May 13, 2007 – The Sixth Sunday of Easter
John 14:23-29
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Let us Pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable unto you. Amen.
I was scared; I didn’t know what to do. I remembered what they told us in Girl Scouts about staying where you are of you ever get lost. But really this was a new ball game, when we learned to stay where we talking hypothetically. We never practiced what to do when it actually happened. I looked around everywhere and I couldn’t find her anywhere. Everyone looked the same from where I was standing. They all looked like they could be my Aunt Peggy. The clothes rack where I everywhere I turned and I couldn’t get away from the maze of the clothes. I had no idea where she went, she was right next to me. I was petrified. I had no idea where to turn and I was afraid. I was afraid of being 5 and being alone in this department store. I didn’t like that my aunt left with me with no one around to help me find her.
The disciples are gathered with the Jesus after the Last Supper and before he was betrayed. And Judas asks Jesus a question right before our text for today. Judas asked Jesus why will he appear to us (the disciples) and not to the world? Then Jesus answers him about whoever loves him keep his word and God will dwell in him, as a parallel to how the beginning of the Gospel of John begins, “The word was with God, and the word was God…”Then Jesus reminds them that he will be sending them a Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete is more than a helper, comforter, or an Advocate. I have on friend who uses, “an overbearing mother who can’t leave you alone, is always there for you, helping you to be the best person you can be, helping you pick out your clothes, deciding what you should major in, who you should date/marry, and helping you to figure out what you truly believe in life.” Yet even an overbearing Mom doesn’t capture what Jesus means by Paraclete. The English language fails to have a better word for how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus reminds the disciples of peace he gives to us is difference then what the world gives us. Then he reminds the disciples not to be troubled in their hearts, for them not to be afraid.
Jesus is telling all of this to the disciples so they may remember and believe when all of these things take place. The disciples were scared. They were really scared, what was going to become of them? Why was Jesus leaving them? How can they know where to go when Jesus leaves? You can almost hear the hurt, confusion, and the abandonment the disciples are feeling in this text, even though they are not the ones talking in this text. In this chapter this is the 2nd time Jesus is telling them he is going to the Father, and that they will be sent a Paraclete, that God will be with them. The disciples were petrified, and how could you blame them? The person they followed and gave their life to was about to leave them, how does anyone wrap their brain around it?
Some of us know too often what it feels like to lose someone we have dedicated our lives to, to lose someone we have love unconditionally. It is painful. It is a confusing time and when it is out of the blue and traumatic we want answers. We want someone to be with us, who understands what we are going through. We want whomever it is that we have lost to come back and be with us. We want more answers then we often can come up with or find. The disciples who have this warning from Jesus about what is going to happen and yet they still want answers. Even when you have a warning, it sometimes does not make the loss any easier. The disciples don’t want to lose their friend, the Rabbi, the guy they have come to love. They do not want to be left alone in a world that hates them. They need to know just because Jesus is leaving does not mean they will be orphaned or abandoned. In the beginning of this chapter Jesus reminds the disciples they will not be left alone, God will always be with them and love them. God is going to send the Holy Spirit to them, to teach them and remind them of all Jesus has done for them. So the disciples have two accounts of Jesus promising them the Holy Spirit in just one chapter. This is point Jesus wants to make sure the disciples remember. By Jesus reminding them twice in only 26 verses you have the sense that the Jesus is trying to calm their fears and apprehensions. He is reminding them of the Holy Spirit for when their hearts are troubled and they afraid and they think they are alone.
The Holy Spirit is a challenging concept to get our minds around. The Holy Spirit is not like Jesus where we have some sort of idea of what Jesus might have looked liked, stories about what he did, or even stories about what he said. And the Holy Spirit is not like God where we know where he is, obviously in heaven and around us, or what he looks like, a big guy with a long white beard who sits in a big chair with long white robes on. Ok maybe we don’t’ really know what God looks like or what exactly Jesus did for every single moment of his life yet, it seems as though we are ok with all of those things. We are ok with being a little out of the dark when it comes to Jesus and to God, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit we get a little stuck. We want answers to the Paraclete because we don’t always understand how we can experience the Holy Spirit in our every day life. The mud gets a little bit thicker and we don’t know what to make of this Paraclete that Jesus promises us.
What we do know is that Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit to teach us new things and remind us of everything Jesus has taught us. Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples what the Holy Spirit is going to look like or say. Instead, Jesus just tells the disciples that God will send them a Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to be with them, to teach them, to remind them of all he has said and taught. The Holy Spirit will teach us EVERYTHING and help us to remember ALL that Jesus has taught us. These two words are inclusive. It almost gives me the sense when the Jesus says the Holy Spirit will teach us everything, it is a promise we will learn not only about God, or about Jesus, or about faith, but we will also learn what it means to be children of God. We will learn what it means to truly allow Christ to live in us and through us. The Holy Spirit will be with us when we learn what it means to love, what it means to be a servant, when we learn touching the oven with our hands while it is on is not the best idea, or even when the lifeguard tells you to get to shore you listen. Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit will be with us always, not just as a comforter, helper, advocate, counselor, over protective mother, or even as a teacher. Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will be all these things and more. We will never be alone in this world, no matter what we go through in our lives.
The Holy Spirit, who has been promised to us by Jesus, will be with us to the end of the age. Whenever we wonder where Jesus is at work in our lives or where God is when we feel alone all we have to do is remember the promise made to us by Jesus, that God as sent us the Holy Spirit. When we don’t understand what is going on in the world around us, or we wonder why Jesus has left us and why we can’t go with him to the Father we can remember this verse. We can remember the promise Jesus made to those disciples and to us here in this community. That we will be sent the Holy Spirit, who will be with us always, to be a comforter, helper, advocate, teacher, counselor, and sometimes as an overprotective mother. Our hearts should not be troubled and we should not be afraid of being alone. We will never be orphaned or left to fight this world on our own. Even when we feel as though our lives are being flipped upside down and we lose the people we love in our lives, we will never ever be alone. Even when times get tough and we wonder how it is will make it through life whether or not life is worth living, we are not alone. Yes those times when we feel as though no one is around us and we are searching for our lost Aunt in the department store, we are not alone. We might not always feel as though we aren’t alone and might take us awhile to feel as though God is with us, yet with have this promise from Jesus that we will never be alone. We have the promise that we will always have the Holy Spirit with us, to teach us everything and to help us remember all Jesus has taught us, even when we forget. Amen.
