“THE COMFORTER IS COME”
Saint John 15: 26 - 16: 4
The Ascension of our Lord: 8 May Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
If you ever get tired of the fanatics, that is, the enthusiasts, that is, the pietist protestants in your life criticizing you and the Church, that is, Lutherans, of not talking enough about the Holy Spirit and Sanctification, drag their heterodox bodies to Augsburg on these past 6 Sundays after Easter; wherein our Gospel texts overflow with The Holy Ghost.
But note Christ is not talking in Saint John’s Evangel about the year 30 A.D. or any past historical verities. The Lord is prophesying how His Church, how each of you along with the “12” will be comforted in the upcoming tribulation. There will be great distress amongst the peoples of Christ before His visible return at the end. But there were, are, and always will be the same trials and persecutions of the Flock of The Lord, during the entire 1,000 years of the New Testament era. Not one thousand, literally, but one thousand in the sense of full completion, the time God has set aside for the ingathering of all His elect. These last days are always your daily days! Do not fear and fret over this or that politician, governmental policy, or demographic projection. If Nero, Claudius, Marcus Aurelius, and Trajan (amongst others) could not destroy the Church, if Genghis Khan, Mao, and Stalin could not exterminate the Body of Christ, then you have little to fear from potential demagogues and feminist Marxists.
And when you and yours are suffering from attacks without and especially from assaults within—from death and disease; from disappointment, depression, and disgust over sins done over and over…He sends you The Comforter.
Now immanently, and eternally, within the indescribable ineffable Holy Trinity, The Holy Ghost eternally proceeds from The Father and The Son (filioque) as you just confessed in The Creed. But economically, that is, in time and space, for you, Jesus your Lord sends you The Holy Spirit to be your ever present Paraclete—your “stand-beside” Comforter and Advocate. Jesus doesn’t send you a force, an emotion, a power, an energy, a mere inanimate breath, but The 3rd Person of the Godhead: The Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life. Jesus is The Life, and thus the Paraclete’s job is to give you Jesus. John records Jesus calling Him also “the Spirit of Truth.” Jesus is The Truth, and thus the Paraclete’s job is to give you Jesus.
Since the Holy Ghost is invisible, being “geist” that is “pneuma,” spirit, He manifests Himself both in you and for you by the faith given your New Creation to hold onto and grasp tightly Jesus Christ in His Word and in His mysterious visible words and activities (we call them Sacraments). Your voice in praying, confessing The Creed, singing His hymnody, confessing your sins, and hearing & believing His Word of Gospel loosing “for you” is the very proof that The Holy Spirit dwells and tabernacles in you. Not becomes it comes from you, it/He doesn’t, but because it points to Jesus in His Word. The Paraclete can also be seen by observing the called and ordained Stewards of His Mysteries—His Jesus-speaking and Jesus-delivering-- “means.” No pastor or priest in the years after the Ascension, or now, will ever be tossed out of a synagogue, or parish, or community, for feeding the hungry and smiling like an imbecile while saying “all is well…all is well.” The Apostles were cast out and killed—Martyred, for preaching the full counsel of The Holy Spirit’s message and text: Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins [Law] and risen for your justification [Gospel]. No true and believing Christian should ever, EVER, persecute and harm, in body or soul, another brother or sister of The Faith. When it happens, repentance and absolution are the means for restoring the aggressor who has fallen away from The Love of Christ. The expected attacks will come from those who do not know The Father, who do not believe in The Trinity of Sacred Scripture, and the Trinity’s full revelation in the Incarnated God/Man Christ Jesus.
Take heart with the “12” and wear their blood-red robes, which The Spirit has also given you, as He dipped you into Christ’s riven side at the font. Toast the “12,” the Virgin Mother, the Prophets and Patriarchs as you join them and dine with them this Feast Day. The Comforter has called you by The Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and kept you in the true faith.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194