The Breath of the Church

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we are gathered to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, one of the oldest feasts in the calendar of the Church, even older than Christmas or Easter, in fact. The festival which we here commemorate goes back all the way to the time of Moses and the giving of the Law. And yet it has remained, handed down through successive generations even to our own time, and for untold ages yet to come.

The Feast of Pentecost was originally enacted to celebrate the harvest of the winter wheat. The word “pentecost” is Greek for “fifty”, referring to the fifty days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, after which the Pentecost was celebrated. Traditionally, this festival also had the added significance of commemorating the Lord's giving the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt.

Now, after fifty days, you are here to celebrate the new Pentecost. Fifty days ago, our Lord Jesus Christ made His great exodus from death into life. He burst forth from the tomb, out of the house of bondage, and into the realm of life and immortality. Now, on this day, the Torah is once again given out. The instruction, the teaching, the life-giving, people-constituting Word of the Lord is handed over to His spokesmen. This new giving of the Torah includes the fulfillment of the old Law, something Moses could never give. It includes our Lord Christ, the fulfillment of all that was prophesied by Moses. This new Torah includes the forgiveness of sins, not by the blood of lambs and bulls, but by the blood of the Lamb of God who was slain for all.

And this feast is also an harvest festival. Not an harvest of wheat, as in former times, but an harvest of the first-fruits of the Church. On this day, the harvest-fields were ripened, and 3,000 names were added to the Book of Life, having been plunged into the depths of Baptism. This harvest is the first, but only the very beginning of what has been going on without ceasing since the time of the apostles down to our own day.

As ancient as the roots of Pentecost are, this feast also brings you and me to stand in the last days. After all, it is finished. All is accomplished for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of all mankind. Christ has come into the flesh. Christ has suffered under Pontius Pilate, died, and was buried. Christ has risen from the dead, proclaiming victory over sin, death, and the grave. Christ has ascended to His Father and your Father, where He sits at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding for you, making your prayers and requests known to God. What is left?

What is left now is to proclaim these glorious tidings. Speak them out. Shout them to the four corners of the earth. Tell of His salvation from day to day. Let all nations hear and come and worship Christ the King.

But to proclaim something takes breath. Before you shout or sing, or even speak, you pause and take a deep breath, and then let the words flow on the wings of that breath. You have heard about the breath of life in today's lesson from Ezekiel. He was brought out into a valley of dry bones, bones utterly and completely devoid of any prospect of life. The Lord then asked, “Son of Man, can these bones live?” They could only live after the prophet called to the wind, the the breath, to the Spirit, to come and knit them together again. The Spirit of God formed them into people again, clothing the bones with flesh and blood and skin, then entering into them and giving them the breath of life, the Spirit of God within them, so that they stood up and spoke and prophesied to the nations.

The Lord breathed His breath into the army of dry bones, and they became a living army, the people of God, whom He set into their own land, and He promised that they would be His people and He would be their God. He brought them out of their graves, and into the land of the living by the work of His Spirit.

Likewise, the Spirit of God, the breath of life is breathed into the Church, even to this day. The apostles were waiting and hoping for the coming of the Lord. They were as good as dry bones, hiding in their houses and waiting for the return of the Lord. But then the Holy Spirit was breathed into them and they stood and proclaimed the Word of the Lord. The breath of God entered them and they became a living army proclaiming the salvation of Jesus Christ in every time and place. That same Holy Spirit is breathed into the Church today, just as He has been throughout all generations. He is the Spirit who constitutes the Church, who calls Christians from dry bones into living members of Christ.

But look again. Who is that great army raised up in the barren valley? Who are those called forth from the grave and given breath to proclaim the Word of the Lord? They are the pastors of the Church. These are they who have been raised to life by the Spirit, raised to a life of service to the Body of Christ. For the Word must be proclaimed, the cry must echo forth, the Gospel must be administered.

To this end, pastors are formed by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Just like you, every pastor begins his journey with a plunge deep into the watery grave, becoming united with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. That Spirit abides and remains with him as the Lord of the Church forms His servants and calls them to be His messengers throughout the world, to proclaim His wondrous works to the children of man. Each pastor is raised up from the dry bones and wrapped with the life of Christ.

Each pastor whom God has called by His Spirit is then charged with preaching the Gospel. The Word is spoken into him, that he may speak it to you, that he may proclaim to you the wonders of God's love and grace and mercy. He is given the peculiar task of proclaiming to you that your God has been crucified and yet is alive and reigning on high for you. He is given the task of breathing the breath of life upon you and upon your children, that you might also be wrapped with the life of Christ and knit into the one Body of Christ – His holy Church.

For this reason, for the sake of His holy Church, God has established the Office of the Holy Ministry, that men may be called and ordained to hand out the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world of sinners. God works heavenly miracles, but He uses earthly means to do so. Today you have heard how He works through words. Normal, earthy, human words. He strings together for you nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so forth, so that the Gospel might be proclaimed to you. The Word of God Himself, the creator of the universe, comes to you in words, utterances of human speech. In those lowly utterances, He declares Himself to you, calls you His own child, and forgives your sins.

How are words spoken? Breath is drawn in, and the words are breathed out. In the Church, that breath which is drawn in is the breath of life, the Spirit of God. And the word which is breathed out is our Lord Christ Himself, poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins, preached into your ear and heart and mind. This is how the Church was formed on that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, and this is how the Church remains and continues, and shall continue until our Lord returns in glory. So we sing:

Lord, by the brightness of Your light

In holy faith Your Church unite;

From every land and every tongue

This to Your praise, O Lord, our God, be sung: Alleluia, alleluia! (LSB 497.1)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.