The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, May 31^st
Ez 37:1-14
Ps 104:24-34, 35b
Acts 2:1-21
Jn 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

Opening – Setting the Stage – From Fear -> Courage -> Love -> Action

When Krakatoa a mountain, an island East of Java erupted it 1883, hundreds of thousands of people were affected. It caused a tsunami or tidal waves to reach four continents, it created a roar heard 3,000 miles away. It was more explosive than many thousand atomic bombs. It transformed an entire cubic mile of ocean spewing dirt, rock, and ash over 150,000 feet into the air. It created a dust cloud that affected weather around the world for almost 7 years. And yet, the coming of the Holy Spirit, that small flame of fire, that image of God’s love falling upon us took hold in the hearts and minds of all the disciples resulted in a greater impact on the world than that Krakatoa eruption.

This event, the coming of the Holy Spirit, goes back to another mountain, Mt. Sinai. In Exodus 19:1 we see that the Lord first revealed Himself to the people of Israel. The interval of time between Passover and the arrival of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai was fifty days. Pentecost means fifty days. Our Jewish friends still celebrate Shavuot, an observance of thanksgiving for the Torah commemorating the coming of the Lord at Mt Sinai.

It was at this holiday or festival that God chose to reveal the Holy Spirit, in a very public way, to a large group of Jesus’ followers, and it was under Peter’s preaching, thousands were converted in Jerusalem (Acts 2). Today, as Christians did then, over 2,000 years ago, we celebrate the Day of Pentecost as a time when God filled the hearts of the faithful with the Holy Spirit that kindled in them the fire of God’s love. It didn’t affect the planet for just 7 years; its impact has lasted over 2,000 years, and we are still being affected today by coming of the Holy Spirit.

Move 1 – From Fear to Courage
If we pull back a little to the time right before Jesus death and resurrection we see there was already some rumbling about an change agent coming as Jesus was talking about his leaving. In John 16:7 Jesus said, “I must go away, but I will send the Counselor to you.” At times we refer to the Holy Spirit as the helper, comforter or the paraclete, from the Greek Paraklētos, literally, meaning encourager, advocate or intercessor.

Why was this important? While after Jesus death, the disciples were afraid, they needed some comfort and protection. Remember the disciples were being hunted. However, under penalty of death they would still meet secretly usually hiding behind closed and locked doors. The Jewish leaders had become fanatic about stamping out all remaining memories and the murmuring about Jesus being the Messiah. The religious leadership had in mind to eliminate / to kill all remaining followers of the way. So this fear rained down on Jerusalem, on the disciples, like clouds of ash, fear covering the head of each follower as if a volcano had erupted near them.
This world of ours has a way of keeping us afraid, knocking our legs out from under us. Our secular world is tough. Maybe it’s a hard boss, or a child who is very strong willed, a spouse who believes they are always right, or just our feeble body saying not so fast bud. Our world is often a callous place, where it’s hard to feel accomplished or welcomed or even appreciated at times.

Lest you think it’s not that way for the rich and famous – a few quotes to think about.

H.G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said at age 61: “I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether.”

Even the literary genius Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.”

Do you fear life or do you embrace life? After Jesus left, the disciples fell into a state of fear, but when Jesus appeared to them in the upper room he somehow re-energized them.

When Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room, He breathed on them the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-22) He gave them an ally who would comfort them and advocate for them to God on their behalf. In our Gospel, Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” When we see Jesus in scripture, as an example for us, we see God incarnate.

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12) God promises us power to do work in God’s name. When Jesus left he promised the Spirit.

The disciples transitioned from fear to courage during the upper room appearance. When they saw Jesus in the upper room, after the resurrection, their hearts were encouraged. They thought He was dead, but He was alive. Their fears subsided, and their courage grew.

When we accept the Holy Spirit, God gives us a self assurance helper, a fear calming comforter, and a proactive change agent energizing us, changing our hearts with the fire of God’s love so any fear we have can diminish giving us the courage to love.

If we want to look at a specific example of this we can look at Peter. Before Jesus death and resurrection Peter said he would follow Jesus anywhere. He was bold, confident in his own power that he could protect Jesus, but as is usual when we put too much stock in ourselves, our own abilities, and not enough in God we set ourselves up for failure .

In the early morning hours when Jesus was beaten and mocked, spit upon, and
bruised for our sin, where was Peter? Absent! He couldn’t even protect himself; he was trembling in his boots. Remember He even denied he even knew Jesus, 3 times.

Contrast Peter after receiving the Holy Spirit. He’s still the same weak man, only now, on the Day of Pentecost, (see in Acts 2) he stands up and preaches boldly, confidently, with power and thousands are converted. God wants us to have that same empowerment of the Holy Spirit so we can speak boldly about the fire of God’s love in our hearts. Next step…

Move 2 – How do we move from Courage to Love
We have seen how the Holy Spirit has worked in the lives of the disciples and Peter on the Day of Pentecost. You might be asking yourself, ok what about me? Fair question. According to Luther’s Catechism (3rd Article) we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls us through the Gospel, the Holy Spirit enlightens us with his gifts, The Holy Spirit sanctifies and preserves us in the true faith. I want to be sanctified and preserved in the faith. How about you?

Let’s examine what it means to have the Holy Spirit fill us with the fire of God’s love. God in His infinite wisdom created within each of us a spark. When it’s fanned by the message of the Gospel, when the glowing coals are stirred by the working of the Holy Spirit a white hot flame results and burns brightly in the caldron of our hearts. Love fills our soul, our spirit, and we can’t help but love others. God has placed love at the center of this molten magma.
It’s what keeps us as Christians white hot. Jesus points this out in (John 13:34). Remember when He said “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
That message is embodied in the Good News of Jesus Christ. He took our place, paying the debt for sin out of love for us. We sin when we don’t believe in God, our Gospel tells us. That sin, our sin requires repentance. Justice demands a price be paid, there’s no free ride. But Jesus being sinless was the only one who could meet the requirement of justice. We are sinful, we could not. Jesus was without sin, blameless before God. We are not.

If I speak in tongues of angels, but have not love I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. Even if I understand all mysteries, have all knowledge, and have enough faith to move mountains, but if I do not have love I am nothing, (1 Cor 13) Paul tells us.
As the disciples were moved by Jesus from fear to courage they began to understand Jesus message that he came to serve, not to be served. Do you understand that?
Our secular culture promotes love, right? Commercials show us – all we need is love. If we smell good, look good, love will find us, right? I want to remind you that just because you wear musk or Yves Saint Lauren, being seductive does not attract love. Love, in the sense of agape love is not sex, not lust, not desire. God’s love, it is a decision to act; it’s not some sort of fall into state. You fall into ditches, or holes, you don’t fall into love. Love is not a feeling that floats around in the ether on its own. If/when God touches your heart with the fire of His love you will know it. It’s unmistakable. It’s unforgettable! It’s powerful! It changes each of us at our very core!

Move 3 – From Love to Action
God, through the work and words of Christ wants us to understand that love moves us to action. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” The truth about love is it leads us to action. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love, agape love, God’s love shows us the way to love one another.

My wife and I have been married for many years, and there have been many times when feelings have NOT ruled the day. If they had we wouldn’t be married today. At one point in our past we had a red, cherished, VW bus. We liked that bus a lot. We bought that bus in Germany, used it to travel around Europe, and then had it shipped to the states. As it aged one could see the wear and tear on it. It had a number of dents after tens years of ownership. It was feeling its age. It also prompted many fond and cherished memories in me, but it was getting old and very tired. One day I decided to sell it and get another car because we needed a better, more reliable vehicle. I thought Sharon understood that, but she was not at the same place as I was on that sale. In fact she was furious. When I told her I’d sold the car I could see the smoke swirling around her head once I mentioned I sold the car. A little Krakatoa you could say. It took a while before the smoke cleared. Our red VW bus had many special memories. Lucky for me she decided to still love me after that. She, through her actions forgave me, and she is now almost over that incident. Love is a decision that results in action. Love is not based on a feeling.

Our God made a decision to love us and in the action of Jesus Christ we can see that love lived out from the cross to the grave, from the resurrection to the coming of the Holy Spirit, from the building of God’s Church to the action in the world of showing love and compassion for others.

Closing
How can we NOT be warmed by the fire of God’s love? Just as the God of creation “breathed life into the dust of the ground and man became a living soul”. The God of this universe breathed the energy of life into a mountain called Krakatoa and that eruption was heard round the world. On Pentecost, God breathed life into the disciples and the explosion of God’s love, the fire of the Holy Spirit, the love that flowed from that eruption has been heard round the world for the last 2000 years. There is evidence of this today as God continues to build the church based on love for God and for all humanity. God calls us to be faithful to this encounter with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit can make our hearts erupt with a passion for God that can blanket not only this church, but our whole world of influence, work, school, our families. Jesus wanted his disciples to have people say about them “see how they love one another.”

The Holy Spirit stoked the coals of love when the disciples were afraid, lonely, discouraged and the resulting fire of God’s love gave them courage to move forward in spite of their fear. If the Spirit can do that for the disciples, it can do that for you and me. Peter, a simple fisherman, a man certainly with limited human credentials, a man who only days earlier had denied he even knew Christ, spoke with amazing power and clarity once the fire of Holy Spirit came upon him on that first Pentecost. Thousands of lives were changed. If he can do that for Peter, He can do that for you and me.

That same Holy Spirit, the same Lord and giver of all life wants to encourage you, wants to give you power and clarity for your life. That Holy Spirit wants to fill our hearts with the fire of God’s love so we become bold witnesses, not just smoldering coals about to go out. Let the Holy Spirit put a fire in your belly today.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created and You shall renew the face of the earth. May it be so in each of our hearts and lives today.

Amen.

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