Un-Orphaned
John 14:15-21
One year at Annual Conference, the preacher mentioned that a regular thing in her sermons was what she called “The Greek Geek’s Word of the Week.” There was usually a word in Greek that needed to be unpacked and explained for us to better understand the deeper meanings in the text. While I am not a “Greek Geek,” there are three words in our reading for today that will need some unpacking. You don’t have to remember the Greek words when the service is over today, but I think the truth they open to us will be something you will want to keep close to your heart.
Our reading for today is intended by the Ecumenical Lectionary Committee to help prepare us to understand the coming of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which we celebrate at Pentecost. This passage has Jesus laying the foundation for how we are to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, after we know the good news of the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death. The committee did this because, to be quite honest, this is not always where we begin to think about the Holy Spirit.
It is tempting to start with the more spectacular aspects of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues, being slain in the Spirit, receiving visions and dreams – these can all make a person feel special and particularly blessed. And there is certainly Biblical evidence that God can choose to work in these ways to advance the kingdom of God.
But if all we have is “the spectacular Spirit,” separated from the foundational understanding that Jesus gives us, we can be led into sins against the grace of God. John Wesley listed six sins against grace in his pamphlet “Cautions and Directions to the Greatest Professors of Methodism.” The first two in particular are sins concerning the Holy Spirit.
The first is the inner sin of the heart against the prevenient grace of God – the sin of pride. By pride, Wesley was not referring to that feeling of satisfaction in one’s work. Instead, it is the pride that believes that somehow God loves me more than you, because God is more satisfied with me than you.
The evidence of the sin of pride is the claim that these special gifts are given to me for my benefit, and not the benefit of the Body of Christ. Yes, we might claim in false modesty thatall we have received is because of God’s Holy Spirit, but deep down in our heart we believe that God chose me specifically to be the vessel for these special gifts. The shift from focusing on God’s will to focusing on ourselves is the sin of pride.
This is very close to the outer sin of our living against the prevenient grace of God – the sin of enthusiasm. Again, Wesley does not mean being excited and invested in doing something, but that we are so “filled with God, so “en theos,” that we believe that our every thought, word, and work must be a gift of God’s Spirit. As an aside: while “enthusiasm” is based on two Greek words, they do not count against the three we will need to unpack, because they are not in our reading!
We are guilty of the sin of enthusiasm when we believe that other people must follow us, and that they must believe what we say and do, without question, without Bible study, and without any accountability in love through holy conferencing, because God has chosen us over them in every case. The sin of enthusiasm is the belief that to question us is to question God.
So, what is our foundation in the Holy Spirit? In our reading, Jesus says that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. First and foremost among those commandments is this:we are to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us. So anything that takes us away from loving our neighbors takes us away from Jesus.
In our sin, we might pridefully believe that Jesus will love us even if we don’t keep the commandments, since God loves us so much more than everyone else. We might enthusiastically claim a vision from the Spirit that exempts us from keeping the commandments. Yet Jesus tells us the test is really very simple – if the vision is truly from God, it will lead us into loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us. If it leads us away from loving our neighbors, then it is not from the Holy Spirit.
If there is one thing that is clear about our world today, it is that we often struggle with what it means to love our neighbors. We see this struggle get played out every day in politics, as the debate rages on about what is the best way to help the most people. The debate continues because people on every side of every issue can find at least some Biblical support for their approach to the problems. Or else, they are so convinced that their answer is so right and goodthat it must have been given to them from God through the Holy Spirit.
So, how do we sort it out? How do we know what is the will of God, when it comes to loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us? How do we know, especially when there isn’t a direct quote from Jesus that can clearly put the debate to rest?
Jesus tells us that, while we are keeping the commandments, he will give us another Advocate, to be with us forever. This Advocate will be the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, but whom we can know because the Spirit will abide with us, and be in us. And notice this: the gift of the Holy Spirit is not separated from the keeping of the commandments, but is promised as we keep the commandments.
In another age, and in another place, I wouldn’t have to mention this, but here and now I do: Jesus says the Spirit will be given to us, plural; not me, not to one of you one at a time, singular; but to us, together, as the Body of Christ. Receiving the Holy Spirit does not remove us from the Body of Christ. Receiving the Holy Spirit does not replace the need for holy conferencing. Receiving the Holy Spirit does not exempt us from studying the Bible, or spending time in prayer, or being together in worship, or revealing our faith through works of mercy and justice. In truth, it does just the opposite – receiving the Holy Spirit brings us together into the Body of Christ!
The other thing I have to tell you is about the Spirit being an Advocate. In our world today, an advocate is someone who takes our side, pleads our case for us, and defends us from our adversaries. That is a good understanding that comes from the Roman legal system, which we can still see in our legal system today. But now it is time for our “Greek Geek Words of the Week.”
The Greek word for “another” is allos, meaning another example of the same kind, as contrasted with eteros, an example of a different kind. And the word “parakletos,” which we translate as “advocate,” means “the one who goes with us in times of trial.” So when Jesus says that God will give us “another Advocate,” he means the Spirit is like someone who walks with us through the struggles in life.
In the Greek legal system, the advocate did not leave you alone to face the charges. The advocate did not leave you even if the charges were proven. The advocate was a physical reminder that you were not abandoned in the times of testing and trial. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is a spiritual reminder that God does not abandon us in times of testing and trial.
We are reminded of this in some of the ways we talk about the Holy Trinity. Sometimes, instead of identifying the Triune God as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” we identify God by these vital characteristics of “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.” The Holy Spirit is the presence of God that sustains us by being with us. This is good news for us, even if it isn’t as exciting as speaking in tongues or being slain in the spirit.
There have been a few times in my ministry when I have officially been asked to be an advocate for a pastor. According to our Book of Discipline, a pastor has the right to ask someone to be with him or her when charges of misconduct or incompetence are being considered – they have a right to an advocate. And our understanding of the job of an advocate is based on this understanding of the Spirit being an advocate for us.
When a complaint is made, there is an initial meeting that takes place with the bishop or the bishop’s assistant to let the pastor know that charges are being considered. The hope at this first meeting is to see if something can be done that will bring accountability and reconciliation between the pastor and the person or persons considering charges. It was my job as the advocate to simply and profoundly be with the accused pastor.
As the advocate, it was my job to pray with them and for them. This can be hard to do when someone may have violated the integrity of their calling, which reflects badly on all who are ordained – but it was not my job to judge them. It was my job to help the pastor knowthat they were not being abandoned by God, but that God would be with them throughout this time of testing. It was not my job to try to get them out of trouble, either, or to make the complaint go away, but to assure them that God does not forsake us.
To use the words of our reading today, it was my job as the advocate to embody the Holy Spirit of truth. My job was to help all parties involved to seek the good news of Jesus Christ in this situation. This can be hard to do when parties are more concerned with justice and punishment than with accountability and reconciliation. But because it can be hard, it makes the need for an advocate more evident, if we are to be faithful to the Spirit of truth that seeks to sustain us all as the Body of Christ.
In the same way, the role of God’s advocate, the Holy Spirit, is to help us live into the fullness of our faith, particularly when being faithful is hard to do. And we can be faithful if we are certain that God will never leave us or forsake us.
But just because God has promised to always be with us doesn’t mean that God is going to take care of everything for us. The other half of my role as an advocate was what I didn’t do. I didn’t decide for the pastor what they needed to do next. In the same way, the Holy Spirit does not make decisions for us. We can ask for a word from God. We can ask for a sign of what we should do. We can conference with the faith community about the options before us. But it is still up to us to choose.
Some pastors will seek help to strengthen their ministry. Some will choose to turn over their ordination papers and walk away. Some will seek forgiveness while working to make things right. And some will demand a trial, or file countercharges against the church members, to justify themselves. The choice to be faithful or to be sinful is still theirs, and they are accountable for their choice.
I said there were three Greek words that we needed to unpack. The third word is “orphanos,” a child whose parents are dead or a child whoseparents have abandoned them. Jesus said, in verse 18, “I will not leave you orphanos; I am coming to you.” As the redeemed children of God, Jesus does not leave us abandoned, but comes to us through the Spirit of truth, known to us when we keep the commandments to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us.
If you have been feeling abandoned by God, it is time for you to become “un-orphaned.” It is time for you, and for all of us, to receive the Holy Spirit of truth, to love our neighbors, and to become the Body of Christ! And then we will know the love divine, all loves excelling, for we will know that God never abandons us, and that God is with us in the times of testing and trial!
UMH 384 “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”