As we celebrate Pentecost, we invite the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts, homes, and churches. We ask him to enter in and equip us with Christian faith and for works of Christian service.
Verse one: O Holy Spirit, enter in and in our hearts your work begin, your dwelling place now make us. Sun of the soul, O Light divine, around and in us brightly shine, to joy and gladness wake us that we may be truly living, to you giving prayer unceasing and in love be still increasing.
God has chosen you, called you, and now he equips you for work in his Kingdom. But we are often hesitant, resistant, and even defiant in our acts of service. Consider some of God’s hand-picked leaders and how they reacted to God’s call to service. Moses was God’s chosen leader for the people of Israel. But Moses questioned whether the people would follow him. Jonah was sent by the word of the Lord to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah sailed in exactly the opposite direction. Peter had vowed that he would die for Jesus. But Peter cowered in fear and denied being Jesus’ disciple when he was questioned by a servant girl at the fire in the high priest’s courtyard.
We are very much like these prophets and apostles. The Lord tells us he is with us, yet we tremble in fear. The Lord assures us that he has a plan for our lives, yet we question, doubt, and complain. The Lord commands us to go in his name, yet we sit on the sofa with other things taking precedence over evangelizing lost souls.
This is why we pray for the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts and make his dwelling within us. He shines his light of faith into the dark recesses of sin and unbelief that lurk within our hearts. He wakes us from our sadness with the gospel of gladness. He turns our unloving hearts into hearts that desire to display God’s divine love through our words and actions.
Verse two: Give to your Word impressive pow’r that in our hearts from this good hour as fire it may be glowing, that in true Christian unity we faithful witnesses may be, your glory ever showing. Hear us, cheer us by your teaching; let our preaching and our labor praise you, Lord, and serve our neighbor.
The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. The resurrected Jesus appeared personally to Peter on Easter morning, Easter evening and then numerous times over the next 40 days. Peter then received the powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Seeing, hearing, and believing the Lord has to change a person! How can it not?!
The Holy Spirit has been poured out on you in your Baptism. The heavenly Father has forgiven you in the Absolution following your confession of sins. The risen and ascended Christ speaks to you in your Bible. God’s Word and Sacraments have an impressive power to break apart your stony hearts of sin. They warm up your cold soul. They unite you from factions into faithful witnesses. Christ’s teaching and preaching moves you to labor and service in his Kingdom. Through Word and Sacraments, now you are a changed person. Just like Moses, Jonah, and Peter.
Verse three: O mighty Rock, O Source of life, let your dear Word, in doubt and strife, in us be strongly burning that we be faithful unto death and live in love and holy faith, from you true wisdom learning. Your grace and peace on us shower; by your power Christ confessing, let us see our Savior’s blessing.
A burning bush, a giant fish, tongues of flame, and the sound of rushing wind all seem like rather peculiar ways of changing people … but that’s how our God works. Sometimes it is through peculiar or ordinary or seemingly mundane means. … But they are all miraculous!
The Holy Spirit works through his gloriously humble means of grace. He works through the pouring of water and a few syllables of Scripture to change a baby from heathen status to heavenly status. He works through a paper-thin unleavened wafer and a little sip of grape wine to assure believers of the forgiveness of their sins. He works through black letters printed on pages of a book, through the sound waves from voices singing hymns and liturgy and entering our ears, and through our memory banks when we recall a passage of Scripture. He works through the voice of a child or a friend talking about the love of Jesus so that hearts are softened and stand before the Lord’s altar to commune together in unity of faith and doctrine
It is these Words and Sacraments that equip us with the strength we need to remain faithful, even to the point of death. They equip us to confess Christ now, so that we may be blessed to see Christ before his throne in heaven.
O Holy Spirit, enter in, and equip our hearts for lives of faith and Christian service.