Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Confirmation Day) Growing Up in Your Salvation
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! (Amen.) In today’s Epistle, God the Holy Spirit compares His living and nourishing Word to milk: “Like newborn infants,” says the Spirit, “long for the pure spiritual milk.” The phrase “spiritual milk” can be translated differently. The Greek word for “spiritual” in this verse can also mean, “of the Word.” That is to say, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word” (NASB). In today’s Epistle, God the Holy Spirit wants you to know that “pure spiritual milk” is the milk of His Word. The “pure spiritual milk” is that Word the Spirit speaks to you in every Bible passage and every sermon; the Word the Spirit once poured onto you in Baptism and still continually stirs up within you by the ongoing power of Baptism; the Word that the Spirit carefully and deliberately serves into your mouth in Holy Communion. Dear Christian friends, this is what the Holy Spirit says to you and to all the Churches in today’s Epistle: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk of the Word”—the living and nourishing Word that makes you “grow up into salvation.” “The pure milk of the Word.” Beyond all doubt, “the Holy Spirit is the simplest writer… in heaven and on earth” (Luther). What could be more simply stated, even for the youngest and most tender Christians among us? This comparison between milk and the Word of God requires no effort for you to understand it. You do not even have to be a believer to get the point of these Words! Everyone knows what milk is. Everyone has seen an infant child. Join together these two simple things, milk and child, and you have the basic point of today’s Epistle, no matter where you live in the world, what language you speak, or what is your native culture. Hardly anything in all creation so simple, so easily understood, as an infant child who needs a mouthful of milk. That is how God the Spirit wants you to think of yourselves, Christians, no matter how old you are or how long you have been filling a pew: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk of the Word.” 1. Check the verb there! The Spirit does not say to you that He wants you to be interested in the Word; He does not say that you should think of yourself as occasionally thirsting for the Word; most especially, the Spirit does not speak as though you may ignore the Word for large periods of time, now that you have heard it and learned it and think you know it. No, the Spirit clearly says to you today, “LONG for the pure milk of the Word.” Desire the Word. Crave the Word. Yearn for the Word. Believe yourself to be like a newborn infant in danger of starvation when you do not have opportunity to hear the Word preached to you, or to eat the Word served to you in Holy Communion, or to sing the Word in the liturgy and the hymnody of the Church. “Long for the pure milk of the Word,” says the Spirit. Treat the Word—its preaching and its Baptism and its Holy Communion—treat the Word as though you cannot live without it… because you cannot. In today’s Epistle, God the Spirit is saying something vitally important for all Christians, but especially important for you who today confirm the faith. When the Spirit says, “Long for the pure milk of the Word,” He is saying something to you directly opposite most of the other voices you hear in your everyday life. Not many will regard it as necessary and essential for your life to crave and to yearn for the Word so earnestly as the Spirit says to you here. · Not many of your friends at school think you should regard the Word as pure milk, which you need to hear and to eat as often as possible. · You may have some family members who tell you that hearing and eating the Word is really not all that important and who prove their point by rarely coming to worship. · Even more, do you remember how we talked about the old sinful nature in our confirmation classes? You and I both have it, as do your parents, your friends, and everyone here with you today. Your old sinful nature will lie to you. You could make yourself think—just as others would like you to think—that the Word of God is not so necessary as milk. You might not even like milk too much, but that would just prove the point. God the Spirit wants you this day to turn your back and to ignore anyone—including yourself—anyone who dares to say that the Word of God is not so very important for your life. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk of the Word.” There is a good a reason for you to long for this milk, too: “by it… you grow up into salvation.” 2. Most people do not like to be told to grow up. Most people feel offended to be called “immature” or “juvenile” or “too young.” One of the great, ongoing disasters of Confirmation Day is that many Christians mistakenly think that, now that they have been confirmed, they are done. They are all grown up; they have learned everything they need to learn; they know all that they need to know; they have arrived. The last thing many trained and confirmed Christians want to hear is that they now need to grow up. In today’s Epistle, God the Spirit does not seem too concerned that He might offend you. He has bigger fish to fry than that! You might even call the Spirit an equal opportunity offender (so to speak): here today the Spirit tells each and every one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, “Grow up!” Like it or not, you confirmation students need to grow up. So do I. So do all these other Christians here with us. The Good News is that the Spirit is not merely ranting like a frustrated schoolteacher when He tells us to grow up. God the Spirit makes it possible for us to grow up by giving us His Word. God the Spirit gives us the gift of growing up by supplying us with His Word. God the Spirit wants to each Christian to be mature and well established in the faith, so that we will not be easily torn away from it again. Only the pure milk of the Word will make your growth possible. Only the pure milk of the Word can strengthen and mature your faith. Only the pure milk of the Word can create Christian men and Christian women. This is why the Spirit so earnestly says to you today, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk of the Word”—the living and nourishing Word that makes you “grow up into salvation.” By saying these things to you, God the Spirit assuring you that His Word will preserve you and keep you always. God the Sprit wants you to know that He is committed to nourishing His miraculous gift of faith that He gave to you in the new birth of your Baptism (1 Peter 1:3, 23). 3. Finally, the Spirit wants you to know that His Word—the Word He preaches to you and the Word He serves to you in Holy Communion—this is a good and trustworthy Word. The milk of the Word is pure, He says. Nothing harmful has been mixed into it. There is no deceit or falsehood in this Word. When God the Spirit speaks His pure to you, you personally receive that which is spoken: · When God says to you in the absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” this is a pure Word, one that may be trusted. All your sins are indeed forgiven! · When God says to you in Holy Communion, “This is the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,” this also is a pure and reliable Word. By the power of these Words, the Body and Blood of Christ indeed get placed into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sins. · When God says to you at the end of worship that His blessing gives you peace, that, too, is a pure Word that shall not be spoiled. God’s peace is yours, both now and forevermore. Believe it, if for no other reason than for the fact that God the Holy Spirit has spoken it to you. “Newborn infants”: That is how God the Spirit wants you to think of yourselves, Christians, newly confirmed or confirmed in ancient days: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk of the Word”—the living and nourishing Word that makes you “grow up into salvation.” The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 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