor, you must confess it and ask forgiveness. And, your Father in heaven will forgive you, for Jesus’ sake.

Therefore, you have nothing to fear but God. And, fear, love, and trust in Him will cast out all fear. How can you know this? It is written, in His Word. Indeed, Abram himself once feared that he would not have an heir to inherit his covenantal blessing, but God promised Him in His Word, “Fear not, Abram, I am you shield; your reward shall be very great. […] Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. […] So shall your offspring be.”Abram believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness. So, through your own faith and trust in the Word of the LORD, everything that rightly belongs to Jesus is counted to you: righteousness, holiness, Sonship, eternal life, and communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May you, like the poor beggar Lazarus, whose name means “God is my help,” desire to be fed with crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord, for you will find, instead, that you have feasted sumptuously upon God’s gift of love and life Himself, His Son and Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of the Holy Trinity

(Audio)

John 3:1-17; Romans 11:33-36; Isaiah 6:1-7

 

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

To those mighty messengers, the holy seraphim, God gave six wings; with two they flew, but the purpose of the other four was to cover up their shameful parts. Even though they were charged to serve in the smoky Temple and to sing God's three-fold praise, even though they were holy, they still they had things to cover up. They still were not fit for the beauty of the fullness of God's glorious and holy presence. So, they humbled themselves, and they covered their feet and their faces, and they sang a song of praise for each Person of the holy Triune God they worshiped: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your Glory.

Unlike the seraphim, Isaiah could not abide in the presence of the LORD’s majesty. He was only a man, and he was not holy. The Trinity was too much for him. He mourned for his sinful state, for his lying lips, and for his fearful heart. He was not worthy to sing their song or even to watch them from afar. He was undone, he was damned, and he was headed for destruction without defense. His guilt was too great. His sin was too shameful. He had no wings, he had no fig leaves with which to cover himself. There in the presence of the Truth, he could not lie about who he really was. He could not fake it. He was exposed, he was vulnerable, and he was undone.

But then an angel, a seraphim, flew to the altar at God's direction. He picked up a burning coal, the remnant of the burnt offering, and placed its fire to Isaiah's lips. His guilt was taken away. His sin was atoned for. For, Isaiah partook of that which was sacrificed in his place. It was put upon his mouth, and it made him clean. That which had appeased God's wrath on his behalf was joined to Isaiah so that he, too, could sing God's three-fold praise: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth. Now Isaiah, like the seraphim, was holy. The Almighty had declared it to be so. Isaiah had been redeemed. He could call the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnate God of Abraham and of Moses, the only-begotten of His Father from whom the Spirit does proceed, Brother.

How unsearchable are the judgments of God! He judges men who murdered His Son, who mocked His Name, who hid and ran from Him, who stole and lied and caved in, He judges them innocent. He makes them His sons. And, He judges His perfect Son worthy of the price that Justice demands. He places the burdens of all the evil the world has withstood - genocide and slavery, half-truths, bragging, and cowardice, name-calling on the playground, and drunkenness, all the evil in which men have engaged, all their secret sins, all their violence and their vanity; all their greed, malice, and lust - He places all of it upon the Lamb, the Lamb that was born to be a sacrifice. And, the Father raised Him up from the earth on a hellish pole to cleanse men of the serpent's most deadly poison - the first heresy - the lie that God is not true, that God does not care, that we can be like God on our own. But look there! Look with eyes of faith to the agony of grace outside of Jerusalem! There the demons are cast out. There the serpents are driven away. From there proceeds the Spirit of peace who proclaims the Son. There salvation is won and the lips of men are made clean. Songs of praise ring out again: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth.

For whoever believes in Him - the One raised up in death, and raised again to life, and raised again to His Father's side, the One the bronze serpent did foreshadow, the One that all burnt offerings were burnt to illustrate, the One who received the praise of the seraphim and sent Isaiah to foretell the Virgin birth, - whoever believes in Him will never perish but will have eternal life. "Whoever," promises our Lord. Whoever - no matter how bad, how despicable, how wrong or mean or stupid or lazy or negligent or resentful or lonely - whoever believes in Jesus Christ, whoever trusts in Him, true God and true Man, whoever looks to Christ, crucified and raised, despite his past crimes, he is forgiven and finds peace, and comfort, hope, and joy.

Jesus Christ was lifted up and was sacrificed for the sins of the world, even for your sins. That is how God loved the world. And, that is how God has loved you. He gave His only-begotten over to the death you should have died. He declared the Innocent One guilty so that He could declare you innocent and righteous. He has had mercy upon you, and His mercy endureth forever! He did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it, to save you. And so He has. And that for free, without an examination of your past, without a searching of your conscience, without checking on your pedigree. He has saved you, not by works or righteousness which you have done, but according to His mercy. His Word creates and sustains faith in whoever believes in Him.

Today a servant of God's Word, without wings, at God's direction, takes from the this altar the fiery sacrifice of God and touches its fire to your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for. For, you partake of that which was sacrificed in your place: Jesus' Body and Blood. It is put into your mouth and it makes you clean. That which has appeased God's wrath on your behalf is joined to you. Thus you, too, can sing: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Like the seraphim, like Isaiah and Nicodemus, you are holy. You have been redeemed. You call the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnate God of Moses and of Abraham, the only-begotten of His Father from whom the Spirit does proceed, Brother. You belong to God. You have been spared. You have been Named by Him. You belong to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You have been born from above through water and the Word by the intervention of Love.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

On the care of souls

Pastors shepherd God’s children through the valley of the shadow of death. From the moment they are born, pastors are literally preparing them to die. Pastors are curates and seelsorgers, they care for and cure souls. But they can’t make them live forever, and they know that all too well. Pastors are not called to be successful but faithful. Their success is in their faithfulness, even if it might be considered weakness and failure in the eyes of men.

The Feast of Pentecost

(Audio)

John 14:23-31; Acts 2:1-21; Genesis 11:1-9

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

In the days preceding His crucifixion and death, Jesus taught considerably concerning the sending and the work of the Holy Spirit. You have heard our Lord’s teaching on the Spirit, particularly from St. John’s Gospel, the past two Sundays. Now, today is the Feast of Pentecost, the day upon which we remember and celebrate our Lord’s pouring out of His Holy Spirit upon His Church. And as we remember and celebrate the gift and the work of the Holy Spirit, let us not forget our Lord’s teaching about the Holy Spirit before He was sent.

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Jesus also taught that the Holy Spirit would guide you into Truth, that is, into Jesus, for He would declare to you the things that belong to Him. And Jesus also taught that the Holy Spirit would be a Helper, a Counselor, and a Comforter. These things are the proper work of the Holy Spirit. These are His work for you and upon you through which He calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps the whole Church of Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

What your Lord Jesus did not teach about were spiritual gifts or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, except that the Holy Spirit Himself is a gift from God the Father and the Son to you and the Church. Why then do Christians waste so much paper and ink, time, money, and energy preaching and teaching about, trying to acquire and to take inventory of, and exhibiting so-called “spiritual gifts?” It is true that St. Paul mentions and even names several gifts and fruits of the Spirit, however, we are not to place St. Paul’s teaching higher than or in contradiction to our Lord’s own teaching about the sending and the work of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, what we learn from St. Paul’s teaching is that the gifts and fruits of the Spirit are precisely that – gifts and fruits. They come from Him and they are bestowed by Him when and where it pleases Him. Men do not choose the gifts they receive, though, in their sinfulness, they may hinder them. Likewise, no one can say that one spiritual gift is better, more esteemed, or holier than another, for their source is one and the same, and each gift is given for the good and benefit of others, the Church, and for the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Moreover, each and every Christian has gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit, and none are precisely the same. While St. Paul names and identifies several distinct spiritual gifts, his list is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive. There are surely countless more spiritual gifts than those he names. To demonstrate this, let us simply remember that St. Paul lists these gifts in his epistles to the Corinthian congregations, infamous for their doctrinal confusion and immoral practices. Nevertheless, St. Paul writes to them saying, “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift.” Though they were confused and corrupt and immoral, St. Paul states that they lack no gift of the Spirit. How can this be? Surely many Christians today would judge such a congregation to be false, heretical, or worse. But remember, the gifts are of the Spirit, even the Holy Spirit Himself. Either He is present, or He is not. If there is faith, even small and weak faith, then He is present. If the Word of God is heard in its truth and purity, then He is present. If the Holy Sacraments are faithfully administered, then He is present. The Holy Spirit is present because He is the gift of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ who have promised Him to be present. When and where He is present there is no lack of His spiritual gifts. What hinders the manifestation of spiritual gifts, rather, is human sinfulness, selfishness, and unbelief. If these are quelled and constrained then faith will grow and increase and the gifts of the Spirit will likewise grow and increase, bearing fruit, when and where the Holy Spirit of God pleases.

And so, again, Jesus is the true teacher, preacher, and giver of the Holy Spirit and His spiritual gifts. What does Jesus teach that the Holy Spirit will do? “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” What is it that your Lord Jesus has said to you? It is the Word of His Father, the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is sent forth and works through the Word of God alone. Thus, Jesus does not teach that you will find the Spirit in marvelous signs and wonders, in acts of healing, or deeds of power, but in the Word and in the Holy Sacraments, the Word made visible, alone. This we confess with Luther, the Reformers, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Smalcald Articles, “God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit – without the Word and Sacraments – is the devil himself.” The Holy Spirit is sent forth and works through the Word of God alone, and He always and only directs you to Jesus, your Savior, to the glory of God the Father.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word,” Jesus teaches, “and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, through the means of His Word, to help you, to counsel you, and to guide you in keeping Jesus’ Word. You see, Jesus is both the Giver and He is the Gift. The Gift of the Holy Spirit, which He gives to you, will help you to receive and to believe, to trust and to keep Him who is the Gift. While there are many spiritual gifts, they are all given by one and the same Spirit. St. Paul compares the multitude of spiritual gifts to the many members of the body saying, “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—[…]—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” If you are a Christian, you are a Christian by the powerful gift of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament. If you are a Christian, then you have that spiritual gift, the gift of the Spirit Himself, and you have many spiritual gifts as the Spirit pleases to give you. But any and all spiritual gifts are of the Spirit and from the Spirit and are given to the body of Christ, the Church. You are a member of His body, and each member is given unto the others so that the body grows and functions and prospers.

Not coincidentally, this day we are blessed to celebrate the Confirmation of two young souls. I do not say to you that they are two new members, for they were made members of the Christian Church many years ago when they were baptized. These two youth, like the Corinthian congregation, are true members of the body of Christ, the Church, and they lack no spiritual gift. What they will be doing in a short while is confirming their faith, faith they already had, faith they received as a spiritual gift – a gift of the Holy Spirit, even the Holy Spirit Himself! – when they were baptized as infant children. For, the gift of faith they received was not left orphan, it was not abandoned, but it was nurtured and nourished, kept, cherished, and protected by their parents, by their extended family, and by their family the Church. They were fed a steady diet of the pure milk of God’s Word so that they now have grown up into salvation, having tasted that the Lord is good. They have received the gifts of the Spirit through Word and Sacrament and have studied God’s Word and doctrines in Sunday School and Confirmation Catechesis from the Bible, the Catechism, and the Hymnal. Today they will stand before God and you witnesses to make confession of their faith as Confirmation that the gift of faith they received once in Holy Baptism has grown and is growing still, maturing, and is bearing good fruit to the glory of God’s holy Name. They will pledge themselves, by the grace of God, to remain steadfast in these gifts and to continue in faith and service of their neighbor to the glory of God until the Day of our Lord’s glorious return.

Therefore, let us all this day recommit ourselves to keep the Word of the LORD through times of joy and plenty as well as through times of tribulation, sorrow, suffering, and persecution, encouraging these young confessors to remain steadfast in their adherence to God’s Word and the faithful reception of the Holy Sacraments that they might be a blessing and a comfort and joy to their neighbors and persevere unto eternal life. And let us rejoice with them this day and days continuing that the Lord so graciously enlivens and strengthens His Church, equipping Her and blessing Her with every spiritual gift through Her members so that no spiritual gift is lacking and we may have peace – Christ’s peace: Peace, not as the world gives, but true and lasting peace that passes all human understanding. Father, grant us this gift of your Holy Spirit for the sake of Jesus.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.