He's Alive: And With Us Always!

Let us pray…Gracious, Holy, three-in-one, come alive within us now. Awaken our hearts, our minds, and our spirits that we may be open to your still speaking voice so that we might hear what it is that you have called us to be in this world, Amen.

As I sat contemplating how to bring the story of Jesus’ promise of the Spirit to life for us today, I could not get this image of a lawyer out of my mind. Having been an accountant in my life before ministry, there is one thing that accountants and lawyers know about one another…we know all the best one line jokes about each other. I had to chuckle as I thought about a few of those one-liners the other day. Here’s the thing though, no matter how much we accountants like to joke about lawyers, a good attorney has the potential to get you out of a very tough spot. Like this one...On May 2, 1962, a dramatic advertisement appeared in the San Francisco Examiner: "I don't want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication."

One of San Francisco's greatest attorneys, Vincent Hallinan, read or heard about the ad and contacted Gladys Kidd, who had placed it. Her husband, Robert Lee Kidd, was about to be tried for the slaying of an elderly antique dealer. Kidd's fingerprints had been found on a bloodstained ornate sword in the victim's shop. During the trial, Hallinan proved that the antique dealer had not been killed by the sword, and that Kidd's fingerprints and blood on the sword got there because Kidd had once toyed with it while playfully dueling with a friend when they were both out shopping. The jury, after 11 hours, found Kidd to be not guilty. Attorney Hallinan refused Gladys Kidd's offer of 10 years' servitude.

What this shows us is that with the right person on your side, you can find a way out of and around some very hard predicaments. Which brings me to our scripture for this morning. Today we heard another story from the evening of Jesus’ arrest. Just a short time after Jesus had washed the feet of his disciples and shared a meal with them, he spends some time talking about what is about to happen and what will subsequently happen after he dies. Today’s story reveals his teaching about the advocate that would come to the disciples after Jesus’ death and ascension. This has a really important meaning for us today. But before I get too far this morning, I want to give us a little background...

I get it, we have heard quite a bit recently about this time in the disciples’ lives. While this might be repetitive to some, it is really important for us to understand that we study these passages at this time of the year to understand that we have a constant companion in this life, the Holy Spirit, sometimes referred to as the Advocate. This Advocate is someone who stands beside us in all things. While some of you might be tempted to tune out at this point, I want to encourage you to stick with me on this because, it is interesting that Jesus, in what was probably his darkest hour, spends a considerable amount of time comforting the disciples who were still with him in that time. For me, I think that what causes me the most angst in these stories is that not one of those disciples seemed to listen enough to understand and truly get that Jesus was about to suffer immensely and ultimately leave this earthly life. If any of us were to face the knowledge of what Jesus knew was about to happen, I wonder if we would be so concerned about others…yet, Jesus’ primary concern was for the disciples and their grief rather than himself. His concern for them is so great that he does not want them to focus on the fact that he is about to die and so he tells them that while they won’t be able to see him, at least physically, they won’t be like orphans and all alone, but rather that...

John 14:16 NET

Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—

And there is that word again…Advocate. As I thought about what I wanted to say this morning, I kept coming back to this word. So, I want to spend a few moments really digesting this word so that we can gain an understanding of what the Spirit really is…for us today, when we think of an advocate, we probably think in terms of someone who fights for the rights of others, like lawyers. But in the original Greek, the word often translated as Advocate actually has multiple meanings which could change the way we think of the word and this passage as a whole.

In the original Greek language, the word used is “Paraclete”. What’s interesting is that Paraclete has no direct English translation…so it is really hard to describe what Jesus truly intended by using this word. Because of this, I want us to take just a few moments this morning to consider the word. Here is the definition of Paraclete from the original Greek...

What this means is that what we normally think of as advocate or in some translations, as helper or comforter, may not truly be strong enough. When we think of the English words, helper and counselor, we may not conjure up an image of an attorney in a court of law. From what I have read and studied this past week, this is truly how the word Paraclete, at least in my mind, should be translated. When you consider the idea of an attorney, they are so much more than just a helper, right? So, when you think of the Spirit in this way, as like an attorney the verse might read something like this...

“he will give you another attorney to be with you forever...”

Consider what that means for a moment…if you think about it, that is truly what Jesus was for us. Think back over your own life for a moment…when you stood before your parents because you broke someone’s beloved piggy bank (or any other fragile item) but did not do it on purpose, did you not tremble in your shoes for fear of what you might be facing for a punishment? Or maybe you hit a tennis ball, playing backyard baseball, and broke a window in someone’s greenhouse? What about how you might have felt as you stood before a teacher in school for telling a fib about something that had happened? Or maybe it was the first time you stood before your boss because you had made an error on something that you were working on? Ok, so maybe those are the times in my life when I wish I had someone to stand in front of me and take on the punishment that I received for doing those things, but you get the idea.

Ultimately, that’s what Jesus did for us. Jesus stood before God (and the Roman Government of his time) and took on the punishment that each of us deserves for the things that we have done in our lives. Now, in the disciples’ time, Jesus had not yet done that for them. However, Jesus understood that, as humans, those disciples were not going to be perfect and the expectation was not that anyone who followed them needed to be perfect either. Which is why, when he tells them that he needed to go on before them, he also needed to reassure them (and us by extension) that we will have another “attorney”, if you will, to stand between us and God and argue for our forgiveness. Please do not mishear me…our forgiveness is guaranteed because Jesus stood there on that fateful day and gave up his life for us, but we also are not expected to never mess things up again. This is why Jesus promises another advocate who will stand firm with us through all things. That is, rather, a promise of someone who will fight on our behalf and argue our situation for us…much like an attorney who fights on our behalf, the Holy Spirit which is yet to come in the story, will be that advocate for us. But this is not the only thing the Spirit will do on our behalf. There is so much more that the Spirit will do for us and on our behalf and I want us to consider for a moment what one of those things might be...

The Holy Spirit is powerful

The Spirit gives us power and strength to make it through everything. Remember Jesus came to guarantee us forgiveness of sins. The Paraclete came as a result of Jesus’ intervention on our behalf. The Spirit lives within each of us. The Spirit came from God to be with us so that we can do all things. Look, I get it, at times like these, it is really easy to forget and wonder why God would allow certain things to happen in this world. And I can imagine that those disciples, after watching what Christ went through, could have thought and felt that way as well. It is so easy to get caught up in the events of the culture and time in which we live. Yet, here we have Christ spending time reassuring us that we are not alone in this world…he says, that the one to come is

John 14:17–18 NET

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you. “I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you.

The world cannot and will not ever accept the things we believe and have faith in. Remember, the definition of faith is believing in that which you cannot physically see. While we cannot physically see the Spirit, does that mean that the Spirit does not reside within us? Absolutely not. We can see the Spirit in the eyes of a child who comes to us in our time of need and says things like, “It will be ok” and gives us a hug. Or we can see it in the actions of those who just do things because they love us, like a family member who comes to visit despite all that is going on in society, putting their own lives at risk by stepping outside their relative safety of their home. Or you can see the Spirit alive in nature as our world begins to blossom and change right before our eyes. We know that the Spirit is alive and within us because we are sitting here this morning sharing the love that God first gave us and while we are not physically together, we are sharing that love with one another. You see, it does not take great acts of healing or the raising of the dead for us to see where the Spirit is working in this world.

Look gang, the past couple of months have been hard. I get it, I feel it, and I experience each time I talk to someone who has not been outside their home for the last two months but here’s the thing that has gotten me through…seeking and finding where God is working through others to bring the love that Christ shared with us into the world. That is the powerful Spirit among us. Sometimes it is hard to see but we can find it if we look. As we move through the next few weeks, I want to challenge us to stay the course, be patient (as Christ was with the disciples), and listen for the Spirit to show us where God is working in the world. When we find it, share it with others because that is how we live out what Christ instructed us to do...

John 14:21 NET

The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

Amen.