The
holy gospel according to John (14:15-21).
Jesus
said to the disciples:
15“If
you love me,
you will keep my
commandments.
16And
I will ask the Father,
who
will give you another Advocate,
to
be with you forever.
17This
is the Spirit of truth,
whom
the world cannot receive,
because
it neither sees her nor knows her.
You
know the Spirit,
because
she abides with you,
and
she will be in you.
18“I will not leave you
orphaned;
I am coming to
you.
19In
a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see
me;
because
I live,
you
also will live.
20On
that day you will know that I am in my Father,
and
you in me,
and
I in you.
21They
who have my commandments and keep them
are
those who love me;
and
those who love me will be loved by my Father,
and
I will love them
and
reveal myself to them.”
The
gospel of the lord.
-----
Today
on this 6th Sunday of Easter, we begin to look towards
Pentecost. We will celebrate
Jesus’ Ascension this Thursday, yet before then Jesus promises us the Holy
Spirit—our Advocate. This week we
encounter Jesus, as last week, at the Last Supper. Having washed his disciples’ feet and given them his
greatest commandment: to love, Jesus is preparing himself and his disciples—his
friends—for a time of deep loneliness.
Judas
is on his way to betray Jesus, Peter will deny him, and the rest will abandon
him. And for his part, Jesus will
be tortured and killed and no matter how many times Jesus has told them, they
will still not understand that his death is not the end. So they, too, will feel abandoned,
alone, and afraid, as happens to many of us when someone we love dies, no
matter the reason.
Into
this loneliness, Jesus brings the promise of the Holy Spirit. The title Advocate is translated from
the Greek word παράκλητος, or Paraklete.
In English, the word Advocate might call to mind a court scene with a
lawyer who is arguing in your defense or organizations like ELCA Advocacy, the
Presbyterian Mission Agency, or Lutheran Advocacy-Minnesota, who work with
congregations and elected representatives to ensure that the government is
helping and protecting the most vulnerable. These do describe the work of the Holy Spirit well, yet there
is another aspect to the Paraklete that is also important. The Paraklete, the Holy Spirit, our
Advocate, is one called to assist another.
Lutheran
preaching theologian, Rev. Dr. Karoline Lewis, describes the work of the
Paraklete as “the one who is literally called to be alongside us.”[i]
The One who is with us in our struggles and our sorrows. The reality is that many times the
Paraklete is with us through the presence of other people—through the ones who
meet up for lunch just to catch up, who stop by to say hi and see how we’re
doing.
Womanist
ethicist, Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes names the need for each of us to: “Keep
integrated, resist pulling apart.
Have friends tell you when they see pieces of you drifting away.” This is also the work of the Holy
Spirit, our Paraklete: to call us back to ourselves when we lose our way, to
remind us of who we are when we feel too broken up or broken apart.
The
beauty of the Holy Spirit’s work is that she doesn’t just come alongside us and
bring back the parts of us that might be drifting away. The Holy Spirit also uses us to do that
for others.
It
is an amazingly simple, yet difficult, way of being to which Jesus calls
us. It is precisely in
anticipation of the deepest, loneliest time that Jesus affirms and calls the
disciples to this connectedness and this Holy Spirit-Paraklete way of
being. The Holy Spirit is with us
in every moment of our lives so that when we are breaking apart or overwhelmed
with sorrow or pain, she will already be there, “to be alongside us.”
One
of the ways we join in this is to pay attention to the Parakletes in our lives
and let them know who they are to us.
Are there a couple people in your life who have come alongside you? Who are with you in your struggles or
sorrows? Who comfort you or call
you back to your whole self?
Have
you told them how much they mean to you?
What would happen if you told them they are the Holy Spirit, the
Paraklete, for you?
In
my favorite movie, August Rush, the
title character is a child prodigy in music and at the end of the movie, there
is a monumental scene in which he tells us in voiceover, “The music is all
around us, all you have to do… is listen.” I’ll tweak that a bit and assure you: The Holy Spirit is all
around us, all you have to do… is notice.
[i] Unless
otherwise specified, the quotes in this sermon are from: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4886
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