Pentecost Sunday

Sometimes in life you only get one chance to do certain things. One chance to speak to someone, or about something. One chance to take an exam, for example. And most preachers get only one chance to speak about the Holy Spirit, and that is at Pentecost. The only day of the year (unfortunately) when we remember the third Person of the Trinity. And this means, of course, that preachers often cannot say everything there is to say about the Spirit, and today, I fear, will be no exception. Nevertheless, we must not ignore the gift of the Holy Spirit that God gives to His Church, a gift that Luther summarizes in the beautiful words of his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. Allow me first to recite the article of faith, and then Luther’s explanation:

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Luther explains it this way:

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ.”

Brothers and sisters, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit gives us the gift of the Church, outside of which there is no salvation. You heard me correctly: “Outside the Church, there is no salvation” — not the Lutheran church, the Reformed church, the Orthodox church, or the pope’s church, but the catholic, universal, Christian Church, the saints gathered around the Word and the Sacraments. Outside that communion of saints, there is no God, no Christ, no salvation. Let us take a moment to digest this fact. There is no salvation in meditation. There is no Christ in beautiful walks through the woods (unless you are already a Christian). There is no life in miraculous wells, whether the Zamzam water of Mecca or the Madonna del Pozzo here on Via del Corso.

The only life is in the Holy Spirit, who is present in the Word and the Sacraments. When you come here, brothers and sisters, you are not merely entering a beautiful late nineteenth-century building. When you come here, you are crossing the threshold of Noah’s ark, the camp of God’s chosen people, the gates of the city of refuge. As Yahweh dwelt with Israel in the wilderness, so the Holy Spirit is today with His Church.

And we confess that this catholic Church is holy, just as the Spirit is holy. And this holiness, Luther comments, comes first of all from the forgiveness of sins. In this blessed communion of saints, the Spirit forgives us through the mouth of our brother: in the Sacraments, in the preaching, but also when our brother or sister encourages us with the promises of the Gospel. There the Spirit of Jesus speaks to us through the lips and tongue of our brother! The Holy Spirit is so gracious that He does not wait to be “captured,” but speaks to us with an audible, tangible voice: here, in His catholic Church.

The Holy Spirit also sanctifies us through daily renewal in good works. When I was a somewhat younger Christian, talk about good works sometimes made me sigh: “Ugh! Good works? Why not talk about grace and forgiveness?” But here we understand why the article about the Holy Spirit is so beautiful. Don’t you want to be rid of your sins? Of course, the old man in you does not. But if you are anything like me, sometimes (or often) you look at yourself in the mirror and are saddened by the fact that you are still the same ungrateful complainer, the same gossip, the same foolish unbeliever who really thinks God needs some of your help. Do you ever cry out with Paul: “WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM! WHO WILL DELIVER ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?” (Rom. 7:24). But thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit! For through the very same Word and Sacraments, He first forgives you, and then renews you. Day after day, hour after hour: it is a process that lasts a lifetime, but it is guided by the Spirit.

In this light, sanctification in good works seems like a splendid thing! I want to be told that every time I come to this altar, I poison the old Adam a little more. That every time I am absolved, the little Pharisee inside me dies a little more. Every time we cry out to God: “LORD, I BELIEVE! HELP MY UNBELIEF!”, He answers us: “Do not fear. Behold: I give you the Holy Spirit, and He will forgive all your sins and nourish you daily in faith and love.”

The Third Article also teaches us the resurrection of the dead — and that is truly the final goal. Now we are being transformed in preparation for the glorification of the Last Day. The Church, brothers and sisters, is where the resurrection before the resurrection takes place: the Holy Spirit is preparing us to become glorified and eternal creatures. The English writer C. S. Lewis describes our future as “a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”

Brothers and sisters, thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit! I know that in the United States it is sometimes customary to use the Pentecost sermon to criticize Pentecostals. That is not my philosophy: Joshua and I have seen too much to believe that the Holy Spirit no longer works miracles. (And personally, my academic background makes me especially disagreeable to systematic and dogmatic theologians, because I am a biblical scholar.) But we must remember that miracles, tongues, and prophecies are small things compared to the work the Spirit accomplishes when He forgives our sins, strengthens our faith and love, and prepares us for the final resurrection. And He does all this in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. And therefore I wish to conclude with the exhortation from the Letter to the Hebrews:

“YOU HAVE COME TO MOUNT ZION AND TO THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD, THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, AND TO INNUMERABLE ANGELS IN FESTAL GATHERING, AND TO THE ASSEMBLY OF THE FIRSTBORN WHO ARE ENROLLED IN HEAVEN, AND TO GOD, THE JUDGE OF ALL, AND TO THE SPIRITS OF THE RIGHTEOUS MADE PERFECT, AND TO JESUS, THE MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT, AND TO THE SPRINKLED BLOOD THAT SPEAKS A BETTER WORD THAN THE BLOOD OF ABEL” (Heb. 12:22–24).