Sermon: Day of Pentecost, John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
May 19, 2024
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “the arc of history bends toward justice.” God knows I hope that is true. But it doesn’t seem like it most of the time, does it?
Often, we have to go searching long and hard for news of justice and goodness. For it seems to be all bad news all the time – especially with so many intersecting crises in our nation and world today: greed that makes climate change worse; unjust wars in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas that threaten to spread; the harsh political divisions in our own nation exploited by those who seek more unjust power….
As if this weren’t enough, there are all of those things that trouble us close to home in our own personal lives – health concerns and unjust high costs of healthcare, family conflicts, uncertainties about employment and finances often the result of wealth inequality. You have your own lists of that which troubles you.
It’s hard not to be discouraged and anxious. It’s challenging not to be in grief over what has been lost or what seems to be foreclosed upon us, a just future that seems impossible to imagine. Will life ever return to a time of tranquility without so many chronic crises? Will we ever get closer to genuine peace and justice for all?
As Jesus gathered with his disciples on the night before he died, the scene in today’s gospel reading, Jesus’ followers’ hearts were full of sorrow because they were aware of the coming radical transitions which they could not grasp, but which would involve his death by Roman imperial power, but also his resurrection and ascension to the Father in heaven.
Jesus recognized the disciples’ pain saying, “But now I am going to the one who sent me… [But] because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.” Jesus thus meets them where they are in their fear and anticipated grief.
But then Jesus says something astonishing: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send the Advocate to you.” How on earth can Jesus’ leaving the disciples be to their advantage? How can Jesus’ disappearance help them?
Here Jesus essentially promises the sorrowful disciples what he says elsewhere in the farewell discourse in John’s gospel: “I will not leave you orphaned.” (John 14:18)
The disciples will not be bereft of the influence of Jesus’ ongoing presence because the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, or Counselor is about to come to them.
When the Holy Spirit comes, it’s like having a defense attorney right at your side to guide you along the way and to give encouragement and the right things to say.
The advantage is that Jesus’ presence through the Spirit will be available to all of Jesus’ followers all the time, 24/7, and everywhere, not limited by space and time. That’s the good news we’re looking for in a world of such bad news. We’re not alone in all of this struggle. Communally and individually, we have the Spirit among us and within us constantly. An ongoing, consoling presence who advocates for us.
Then Jesus goes on to say even more amazing things in his farewell address to his disciples as John records. In fact, what I’m about to repeat for you is in my estimation one of the most important messages in all of the Christian scriptures. Here’s what Jesus says to his followers: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, that Spirit will guide you into all the truth.”
This message succinctly describes everything good that’s been happening in Christian history from the Day of Pentecost some two thousand years ago to this every day. Including today. Right here. Right now. For the Holy Spirit continues to be present to teach us and guide us toward all truth.
We see the Spirit guiding Jesus’ followers into all the truth in the Pentecost story recorded in Acts 2 as the Spirit gives Jesus’ followers the gifts to proclaim God’s mighty deeds of power in raising Jesus from the dead – the ultimate, grounding truth of the gospel.
We see the Spirit leading the early Christian community into all truth through the teaching and writing of the Apostle Paul as recorded in today’s second reading. Here’s a wonderful revelation of the Spirit’s advocacy for us, and a revelation of the truth of the indwelling of the Spirit among us. Paul writes: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) In other words, when we feel we cannot pray, don’t worry. The Spirit, our Advocate and Counselor, is already at prayer among us and for us.
Moreover, we see the Spirit leading the early church into all truth in the meetings of theologian bishops which resulted in our creeds which help explain the nature of Jesus’ human-divine identity, the nature of the Holy Trinity, and the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
In short, all of Christian history is filled with countless examples of the Spirit guiding us into all the truth.
Fast forward to today. Right here. Right now. The Spirit still guides us into all truth in each and every one of our bible studies, and, I daresay in the confidence of faith, also in each and every sermon.
The Spirit guides us into all truth in the waters of baptism when we lay hands on the baptized and anoint them with oil praying for and imparting the gift of the Holy Spirit, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in [God’s] presence.”
And the Spirit guides us into all truth when we offer our hands over the gifts of bread and wine, invoking the Spirit’s energy to make present to us through these gifts Christ’s real presence: “Send [on us and these gifs] your Holy Spirit, our advocate, to fill the hearts of all who share this bread and cup with courage and wisdom to pursue love and justice in all the world.” (Epiclesis, Thanksgiving at the Table, Prayer VIII, ELW)
The Spirit guides us into all truth in the holy conversations we have with each other. The Spirit will be present to guide us according to the truth of gospel when we soon meet in our congregational meeting. The Spirit guides us into all truth in English and Spanish, and indeed, in the languages of all the nations.
And it’s the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth through these means of grace which generates and renews and emboldens our faith, giving us the courage to withstand all the troubles and grief and anxiety of a world filled with bad news.
And that same Spirit gives us the gifts to proclaim the good news of God in Christ, him dead, him raised, in today’s language and idioms, just as the Spirit gave gifts to Peter and the others to preach God’s mighty deeds of power. For such gospel proclamation is also our calling when in word and deed we witness to God’s justice.
But don’t fret over what you are to say and do. For as Jesus promises in Luke’s gospel: “do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you are to say.” (Luke 12:12)
Thus, when it’s all said and done, we see through the eyes of faith, itself a gift of the Holy Spirit, that in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the arc of human history does indeed bend toward justice. God’s justice. God’s dominion. God’s reign of shalom and well-being for all. So we proclaim, so we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Amen.
