THE HOLY SPIRIT: A JOB DESCRIPTION

A Sermon by Bill McDonald from John 14:15-17, 25-28a

May 27, 2007

 

John 14

15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he 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 him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

25“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’

 

Roy was the minister of the church; I was just his lowly student associate.  He was a charismatic, motorcycle-riding, turtleneck-wearing, guitar-playing, energetic, hands-on, hard-headed minister who liked to be in charge.  (You begin to understand why I am the way I am, don’t you?)  So mostly all I did was sit in as a helper at youth meetings, say a prayer and read scripture at worship, and play guitar with Roy when he dropped by my apartment late at night.  And for this I was paid the royal sum of $40 a week by the church. 

Then one day he announced to me, “I’m leaving.” 

“For the weekend? I asked him.  

“For good,” he replied. 

“When?  Next year?  In two years?” I begged. 

He responded, “Next month.” 

And guess who the church then asked to step in as Senior Minister?  I was 24 years old, green as grass, and had no idea how to run a church without Roy there to tell me.  His assurance, “You’ll do fine,” sounded awfully hollow and hopeless to me.

 

The gospel of John chapters 14-17 gives us what has come to be called Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.  It all started with Jesus telling his disciples in Chapter 13, “I am with you only a little while longer.”  By that he meant one day!  At least Roy gave me a month!  The disciples probably hadn’t been paying any more attention to how to do ministry than I had in those first years at Midway.  They were no doubt as panicked, as lost, as frightened as I was.  But Jesus calmed them with a promise that Roy couldn’t make to me.  “And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”  The Greek word used here is parakletos and is variously translated as Advocate, Counselor, Helper, Comforter or simply and un-helpfully as Paraclete (sounds too much like a bright-feathered little bird from our childhoods, doesn’t it?).  Jesus clears it up a little by also referring to this Advocate as the Holy Spirit.  If Roy had told me that he was going to send me a helper, I would have wanted to know, “Well, what is this helper going to do?”  It is a question worthy of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit has arrived; so what is the Holy Spirit going to do?

 

You can look at the Farewell Discourse and catch a whole list of the Holy Spirit’s tasks: “will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness” (16:8), will “guide you into all the truth” (16:13), will “testify on [Jesus’] behalf” (15:26), “will take what is [Christ’s] and declare it to you” (16:14), and will serve as “the Spirit of truth” (15:17).  But, as my experience with Roy serves to inform me, the most important roles of the Holy Spirit are in 15:26: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” 

 

When you are cut loose to do Christ’s ministry in the world, you need some continuing education.  When I finished my three years of seminary, I felt incomplete as a minister.  So I took an additional 6-7 courses at LTS.  Plus numerous workshops and seminars through the years.  Plus the reading of dozens and dozens of books.  Plus collecting 37 years of experience-based learning.  And I am proud to say that, after all that, I think I’m just about to get the hang of this job!  When you stepped into those clear baptismal waters, declaring Jesus as your Lord, that wasn’t the end, the finish line, the graduation ceremony.  It was just the beginning.  The Holy Spirit at that moment flooded into your water-soaked being and became your life-long teacher.  Over the years we amass knowledge of how Christ works in our life and how we can work for Christ through our lives.  Have you ever had one of those “Aha” moments?  Suddenly you understand a concept about your faith that has somehow eluded you all these years.  It isn’t that you suddenly got smarter or more aware; it is the Holy Spirit opening your mind, teaching you.  Given the chance, the Holy Spirit will teach you all you need to know to be a true follower of Christ. 

 

Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit…will remind you of all that I have said to you.”  I don’t know about you, but I need my memory refreshed often.  About eight years ago I helped to build a hip roof on a community pavilion in Loyall, Kentucky.  For two days all I did was work on the corners of a hip roof.  Do you think I could build a hip roof today?  No way.  I would need a refresher course, someone to remind me of how to get started and when what went.  I have read the four gospels more times than I can count, but sometimes when my life and the gospels come to a collision point, when I want one thing and Jesus wants another, precisely then I need to be reminded who the Lord and Director of my life is.  The voice comes softly from somewhere deep in my consciousness and whispers, “Now, Bill, remember when Jesus said….”  If we listen, the Holy Spirit will remind us of all that Christ has said to us.

 

You might be saying, “Wait a minute, McDonald, isn’t the Holy Spirit just the same thing as the spirit of Jesus still alive in the world?”  And to you I would respond, “By George, you’ve got it!”  It was Jesus’ way of telling his disciples that it wasn’t all over, that it wasn’t going to end with his last breath, that he would be with them forever.  This weekend many of you will wander to the cemetery and cherish the memories of a loved one, perhaps even feel something of that person’s spirit stirring in your heart.  Many people will say, “He’s better off now; she’s in a better place.”  You could say the same about Jesus—if you just change one word.  Not “he’s in a better place” but “he’s in a better position.”  The earthly Jesus could be in only one place at a time; it took him weeks to walk from Galilee to Jerusalem.  But now, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus can be in all places in the blink of an eye.  Not limited to one place, he is huddled in a Darfur village with frightened victims of violence.  Not limited to one place, he is casting an arm around the shoulder of a hope-deprived casualty of Hurricane Katrina who wonders if the world has forgotten her.  Not limited to one place, at the same time he is stirring the hearts of an out-of-state work crew and aiming them at her house.  Not limited to one place, he stands beside the Hospice bed, hands out food at the Hope Center, sits on a bedside listening to lonely despair poured out, and shares a pew with you in the sanctuary.  His position is much stronger now than when we walked the dusty roads of Palestine with his disciples

 

According to the theology of the gospel of John, Jesus existed from the beginning of infinity in the creative mind of God, then he spent thirty-three years in human form on the planet Earth, and now he lives forever present in spirit in our world—Creator, Redeemer, Presence—Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Next Sunday is Trinity Sunday and we’ll wrestle a little more with that idea then. 

 

I appreciate all that Roy taught me, especially about guitars and preaching.  Julie is grateful that his love of motorcycles didn’t get passed along to me.  Though my gratitude for Roy is strong, it doesn’t even come close to my gratitude for Jesus who, though he said he was leaving, he really didn’t.