John 14:18-20, 25-26
I Believe in the Holy Ghost
(Preached on Jan 30th, 2022)
Prayer for Illumination: Song Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli
Holy Spirit, You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your presence, Lord
Your presence, Lord
In our series of the Apostles Creed we are now at the one-liners. We believe in the Holy Ghost, or as we see it all over scripture the Holy Spirit. The final part of the Trinity. The part of the Trinity that helps us relate to God and Jesus, the inspiration of the word of God.
Scripture has many ways that the Spirit of God is described or mentioned. In Genesis 1:2 is the ruach, the breath of life. It is the creative and working gift of life in the Old Testament. It is working in a variety of ways all throughout the scriptures, giving gifts, courage, hope, and justice in the land. The Spirit wasn’t dormant but an everlasting presence.
In Acts 2:4 at Pentecost the people were filled with the Holy Spirit, the pneuma, which is defined as a great wind. The Spirit is active in the life of Jesus and is the closest possible relation to Christ. The Spirit moved from being an outside source to one that worked in and through the people of God as witnesses to Christ.
John is the only one to use a different word for the Holy Spirit. Instead of a form of pneuma, he used parakletos, which means Comforter, Advocate, Helper. This is how John has Jesus describe the Holy Spirit 4 times in the gospel and in 1 John 2:1 uses the same word, Advocate, to emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity.
Let us hear now the Word of God from John 14:18-20, 25-26 of the Common English Bible
18 “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.
25 “I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. 26 The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Jesus tells the disciples in John 14, which is the Farewell Discourse to the Disciples, a whole chapter of Jesus explaining that he is preparing a place for the disciples, he is preparing them to continue the work of witnessing after Jesus is physically gone. They don’t get it, we sometimes still don’t get it. But this is what Jesus gives as an incredible gift. The Holy Spirit, which is how we are able to understand any of what Jesus has said, is the presence and the life giving purpose. It is the wind that moves us in the way to go.
Last week I talked about the Weeds and the Wheat and mentioned a dandelion. I think about the positive part of this image. It is spread by the wind every which way, it is moved not on it’s own and goes where the wind takes it. What an image for us to think about the Spirit of God moving us and sending us out to different places to fulfill our purpose. That the wind can move us in any direction, sometimes even a direction we wouldn’t have taken on our own.
Poetry is a beautiful work of the Spirit. One of the great women of Christian faith, Hildegard of Bingen wrote this poem about the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is life-giving life,
Universal Mover and the root of all creation,
Refiner of all things from their dross,
Brings forgiveness of guilt and oil for our wounds,
Is radiance of life, most worthy of worship,
Wakening and reawakening both earth and heaven.
I love this poem as it describes how the Spirit has moved and is moving us in the direction of Jesus. The poetry describes all the work that the Spirit did in the Old Testament and how the Spirit keeps us connected to God in ways we could never do on our own.
I always was struck that the Holy Spirit didn’t get more attention in the creed that I stated over and over again in life. It feels a little like an afterthought and not part of the amazing way that I connect with Jesus and witness to Jesus in the world.
This is where I feel so connected to the Brief Statement of Faith the church put out a few decades ago. This is what is stated all about the Spirit:
We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church.
The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
This is a gift for us to take the one line of the creed and really expand on the work of the Holy Spirit.
What does the Holy Spirit do?
Richard Ward describes the task of the Spirit, “ to help us understand what we have been taught and learn to act upon it. The Spirit is present to us as one who will “teach [us] everything” when we are perplexed about how to act in loving obedience.
The Spirit guides us to understand what we are reading in the scripture. What we are to do with our faith, how it is we are supposed to witness to the lost, the last, the least of these. The living word of God in scriptures is living because of the work of the Spirit.
How then does the Spirit help you to understand Jesus in your life?
As believers in a Trinitarian God, the Spirit is fully part of God and Jesus and yet works on it’s own. We have our Father Almighty, We have Jesus our Redeemer, Our Savior, and we have the Spirit which is not only the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate, the Spirit sustains us and gives us peace. Each was there at the beginning and throughout time and yet each has very special ways in which we understand their function in our lives as we understand any of this at all.
Back to John 14, Jesus tells the disciples he will give them the parakletos, the Helper, the Advocate. And then says the most beautiful verse:
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth is what Jesus leaves as an incredible gift that we will have peace.
Peace of God may come in moments. There may be a moment in the midst of a crisis that somehow a peace wafts over the chaos in order to have the energy to keep going. That is the peace of God. In the moment of seeing or hearing a sound of a baby that reminds us of the precious miracle of new life that is the peace of God. The moment of taking that sip of coffee or the warmth of a sigh that is the peace that Jesus leaves us. It may be big and sustaining, it may be small and fleeting but also sustaining. The peace of God is one that truly surpasses all understanding, but we are left with the promise that even in the shadow of heartache, loss, loneliness, suffering, we are able to receive the peace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.
John is the only one that calls the Spirit an advocate. What is an advocate?
It is one who stands with you, it is one that is “called to stand beside…” through a court case. Today maybe we can see a word like sponsor or supporter as one that listens, that supports, that goes beside them through the good, the bad, and the in between.
I think about the important work of groups like AA and Al-Alon that use the work of the Sponsor as an integral part of the community and process. The sponsor is one that listens, that stands with the one in recovery, alongside them, the sponsor isn’t one that is outside of the community but is one that is with the person, for the person, wanting them to want their best.
Theologian Daniel MIgliore speaks about how the Holy Spirit is representative, it is by the Holy Spirit’s work that the gap is closed between us and Jesus in time and space. The church and the work of God and Jesus, is not a distant part of the past but a part of life yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is not a memory but part of the life we live in the day to day. The work of God is happening through the breath of the Holy Spirit drawing us near, calling us to love, to serve, and giving us the words to do so.
The Spirit is one that works with a gentle breath, a violent wind, a comfort, and a peace. The Spirit is what connects and inspires the church to be the church. The Spirit leads us to do what we may deem is impossible (at least for us).
We are called not only to invite the Spirit of God that is there already to work in our lives but we are to listen to the urging of the Spirit to do the hard things, to hear each other, to reach out for guidance and help, even when we feel too proud to take it. The Spirit is guiding the church, the community, and us as individuals each and every day.
When you ask the Spirit to open your eyes and hearts and minds, change will come. It will change for the better as we are called not only to have peace, to be peacemakers, to work with the Spirit in creativity, justice, and love.
How has the Spirit worked in you?
How is it that you have come to believe in Jesus and the work of God in the world?
Take time to allow yourself to be in the presence of the Spirit this week. Notice how you come to understand Jesus in scripture, how you relate to God in life and in prayer, how you are inspired in big and in little ways.
Friends,
Will you let the Spirit move you?
Will you let the Spirit comfort you?
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