“WHITSUNDAY 2023”
Saint John 14: 23-31
The Feast of Pentecost: 28 May Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Jesus answered: “if a man love (agapa) Me, he will keep my words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make our abode (home) with him.” Not love between a husband and wife (eros) and not brotherly love between fellow Christians (phileo) but the Godly love of The Father for the Son and The Son for The Father. Sacrificial love. Perfect obedient love. Love and action in keeping the Law of God (the words) and love in suffering and dying to pay for all the sin of all the people. But that love—agape—love was also the term used for the “love” feast of The Eucharist, the Holy Sacrament of The Altar. For there is where Christ’s called and gathered celebrate the true wedding feast of love; there you do in deed keep His word by eating and drinking His Word enfleshed!
You know that you don’t obey God. You do not keep the 10 Commandments; not that you don’t keep them perfectly all the time, but that you don’t keep them period. But The One Who did and does and always will, The Christ loves you. He loves you first in finding, rescuing, and + washing. He clothes you with His own flesh. His robe is gleaming white in crimson brightness. He loves you by feeding you His sacred Word and His Sacramental meal. He loves you by speaking words of mercy—sweet absolution/forgiveness into your ears. And you do love Him in return by receiving Him, by having received Him and The Holy Spirit on your own day of Pentecost—at the Holy Font!
You didn’t do anything. You received! Your faith, your “believing” was the gift laid in your hand by Jesus, by His Father (and yours), and by The Holy Ghost. The Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, the other closely held disciples, didn’t do anything. They were gathered together in a room, on a portico, in an area, because that is what Christian do—you gather together as one family, one flock, one Church. Or as Paul writes for all the Saints: “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” [He. 10.25].
So, what do you believe, teach, and confess?
Well:
The Father sent The Son.
The Son sent the “12” and all of their successors.
The “12,” like all of you were Baptized into the Name of their Lord—Jesus, which is to be baptized into the Holy Name of Father, Son, + and Holy Ghost.
But the “12” were also “Baptized,” Ordained by The Holy Ghost on that Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem in 30 A.D. The “Comforter, which is The Holy Ghost” came and filled Peter, James, John, and the rest. They were given the gift of tongues—the ability to speak and be understood by an audience that did not speak Hebrew or Aramaic.
Jesus who wrote the Book of Joel, by Joel, that is by having the self-same Holy Ghost inspire Joel to write The Truth of The Truth, kept His Godly prophecy. Young men and young women were given to utter the truths and joys and peace of God and His Kingdom; of God and His Christ.
The Spirit of The Lord filleth the world. Hallelujah!
“O God, Who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit…” as we prayed in our collect.
The same Spirit that Jesus says: “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
This is verbal plenary inspiration—that the Evangelists and Epistle authors wrote exactly what God wanted written. You have already confessed this to be the case in the Old Testament as well, when you confessed THE Creed: “and I believe in The Holy Ghost…Who spake by The Prophets.”
This Holy Ghost! He came to you in Water and The Word. I baptize you in The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of THE HOLY GHOST! Invisible tongues of fire still hover over your dripping wet, clean, fresh, and pure heads whenever you pray the Our Father, chant the Psalter, forgive your neighbor, recite The Creed, and speak or sing Holy Scripture. This Spirit Who is Holy has made you, His temple; has filled you with Christ Jesus.
“Peace I leave with you!” His word has been fulfilled.
“My Peace I give unto you…let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid!” His word has been fulfilled.
“Rejoice in His holy comfort….on THIS day…poured out The Holy Spirit, as He had promised upon the chosen disciples, whereat the whole earth rejoices with exceeding joy!”
Yes, “The Spirit of The Lord filleth the world. Hallelujah.”
But more so, The Spirit of The Lord fills all of you---
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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