Why do we need the Holy Spirit? It is easy to understand the importance of the Father and the Son. The Father is the Creator. He made the heavens and the earth. The whole universe is his, and everything in it is precious to him. You and I are precious to God, also. Therefore he has given me what I need to live: my body, my health, my mind and feelings, clothing and shoes, family and friends, and all I have. And he protects me from danger and evil. He does this because he is not just some far-off creator, but he is God my Father. He does this out of fatherly love. Therefore we thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

But God created humans, not robots. He gave us a wonderful mind to think and to make choices. This led people to think that they were free to do what they wanted to do, even to sin, if they wanted to. And to sin has been the choice of all people, including you and me. Sin is not just that we do bad things, but sin is that we want to be free from God. The danger is that if we are free and separated from God who gives life then we die. God does not want to see us die because we are precious to him, he loves us. He wants to be our Father.

And so God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to help us, to save us. You know the Gospel Story. Jesus who is God was born a baby in Bethlehem. He lived and taught about the love of God. He taught how we are like precious lambs to God, the Good Shepherd. Then that love was shown when Jesus died on the cross. He took upon himself our sin and died in our place. And in his resurrection, we have life. It is like a new creation. We are united again to Christ. We are free to live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. This is most certainly true.

God the Father created us. God the Son saved us and re-created us. But we are not robots. Just like we forget our Maker, we forget our Savior. We fall back into the old patterns of sin and selfishness. It is like we never knew about God. It is like we never knew about Jesus. We live like the millions in the world who live in ignorance about God. God created the world a long time ago. Jesus died and rose a long time ago. And so it is hard, perhaps impossible for a person to connect with God. We cannot see or touch him. We cannot hear Jesus speaking to the crowds.

And this is why we need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is “spirit.” The Holy Spirit has no body that we can see. The Bible word for “spirit” also means “breath” and “wind.” We cannot see the wind, but we can feel it and we can see how it moves things like tree branches. We cannot see a person’s breath, but we can feel the heat and we can hear the words that are spoken. And though we cannot see the Holy Spirit, we can see and feel and hear the gospel words that are spoken. The Holy Spirit is spirit, and so it is not limited or stopped by physical things like our bodies. And so the Holy Spirit can enter our hearts so that we can understand and believe the Gospel. He has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, sanctified and kept us in the one true faith.

And yet our sinful hearts want to wander. We want to be free. Our physical bodies want something physical. It is hard to live by emotions. It is hard to live only by hope. This is why people often wander away from our Creator and Redeemer. We cannot by our own thinking and strength believe in Jesus Christ. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works through the Christian Church. In this community of saints the Gospel is proclaimed and our sins are forgiven. In other words, this is how the Holy Spirit brings to us the blessings of Christ. When the story of Jesus is told and believed, sins are forgiven. When sins are forgiven, the Holy Spirit makes us holy. Since we daily believe in Christ, our sins are daily and richly forgiven. This is how the Holy Spirit keeps us with Jesus in the one true faith. This is most certainly true.

The Holy Spirit is spirit, but also uses some physical things to bring us salvation: The printed word of the Bible, the touch of the baptismal water, the taste of Holy Communion when Christ gets physical with us in his Body and Blood. We need the Holy Spirit to constantly remind us of these promises of God. The promises are of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.

We cannot see the wind, but we need air to breathe and stay alive. We cannot see the Pentecost mighty wind of the Holy Spirit, but we need faith to stay alive in Christ. We may not see or feel the Holy Spirit at work, but when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, that is proof that the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts.

And so we need the Holy Trinity: God the Father the Creator, God the Son the Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier who creates the faith to know God our Maker and Savior. This is most certainly true.

Amen.