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The 1st Sun. of Pentecost - Pastor Stiemke |
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The 1st Sun. of Pentecost ?± Trinity Sunday, 6/11/06
Sir, we would see JESUS!
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Asheville
In the Name of Jesus!
O
eternal God ?± Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ?± descend upon each of us
today with the fullness of Your grace and power, that the hearts and
minds of Your people here at Emmanuel find great peace and courage in
following You in these days of special need. Bind us all together in
even greater love and trust in You and Your unfailing mercy and also in
genuine love for one another, so that we move forward in God-given
unity and purpose in service in Your mission and ministry given to us
in our life together in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
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God??s
precious holy Word that forms the basis for the thoughts I share with
us all today is found in St. Luke 12: 32: ?¨Fear not, little flock, it
is You Father??s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.?Æ
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In the Name of the only true God ?± Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, precious people of Christ:
Today
in the Church Year we find ourselves at Trinity Sunday ?± the Sunday
after Pentecost, when many Christians throughout the world recall the
Bible-revealed truth about who is the only true God. Our
Spirit-inspired Scriptures leave no doubt. They repeatedly make known
that there is only one true God ?± not some or many ?± but only one.
Moses at God??s command said to the Lord??s people, ?¨Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is ONE Lord!?Æ [Deuteronomy 6:4] Then he added that we are
to love Him with all of our heart and soul and might. St. Paul was also
led by the Spirit bluntly to write, ?¨There is no other God but ONE.?Æ [I
Corinthians 8:4]
At the same time, our Lord revealed in His
Word something no human mind could dream up. Throughout both the Old
and New Testaments, but especially in the New, God lets us in on the
mystery that this one and only God, in His ability to do whatever He
desires, makes Himself known as three, distinct Persons ?± Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. It is at the Baptism of Jesus that all three Persons
were revealed at one time: the Son there in the person of Jesus being
baptized, the Father as the mighty voice from heaven, and the Spirit as
the dove who came down from the heavens and rested upon Jesus. [Matthew
3:13ff.] Yet there are not three Gods, but only one.
We can
try inadequately to give parallel examples. For example, we can point
to H2O ?± water in its three visible forms: liquid, steam and ice ?± one
chemical compound, but three visible forms. But ultimately the fact
that there is only one God who manifests Himself as three separate
Persons, each being fully and completely God, is a mystery that can
only be accepted in faith. Personally I??m glad it is this way. The day
I figure out God in this ?¨little box?Æ I call my mind, I am in deep
trouble. For then I would be equal to God. The early Church fathers to
describe this mystery of ?¨3-in-1 and 1-in-3?Æ coined two words to
summarize this Biblically revealed reality. Thus, even today we use
their words, ?¨Trinity?Æ and ?¨Triune?Æ ?± both of which mean ?¨3-in-1?Æ to
declare who the only true and living God is.
Now while it is
important to know who the true God is, it is much more important to
know and trust what He does for each of us. This knowledge in its
fullness can only come from a lifetime of study of the Bible and
worship and also experiencing those realities from the Bible as we live
out our lives. That??s why regular attendance in Sunday School, Bible
Classes, worship, and private daily time with God??s Word should be the
top priority for all of us.
This morning we can only scratch the
surface of all that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done and
is doing for each of us. But even this cursory look should leave us
with wonder and awe at the acts of love and power of our Lord. Our God
is indeed an awesome God!
While all three Persons of the Godhead
were active in the creation of our universe, it is especially the
Father Almighty who in the Bible is depicted as our Maker. The world
around us even from a child??s viewpoint holds many, many wonders. Think
about how complex just one part of our body is, e.g., our taste buds.
Recall the vast ranges of differences in everything we taste and how
each item we eat has its own unique taste. With our mouths we also
determine so many degrees of differences in heat and cold. Our whole
digestive tract is even much more complicated. And this is only a very
small part of our amazingly intricate bodies. Today we are fortunate
that modern sciences are expanding our available knowledge about how
complex and wonderful the Lord??s creation really is. Electron
microscopes have helped people discover many more facets of just a
single cell in our bodies. Thus, we have even more reasons to exclaim
with the Psalmist, ?¨I am fearfully and wonderfully made!?Æ
Not
only are we wonderfully made, but also everywhere on God??s earth and in
the heavens around us there are marvels attesting to the wisdom, power
and love of our Triune God. For example, the Hubble space telescope has
given astronomers and astrophysicists many glorious views of the beauty
and complexities of the myriads of heavenly bodies our God has created
never seen till recently. Their studies have led them tentatively to
conclude that our universe may be perpetually expanding. Those
spectacular marvels in space have led most to conclude that there must
at least be a Supreme Intellect. We in faith, knowing that our Lord is
not only our Creator, but also the Preserver of all things, are led to
wonder again with the Psalmist, ?¨What is man that You are mindful of
him and the son of man that You visit him!?Æ
In our worship from
Christmas on, our Bible readings have centered on the person and saving
work of the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, our dear Savior,
Jesus Christ. What an amazing God these readings uncover for us! Jesus
always existed in all the glory and splendor of the eternal Lord
reigning over the universe, worshipped by all the angels in heaven and
believers who have died trusting in Him for forgiveness and salvation.
Yet at His chosen time He humbled Himself to become a human infant
dependent upon His mother??s milk for nourishment. Jesus was tempted
throughout His life in all points as we are, but never once sinned.
[Hebrews 4:15] He perfectly carried out the will of His Heavenly
Father, even to the point of permitting Himself to be forsaken by His
Father in heaven while on the cross. He died making full payment for
the sins of entire world, so that anyone who believes in Him might have
eternal life. We know how three days later He rose from the dead and
proved to His followers ?± so slow to believe ?± that He was indeed
bodily alive again. Then 40 days later He ascended into heaven to reign
in glory at the right hand of the Father. He could have then said,
?¨I??ve done my share; My caring for sinners stops now.?Æ Instead, in
spite of all our sin and failings, He rules over everything for our
good and speaks up unceasingly in our behalf to His Father in heaven.
What love beyond description! He is indeed our faithful good Shepherd.
And
what about the Holy Spirit? First of all, He inspired the writers of
both the Old and New Testament so that they wrote down God??s Word
exactly like our dear God desired. True, they wrote in their own styles
and for their time, but their message is that which we all need today.
We can trust every word of the Bible as God??s revealed truth. Even more
to the point, in the Lord??s great love and care of each of us, the Holy
Spirit is the one who brought us to faith in Jesus as our Savior and to
trust our Triune God. The problem of every human being is not just that
we do wrong things and fail to do what the Lord requires. Our inborn
nature is so corrupt that we can??t come to faith on our own. Jesus made
that known to Nicodemus when He said, ?¨That which is born of flesh is
flesh.?Æ [John 3:6] Paul conveys the same painful reality when he wrote,
?¨No man can say that ?´Jesus is Lord?? but by the Holy Spirit.?Æ [I
Corinthians 12:3] Thank God that the apostle could conclude with the
revelation of what the Holy Spirit, our divine Comforter, does for the
believing child of God! As I said, the Spirit gives and preserves in us
faith to believe in our Triune God, trusting Jesus Christ for
forgiveness and salvation. Thank God that??s true!
So what do all
these truths have to do with the situation in which we as individuals
and a congregation now find ourselves today? This is the first Sunday
we have gathered as Emmanuel congregation without our own called pastor
in many years. A vacancy in the pastoral office brings change and
uncertainty for us all. For most people change is anxiety provoking. It
certainly does for me. Now I don??t like examining the causes of my
distress and uneasiness. For one thing I know that the vacancy will in
a measure be a time of testing for us all ?± including me. And I don??t
like times of testing! Just ask my wife what happened years ago when I
was in prep school and the seminary when it was time for a major exam.
She would tell you quickly about my terror at those times. I was always
sure before a major test that I would flunk the exam.
But
looking more deeply at my discomfort at those times and in any of the
many times of testing since then in my life, I have to confess finally
that it was my sin, my own most grievous sin against our holy God that
led to my distresses. I looked too much to what I needed to do rather
than trusting in my dear Lord for His help and blessing. Uneasiness and
discomfort came when I didn??t fully believe that the Lord will bring me
through many trying days and events in the 77 years God has given me
here on earth. And all that happened in the face of our Lord??s telling
me again and again in His holy, precious Word, ?¨Fear not! I am with
you!?Æ You see, while there are many other factors behind our fears and
times of unrest, it is primarily our sinful failure to trust our
faithful God.
Now let me ask you one thing. In any past trial
did Jesus ever fail to bring you through it? Note, I??m not asking you
about any present trial, for those may be too painful for you to be
objective in responding. But what about the past? You are here, and
you??ve survived because of God??s love and faithfulness. The
extraordinary reality is that in spite of our past failures to trust
Him as we ought, our dear Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Spirit have
not deserted us. And so it is today!
Our crucified, but now
risen and victorious Redeemer stands before us. Patiently in love He
shows us His hands and His side and promises as we enter this pastoral
vacancy and as we go forth in life, ?¨Fear not, little flock! It is your
Father??s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!?Æ Then He further says
to us ?´doubting Thomases??, ?¨Be not faithless, but believing!?Æ
But
how do we do that when we??ve continued to doubt too often in the past?
Beloved, that??s the wrong question! We won??t do it, but ?¨with God
nothing is impossible!?Æ With the Spirit??s help, being nourished
faithfully by God??s holy Word and the Lord??s Supper, we can humbly
pray, ?¨Oh, merciful Triune God, You who have done so much for us in the
past, change our hearts and minds to trust You, and so enable us to
move forward in confidence during in the days ahead, ardently doing
Your work, knowing that at the right time You will also provide another
under-shepherd for this flock called Emmanuel Lutheran Church; for the
Jesus is Emmanuel ?± God with us! Amen.?Æ
To God alone be the glory!
© Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, D.D., Asheville, NC May 2006
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 April 2007 )
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