Rev. Rebecca Heilman-Campbell
John 14: 15-31
Pray with me.
Humble us, Lord.
Humble our spirit so we can hear your words and know your heart.
In your name we pray, Amen.
The Holy Spirit is the lesser known essence of the Trinity.
She is the quieter being that moves and flows,
often without us even noticing it.
The Holy Spirit can move us to tears
and then push the church in bold directions.
She surprises us to our soul.
I remember as a child learning about the Trinity.
There were all sorts of examples used to help children
understand the strange theological concept of three beings into one God.
I heard metaphors such as,
the Trinity is like the different forms of water – liquid, ice, and vapor.
The Trinity is like an egg –
there’s the yolk, the egg whites, and the shell, all in one egg.
This next metaphor might go over some of your heads.
The Trinity is like a boom box –
it can play the radio, a CD, and a cassette tape.
While these metaphors don’t REALLY grasp the mystery of the Holy Trinity,
they, at least, give an idea.
The Trinity is three in one, all equal, all interrelated,
but not REALLY the same.
No one being is above or more powerful than the other.
And yet they are all God.
But even with these funny metaphors,
we don’t really talk about the Spirit in church or Sunday school
unless it is Pentecost or Trinity Sunday.
Let’s dive in today!
John, the Gospel writer’s word for the Holy Spirit is paraklētos,
translated as advocate, comforter, helper, or intercessor.
It is “a compound word merging the preposition,
para, which means ‘with’ or ‘alongside,’
with the verb kaleō, [which means] ‘to call.’
[Essentially,] the Holy Spirit, according to John,
is the one who is called to be alongside us.”1
Why don’t we talk about the Spirit in this way more?
The one who is called to be alongside us.
In our passage today, Jesus is informing the disciples
that he is about to leave them.
That he will not be there forever.
Jesus knows that he is about to be killed by the Roman Empire.
And in full Jesus fashion,
he can’t leave his disciples without giving them some comfort.
And that comfort, while listening to the text,
might sound overwhelming, repetitive, and confusing,
the bottom line is that Jesus leaves them
with the biggest commandment of all,
to love and they will not be left to love alone.
Listen again to what Jesus tells the disciples,
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but YOU will see me….
Know that 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.”
Jesus is reassuring the disciples that they will never be alone.
Although they may not be able to see Jesus,
they will see the Holy Spirit – the advocate, the comforter –
working through God’s people.
Remember when the Rev. Fred Rogers said to “Look for the helpers.“
Catholic Bishop Michael Pham is a helper.
Recently in an interview he recounts his migration journey to America.
1 Lewis, Karoline M.; Lewis, Karoline M.; Lewis, Karoline M.. John (Fortress Biblical
Preaching Commentaries) (p. 191). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
At eight years old he traveled on a cargo boat from Vietnam to America,
packed in tight with other people
and eventually, realizing that the bodies across the deck were not sleeping.
He arrived to the United States without his parents.
With that experience, he turned towards his faith.
And he is one of the first bishops to be named by the current Pope – Pope Leo.
And has taken immigration as a top priority in his ministry.
Bishop Pham attends many immigration courtroom proceedings,
dressed in his clerical collar,
“serving as a silent reminder of human dignity
that he hopes is comforting to migrants
and thought-provoking to the masked agents…”
A simple act with a strong comforting presence
for those on the scariest day of their lives.
The Holy Spirit as comforter working through Bishop Pham.
We leave another week with another mass shooting at a school.
Where precious children were in the act of praying,
when violence shattered around them.
And we again are brought to our knees asking why, O God, why?
And we’re not stopping for thoughts and prayer.
We look for the helpers, the comforters during trauma.
We look at Pat Scallen, a man who did stop for prayer,
But raced from his home after hearing gunshots,
saw children bleeding and in pain
and stayed with them the whole time
as help came to their aid.
One eight-year-old child asked him, “please just hold my hand”
the simplest of comforts
and he did
as she wept in his arms for her parents.
The Holy Spirit as comforter working through Pat Scallen.
This translation of the Holy Spirit
as the one who is called to be alongside us
can be especially profound when faced with trauma, fear, and loneliness.
The Holy Spirit that Jesus promises
will be with, alongside, the disciples after he is gone,
is the same Holy Spirit in the hands of the first responders,
in the wind on the faces of parents racing barefoot towards their children,
in the quick movement of teachers shielding their students.
It’s the same Holy Spirit that hovers over families separated their homes
or scared to leave their homes or send their children to school.
It’s the same Holy Spirit
that reminds us to breathe
when we go to the doctor for another test.
It’s the same Holy Spirit that fills our hearts with warmth
when we do good deed
or embrace a friend with a hug
or remember that love is really all that matters.
Jesus had to leave the disciples eventually
and they were forced into a scary, unclear, nearly unmanageable time.
BUT Jesus did not leave them alone.
Jesus left them with the commandment to love
(the simplest and most difficult challenge we know)
and Jesus left them with the Comforter who would love alongside them.
That’s the hope we can pull from this story
and that’s the hope we can pull from the world we are in right now.
We love and we know that the one who is called alongside us loves with us.
We love the children of this congregation,
doing all we can do to protect them,
and we know that the one who is called alongside us
is facing the fears of this world, weeping with us.
We care for the most vulnerable in our community
and we know that the one who is a helper and advocator
teaches us every day how to care with full hearts.
We embrace each other every week
and we know that the one who is called to be alongside us
will settle peace in our hearts and into this community.
Jesus left his disciples with the commandment to love
and Jesus did not leave them alone to figure it out on their own.
Pray with me.
Loving God, we believe, help our unbelief. Amen.