Easter 6 A: Spirit Work

John 14:15-21

Dear Partner in Preaching,

If last week was a time for lament, perhaps this week is the time for promise.

Neither of those ever happens in isolation, I realize. Endless lament that doesn’t lead to an openness to a new and different future is simply despair, and a promise that is offered too quickly or blithely is meaningless, even insulting. But… just as we took Thomas’ and Philip’s challenges to Jesus last week as permission to name our own fears, insecurity, and confusion, so also we might this week take Jesus’ words about the coming Spirit as permission to hear and claim and be transformed by God’s promises.

It’s a powerful promise made to disciples who were afraid and uncertain about the future nearly two thousand years ago, and it’s a powerful promise made to disciples who are afraid and uncertain about the future today. It’s also a promise made more meaningful when you open it up a bit, and perhaps that’s the opportunity before us this week.

As you well know, Jesus uses a specific and distinct word to describe the Spirit in John’s Gospel: paracletos – literally, one who comes along side you. It gets variously translated as comforter, helper, counselor, and encourager. But perhaps its most literal translation is simply “advocate,” the one who pleads your case, who takes your side, who intercedes for you, and who stands up for you.

At various times across church history, and in various traditions of Christianity today, it may be tempting to imagine that, defined this way, the Spirit’s role is to intercede for us before God. The Spirit, from this point of view, is one who pleads our case that, though we have fallen short, yet because of Jesus and his sacrifice we deserve to be forgiven. But the picture of God this implies – God as needing to be persuaded to love and forgive us – feels so foreign to John’s confession that “God so loved the world that God gave the only Son…” (3:16).

So perhaps it’s actually the other way around. Perhaps it is the Spirit who intercedes on God’s behalf before us. That is, perhaps the Spirit is the one who comes to remind us of our identity as children of God, as sheep who recognize the voice of our shepherd, those for whom the good shepherd lays down his life. Because, Lord knows, that can be a hard identity to hold onto, a hard identity to believe is really ours, especially when we are stressed or frightened, unsure about our future and it feels like everything has been turned upside down.

Or maybe it’s that the Spirit comes along side us and advocates for us in the face of all the challenges of the world, reminding us of Jesus’ promise to be with us and for us in the face of all the things that conspire to make us doubt our worth in God’s eyes, let alone the world.

Both of these last two possibilities – the Spirit advocating that we believe in God’s promises and trust that we are worthy of God’s attention and love – create in us the ability to not just survive the challenges of the day but also flourish amid them. Even more, the Spirit’s work of advocacy creates the possibility that we can then do that same work for others. That is, just as the Spirit is the second advocate – Jesus’ being the first – so also the Spirit invites us into similar work, to be a legion of advocates helping, comforting, encouraging, counseling, and lifting up others. This is perhaps why Jesus moves immediately from commanding his disciples to keep his commandments (and the new and great commandment in John occurred just a chapter earlier to “love one another” [13:34]) to the promise of the Holy Spirit. No one, that is, can hope to love others as Jesus did apart from the advocacy, help, comfort, consolation, counsel, and encouragement of the Spirit.

And part of the evidence of the Spirit’s ongoing presence and power among us is that these kinds of things are already happening. Yes, we live during a frightening time, with loss of income and connection and life. And we dare not underestimate or underplay that. But we also live at a time of profound sacrifice, generosity, encouragement, and more. So perhaps one of the opportunities before us this week, Dear Partner, is to remind our people that they are inheritors of this Spirit, commissioned to do “Spirit work,” and then send them out looking for where the Spirit continues to be present and active in their own lives and in the world. Where are they already doing and seeing Spirit work happen – whether by themselves or by others – and where might they let the Advocate encourage them to dive even more deeply into the promises and work of the Spirit?

Lament, promise, encouragement, effort, advocacy. These different but interrelated elements of our life together constitute much of the rhythm of our lives as God’s people – as Jesus’ present-day disciples – in the world. It can, at times be exhilarating and at times exhausting. But we undertake none of it alone, because Jesus has promised us nothing less than the paraclete, the very Spirit of truth who reminds us of Jesus promises and presence. Thanks be to God.

And thanks be to God for you, Dear Partner, for your faithful labor, diligent work, caring words, and encouraging spirit. What you do matters, now more than ever. Blessings on your proclamation and ministry.

Yours in Christ,
David