The Promised Spirit (June 5, 2022) John 14. 8-17 (25-27)

Well, we have come to the end of the Easter Season. The 50 days of the season culminate in the coming of Pentecost. And with this season we come to what is know colloquially as the “birthday of the Church”. And it is a time of celebration, a time of having a little fun and breaking the “frozen chosen” label that has been given to Presbyterians. We bring in colorful banners and sing songs that are upbeat in tempo. We act as if something remarkable were taking place. If anything could unfreeze us, it is the heat of the fire of the Holy Spirit moving in us and in the church.

We have been going through the book of Acts for the past few weeks and today would be the traditional day for preaching from the text in Acts. But that would be too easy. It would also be a time of folks saying that I was preaching on the exact same thing year after year.

But today I want us to look at another passage of scripture that tells us something that we seldom think about: The Holy Spirit. This a subject that tends to make us a bit uneasy. Why is that? Well, we know God and we know Jesus. Both of them are easy to attest to and easy to know, especially Jesus. He is the one who was human so we can relate to him much more quickly than we can to God. But then there is the Holy Spirit. Just the name tells us something that we do not want to face: a spirit. For many of us a spirit is a ghost, something of which to be frightened. But the Spirit is not a ghost or a good or evil entity that haunts a certain place because it cannot leave unless something happens (think of many horror movies here.)

Not only do we have a skewed view of what the Holy Spirit is, we have a notion of distrust as well. Too often we believe that we can control God or Jesus. They are ones that we know and that we believe that we can manipulate if we do or say the right things. But the Spirit is different. Jesus says in John 3 that the Spirit is like the wind, going and coming without anyone able to control. In other words, the Spirit is unpredictable. We have heard what the Spirit did on Pentecost and we have heard what the Spirit did in the book of Acts. What else will the Spirit do and what does that mean for us? What will the Spirit do with us and what can we do about it?

There are many sermons that go into detail about what the Spirit did on Pentecost, but today I want us to look at the text from John where the Spirit is promised and what the Spirit does in its role as part of the Trinity, something that we will be speaking of next week.

In the text for today, Jesus is beginning his farewell discourse in John. This is a long discourse and covers many topics. Just before our text for today Jesus has let the disciples know that he will be going away and that he is preparing a place for them. He tells them to not let their hearts be troubled. This may sound comforting to us and for many it is, but to the disciples this was troubling. After all they had been following Jesus for three years and have gotten to know him and his teachings well. They are dismayed when they hear that he will be going away because what does that mean for them? Where will they go and what will they do?

Jesus tells them that he and the Father are one and that if they know him then they will know the Father. This could only mean that they would know God, the one who was essentially unknowable in their theology. This would have been enough to chew on but then Jesus says that they will do the works that he has done and will do even greater things. Now this would seem ridiculous to them and to us. Had they not watched Jesus heal, teach and do miracles? Had they not watched him face down the authorities? And they will do greater things? Yet when one thinks about it, this is true. While Jesus did indeed do great things, he was only one person in one place in time. What the disciples did was to spread the Gospel throughout the known world at that time. Disciples today and through history have done the great works of spreading the Gospel to the whole world, bringing healing to a world, feeding the masses, and many other works. So, Jesus was not wrong when he said that they would do the works that he did and even greater ones.

But how were they to do this? Jesus says that “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”[1] See, Jesus is an advocate for us, one who stands in the gap for us and appeals for us to God. But now another Advocate is promised. This term can also be translated as Counselor, Helper or Comforter because this term, Paraclete, can mean all of them. This Advocate will abide with them and they will know this one because this one will be in them.

Now in know this sounds a lot like possession, but this is what the text says. The one who is coming will abide in them and bring them comfort when Jesus is gone. But there is so much more that the Advocate will do.

In verses 25 and 26 Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit will come and teach them everything. That the Spirit will remind them of everything that Jesus taught and did. That because they have this Spirit, they will do great things.

You may ask what are some of the things that the Holy Spirit does. Well, there are a few things that Daniel Migliore in his book Faith Seeking Understanding has listed that the Spirit does. First, that the Spirit bears witness to and re-presents Christ to us. By doing this the Spirit brings Christ into the present and bridges the gap between the then and there and the here and now. In other words, we know Jesus today because of the Spirit. Second, the Spirit is the power of new life in Christ. Because of this we are taken from slavery to sin and death and brought into new life and communion with others. Third, the Spirit is the power of new freedom in Christ. The Spirit frees us the have the mind of Christ, to have a pattern of life that is more than what we are but that makes us reflect the pattern of God’s self-giving love in Jesus. Fourth, the Spirit is the power of the new community in Christ. It is through the Spirit that we have the church. It is through the power of the Spirit that we can love one another, we can be united with strangers and even with old enemies. This community can and will do many things through the Spirit. Eugene C. Bay has this to say about the community that is brought about in the Spirit from John 14: “The intent of John 14 is to form a community of believing and obedient people, a community that is confident in the disclosure of God that has come in the person of Jesus and that depends on the leadership of the Spirit of truth to keep it obedient and productive in its life. The community intended by the text will not be satisfied with bowling leagues, sewing circles, and yoga classes, or even with therapy sessions or Bible study classes, but will be led to do “works” similar to those of Jesus: befriending the outcasts, healing the sick, speaking up for the marginalized, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, and speaking truth to and about the empire.”[2] Fifth, the Spirit is the giver of gifts that are for the building up of the community that is formed by the Spirit. We know the gifts of tongues given on the day of Pentecost. There are other gifts because the gifts are not given to only a select few, but to all in the community of the Spirit. It is stated that these gifts are to be tested by whether or not they serve the life and the mission of the community and not bring dissention and discord. Finally, the Spirit is the power and promise in Christ of the completion of all of God’s works. Migliore states that as the power of God’s promised future, the Spirit awakens hope, yearning, and restlessness for the completion of God’s reconciling work in Christ and the establishment of justice and peace throughout the creation.

Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with the here and now. Well, it has everything to do with it. Because of the Spirit we can experience and know Jesus today, not just in some text but living in and through us. Because of the Spirit we can read the scriptures and have them come alive to us and not be just dead letters on a page. Because of the Spirit we can come together as diverse as we are and be family. And all this because the one promised to us is with us.

The attributes given above tell us what the Spirit is and does. But the Spirit is so much more. We have life and hope because of the Spirit. And there is one more thing. Because of the Spirit we will break bread with Jesus. The physical Jesus is not with us, but because the Spirit connects us with Jesus, we can share the feast we are about to partake in with him. It is a mystery of how it happens but it is sure that it does happen.

Today is Pentecost. We often talk about the Spirit reviving the church for the work of the gospel. That would lead us to believe that we are without the Spirit and dead. But as I have hopefully pointed out, we are never without the Spirit and it is the Spirit that give us life. What I believe we are is not dead, but stubborn. We want to have things our own way and the Spirit will not allow that. The Spirit moves and goes where the Spirit wishes. Where we are taken is not up to us but to the one taking us there. But here is the good news, the Spirit will never take us to the wrong place or to wrong actions because the Spirit is God and God is the Spirit. It is in the Spirit that we trust to lead us in the way we are to go. So, let’s listen. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Bay, Eugene C. Feasting on the Word: Year C Pentecost and Season after Pentecost, Propers 3-16. Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville. 2010. 71-72 electronic version.