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Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia.
On the great Day of Pentecost, it was not a dove that rested on the disciples, as He did at the Jordan River upon Jesus in His Baptism, but “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” (Acts 2:3–4).
Our bulletin cover artwork portrays this nicely. The Holy Spirit was visibly manifest upon the disciples, just as He had once descended and rested upon Jesus Himself.
It is hard to believe from a human perspective that God the Father would give the job of preaching, confirmed by the Holy Spirit, to this ragtag group of former Galilean fishermen, a former tax collector, and various Jewish zealots — all of whom had time and again failed to fully understand Jesus and His purpose and message. They had failed Jesus on many levels: with unbelief, mistrust, and even abandonment and denial of their Lord upon His arrest and crucifixion. They could not have — by their own reason or strength — believed in Jesus Christ their Lord nor did they come to Him. But Jesus came to them. He called them by the Gospel, He gathered them, enlightened them, and sanctified them in the true faith.
These disciples had a long and perilous road ahead. They had a message of earth–shattering and world–condemning proportions to proclaim: that all men have fallen short of the glory of God; that all mankind needs a Savior from their sin and wretchedness; that they cannot climb to heaven on their own, but God must send them this Savior, His Son, who had to come from outside of themselves to save them; that this Savior would be crucified and humiliated as an atoning sacrifice, yet was resurrected from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven. They knew that they would face no less hatred and persecution for this truth of the Law and the Gospel than their Lord and Master had faced. They were to be martyr witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. They were to speak before governors and kings to the very ends of the earth, the false ruler of this world fighting it tooth and nail.
So, what tools had Jesus left behind for them to use as they spread the Gospel? Great sums of money? Royal lineage and positions high in the Roman government? Vast armies of troops to keep them safe? All the staff and bureaucracy that could be mustered? Someone to write speeches, someone else to raise monies, someone else to make programmatic and business decisions?
No. They were simple, humble sinners called to just proclaim the Gospel to all nations. They were left with their mouths to preach, their tongues to confess. They were given the promise that Jesus forgives the sins of the penitent who they proclaimed were forgiven. They were given the waters of Holy Baptism and the breaking of the bread in the Lord's Supper, all attached to Jesus' words of institution and promise. Jesus promised He would be present in these earthly signs to forgive sins and grant the comfort and assurance of everlasting life.
In the days after Jesus' ascension, it was just a matter of waiting patiently for the Lord to act, as He had commanded. He had promised them He would send them His Holy Spirit, the paraclete who would teach them all things and remind them of all the things that He had said to them. Perhaps this ancient text of the Church was the Apostles' prayer as they waited and prayed those ten days:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia.
Come and act He did. These sinful, humble men with their humble tools of preaching, absolution, baptism, and the breaking of the bread were at last fully consecrated before the entire world — all the nations under the heavens, in fact, — represented there at Jerusalem that day. The Holy Spirit came with the comforting and living Word of Christ, even in the tongues of each nation there that day. The Holy Spirit's work was not to reveal Himself, but to glorify Christ, to teach all men all what Jesus taught and to point us to the saving work of Christ alone.
There in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day, the Church was born of water and the Spirit as it has been ever since. The fruits of Jesus' cross and resurrection are now unleashed upon the world. The Spirit, now in the living Word of Jesus Christ, preaches to convict the world of its sin and then comforts us with the saving work of Christ, giving us the assurance of faith in our hearts. By His working of faith in us, we can confess, “Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. Alleluia!” The Spirit bears witness that we are the children of God, and through Him we can call God “Our Father”. This is the peace Jesus leaves us that fills our hearts!
Still, even today, we pray:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia.
Why? God in His mercy is leaving time for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of, and receive the gift of faith in, their Savior. In the meantime, we are still by nature sinful and unclean. Our sinful flesh still hangs onto us trying to put out the fire of God's love that He kindles within us by Gospel preaching and the sacraments.
We know this because we daily fall short and fail to love God and neighbor. How many of us fail, on a regular basis, to honor the preaching of God's Word by gladly hearing and learning it on the Lord's Day? How many of us fail to diligently and regularly study God's Word, that living Word of Christ that the Holy Spirit bears to our ears and eyes? How many of us simply skip Bible classes on the Lord's Day? How many of us fail regularly to invite those around us to hear the Gospel preached and taught here in this place? How many of us grumble and complain about the blessings we are given, always wanting more, never content with God's daily bread given to us?
We could spend hours listing the failures we all have towards our neighbors: failing to honor parents; failing to honor the authorities God has placed over us in our various vocations and stations in life; failing to love, honor, and cherish our spouses as we ought; failing to respect the lives, health, reputation, possessions, and families of those around us. We daily fail to show mercy and acts of kindness to those around us. There is not one of us here who is not guilty of all these things and more at one time or another. Like the people trying to worship and glorify themselves and reach heaven on their own at Babel, we are still really good at being self–seeking and self–glorifying at the expense of God and neighbor.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia.
Like the overly self–confident people at Babel, we are constantly tempted not to listen to God's Word as the sole rule and norm of all faith and life. Instead we would rather do things our way and build our own towers to heaven instead of waiting for the Lord to act as He promises He will through His Word and Sacraments. This particularly afflicts our national Synod and her leaders right now. Do you think our Synod has messed up by shutting down the Gospel outreach through the “Issues, Etc” radio program? Listen to this devastating news from the Rev. James May, missionary to Burkina Faso and Togo in West Africa. He writes:
I regret to inform you that…[LCMS] World Mission has decided to cease employing me as a missionary in West Africa. This decision came as a shock to me and my family as it may also be a surprise to you.
World Mission has been pressuring me to move on and inform you as soon as possible. One reason is that I would be without a paycheck and insurance soon after we have a baby due in July. We hope that, by the grace of God, we could have another call in place when my salary and benefits terminate at the end of August 2008.
The decision leaves three newly planted churches in Burkina Faso without a theologically trained leader and also the Lutheran Church of Togo without a missionary, which they had been awaiting for six years. Please keep all these people involved in your prayers.
James has only been in the field for two years. He is armed only with the tools that the Lord has given the Church — the Gospel and the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit has kindled much faith there and gathered many believers together. Three congregations have been started. Adults and children have been catechized and baptized. God has enabled James to learn French so he can preach and teach in the language spoken there. Men of those congregations have been raised up to attend a Lutheran seminary in Togo so that they might return to their congregations and be their pastor. If you look at his website, James works hard to attend to the peoples' physical and spiritual needs the best he can.
The LCMS World Missions department forces its ordained missionaries to raise, on their own, $120,000 per year to fund themselves, even while they are supposed to be preaching and teaching overseas. James raised $248,000 in the last 21 months by the grace of God. Yet, it appears that not one dime of that, other than James' salary, ever came to Burkina Faso or Togo. The rest just simply disappeared in the black hole of our Synod's bureaucracy. When James asked the Synod's World Missions department for simple Sunday school materials in French, none were forthcoming. When he asked for copies of Luther's Small Catechism in French, for hymnals, for all sorts of basic items to help with preaching and teaching the Gospel none were forthcoming. He had to pay for these items himself, or ask Lutheran Heritage Foundation for assistance.
The problem here is the sinful lust for doing things by the ways of the world, to reject the tools Christ has given us to use. The goal of our World Missions department in this action seems to be that they do not want to plant the Gospel seed with God's Means of Grace. It is apparently not their goal to teach sound Lutheran, Christian doctrine to the children of West Africa, nor, apparently, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to sinners in need of salvation in West Africa.
Rather, our Synod and her districts would rather fund modern day towers of Babel, mission plants in rich, affluent, white Anglo–Saxon suburbs like Jefferson Hills, Missouri (“Jefferson Hills Church”), Rochester Hills, Michigan (“Epic Church”), and Frisco, Texas (“Water's Edge Church”), where they can draw in the masses with rock bands and pastors who spend endless hours in messages talking about themselves, the funny stories they have to share, the latest television programs and movies they have watched, and worse. They walk around their stages talking about anything other than God's Law and God's Gospel. The sacraments are at best minimalized; the living voice of Christ is barely, if at all, heard.
Meanwhile, while our Synod and her districts fund the trash here with bucketfuls of money, James May and his family are coming home to an uncertain future. Three congregations in Burkina Faso and others in Togo are without a missionary pastor. And the sin–sick people of Africa go without the simple preaching and teaching of God's Word yet again. May we all repent of these injuries to the body of Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia.
Our road today is no less dangerous to us than it was to the twelve who received the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost Day some two thousand years ago. The devil is still attacking the true faith, attacking the living and abiding voice of Christ that is delivered through His Holy Spirit. The false ruler of this world continues to come, attacking us at home, in the Church at large, everywhere. He tempts us mercilessly to ignore the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, to try to do it all our way.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. The ruler of this world has no claim on Jesus Christ. Jesus has done and still does, on our behalf, all that the Father commands Him. He rules this world in truth and grace and gives us the true peace and assurance only He can give, even when we are perplexed and disturbed by the sin and sorrow around us. Christ sends His Holy Spirit by the preaching of His Word, in the waters of baptism, in His body and blood given from His altar to continually awaken repentance and faith in the hearts of His people. The Spirit comforts and assures us by the Word of Christ that our sins are forgiven and forgotten in the sight of God the Father. He is always leaving to us that peace the world cannot give, the peace with God that Christ has earned for us.
This is the joy of Pentecost. It is the reason we can say “Alleluia” with gusto and true happiness even in the midst of sin, death, and the power of the devil. God has made a dwelling place for Himself in each of us. We are baptized by water and the Spirit and the triune name has been placed upon us. We have been called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit into the one true faith, and have been made into the body of Christ, the Church, where believers in Christ hear the Gospel and receive Christ in His Sacraments, where they are gathered together, absolved, fed the Bread of Life, and sent back to their neighbors and vocations ready to share that peace they have in Jesus Christ.
The Church started from Jerusalem and has gone out to the ends of the earth, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. It is still composed of sinners and is still preached to and absolved by those same sinners in the stead of Christ as it has been for two thousand years. It has those same humble tools today that God gave to her and confirmed with His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Yet, by His power and grace, God continues to use these humble means to fill the hearts of His faithful with His true and lasting peace, and to kindle in them the fire of His love.
Alleluia! Teach us to know the Father, Son, and You, O Holy Spirit, Three in One. That we Your name may ever bless, and in our lives Your truth confess! Alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Alleluia! Amen!
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