Pentecost

The Festival of Pentecost is a glorious day of celebrating the gift of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. With this marvelous gift the Lord Jesus guaranteed that His Church would be kept safe from the powers of sin, death, the devil, the world, and the sinful fleshly nature.

But the devil and the world and our sinful nature are still at war against the saints both as individuals and as the Communion of the Saints, the holy catholic Church on earth. Surely yesterday was a day of battle for the souls of mankind.

In our household, as we made preparations for the service, my wife and I entered into a terrible argument over something absolutely stupid. The matter in dispute was not the cause of our argument, but rather our own obstinance and selfishness. The argument was so intense that it would have stolen away from us the very faith that the day is given to nurture in us. Sin and pride and selfishness are powerful enemies of our souls. Thanks be to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who tirelessly comes to us through the engrafted Word to call us to repentance. He never stops calling to us and working within us to work conversion anew so that repentance transpires within our hearts, minds, and souls and forgiveness is received.

As we struggled, we both cried on account of our sinfulness and we cried on account of our obstinate refusal to subject ourselves to the will of God and to one another in His love. We cried because we knew that we needed the gifts that are bestowed in the divine service through the holy liturgy and through the Word that would be proclaimed in the sermon. So we knelt in prayer and prayed that the Holy Spirit would give to us the forgiveness and love to submit to Him and receive His gifts, humbling us that we might be open to Him. Then we moved forward in His love, forgiving one another and rejoicing in the renewal that He works in the liturgy, the hymns, and the sermon.

This is the life of those who are called by God to be His saints. This is what Pentecost is about. Surely the devil was mightily at work to tempt us to destroy ourselves. But the Lord is not willing to permit this and He calls to our remembrance all that He has previously taught us and continues teaching us. He comforts us with the means of grace, so that we trust that we have yet again been reconciled to God and His peace fills us and renews us once again.

This great miracle, however, can be resisted to the point of losing the gift of the Holy Spirit and the regeneration that He works in Baptism and the renewal that He works in the Communion of Christ’s body and blood. It is possible to resist or ignore the Holy Spirit’s continual urging until we finally are left with only our own thoughts, and our traditions and rituals, and our own faith that ultimately is nothing more than pretense and excuses.

Yesterday afternoon, my mother-in-law called to tell us that she had heard that George Tiller had been shot in the head and killed while attending the Sunday services at Reformation Lutheran Church. Truly the devil and his legions are at work in the world.

Should such things as this murder surprise us? Outrage and shock have been expressed as this news fills the headlines and air waves and digital signals both locally and nationally. But is this really a surprising event?

The man who killed Tiller, is obviously not thinking rightly. He obviously is not one who abides in the everlasting love of God. On the day of Pentecost, instead of God’s love, murder filled his heart to such a degree that his murderous thoughts became murderous actions.

Why?

Perhaps we should stop and consider what he has been taught by our society. Last evening my wife and I went to look for a movie to rent and we had trouble finding anything that appealed to us. We observed the large number of horror movies newly released. Most of the other movies were about murderous revenge or destructive perversions of life in other forms. Revenge and self-gratification are taught and promoted continually and much money is made in the promotion thereof.

What about the response of our nation to the terrible events of 9-11. War! More War! War with Iraq. War with Afghanistan. Threats against Iran. Were any alternative avenues pursued first? Were there even any genuine additional threats against the USA and her citizens? Were the presumed causes for the war ever found in Iraq? Yet the nation is still at war and talking of more war. Justify it with the flag. Call it patriotism. Call it self defense. How many have been killed in the name of justice and freedom and patriotism. The numbers killed by the warmongering exceeds by many times the number killed in the events of 9-11. And, like with the movies, great sums of money have been raped from the people. Some have made billions of dollars from this.

What about the 36 year reign of the abortion industry? Our government has approved and sanctioned the mass murder of millions of helpless human beings. Our society has accepted these brutal murders, these acts that are so atrocious that people become angry that pictures of such things are made public. Pro-life people who try to expose the brutality that abortionists commit daily upon these dear children are decried as extremists and insensitive and uncaring and as opposing true caring for the women and their “rights.” Yet those who actually do the things exposed in the photographs and diagrams are held in honor as gentle and caring. Those who make millions and even billions of dollars enacting these atrocities at which society cringes when the photos are shown, those who kill more than a million babies every year, those are given prestige and government protection. The police arrest those who protest against these killers. The media vilifies those who seek peacefully to expose these atrocious crimes against humanity. And all this by the same society that sanctions chainsaw murder movies and vampire movies and movies about revenge and vigilante justice.

Last night a vigil was held in the Old Town area to remember and honor the man whom some have labeled Dr. George Killer. Contrary to the laws that Dr. Tiller violated in order to perform late term abortions, even when charges were brought against him in court, the Kansas governor and the news media defended him and attacked the Attorney General with false accusations. They worked tirelessly to discredit the Attorney General. Dr. Tiller spent many dollars supporting this and supporting an alternative Attorney General who subsequently won the election, only to be found to be a law breaker himself. But the job of removing the Attorney General who was properly carrying out the law was thoroughly accomplished.

The man who killed Tiller very likely imagined falsely that he was carrying out the justice that could not be carried out by any other means. He probably also imagined himself to be a son of righteousness, a son of God, a Christian.

But so did George Tiller and the pastor and members of Reformation Lutheran Church. Yet while Tiller killed babies by the hundreds and even thousands annually, his family and pastor and the members of the congregation counted him to be a Christian and a son of righteousness. They were gathered on the day of Pentecost, pretending to be gathered as a congregation of God’s grace, mercy, and peace, pretending to worship in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, while condoning a murderer in their midst. Did they call him to repent of his actions? No, they appointed him to usher them to their pews. They joyfully welcomed him as a fellow pretender. The Greek word is hypocrite. St. John warns that such is self deception and calling God a liar. Tiller was formerly a member of a congregation in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LC-MS), but joined with Reformation Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) because of the ELCA’s acceptance of abortion. It is notable that Dennis Rader, aka, the BTK Strangler, was a long-time member of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, also of the ELCA which teaches that abortion is acceptable. Does this connection mean anything? It certainly stands to remind us that where sin is tolerated and even mislabeled as honorable, the Holy Spirit is not being heeded and true repentance is not being worked.

Now the point of this is not that Tiller or his killer or the pastor and congregation of Reformation Lutheran Church are worse people than any of the rest of us. No, for the Lord tells us that anyone who is unjustly angry with a brother is a murderer. On that basis how many murders have we each committed in our hearts?

No, the point is that true faith and the peace of God that the Holy Spirit gives by means of this true faith cannot exist apart from true repentance. The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us regarding the Truth so that He works true repentance in our hearts. The work of the Holy Spirit is to call us unto Jesus to be baptized into Him and to eat the body and blood of His Holy Communion so as to be regenerated unto the Lord’s righteousness in His kingdom and to walk in His righteousness. He works continually to call us back again, for we are obstinate and turn away continually.

Regarding Tiller’s killer, many have condemned him. Regarding Tiller, many have condemned him. For Tiller, repentance is no longer possible. It is for his killer. It is for all of us killers. Like Tiller, like his killer, we all commit murder in our hearts and we even try to justify or excuse our murderous thoughts. Sometimes we even act upon these and kill with our words.

The Lord God calls to us through His means of grace to hear what the Spirit says. He calls to us to move us to true repentance so that we turn from all else to His mercy to receive from Him the forgiveness of sins and renewal into His Holy Communion. The devil, the world, and our own flesh, continually work against this. But God is greater. His forgiveness knows no limits. His love is everlasting. His healing is for our spirit, our heart, our mind, our body, and together our very being or soul. This is the ultimate lesson that we are to hear and to take with us from these tragic atrocities. Then the day of Pentecost is for us what God has already made it to be, a day of rejoicing in the gift of salvation that is in Christ Jesus, the crucified and risen Savior, who has established His Church for us and has poured out His Holy Spirit to us in His Church for our everlasting forgiveness, regeneration, renewal and comfort. Truly, no matter what else happens around us, this is cause for humble rejoicing!