OUR CALL

By Dr. Eric C. Stumpf, Senior Pastor

St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church – Munster, IN

Acts 2:1-21 + Pentecost + 26/27 May 2007

            Police arrived at the home of Raghu Amin Mollah and arrested his father.  They found the 21 year old young man chained up in a room in the house.  He was unable to move and had to be feed by hand.  He endured this imprisonment because he disobeyed his father.  Raghu had married his childhood sweetheart against his father’s will.  The father had forbidden the marriage because he considered the bride to be of a lower class and didn’t like the family. It was the 18 year old bride who lodged a complaint with the police.  The police are further investigating the clergy, not Christian by the way, who may have advised this course of action just outside Calcutta, India. (LHM Daily Devotions, May 22, 2007, and Federal News Radio, May 22, 2007) 

            After hearing this story I am thankful for two things.  First, I am thankful that I don’t have to go to future reunions with the Mollah family.  But I am also thankful that as a Christian I have a heavenly Father who doesn’t treat us the way Raghu’s father treated him.

             Today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit by the Father to his children.  The Holy Spirit makes it possible for you and me to believe and be saved. 

The Holy Spirit is Essential for Our Salvation

            We confess…that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ….  Scripture is not very complimentary about the human condition before the Holy Spirit brings us to faith.  Ephesians 2:1 describes us as dead in sin, unable, just like a dead body, to do anything.  Romans 8:7describes us as enemies of God because of our natural sinful condition.  1 Corinthians 2:14 describes us as unable to understand the work of the Holy Spirit.  1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us without the Holy Spirit transforming us we would be quite unable to receive Christ as our Savior.  People have a hard time with this and think the Holy Scriptures must be mistaken.  They insist that they come to faith on their own, that they can be saved by a decision on their part. Even in worldly things we all needed someone to instruct us and enable us to learn.  How much more with spiritual matters?  This is where the Holy Spirit enlightens us so we might receive the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection as our salvation.

             Holy Spirit works through the Gospel to bring His good gifts in our life.  President Abraham Lincoln 145 years ago signed into law one of the most far reaching laws to shape our country.  It was called the Homestead Act.  The United States government was willing to give away without cost 160 acres of land to any head of a family who would plow the earth, build a house, and live on the land for five years.  In 1860 160 acres of land sounded wonderful and indeed many European immigrants as well as Americans filed for this grant.  Yet today farmers cultivate farms with 3000 plus acres.  Have farmers become stronger in 140 years?  Farm equipment has developed so one farmer today can do the work of 60 farmers in 1860.  The gift of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit’s work through the Gospel empowers us to do what no sinful man could ever do – believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and please God in what we do. 

The Holy Spirit’s Field of Work is the Church

            The Holy Christian Church is made up of believers in Christ who by faith and deed are like bricks to a larger building.  On the north side of Chicago there is a church built in 1906.  Wicker Park Lutheran Church was built by immigrants who came to Chicago with hopes and dreams of making a life.  They did not have much money but they dreamed of having their own Church.  Fine granite blocks were available from a demolished house on the Levee for a small price.  But the concern was whether the building material was appropriate, for you see the granite blocks had once been part of a house of ill-repute.  The pastor said, “These stones served the devil long enough, now let them serve the Lord.” (Michelin Guide for Chicago, 2001 ed., p. 167) All of us were by sin estranged by God, doing the devil’s work.  But through the redemption of Christ we were redeemed.  The Holy Spirit now uses us to be part of the Body of Christ, useful instruments in the Lord’s work.

             The Holy Spirit calls you – through the Holy Word we hear the Law and see the horror of our sin.  We would be lost forever.  But the Word also tells us of God’s love and His redemption so the lost might be found, the sinful forgiven, and the erring corrected.   The Holy Spirit gathers you – through the Word we are drawn to our Lord’s Words and gifts.  Our conscience tells us that we need to come on the Lord’s Day to hear our sins forgiven and be fed the life giving Word.  Our joy is being with the Lord.  The Holy Spirit enlightens you – through the Word but also the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and minds so that we might know the Word, understand the Word, apply the Word and live the Word.  Satan knows and can quote Scripture, but he does not believe nor trusts in it.  The Holy Spirit applies what we read and hear so we might believe and trust it.  The Holy Spirit sanctifies you – through the Word we receive the forgiveness of sins, that barrier which would try to prevent God’s good work being done in our lives.  Our faith is not lips service, but in words and deeds we live our life empowered by the Holy Spirit’s work in us.  Finally, the Holy Spirit keeps you in the true faith – through the Word we are daily strengthened.  I was asked to write a brief note in a confirmand’s remembrance book.  I told him that Christ does not change, but if we fail to feed on his word regularly we will find Christ growing smaller in our life.  Only when we walk with our Lord through regular feeding of his Word will Christ grow with us. 

The Holy Spirit Brings Forgiveness So We Might Have Life

            Many have planted gardens, but the work is not over.  For the next 45 to 90 days in addition to what you planted weeds will grow.  Ignore the weeds and in short order you will have a mess instead of a garden.  Weeding is the forgiveness we all need.  Daily our Lord calls us and the Holy Spirit moves us to repent of our sins and look to Christ’s forgiveness.  The Holy Spirit brings this forgiveness as God promised. 

            Michael Faraday, a 19^th century chemist, was told by his distraught assistant that his silver cup had dropped into an acid solution and dissolved.  There was nothing left of it, it was totally destroyed.  However, Faraday through electrolysis was able to collect the suspended silver.  Now the silver was just that, not shaped into a cup, but just a glob at the end of a piece of metal.  The silver was taken to a silversmith who reformed the silver into a beautiful cup again.  Through the death that is in this world it may seem to all that we are destroyed, lost forever.  Yet in Christ’s resurrection we are gathered together and reshaped by the Creator to be even more than we once were, eternal life with our Savior. 

            As God’s people we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit who brings us to faith, sustains us, and prepares us for eternal life in Christ.  Amen.

SDG