Jesus Sends Us His Holy Speaker

CANTATE

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

APRIL 29, 2018

ST. JOHN 16:5–15

JESUS SENDS US HIS HOLY SPEAKER

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It was a strange sight. Hundreds of men were yelling at the sky. They were dancing around a pile of stones with a dead bull on top. Then it got stranger. The men started taking knives and cutting themselves. They shouted, danced, and slashed all day long, but there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

This sight is from 1 Kings 18 on a mountain called Carmel. The prophet Elijah had challenged his fellow Israelites to a test. Since many of them worshiped several different gods, Elijah proposed an experiment to determine which god was fake and who was real. Any god who sent fire down from the sky to burn up a designated altar sacrifice was the real god.

Baal was a popular god with many of the Israelites. So the prophets and priests of this false Baal had a lot riding on this contest; they needed a positive result to keep their positions of influence. Their cushy lives would evaporate unless their Baal god worked some magic. So they put on a show. These prophets shouted, danced, and slashed themselves, hoping that their performances would win the attention of their god. But their god was only a figment of their imagination. No fire came down from the sky.

Then Elijah prayed and God immediately burned up Elijah's altar, which Elijah had made ridiculously wet. Here was a science experiment in full swing. Hypothesis: Real gods can do real things, such as send down fire from heaven. And now this hypothesis was tested. And the evidence was conclusive: the Lord God is real.

The people of this world and their priests always claim to want to see proof that God exists. But when confronted with the truth, the world proves that it cannot see Jesus, even when it's right there in front of their eyes.

The strange day on Mt. Carmel had begun with Elijah calling on his countrymen to decide which god to worship, but by the end of the day, after seeing the clear evidence of the true God, they rejected Him. The people put the false priests and prophets to the sword, but they failed to follow the way of the true God.

And after all of this, Elijah was quite sure that he was all alone. Roughly a thousand years later Jesus warned His disciples that they would feel all alone when He returned to His Father upon completing His mission of salvation. He would die and they would feel all alone.

JOHN 16:5–6 But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. EHV 2017

Jesus was telling His disciples that after He was put to death, He would be raised from the dead, but after that He would not be with them for long. Jesus knew that His disciples would think that they would be all alone. So He told them that they would never be alone; He was sending the Holy Spirit to comfort them with His promises for the rest of their lives.

JOHN 16:13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears He will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. EHV 2017

When you read the Holy Scriptures later today at home, when your child listens to you tell her stories of Elijah and Moses and Paul and above all Jesus, we are hearing the Holy Spirit speak. He is declaring to you what has happened and what is to come. And not just that these things that happened, happened, but that they happened for you! And since Jesus happened for you, you are never alone.

Elijah thought he was alone, but the Lord never left Him. The Lord fed him and spoke to him and in the end, He took Elijah home to heaven.

There are times when we think we are alone, but the Lord never leaves us, either. We feel alone at school because our friend wants to play with somebody else. We feel alone because we don't get enough “Happy Birthdays” on our Facebook feed. We feel alone because our child died. But we are not alone.

His Holy Spirit speaks to us and He feeds us with Jesus' living word and living body and living blood. The Holy Spirit is here and the Father and the Son, one God, present and with us. He speaks to us, and in the end, we know the future: He will take us home to heaven.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thanks be to God!