The Day of Pentecost

 Video of Service

The Day of Pentecost (A)

May 24, 2026

Text: John 7:37-39

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38; ESV).  

Water and the Spirit.  We’re not surprised by that.  Where do we find the Spirit at Creation?  Hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).  Brooding over the waters.  Giving form to the waters.  Ordering the waters.  

And what is a central feature of the Paradise He creates, but a great river that divided and became four rivers, to water the earth.  And the tree of life, and all the trees, there, in the midst of the garden.  And what did sin do, but bar man from the river, and the tree.

And so, when Jesus says that whoever believes in Him, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water, and St. John tells us He said that about the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed were to receive, we understand that what is going on here is nothing less than the reversal of the banishment, the restoration of Eden, the undoing of the fall, and the reconciliation of God’s edenic fellowship with man.  Which is to say, with us.

That’s what happened when the Lord Jesus’ was pierced, and out His heart flowed a river of living water, and the blood of our redemption.  And now, whoever believes in Him… not only does that living water flow to him, and engulf him, and heal him, but out of his heart… your heart… flow the same rivers of living water.  The Spirit.  So that God’s gifts, and the Spirit Himself, flow through you, and on out into the world.  

It’s what Ezekiel prophesied (Ez. 47).  Do you remember?  Ezekiel saw a vision.  The Temple of God.  Well, what is the Temple?  Jesus is the Temple.  Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.  He was speaking about the Temple of His Body.  Ezekiel saw the Temple, and from the threshold of the Temple, what?  Water, emanating.  And the angel brought Ezekiel around to the south side of the Temple where the water was only a trickle.  Small.  Insignificant.  Just enough for a sprinkle or two.  Or three.  And the angel led Ezekiel another thousand cubits eastward, and now, a surprise.  The water was ankle deep.  Another thousand cubits, the angel led him, and would you believe… knee deep.  More to this trickle of water than first meets the eye!  Another thousand cubits, and now the water was waist deep.  Another thousand, and the water had become a great river.  Impassible.  

Trees were planted on either side of the river, and that confirms our initial suspicion.  Eden.  Right?  And here is, perhaps, the most beautiful thing about it.  Eden is flowing forth and overtaking creation.  As the river flows out into the world, what happens?  What does it do?  Whatever the river touches, it heals.  It makes salt water fresh.  Even the Arabah… the Dead Sea!  And wherever the river goes, it teems with life.  Swarms of every living creature.  It even sounds like Genesis 1.  The river, filled with fish (I will make you fishers of men, Jesus tells His disciples).  The river, watering the trees.  Filled with fruit.  Fresh fruit every month.  Food aplenty.  And leaves that do not wither.  In fact, the leaves are for healing.

That’s the Spirit.  The River.  Flowing from Jesus’ heart, and from every heart that believes in Him.  Flowing as the Gospel is preached, taught, confessed.  Flowing and engulfing.  Overtaking.  Transforming.  Healing.  Enlivening.

Notice, though (and this is important)... whatever the River does not touch, is not healed.  The swamps and marshes, separated from the River, are left for salt.  That is, there is no life apart from this River, the Spirit of God.  That is why you come to Church, hear the Word, and receive the Sacrament.  Because that is how the River flows to you, and into you, and engulfs you, to heal you, and give you life.  When you separate yourself from the River… from Him, you become stagnant, and dead.  

But in Him, healing and life.  Always.  Our Lord Jesus has brought this about by His death for us, and by His resurrection from the dead.  

Water and the Spirit.  We saw it again today.  Little Natalie Jane.  Just a little water.  A mere trickle.  Enough for a sprinkle or three.  Doesn’t look like much to us.  But faith knows what happened.  That little sprinkle of water is, in fact, the mighty River that flows from the pierced side of our crucified Lord.  From the Temple of God.  The Spirit engulfed her.  Her own personal Pentecost.  Gave her faith in Jesus.  Made her a blood-bought child of our heavenly Father.  Whatever the River touches, it heals and enlivens.  Wherever the Spirit flows, He brings wholeness and life.  We must keep her in touch with the River, so that from her own heart will flow rivers of living water, as Jesus here promises.

And that is what is happening with our new members today, too.  They are about to come forward and make their good confession.  They will speak their faith in Jesus, and we will receive them in love.  That confession is the River flowing forth.  And it blesses us.  We are healed and enlivened as we hear it.  And they are healed and enlivened as their confession is joined to ours.  The River flows.  

And it’s going somewhere…  We have a destination.  Just like rivers making their way to the ocean, this River, the Spirit, is carrying us along to a fulness beyond our imagination.  From the last chapter of the Bible (Rev. 22:1-5; ESV): “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And night will be no more.  They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Water and the Spirit.  See where He carries you.  In fact, this is better than Eden.  Where the Holy Spirit flows, there is nothing less than a whole new creation.  That includes you.

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

The Holy Marriage of Micah Zerbst & Abigail Rausch

The Holy Marriage of Micah Zerbst and Abigail Rausch

Messiah Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington

May 22, 2026

Text: 1 Cor. 13:4-7; John 15:9-13

We’re all very confused about love these days.  We keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what we think it means.  In fact, it seems to me, we have the concept precisely backwards.  Love, to us, has come to have no objective meaning.  It means whatever I want it to mean, and that means love is all about me.  What gives me pleasure?  What do I find comfortable?  What do I think will bring me fulfillment?  What will keep me true to  my self-created self-identity?  Now, I’m not against some good old fashioned romance (and I hope you enjoy some in your marriage), but even the romantic things we say betray us.  To give just one example, “You make me happy.”  Okay, I hope that’s true, and you should probably say that sometimes.  But what about when you’re not happy with me?  That will be the case, sometimes, you know.  Is that the end of love?  Because I’m not living up to whatever it is that makes you happy?

St. Paul has a different definition of love.  Love is patient and kind.  See how that already turns the focus 180 degrees, from me to you?  From self to other?  Because patience and kindness require, not self-obsession, but self-sacrifice.  If love means me being patient with you, that necessarily means that you, my beloved, do and say things, and sometimes simply exist in ways that try my patience.  That do not bring me pleasure, or make me comfortable, or fulfilled.  

Kindness?  That’s all about the other.  I have to get over myself long enough to be kind to you.  To be focused on you, and what is good for you.

How about the other things Paul says about love?  That it does not envy or boast.  That means giving up my own pride and self-interest, and instead rejoicing in, and promoting, what is good for you.  It is not arrogant or rude.  What bothers us so much about another’s arrogance or rudeness?  Their self-absorption, that’s what.  See, love is the opposite of self-absorption.  

How about this?  It does not insist on its own way.  Actually, you know what love does?  Real love, not our confused and backwards definition of it?  Love insists on the way of the other.  Love sacrifices its own way… Love sacrifices itself… its pleasure, its comfort, its fulfillment… for the sake of the other.  And so, yeah, it is not irritable, or resentful toward the other.  And when the Christian lover is irritable or resentful toward the beloved, or arrogant, or rude, or envious, or boastful… When the Christian lover is curved in on the self, instead of lazer-focused on the beloved, and what is good for the beloved, even at great cost to the lover… that Christian repents.   

That’s Christian marriage.  That’ll be you.  Here is the ideal: What St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13.  Striving to live up to that.  Constantly failing.  Always repenting.  Immersed in God’s forgiveness and mercy.  Covered in the blood of Christ.  Dying to self.  Praying for help to do better.  For strength.  For the Holy Spirit.  Covering over one another with the same mercy and forgiveness and blood of Christ (that is what it means that “love covers a multitude of sins” [1 Peter 4:8]).  Praying for each other.  Holding each other up.  Patiently and kindly.  

Recognizing above all else that Christ is the true Lover, by St. Paul’s definition.  He is the only One who fulfills this Chapter.  And you are the Beloved on whom He pours out His 1 Corinthians 13 love.  

How does He love?  Total and complete self-sacrifice on the cross.  He loves you to death on the cross for your redemption, to make you His own.  He loves you to death, to cover over your sins… against Him, and against each other.  He loves you to death, so that you can be plunged into His death and life at the font, bodied and blooded at the holy altar, and spirited with His Spirit by His Word constantly ringing in your ears, and set before your eyes, and therefore churning in your mind, and burning in your heart.

Of course, He didn’t only die.  He is risen, and lives.  In you.  And you live.  In Him.  And so He gives you to love with His love.  Not self-love.  That’s all part of this world’s whirling mass of ever-lovin’ confusion.  But one another.  Love one another.  Love flowing from God, filling you up, and overflowing, not just in your marriage, but through your marriage, to children (God-willing), and family, and neighbor, and Church, and community.  

Self-sacrifice.  That’s what that love is.  That’s what He means when He says to abide in His love, and love one another as He has loved you (John 15:9, 12).  Abide in His self-sacrifice, and so, sacrifice yourself.  The last verse of our Holy Gospel is rather important: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (v. 13; ESV).  That goes for spouses, too.  And it is to say, love… real love… is cruciform.  

Micah and Abigail, your marriage is going to be full of joy, and adventure, and God grant it, a whole bunch of good old fashioned romance.  But don’t kid yourselves.  There will be times when you aren’t particularly happy with each other.  When his way isn’t your way, and your way isn’t her way.  When you sin against each other (that will be daily, just to warn you).  

But love is patient with that.  And kind toward it.  In fact, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  That’s the love you’ve been folded into.  The love of God.  The love of Jesus Christ for you.  Forgiven and forgiving.  Let that be the love with which you love one another.  Because, while it isn’t always pleasant… or comfortable, or fulfilling… it is the love that never ends.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.