Sermon for Exaudi, 2026
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
[Jesus said,] “These things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you.”
Remember. Not overcome. Remember. And that remembering is not left to you; it is the Spirit’s work. He brings to your remembrance what Christ has said. He testifies of Christ. “Of Me,” Jesus says. And the Spirit does so, not from within you. No, rather, He speaks to you, from without: through the apostolic word, the word that has come down through the centuries, the word that sounds in your ears this day—in this place, the word that the devil cannot silence, that death cannot stop, and that your own doubt cannot put out. Because it isn’t your word, your remembering. It is His.
St. Peter, writing to people who are suffering in their faith, at the hands of a world that doesn’t know the Father or the Son, doesn’t tell them to be stronger or to believe harder or to find it within themselves to contend against the trials. He declares something completely opposite. “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” The Spirit rests upon you: present tense; in the midst of the reproach, in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the doubt, the Spirit rests upon you. Not will rest, when you’ve gotten through it; no, now.
Readings:
Old Testament: Ezekiel 36:22-28
Epistle: 1 Peter 4:7-14
Holy Gospel: John 15:26–16:4
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