Day of Pentecost: "The Job Description"

Text:  John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Theme:  “The Job Description”

The Day of Pentecost

May 24, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

²⁶"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

16:4b"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' ⁶But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. ⁷Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; ¹¹about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

¹²"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

The Name of God, put upon us with the waters of Baptism, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It’s not three Gods, but one God in three persons.  To the Father, we attribute the work of creation; to the Son, we attribute the work of redemption.  To the Holy Spirit, we attribute the work of sanctification.  All of those attributions involve million dollar theological terms that likely are not in our daily vocabulary. 

Even so, we do know something of God the Father and God the Son.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we address God as “Our Father”.  When we speak of the Son, we’re talking about Jesus Christ.  The first half of the church year follows the life and times of Jesus Christ – culminating, of course, in His passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. 

What about the Holy Spirit?  I sense there is a bit more confusion about this mysterious third person of the Holy Trinity – more confusion than we care to admit.  I hope this meditation, in a small way, might help in clearing up some of that confusion. 

It is the Day of Pentecost.  It falls on Memorial Day weekend here in the states.  Lots of memories floating round about on Memorial Day, and here in the church Pentecost has us doing some remembering too.  Specifically, we remember the teachings of the Bible that tell how Jesus promised the Holy Spirit.  Then, fifty days after he rose from the grave and ten days after His ascension into heaven, the Holy Spirit was delivered as promised – with wind and fire and speaking in other languages.  They thought the folks at the first Pentecost were drunk.  “They’re not drunk,” said St. Peter.

Part of the good news about the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is that we are not left without a job description.  Best of all, that job description was not concocted by church members.  If we all got together to draw up plans for what the Holy Spirit should be doing, we would surely make a mess of it.  Somebody would likely insist that the Holy Spirit weed out the people that aren’t “our kind”.  Eventually, we’d have to do that very Presbyterian thing:  take a vote or call a meeting!  “We’re not 100% sure about who the Spirit is or what the Spirit does, but this is the best we can do.  Would somebody please call the question!”

As is the case with so much else, we’re only going to get the Holy Spirit right when we get it Jesus right.  Be delighted with me today, then, because Jesus delivers the Holy Spirit’s job description Himself.  You just heard it in the reading of the Holy Gospel. 

Dear friends, four key tasks of the Spirit emerge.  First, the THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS ON BEHALF OF JESUS – and we’re in on that too: 

²⁶"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

That you and I are here today is proof that this teaming up with the Holy Spirit has worked for close to two thousand years. 

Second, THE HOLY SPIRIT CHANGES MINDS AND HEARTS.  Jesus says that Spirit will prove the world wrong with regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment.  You see, sin is more than just a moral blemish here and there.  One of the trailers for the Netflix series, Bloodline (which is about a troubled family), is this:  “We’re not bad people; we just did a bad thing.”  That’s pretty much describes our modern view of sin.   It’s more than what circular, round-the-prickly-pear debates about what constitutes a sin and what doesn’t might reveal.  The reality of sin means that sinful humanity is completely and utterly alienated from God – and that’s true from the most pious person among us right on down to the depraved scoundrel.

There’s more.  The Holy Spirit changes our minds and hearts about righteousness.  We humans think that righteousness is about doing the right things all the time.  That’s what God wants and we will, therefore, be blest. But do we do that?  No.  Jesus is only too aware of that.  He sacrificed His life for all of that.  We’re righteous, all right.  But it’s not our own righteousness.  It is His, Jesus Christ’s, and it comes as gift of the Spirit.  And the Spirit will prove us wrong about judgment.  For starters, we don’t get to do judgment.  That’s God’s job.  And the Spirit of God points us the mission of Jesus that resulted in the ultimate judgment:  the condemnation of the ruler of the world.  Practically speaking, this means that, ultimately, all will work out to the good.  I know; it doesn’t look that way.  Bad things happen to good people; violent religious ideologies use terror as a means of manipulation and control – and certainly not as a means of grace.   Random thoughts, words, deeds, and events all make us question our own sanity much the less our notion of fairness.  The job of the Spirit is to convince you that it is all going to be okay – and even blessedly more than “just okay.” That means you can live this day with hope.

Third, THE SPIRIT GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH.  Jesus says:  “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.”  Therefore, the Spirit guides us to Jesus and to the Jesus way of life.  The Spirit is not divine drill sergeant seeking conformity.  He is a trail guide, if you will.  Here and there, fresh discoveries are made.  It’s not just a long march, a long slog through life, in the same direction.

Fourth and finally, THE HOLY SPIRIT DECLARES AND DELIVERS WHAT BELONGS TO JESUS.  Jesus says:  “The Spirit will glorify me, because He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Who would have thought it?  By now, we’ve all heard about how Amazon beta-tested sending orders to people with an airborne drone.  The mind tries to envision this drone, of a certain size, with four rotors, gently touching down on your front yard or porch.  Your order is jettisoned, delivered!  Why, it could be your groceries, your toothpaste, the new sweater, or Dunkin Donuts K-Cups for your Keurig coffee maker.  You don’t have to go get it; it gets delivered to you.  How about that!  If not downloaded, then droned!

If that amazes you and makes you smile a bit, then be amazed and smile a bit at how the Holy Spirit works.  It’s basically the same thing.  The Holy Spirit is declarer and deliverer of the Jesus stuff.

Of course, there is much more.  With the Gospel, there is always more.  The teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit isn’t limited to our text.  But  our text is a great place to start because it’s straight from the mouth of Jesus.  And you only get it right when you get it Jesus right.  Jesus is into gift-giving, and He sent the Spirit to be sure those gifts are delivered.  Try them on for size if you wish.  I suspect they fit perfectly!

Blessed and happy Pentecost to you!

Amen.

Above the Din (Sermon051015)

Text:  Psalm 98:1-9

Theme:  “Above the Din”

6^th Sunday of Easter

Mother’s Day

May 10, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

Sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvelous things;

his right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him.

2

The Lord has made his salvation known

and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

3

He has remembered his love

and his faithfulness to Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

4

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,

burst into jubilant song with music;

5

make music to the Lord with the harp,

with the harp and the sound of singing,

6

with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—

shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

7

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it.

8

Let the rivers clap their hands,

let the mountains sing together for joy;

9

let them sing before the Lord,

for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples with equity.

A special word for this day is the word “din”:  d.i.n., din.  It’s a noisy little three letter word that showed up on dictionary.com’s “Word of the Day” some time ago.  Din.  The definition reads as follows:  “a loud, confused noise; a continued loud or tumultuous sound; noisy clamor”. 

A din.  That’s what we appear to live in.  A case could be made that a “din” is what we basically have beginning when our eyelids open in the morning and continuing until they close at night.  In other words, it’s a noisy world.  No wonder we’re not happy when the dogs start barking at 3 am.  It disrupts our peace and quiet.  Peace and quiet seem to be the opposite of din. 

Last week, one of the generals elevated the “Force Protection Level” from “Alpha” to “Bravo”.  Why?  It was on account of terrorist chatter.  Indeed, there is the din from those who would do harm – to others and themselves. 

There is something to be said for peace and quiet, for solitude, and for even meditation.  In church, we talk of preparing to worship.  Being here on Sunday isn’t all just chit-chat and time for what one friend of mine used to call “fellowshipping.”  Somewhere along the line, we’ve lost the full impact of “Be still and know that I am God”; that’s Psalm 46:10.

Yes, it’s a noisy world – and increasingly so.  Yes, taking time for peace and quiet can be of assistance. 

Yet, what if we could be led above the din?  Similarly, what if there is something different than peace and quiet? 

The author of Psalm seems to know, so it is best to sit at the author’s feet and listen to what is being said to us in today’s psalm, number 98. 

The psalmist encourages shouting and singing a new song.  It sounds noisy to me.  Yes, but when one looks deeper it’s not a confused noise or a clamor.  In fact, the psalmist rises above the din with solid reasoning. There are good reasons to encourage shouting and for singing new songs.  They are outlined!

Sing to the Lord a new song. Why?  God has done marvelous things.  God’s own arm worked salvation.  That salvation has been made known.  Stated differently, righteousness has been revealed.  So, it’s a new song above the din – and not the usual loud, confused, tumultuous noise.  It is not the sound of looting, or protest, or justice gone haywire, or the endless babble of the 24-hour news cycle.

The psalmist is just getting started.  We’re not the only ones in on this.  “Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth!”  Looks like no one is left out.  Harps, trumpets, and horns are employed.  Sounds like we’re getting a band or an orchestra together!

There’s talk of the seas and the rivers “clapping their hands”!  Wow!  I didn’t know the seas and rivers hand hands to clap.  But then again, I don’t see things as God does.  What I see is the seas, rivers, lakes, what have you no longer suffering from drought.  Now the water levels appear above normal in some places!  The sound of the rains pounding and pelting is almost like clapping. 

Why are these bodies of waters and mountains and living things called upon to shout?  It is for this reason:  above the din of the world, a promise will one day be kept.  God will come again to set the wrong to right.  In God’s time, God will judge in righteousness and fairness.

It will only make gloriously clear to you now it is with you now, for you are a believer.  In Jesus Christ – crucified on Good Friday, raised from the grave by the glory of His Father, ascended into the heavens – the judgment against us has been pronounced and the penalty paid.  Above the loud, tumultuous din of this world, we shout for joy and sing a new song. 

Grandma Dunklau loved “Oh that the Lord Would Guide My Ways.”  Grandma Eggert loved “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.  Mom loved “Let us Ever Walk with Jesus” and “Beautiful Savior”.  The latter she would sing as a soloist.

What about the rest of us?  Try out the words of Ken Rose:

Without a song the day would never end

Without a song the road would never bend

When things go wrong a man ain't got a friend

Without a song

I've-a got my trouble and woe and, sure as I know, the Jordan will roll

And I'll get along as long as a song, strong in my soul

I'll-a never know what makes that rain to fall

I'll never know what makes the grass so tall

I only know there ain't no love at all

Without a song

…above the din.

Amen.