Sermon - Pentecost 3 - Matthew 10:21-33

Sometimes the Gospel doesn’t sound exactly like good news.  “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.”  This is the gospel of the Lord!  Thanks be to God?

As I mentioned last week, these two readings go together as Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out and preach.  He gives them a message, he gives them authority, and he sends them out in pairs to labor in the harvest, which he promises is plentiful.  But in this following reading, he also warns them about the opposition they are sure to face.  And the warning has broader application.  It is first for the apostles, but yes, it is also for all Christians. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has some tough words for us this morning.  Some stark reality.  A bit of a “red pill” to use a neologism.  Being a Christian means persecution.  It means suffering.  It means the hatred of the world will be directed at you.  He doesn’t sugar coat it.  And neither should we.

A servant is no greater than his master.  If they call him the Father of lies, what will they call you? If they hate and revile and mistreat and even crucify him, don’t think they won’t do the same to you. 

But he also has some strong words of comfort and encouragement to help this medicine go down.  Fear not, Christian!  For the persecution that is sure to come - isn’t the end of the story…

I ran across a website that describes and tracks the persecution of Christians throughout the world, and they shared these typical scenarios:

A woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead.

A man in a North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious; the beatings begin again.

A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram, who kidnapped her. She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby.

A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church’s sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast. It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.

According to the same website, in the last year:

• Over 260 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution
• 2,983 Christians killed for their faith
• 9,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked.
• 3,711 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned

(https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/)

We see these things happening (if we are willing to look), and it merely confirms what Jesus teachers here.  And that we don’t, at least not yet, see things like this in our own “land of the free and home of the brave” – well, the relative peace and calm we Christians in America have enjoyed is somewhat of an exception.  No Christian I know has the ability to predict the future, there are certainly some ominous signs for us lately. Are your eyebrows raised yet?

The public square becomes ever more hostile to a Scriptural worldview.  The laws of our land seem to ensconce ever more immorality.  Many Christians are afraid to speak up for fear of losing face, losing a job, or even being sued. You may even be afraid to be known as a Christian, to hold positions that the Bible clearly teaches, or even to mention the name of Jesus in certain circles or particular places.

It’s not just the public square, however, it can even divide the family.  Jesus says “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death”

So what do we do?  Retreat?  Run off to a cave like Elijah?  Crawl into a hole and die? No, Jesus tells us what to do.  And in his command, there is also a message of hope for the persecuted Christian.  He says “fear not”.

Fear not.  It is the most common command in all of Scripture.  Fear not.  Spoken by many an angel, and here, in this reading, on the lips of our Lord 3 times:  fear not.  Do not fear the world.  Do not fear the persecution.  Do not fear those who are out to get you.  The most they can do is destroy the body.  It would be better to fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell – that’s God.  The God who wants not only our fear, but also our love and trust.

Fear not – for he cares even for the sparrow.  And if the life of a sparrow matters to God, then certainly also the least and frailest among us matter.  And certainly also those who suffer for righteousness’ sake matter.  If he has count of even the hairs on your head, then you think he won’t notice your suffering?  The all-knowing and all-powerful God is your Father, and he means you good.  You think he won’t sustain you, be with you, and carry you through?  He will.

And what’s the worst that can happen to you?  Not that they kill you – for he will raise you up.  Not that they can humiliate you, for he will vindicate you.  Take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife.  Let these all be gone, the kingdom ours remaineth.

Confess Christ.  Confess him before men, and he will confess you before the Father.  We confess Christ when we believe in him – believe in your heart and confess with your lips in Christ crucified for sinners.

Trusting Christ crucified is the precise antidote for fear.  If Christ is not your savior, if his blood is not shed for you, if your sins are not forgiven, if Christ has not been raised… well then you have every good reason to fear, both now and hereafter.  But Christ has been raised.  His blood was shed.  His life was given in your place.  And your sins are forgiven.  You have no reason to fear.  So fear not.  Fear not what God will do to you – for you are in Christ.  And fear not what man can do to you – for even if you die, yet shall you live!

The fact that Jesus warns his disciples of persecution is really a comfort.  Imagine if he didn’t warn us.  Imagine if he made it seem like Christianity would always be a walk in the park – your best life now – the magic wand that makes all your troubles go bye-bye.  And then trouble comes.  You’d think him a liar. You’d wonder whether God cared, or had any power to save at all.

But that he warns you ahead of time – is a comfort.  That he knows you will meet resistance, and suffer, and maybe even die at the hands of wicked men – means you can trust him at his word, and have no fear.

This is why Jesus can say blessed are you when they persecute you.  This is how Paul can explain that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope, and hope does not put us to shame.  This is why faith clings to Christ, and even grows, in the midst of tribulations in this world.  Because faith trusts in Christ, and Christ has promised us a future beyond the suffering and persecution, a hope even beyond the grave.

Being a Christian is both easy and hard.  It’s easy in the sense that we have nothing to do, but believe, and we are saved.  All the heavy-lifting is done by Jesus at the cross.  It’s as easy for us as receiving a gift.  But it’s also hard, in that persecutions are sure to come.  It’s hard as we struggle against the wicked world, and of course also the devil and our own sinful flesh.  It’s hard in that there is suffering, there are crosses, and this side of heaven, we have to be ready for it all.

But fear not.  For Christ is with you, even if and when you are persecuted.  Fear not, for his word is always and ever true.  Fear not, for he has redeemed you, he has called you by name, you are his.  Fear not, little flock, but rather trust the Good Shepherd, who will get you out of this valley of the shadow of death and bring you to his good pastures.  Persecution is temporary but with Christ, the blessings are eternal.

Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sermon - Second Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-20)

And so we are back to green.  Green paraments, green stoles.  The Season of Pentecost, or what we call the “regular time” of the church.  The Festival half of the church year is concluded, after we followed the life of Christ from Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week and Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.  Now we enter the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost – the time of the church.

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Today we have the first of a two-part reading from Matthew’s Gospel.  The over-arching topic is something like, “Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles”.  Now, next week we will hear about the suffering they can expect when they go.  But here, for starters, we have some preliminary matters.

First, Jesus comments about the harvest and the workers.

Second, He gives the Twelve authority.  And Matthew gives us their names.

Third, He sends them out with their message and marching orders.

Let’s consider each of these in turn, as we apply the reading also to our common life in the church today.

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”  Jesus speaks here in a word picture about the kingdom.  He had been going about his business, preaching in various places throughout the cities and villages.  And it became clear that more preachers would be needed for the task.  The ‘harvest’, as it were, being the hearers and recipients of the Gospel of the kingdom – and the ‘laborers’, those who tended to the harvest. 

We should understand this aphoristic saying of Jesus with broad application.  The harvest is, now, as it was then, as it always is – plentiful.  There are always people who need to hear the message of Jesus.  There are always people who will receive the message of Jesus.  Keying in on the grand scriptural metaphor of agriculture – the seed of the Gospel is planted and preached – bringing forth a harvest of faith by God’s grace.  Some plant, some water, some harvest.  God always gives the growth.  We preachers are just blessed to work our own little corner of the field, and pray we do it faithfully.

That the harvest is plentiful is good news for the church, isn’t it?  We may look out and think we see otherwise.  It’s easy to be doom and gloom in today’s world, as churches shrink and orthodox Christianity is marginalized in the public square.  It looks, to us, less like a harvest and more like a blight.  Stubbly fields that have been picked clean by crows and bleached by the heat of the day.  We may think the church is doomed.  We may predict disaster.  We may feel like Elijah, “I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me too.”

But don’t dismiss these words of Jesus.  The harvest IS plentiful.  Things just aren’t always as they seem.  The spiritual reality isn’t always what we perceive it to be.  Jesus’ words stand true, even when it appears otherwise.

So repent of any discouragement and trust that the God who establishes his church and builds his church will also grow and keep his church as he sees fit, and that according to his promise, the harvest is plentiful.  People need to hear the Gospel, and when it is preached, the word doesn’t return void.  Some falls on good soil, and produces that harvest of a hundred-fold.

And remember, that you are a part of that harvest!  Though you were dead in your sins, the Spirit has made you alive in Christ.  So now where there was no life, now there is a harvest.  As you have come to faith by the word.  As you have been baptized and discipled. 

The problem is not the lack of harvest but the lack of workers, laborers, and preachers.  But even for that problem Jesus has a solution:  pray.  Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the fields.  And we know he answers.

If you listen closely to the prayer of the church each week, we do a pretty good job of following this command of Jesus.  We pray for laborers.  We pray that God would provide the church with faithful pastors and church workers.  We also act in accord with this prayer, as we support church workers and seminary students.  Mark Peters, the man we are now supporting at seminary, and his family will be here again this summer – and I know you will be generous with him as you always are.  This won’t benefit us directly, but it is part of our support for the church at large, and our response to Jesus’ teaching here.  In the same way we support missionaries, like Phillip Magness, who teaches Lutheran church music and worship in Africa.  He’ll be here in less than a month.

Second, Jesus gives the twelve authority.  Matthew specifically mentions the authority Jesus gives over unclean spirits, and also to heal.  These were important confimations of the message they would preach, signs that they were sent by the true Messiah, and an outward expression of the breaking of the devil’s kingdom that the Gospel brings.  It amazed the disciples, themselves, that even the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name!  But Jesus answers with a sort of “you aint seen nothin’ yet”.  Don’t rejoice in this, that is, the outward miracles – but that your names are written in heaven.  Rejoice, rather, in salvation itself.

It’s true that at this point Jesus was sending his disciples only to the lost sheep of Israel.  But soon he would expand that commission and send them to make disciples of all nations.  So does he establish the Church and also the office of the Holy Ministry.  Those apostles would plant churches and appoint pastors far and wide.  The kingdom would expand and grow.  The harvest would grow and the gospel would spread, throughout years, decades, and centuries.

Today, the preachers of the Gospel are not promised the same kind of apostolic power to exorcise demons and miraculously heal.  But we have inherited from the apostles and those that came after them - the message of the Gospel, and the salvation of Christ crucified.  And that is enough.  It is enough to amaze us, and give us cause for rejoicing.  That the Son of God became man for you, fulfilled the law for you, and offered himself on the cross for you – to save you from sin and death and devil.  This is the great good news that Christ has given to the church to hear, and proclaim, and by it, to be saved.

Now, you might say, well, is this all about pastors?  Is this all about preaching?  Where’s my place in the field? What’s my labor toward the harvest?

For all of us, it is first of all to believe.  To receive the message of Jesus preached to us.  To repent of our sins and believe in the Gospel.  To be the harvest, to grow, and bear fruit.

Second, to labor in the harvest is to support the preaching of this gospel.  Not all are to be preachers, just as not all are apostles.  But all have received the message with joy and desire others to receive the same blessing.  And so we pray for preachers, that they would be sent, that they would be faithful, and for the success of the proclamation.  We earnestly ask that the Lord would move sinners to repentance and faith in Christ as he has so done for us.  And we do what we can to bring other sinners to hear this good news, like one beggar telling another where to find the free bread.

Third, we love our neighbor.  We can say all the right things but if we have no love it won’t amount to much.  Jesus says they will know where are his disciples by our love.  And so inasmuch as each Christian loves his neighbor, he gives a powerful witness silent that supports any words of witness he may have occasion to offer.  Why are you being so kind to me?  How is it, that you can you forgive me?  Well, friend, let me tell you…  Well, friend, let me invite you to my church…

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  The harvest is plentiful.  Thanks be to God.  What a joy to be a part of that harvest, by the blood of Christ.  But the workers are few.  So let us heed Jesus’ words, and pray for more laborers to be sent into that harvest.  And let our actions match our words, let our love and support for the Gospel rise to the occasions he sets before us.  For in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is at hand, with blessings as only he can provide.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Sermon - Matthew 28:16-20

"Understanding or Confessing?"

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.  It is Holy Trinity Sunday.  That one Sunday each year in which we highlight the mystery of the divine nature – that God is three and God is one.  In a few moments we will confess the Athanasian Creed, which as a child, seemed to me to last for an eternity, but now as an adult I cherish more every year.

And I call it a mystery for good reason.  The scriptural doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one the Christian church has been pondering, confessing, and sometimes even fighting about, since the very beginning.  And while the Old Testament believers certainly confessed the oneness of God, it cannot be said that the three-ness is something the New Testament invented.  Rather, it is only with the appearance of Jesus Christ, and the light shed by the New Testament writers, that we see the distinction of three co-equal persons of the godhead so clearly. 

Think about it.  God the Father, of course, is assumed in the Old Testament.  His names and works are replete and evident.  But the Spirit is also there, even from the very beginning, hovering over the face of the waters, as we read in Genesis 1.  Furthermore, that God appears and makes himself manifest throughout the ages in the burning bush, in the pillar of fire, and in the many “angel of the Lord” instances – is at least a hint that something strange is going on.  No one has ever seen God, and yet, in these instances, it appears that in a way, people do.

And then the New Testament, especially John’s Gospel, make it clear that Jesus, the Second Person of this Holy Trinity, is the Living Word of God present from the very beginning, and that by him all things were made.  That Word, which became manifest in the incarnation of Christ, that God made flesh – and we have seen his glory.

Now, already, we’ve been unpacking and setting forth just a sliver of what the Scriptures teach about this grand topic, and perhaps already it’s raised some questions or tensions in your mind.  How can God be three and one at the same time?  What exactly is the relationship between God the Father and the Son?  And why is this all so important anyway that we spend a whole Sunday on it every year?

But let me raise for you one of the very real dangers as we approach this doctrine.  And that is this, the danger of understanding.  Or, better yet, thinking we can, or we might, or we somehow should understand God.

Human reason really is a wonderful gift and blessing, which God has bestowed upon us and which he would have us use to his glory and the benefit of our neighbor.  But like all good gifts of God, our sinful nature uses and abuses it.  You might even say that human reason, influenced by the Devil, had a hand in the very first sin.  When Eve looked at the fruit, reasoned that it was good for food and also for wisdom, reasoned that it would make her like God, knowing good from evil…. She drew the very logical conclusion that it was worth a try.  She reached a satanic course of action by elevating her own thoughts above the very word of God. 

And so do we.  Did God really say?  Did God really say he was one?  Does God really say he is three?  Does he really say that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus and the Father are one?  Does the Spirit really receive divine honor and worship and do divine works?  Does the Bible really put these three on equal footing?  How do we understand the nature of the Divine, the mechanics of the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity?

It's not wrong to ask questions.  But we must keep our reason in check.  It’s only natural to wonder at the how and the why.  But we must maintain a humility that recognizes both the finite limitations of our place as creatures, and also the corruption of our reason due to sin.  Or to put it another way, Scripture informs our reason, not the other way around.

To think that we can understand and discern the mysteries of God’s nature is really the height of arrogance.  But it is an arrogance that is not far from the sinful mind of man.  How many times have you ever heard someone say, “Well, I could never worship a god who does thus and so….”  Or, “That’s not how my God would act”?  We try to subject God to our “if… then… “ syllogisms as if we are the master logician and the Almighty is confined to a seat in our classroom.  Is there any more foolish way to put yourself above God, in the place of God, than to think you can take him apart and put him back together again?  Who’s the creator here, anyway?

And another species of this arrogance is our tendencies toward works righteousness.  To think that we know better also about our own salvation.  To dismiss the work of Christ, the atoning sacrifice of the cross, and to substitute instead our own meager and miserable merits.  “Thanks, Jesus, you got us started, but we’ll finish the job ourselves”.  “You gave us a head start, now we have to finish the race.  You set the table, but it’s up to us to please God with our holy living and impressive piety.”  What could ever be more wrong?

And so, the repentance here is to lean not on your own understanding, but to trust God to be God.  Don’t think you can know God on your own, but receive with thanksgiving that which he reveals to you about himself, Father, Son, and Spirit.  Humble your brain.  But a bit and bridle on your own thinking, and be subject to the Word of God in all things.  Repent of your own ways, receive and believe the truth which God bestows.

Or to put it more simply, don’t understand, but confess.  Don’t earn it, receive it.  Don’t figure it out, believe it.

Confession is simply saying what God has already said.  God says you are a sinner, and you confess your sins.  God says he is holy, and we confess he is holy.  God says he is Father, Son and Spirit, and we say, amen!  Blessed be the Holy Trinity!

This is what the Christian church has done, over the many years, especially by means of her creeds.  We set forth in these grand summaries, a confession – a same-saying of what Scripture teaches.  These are not new teachings or invented doctrines.  They are what we have received, and what have been handed down to us by God through the apostles and the prophets, and have been kept by the faithful through the ages.  They are treasures of the church, like the gold setting of a precious gem – which sets forth the true jewel of God’s treasury, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus teaches us the Trinity also, and perhaps especially, in Matthew 28, by his command to make disciples by baptism and teaching.  He sets before us the Triune name of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and commands the church to baptize people into this Divine name.  Notice it’s a singular name with three referents.  It’s really not good grammar, is it?  He should have said in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Ah, but he knows better.  There’s one name.  There’s one God.  There’s three persons.

Just as Jesus teaches that disciples are made by such a simple thing as baptism.  This also flies in the face of reason.  You mean simple water and a few words can effect salvation?  They can change me, make me different in any meaningful way?  And without me bringing anything to the table?  Why yes, baptism into the name of the Trinue God is a very means of grace, a washing of rebirth and renewal, a burial with Christ and a raising from the dead with him also.  Such is the power of the divine name of the Triune God and the promise of God the Son who died for the sins of the world.

And so the church, and the Christian, does not understand.  But we do confess.  We trust God, not ourselves, to know who he is, what he has done, what he still does.  We humbly receive and boldly confess the truths of his holy word, inspired by the Spirit, made flesh in the Son, to the glory of the Father.

Even now let us confess this faith, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, in the words of the Athanasian Creed…

Sermon - John 7:37-39 - The Day of Pentecost

 “Thirst for the Spirit”

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39

I was looking at the statistics for the virus this week, as I am sure many of you have also.  One chart listed the likelihood of dying from various causes, including the virus.  Some surprised me, some did not.  Of all the dangers to life and limb we face in this life, dying of thirst is pretty low on our list, isn’t it?  

I think the closest we get to that kind of thirst is after mowing the lawn on a hot Texas day and coming in for a cold drink, maybe even a beer, that first sip or gulp is so good, so refreshing.

I remember watching Sesame Street as a child and seeing an animated short about a man crawling through the desert, sweating and exhausted, calling out and grasping at the air, “Water!  Water!”  I suppose he was dying of thirst.  What a relief it must be for someone like that to find an oasis, and drink their fill.  That water becomes the difference between death and life.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus invites people, you, me, anyone… anyone who thirsts, to come to him and drink.  And he promises such a drink that whoever receives it, that is, whoever believes in him… will also become a source for even more.  From his heart will flow rivers of living water.  And finally, John comments, that Jesus was saying this about the Spirit.  So what do we make of all this today?

For starters, it’s important to notice the setting for this proclamation.  Jesus is at Jerusalem for a feast… one of the 3 major feasts of ancient Israel – the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths.  It was when tents, or booths were set up in the fields for harvest time.  It also recalled the wilderness wandering and God’s providing food and water for the people during their 40 years there.  Remember the manna from heaven and the rock that was struck and poured out water for them to drink?

Tabernacles was a week-long festival, with various ceremonies and rituals taking place throughout those days. One of the rituals involved water. Each morning, water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and carried in a golden pitcher to the temple. The water was poured out, the trumpets would sound, and the people would sing the words of Isaiah, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”1

It’s no accident that Jesus chooses this event, with all this business about water to make these comments about himself and the Spirit.  He’s connecting God’s provision for the people of old with God’s promises in the Messiah, namely, himself.  But just as the manna in the wilderness pointed forward to the true Bread of Life, Jesus… so also the water from the rock pointed forward to the greater waters bestowed by Jesus upon the church – through holy baptism and the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit.  There are so many ways to extol the work of the Holy Spirit among us.  But today, consider the Spirit’s connection to water.

The first mention of the Spirit of God we hear in Scripture is the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of the primeval creation.  The Spirit also makes himself know in the baptism of Jesus, even appearing visibly, in the form of a dove.  And of course, the Holy Spirit comes to each of us Christians in our baptism, through the water and the word of promise there. 

The Spirit is also, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, the “Lord and Giver of Life”.  This is true both of our bodily life and breath, but even more so of the new life of faith.  This is why the Spirit’s work is called “living water”.  Water is always closely connected with life.  Think about it when scientists go looking for life on other planets, one of the first things they look for is water – as far as we know – a necessity for life.  You can live for weeks without eating, but only a few days without water.  And when the water is bad or tainted or too salty you it won’t help you.  It needs to be good water, healthy and pure water.  How much more the living water that Jesus Christ gives!

And so Jesus invites all who thirst.  But he means more than physical thirst.  All who have a desire and yearning for peace.  All who know their deepest need.  All who sorrow over their sins and yearn for the comfort, the quenching of the soul that the Gospel brings.  All who look for the washing away of all the troubles of this sad life marred by griefs of all kinds.  

If everything is just dandy in your life, and if you have not even a spot of trouble in your conscience… then you don’t have the thirst.  But if you know it’s all wrong.  If you see the world isn’t as it should be, and more than that, you aren’t how you should be.  Then you’re approaching that thirst.  Then you need Jesus, and Jesus you will receive.

Luther puts it this way:  “Christ chose words that addressed themselves to the heart and to those who felt the need of them. These are comforting, friendly, and charming words; they refresh, console, and strengthen the thirsty.”

It’s so simple.  Come to me, believe in me, and receive from me.  There’s no complicated process or set of instructions to follow.  There’s no 12 or 100 step program to earn this living water.  It’s a gift.  It’s free.  Freely given by the one who freely gave himself even unto death, even death upon the cross.

There also we see water – as the spear pierced his side, and blood and water issued forth.  Water, blood and spirit crying – all three give testimony to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

John says Jesus was speaking here of the Spirit, but that the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.  Well, that’s true in a sense.  In another sense, the Spirit had already been there from eternity, was active in creation, and also spoke by the prophets.  But the Spirit would come in a new way, and with particular power, when the glorified Christ poured out the Spirit on Pentecost.

On that day – the Gospel was preached to pilgrims from all over the world who had gathered at Jerusalem.  Miraculously so, in their own languages.  And presumably many of those who heard and believed would carry that message home, and the same Spirit would work through that Gospel and continue to bring more and more sinners to believe in Christ.

That the church would continue to grow and the kingdom expand, that the word of Christ would be preached even to the ends of the earth – is the work of the Spirit even today.  And it takes us back to the water.

Notice Jesus says about those who thirst and come to him – they receive a living water.  But it’s not just for them.  It’s a water that flows out of their hearts, out of our hearts.  The blessings of Christ are not to be hoarded and clutched and squirreled away for ourselves.  Faith isn’t like that.  Faith flows, like water.  It springs forth from us in ways we may not even always comprehend.  For just as the Spirit moves when and where he wills, so does he employ the believers in Christ as he so chooses.  To love and serve neighbors.  To witness to the hope that is within us.  To pray and work and love and give.  Living waters, flowing naturally from the believer as water flows from a spring.

Do you thirst for forgiveness, sinner?  Then come to Christ and drink freely.  Do you want to see the work of the Spirit?  Then give ear to the words and promises of Jesus.  And you will receive the living water freely, only to see it flow forth from you, by the power of the Holy Spirit himself.  Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1 Paragraph taken from a sermon by Rev. Charles Henrickson