Holy Spirit, Holy People

Pentecost

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, Virginia

June 5, 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters: In the Divine Service we have received from our fathers, just before communion the Celebrant holds up the Body and Blood of Jesus and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” Then we sing to Christ the Lamb of God and approach.

In the earliest recorded Divine Service, at that spot, the pastor says, “May grace come and may this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him approach; if anyone is not, let him repent” (Didache 10.6). “If anyone is holy, let him approach.” Who qualifies? Are you holy?

Another liturgy of the early Christians has the pastor hold up the body and blood of Jesus and say, “The holy things for the holy people.” The earliest Christians practiced closed communion, but it’s a marvel anyone was admitted. For who is holy?

This day, the Feast of Pentecost, is not just about the person of the Holy Spirit. It is also about the work of the Holy Spirit, which is to make a holy people. Holy Spirit, Holy People.

The white robes of the confirmands signify holiness. (And yet if you’ve seen them in the scrum for pizza, you may wonder.) We should probably all wear different clothes, special clothes, when we approach the altar.

What does it mean to be holy? The answer to that question is in the Hebrew Bible, the first testament. It’s understandable if you picked up somewhere the impression that the Old Testament is about an angry God out for vengeance, appeased temporarily by bloody sacrifices. That’s not what it’s about.

God established a tabernacle—a portable worship space—He established a tabernacle to dwell with people and share His holiness with them. The world as it now stands—filled with corruption and sin—the world is unholy. It has become a realm moving towards darkness and death, hell and the punishment of demons. Man, deceived, made that choice.

The raising of the tabernacle was a beacon summoning man away from the darkness towards the light, away from death towards the life. Now as God describes the world there are two categories that somewhat overlap.

The first category is cleanness. Some things are clean, others are unclean. Quite apart from God, humans operate with this distinction. If you’ve had the Covid, you know what it’s like. You’re unclean. Stay home. Stay away. The universal masking treated everyone as unclean. Basic social interactions were forbidden.

Other things provoke a natural revulsion. If in changing a diaper you get some poop on your hands, you want to scrub that off as soon as possible. You’re unclean.

But in the Scriptures, uncleanness is not defined by what humans find gross or socially unacceptable. The point of reference is God Himself. God is life. Contact with the things of death makes therefore a person unclean. For example, God forbade touching a dead body unless it’s a close relative.

Certain bodily fluids would make you unclean. Today that’s seen as a sign of repression. Nonsense. They understood what we don’t: Sex belongs in marriage, marriage produces families. So when the cycle of a woman indicated a failure to conceive, or something analogous happened with the man, it marked the brokenness of creation, the falling short from what we were meant to do and be. “Falling short” is what the word sin really means; to “miss the mark,” to “fall short of the glory of God.”

This is what we as a whole church confess every Lord’s Day: “We are by nature sinful and unclean.” So God provided a ritual to make unclean people and things clean. It was His action. And this was part of the priest’s job.

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: 9 “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, 10 that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, 11 and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.” [Lev. 10.8-11]

The priest teaches the Word of God to the people, and distinguishes between those two categories: clean and unclean, and holy and unholy.

For the Old Testament Christian to go from unclean to clean was to wash and move away from the stuff of death. Then clean people and things can move toward God and receive His holiness. Holiness in the Scriptures is like life. A human cannot possess it; he only can be receiving it from God who is its source. Holiness is not possessed, but continually received.

The first high priest was Aaron, the brother of Moses. Two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, approached YHWH’s altar without YHWH’s authorization. They were consumed in the fire. After this the LORD said, “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified” [Lev. 10.3].

In Isaiah’s vision in the temple, he hears the angels singing a single word repeatedly: “Holy. Holy. Holy.” Hearing that, Isaiah immediately confesses himself to be what? Unclean. “Woe is me, I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

But God takes unclean people and makes them clean, and then He sanctifies them, makes them holy. “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord” [Lev. 22.32f].

In the tabernacle, God placed His holy name on the people (YHWH), and thereby made them holy. He spoke His holy Word to His people, and abiding in that Word kept them in holiness. And He fed them with holy food: bread, wine, and the body of the lamb. Holy name, holy word, holy food, holy people.

Now remember that in the incarnation of Jesus, He is the true temple. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us.” Where Jesus is, there is the tabernacle. Where Jesus is, there is YHWH. The sanctifying blood of all the sacrifices in the tabernacle pointed toward the culminating sacrifice of Jesus, the holy victim. In the Divine Service of both Old and New Testaments, YHWH meets with his people and bestows His holiness. But since Pentecost, the gift is richer and more abundant.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended, and filled the hearts of the faithful. He imparted His holiness to them. Peter’s Pentecost sermon called the people to repentance, and promised them the Holy Spirit in their baptisms: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all whom the Lord shall call.”

And 3,000 were baptized on that day, baptized into the name. The holy name was put on them, and then they continued listening to the teaching of the Apostles—the Word—and receiving the Lord’s Supper—the holy food. Holy Spirit, holy name, holy word, holy food, holy people.

A church, no matter how magnificent or humble, should demonstrate these things architecturally: You walk past the font where you are cleansed and received the Holy Spirit. You approach the altar after singing what? “Create in me a clean heart…”. We begin and end with the Holy Name: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And we approach to eat the holy food.

So are you holy? In yourself, no. God issues to you the command: “You shall be holy.” And He gives you the promise: “You will be holy.”

Dear children, the will of God is your sanctification. (Names of confirmands:) You are holy. God has made you clean in Baptism. He has put on you His holy name, you have been taught His holy Word, you have received the holy food.

Stay away from the things that pollute you. The world will tell you to defile your bodies, and fill your ears, eyes, and stomach with poison. But that’s not who you are. You are holy. Stay close to the holy name. Let the holy word fill your ears, mouth, and mind. Let the holy food nourish you.

The holy things for the holy people. If anyone is holy, let him approach. If anyone is not, let him repent. +In the Holy Name of JESUS+