One Who Comes Alongside (May 25 2014)

Homily:  Yr A Easter 6, May 25 2014, St. Albans

Readings:  Acts 17.22-31; Ps 66.7-18; 1 Pet 3.13-22; Jn 14.15-21

One who comes alongside

One of the most wonderful and the most difficult parts of my job is ministry at the time of death.  It is sad and difficult for obvious reasons.  But it can also be a wonderful time.  It is a privilege to be present with those who are dying and with their family and friends who gather when that’s possible.  Because in those final gatherings, words are said and gestures exchanged in a way that just doesn’t always happen in our day to day lives.  Death, or impending death, has a way of stripping away the superficialities, a way of allowing us to set aside our masks and concerns and to really be with each other, whispering words of love and gratitude, exchanging small gestures of warmth and compassion.  It is of course a time of sorrow, a time when tears are shed.  But often, it is also a time of reconciliation, a time when relationships are deepened among both the living and the dying, a time of closure, a time of faith, a time when questions are asked, a time of grappling with the deepest mysteries of life.

The gospel that we just heard takes place at one of these times. It is the continuation of the gospel text that we heard last Sunday, Jesus is still talking. He and his closest friends, men and women, have gathered together in the upper room knowing that Jesus will be put to death the following morning.  He’s told them plainly that he is to be arrested and put to death.  Judas has already scurried out into the night to betray Jesus, and Peter has been told that over the course of that night he will deny Jesus three times.  Their last meal together has ended. This is their final gathering.

Those of you who have experienced gatherings at the time of death of a loved one can imagine what the atmosphere was like in that room.  I’m sure there were tears, I’m sure there were expressions of love.  And there were questions, we talked about those questions and about how Jesus responded last Sunday.

But underlying those questions there was also something else, something that was probably the reason the disciples had a such hard time understanding what Jesus was saying.  And that something else was fear.  Fear of abandonment.

Psychologists will tell us that the fear of abandonment is one of our greatest fears.  And in this moment when Jesus tells his friends that he is leaving, that fear must have been particularly acute.  Jesus was the one who had come alongside the disciples and had walked with them on the dusty roads of Galilee for three years.  He had taught them and encouraged them, he shared their joys and their sorrows.  One of the things that I like about the musical Godspell is that it captures really well the way in which this rag-tag group of fishers, tax collectors and a carpenter develops into a loving and caring community.  Which only accentuates the sense of loss when it finally sinks in that Jesus is leaving.

And knowing this, in response, Jesus makes them a promise:

“I will not leave you orphaned.  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

An advocate.  In greek a “paraclete”.  The word literally means “one who comes alongside another.”  Sometimes we translate it as “Comforter”, one who comforts, who encourages, who helps, who is there for us.  Sometimes we translate it as advocate, the one who stands by our side and makes our case for us.

Have you ever experienced this?  What are your memories of a time that someone came alongside you, literally or figuratively, to comfort you or to be your advocate? For some of us that might take us all the way back to our childhoods, or it may be a more recent experience. I’d like you to take a moment to think about it and to enter into that experience once again, because those memories and those experiences can then be a gateway for us into understanding and experiencing the Holy Spirit.

(pause)

It is to me a remarkable thing to notice that in the Gospel of John, the whole movement of the narrative is towards the gift of the Holy Spirit.  If I was to ask you what was the purpose of Jesus death and resurrection, I expect that many of you would answer based on the writings of Paul and the synoptic gospels that the purpose of Jesus death and resurrection was forgiveness of sin or reconciliation with God.  But based on a reading of John’s gospel, you might well conclude that the reason that Jesus died and was raised and ascended to the Father was so that the Father could give us the Holy Spirit.  The resurrection is not the end of the story but rather just the beginning of life with the Spirit alongside us.

Jesus came alongside humanity in the Incarnation.  But that had its limitations.  As a human walking this earth, Jesus could only literally come alongside a limited number of people, limited as all of us are by space and time.  But the Holy Spirit has no such limitations.  She can be with us, each one of us, wherever we are, forever, comforting, advocating, teaching, encouraging, inspiring, guiding, coming alongside us, sharing in our joys and sorrows, in and through us, in and through others.

One of the challenges for us I suppose is recognition.  We talked about the “Recognition Problem” a few weeks ago.  There are some clues in what we heard today about how to recognize the Spirit in our lives.  The Spirit is described as “another” Advocate.  “Another Advocate.”  Who was the first advocate?  Jesus.  So the Spirit comes alongside us much in the same way that Jesus did.  Knowing Jesus, his words and his actions, is a good start to being able to see the Spirit in our lives.

But are we even looking for the Spirit?  I have often heard the Holy Spirit referred to as the “forgotten person of the Trinity”.  Don’t believe me?  Have a look in your booklets at the Apostles Creed that we will be saying together as a baptismal covenant in a few minutes as we move into the baptism of Elise.

What does our creed say about the Holy Spirit?  “I trust in the Holy Spirit.”  That’s it, that’s all.  It’s an important statement, but it’s not fleshed very much.  And yet the Holy Spirit is the key to the Christian life.  Life abundant, life in its fullest is lived with the Holy Spirit alongside us, within us, in relationship with us, advocating for us, guiding us, bringing us into relationship with the Father and the Son, comforting, inspiring, encouraging, laughing with us and crying with us and never, ever, leaving us as orphans.

In a few minutes we will baptize Elise.  And we will anoint her with oil as a sign that she has received the gift of the Holy Spirit and we will pray that she will be sustained in the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit will come alongside her and be her advocate and her comfort forever.  She is a child of God and she will never be abandoned or left orphaned.  That is God’s promise to us, through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit.  What could be better than that?

Amen.