Isaiah 12:1–6
St. John 16:5–15
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.” This was a line from St. Augustine in his controversy with the heretic Pelagius. During the 4th century, the Church of western Europe and North Africa was divided over a controversy on sin and free will. Pelagius, a monk from Britain, argued that every man is born innocent and so his will is completely free at first. “It is possible to not sin,” he argued. But, St. Augustine, a bishop in north Africa, stuck with the Bible’s teaching of original sin—that we are born from sinful parents and so we share in sin and are born with a corrupt heart and mind that does not freely fear, love, or trust God. So he responded, “It is not possible to not sin.” He even went so far as to address God in the line I quoted at the beginning: “Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.” In other words, “Give us what you demand from us, O God, and then demand whatever it is You want.”
Pelagius was shocked by such a statement—that sounds like cheating! Instead of doing God’s Law, you would expect Him to do it for you?! But that is the Gospel. And it is the source of all Christian good works. And it is restated in our Collect today: O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, the only way we can actually do God’s Law and trust His Gospel is if God Himself gives us that love for His commandments, and gives us that desire for the promises of forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ. “Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.”
On our own, we can do nothing good, no matter how much we may try. Only by the gift of the Father, through the Son, with the power of the Holy Spirit are we able to have faith or do His will. Pelagius wanted to keep some of the control and power for himself. He thought of salvation like a transaction: I do something, then God does something; I make a promise, and God rewards it. St. Augustine knew that we are completely dependent upon our God.
That dependence was also expressed in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah: I will give thanks to You, O Lord, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, that You might comfort me. The sinner admits here that God was angry because of his sin. And what made God stop being angry? Not anything the sinner did! He could never not sin so that God would no longer be angry but be pleased with him. God was the one who turned away His own anger so that He alone could comfort the sinner.
The only one who can save sinners from God’s anger is God Himself. And we know from the New Testament that God did that through the blood and death of His Son who satisfied God’s justice and appeased His anger. This is the Gospel that Isaiah proclaimed in advance: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.”
Now in the Gospel today, Jesus, our Savior, promises to give His Church that gift of salvation by giving them the Holy Spirit. And after His death in our place, after His resurrection that gives life to all who believe, and after His ascension to the right hand of the Father, Jesus does just that: He gives the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Helper, the Paraclete.
And then the Holy Spirit gives us Christian convictions. He gives us the conviction of sin—on our own, apart from God and His gifts, it is not possible for us to not sin. We do not naturally fear, love, or trust God. The Spirit gives us the conviction of righteousness—He forgives our sins by washing us in Baptism and preaching the Good News in His Word. He makes us His holy people, His faithful ones, covered with the righteousness of Christ alone. And the Spirit gives us the conviction of judgment—this fallen, evil world, and its prince the devil, have had their time, and their time is coming to an end. Jesus is victorious, and soon we will see God’s judgment against all of that evil, but for the good of all who love Him.
These three convictions—that are given by God the Holy Spirit, on account of God the Son, out of the love of God the Father—these certainties make us Christians. They unite us with God, so that we are of one accord with Him, so that we have one will with Him. As the Collect says, O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will—not only one with fellow believers, but one with God. Christians think the way God thinks. They want what God wants. “Thy will be done, O God. Give us Your love for the Law. Give us Your desire for the grace and life You have promised. Make us more and more like You, dear God.”
That is what Jesus promised: All that the Father has is Mine; therefore the Spirit will take what is Mine and declare it to you. The Holy Trinity shares all things among themselves in a perfect community of love, and they want nothing more than to share everything they have with you. They want you to join in their life together. The will of the Father, and the work and promise of the Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is all for the purpose that you would be one with them, in union with the Holy Trinity, more and more like your God.
O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found. That final portion of this collect gives us the purpose of this prayer. In other words, the prayer says, “Make us more like You, O God, wanting what You want and loving what You love and desiring what You desire, so that while this world is full of turmoil and sadness and chaos, our hearts won’t be wandering aimlessly or pushed around, but they will be stuck fast to You, and full of Your joy.” What a wonderful prayer that we certainly need right now in these times.
This reminds me of another quote from St. Augustine, a beautiful line where he says to God, “Thou hast made us for Thyself. And our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” We were made by God for God—to know Him and His love, to be like Him and to share community with Him. And without Him we are restless, rootless, homeless. We search this world full of change and disorder, searching for fulfillment, satisfaction. And yet we never quite seem to find what we’re looking for… until God finds us. Then we have peace.
So, we pray, that we would be united to God so that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found. There are many things in this world that change and fall apart. But Christ is risen, and that does not change. In His pierced and living side is the fountain of true, unceasing joy. True joys—that’s what we get when we’re united with God. These are joys that can’t be found in this life—not in friends or family, not in the spring weather, not in an end to this crisis—as good as those might be, their joys are fleeting, and eventually fade. True joys are found in union with God, as we are joined to our Lord in His Baptism, as we receive our Lord’s resurrected life in His body and blood.
In these ways God finds us, and brings us to Himself, and makes us like Him, loving what He loves, desiring what He desires, sharing in the communal life of the Holy Trinity. That’s what we are made for, that’s our true purpose as human beings. We are made for God, and our hearts are only truly full joy when they rest in God.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
