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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is on vacation, but, for our reflection this morning on the Second Reading for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, Pastor Galler edited a sermon written by The Rev. Dr. Robb C. Ring, associate pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Orange, California, and an adjunct professor at Concordia University Irvine, California. Rev. Dr. Ring’s sermon was published in the 2021-2022 volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (32:1, pp.38-41), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when our pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The completed sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
On December 12, 19‑80, a small startup company called “Apple” first became a public corporation and began offering its very first shares of stock, what in the business world is referred to as an “initial public offering”, or I‑P‑O. To protect the interests of those investing in a new company, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires a lot of documentation to be filed before an I-P-O. One such document required is a full disclosure of any foreseeable weaknesses or problems as the new corporation’s goods or services go to market. Here is what Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, disclosed as a “foreseeable weakness” for the company. (Keep in mind this was more than forty-one years ago.)
“The expansion of the personal computer market will require a continued orientation effort directed at informing individuals of the means by which the computer may be utilized to enhance personal efficiency and productivity. Towards this end, the Company is committed to an extensive advertising and promotional effort.” (Apple Computer IPO, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Public Domain, December 1980)
In other words, at that time, the founders of Apple Computer, which is now one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world, were concerned that no one would have any use for their product! In those early days, people considered personal computers to be a novelty, and, only after many years, did the world more fully realize computers’ potential and make them an integral component of our earthly existence. How strange is considering a time when our society had to be informed as to the usefulness of something most of us would feel helpless without today.
Yet, even today you and I may need to be informed as to the spiritual usefulness of Someone without Whom we all are helpless. In today’s Second Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul writes that he does not want the Corinthians—or us—to be un‑informed about what is translated as “spiritual gifts”, though a better translation might be “spiritual things”, such as the work of the Holy Spirit in our everyday Christian life. So, St. Paul informs the Corinthians—and us—about the amazing usefulness of what they have been given, through their Baptism, in the Divine person of the Holy Spirit. Though we frequently hear about the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, we may wonder, “What does He really do? What does He help us achieve?” Today’s Second Reading is one of the many passages in which St. Paul explains how empowered the Church is by the Holy Spirit, without Whom we truly are helpless. Considering the Second Reading, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “The Work of One through the Many”.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul rather broadly describes the work of the Holy Spirit as gifts, services, and activities. Beyond sharing the same origin, what those gifts, services, and activities all have in common is that all are miraculously accomplished through fragile human hands and miraculously proclaimed through imperfect human speech. Whether utterances of wisdom or knowledge, or the healing of body or mind, or the translation of foreign language, whether astonishing or mundane in form or appearance, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in the daily life of the Christian believer’s loving and serving the neighbor. In his commentary on Genesis, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther summarizes well our love for our neighbor according to our vocations as Christians when he writes the following:
“We all have one and the same God, and we are one in the unified worship of God, even if our works and vocations are different. But each one should do his duty in his station, even as Jacob is a saintly and spiritual man meditating on God’s Law, praying, administering and governing the church. In the meantime, however, he does not overlook lowly domestic duties connected with the fields and the flocks, and this is set before us as an example that we may know that all our actions in domestic life are pleasing to God and that they are necessary for this life in which it becomes each one to serve the one God and Lord of all according to one’s ability and vocation.” (AE 6:348)
Vocations are the everyday services, activities, and words of us Christians expressed through our daily interactions with our neighbors and given as gifts from God. By Divine-inspiration St. Peter writes, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:10-11).
Sometimes our vocations seem very “spiritual” in nature from a human viewpoint, such as an Elder’s reading a sermon or leading Matins, or a pianist’s accompanying our singing. But, other vocations may not appear to have any spiritual connection whatsoever, such as a mechanic’s repairing our car, an attorney’s arguing in a courtroom, or a parent’s trying to get a child off his or her electronic devices and to bed on a school night. The truth is that the Holy Spirit is at work through all human actions and words, however mundane or majestic they appear to our finite eyes, assuming they do not violate the Word of God. Unfortunately, Satan likes to deceive the human heart whenever possible and will take advantage of every opportunity to focus our hearts and minds on the spirit of “me” rather than the Spirit of God. In recent church history, many have struggled with the concept of “spiritual gifts,” primarily because of an improper emphasis on individual identity and personal attention. The temptation to be a “God‑like” individual has been biting at our heels from the very beginning. So, in the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds us of what true “spiritual things” look like, as opposed to empty, human effort. In several places St. Paul reminds us that the work of the Spirit is never reductive or individualistic, that is to say, the work of the Spirit does not have a singular focus on a particular individual’s ability, but instead the work of the Spirit is relational, one part of a larger whole. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit,” St. Paul writes, “for the common good”. St. Paul further communicates this relational aspect of the work of the Spirit by the phrases “varieties but one” and “to each but common” and “individually but one”.
While not literally using the terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, St. Paul’s mention of the Spirit, Lord, and God, should at least remind us of the distinctly three, but fully one, relational nature of the three Blessed Persons in the one Holy Trinity. From the beginning, the relational nature of God as Trinity arguably was reflected in His creation. For example, the first human being was incomplete while alone. We were created in and for relationship with God and one another, originally created from the dust and later as new creations through Baptism, together becoming the Body of the Church. As St. Paul writes elsewhere, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:4-5). The day-to-day work of the Holy Spirit through our human hands is not an individual effort; it is each of us playing one part of a much greater whole. When we reduce the work of the Holy Spirit to the individual alone, we are destined for disappointment.
Of course, because of our sinful nature, we sin in these and countless other ways. As St. Paul said in the Second Reading, we were led astray by something other than the Holy Spirit. Whether desire, anger, envy, or some other emotional drive, human power only produces work that leads to temporal and eternal death. First and foremost we need the Holy Spirit to work through God’s Word and Sacraments to lead us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, true God in human flesh, Who out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace died on the cross in our place. No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Through Baptism, Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar—miraculous signs such as His turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana that we heard of in the Third Reading (John 2:1‑11)—Jesus still manifests His glory, and His disciples like us believe in Him. Then we are God’s people, like those in the First Reading (Isaiah 62:1-5), whom God rejoices over as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. After the Holy Spirit has brought us into the Body of Christ that is the Church, then we have a role as the Spirit works through us by His power. Thus, our Lutheran Confessions say the following:
“Therefore, when we have been justified by faith and regenerated, we begin to fear and love God, to pray to Him, to expect aid from Him, to give thanks and praise Him, and to obey Him in times of suffering. We also begin to love our neighbors, because our hearts have spiritual and holy movements.” (Apology to the Augsburg Confession, V:4)
In the Second Reading, St. Paul writes, “It is the same God who empowers them all in everyone,” and “all these are empowered by one and the same Spirit.” While it is true that your services, your activities, and your words are in some sense “yours,” we must never forget that the power that accomplishes anything through them is the Lord’s. If it is spiritual work, it must be spiritually powered.
In many of our United States, there are laws that require mothers and fathers to care for their children, laws that sometimes are used to protect children from parents who abandon them. But, are such laws why you provide care for your children? Do you care for your children simply because the law requires it? I would hope not. Imagine the amount of psychological damage that would be inflicted if we knew that the only reason our parents took care of us was because they felt forced to do so under some law. Are such laws why you cannot sleep every time you worry about whether or not you made the right parenting decision? I doubt it. The power of parenting and every other vocation under the call of Christ is something far beyond any earthly punishment or reward. The power of parenting and every other vocation under the call of Christ is the Holy Spirit, Who is given to us through God’s Word and Sacraments.
A decade or so after he founded Apple Computer, Steve Jobs spoke publicly about an article that he had read in Scientific American that rated the efficiency of a variety of animal species and found that the condor used the least energy to move a kilometer, while humans were one third of the way down the list. But, a human on a bicycle blew the condor away, completely off the chart, and Jobs said that for him a computer was a bicycle for our minds (Steve Jobs in reference to S. S. Wilson, “Bicycle Technology,” Scientific American [March 1973]). But, whether bicycle, computer, or some yet unknown technology still to come, earthly, external means, however advanced they might be, will only get us so far. In the case of our daily living of the Gospel, our efforts are in vain without the Divine means of the Holy Spirit, Who, through the Gospel, transforms us and what we do through our vocations. Do not be uninformed. The Holy Spirit is at work in all of us who believe: “The Work of One through the Many”. With the Spirit working through us serving together as the Body of Christ, we shall see the world made new in Christ. We shall see marvelous things, both now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +