Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
In this passage from John, Jesus is teaching his disciples about his impending departure, his own death on the cross. Jesus wants to make sure that his disciples understand that they are not being abandoned at the cross. Jesus tells them that they are too important, too well loved by Jesus and by God the Father, to be left alone at the foot of the cross.
So who is this Advocate, this Spirit of truth that Jesus promises will be with his disciples forever?
The church’s oldest description of the Holy Spirit comes in the Apostle’s Creed, which was part of the earliest baptismal liturgy. This creed tells us that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit”. Later we declare that we “Believe in the Holy Spirit.” That’s it.
The Nicene Creed, which we recite each Sunday in a form set at the Second Ecumenical Council, the First Council of Constantinople in 381, offers a little more than the Apostle’s Creed. The Nicene Creed declares that “By the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and became man.” Towards the end of the Creed we declare that, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father through the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.” That really doesn’t tell us much more about the Holy Spirit than the Apostle’s Creed did.
You’d think someone so crucial to our worship, someone we call upon in all of our sacraments and sacramental rights, would be just a little better defined. We call upon the Holy Spirit in our two Sacraments to make Jesus present to us in the Eucharist, and to give us grace in our baptisms. We also call upon the Holy Spirit for the gift of grace in our five Sacramental Rites: confirmations, ordinations, healings, marriages, and reconciliations.
So if the Holy Spirit is so crucial to our spiritual life, what does our church teach about the Holy Spirit that is unique from the Father and the Son? Here’s what the catechism in our prayer books has to say in five parts:
1 – The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, God at work in the world and in the church even now. So the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and in the church; that’s important.
2 – The Holy Spirit is revealed in the Old Covenant as the giver of life, the One who spoke through the prophets. So the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets to speak God’s truths and wishes, which gives us life somehow.
3 – The Holy Spirit is revealed in the New Covenant as the Lord who leads us into all truth and enables us to grow in the likeness of Christ. So the Holy Spirit teaches us truth, truth being what it means to be like Jesus.
4 – We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation. So confessing Jesus Christ as Lord lets us see the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit being to reconcile us to God, to ourselves, to our neighbors, and with all of creation.
5 – We recognize truths as being taught by the Holy Spirit when they are in accord with the Scriptures. So the standard of truth taught by the Holy Spirit is contained in the Scriptures.
So basically the Holy Spirit is active, inspiring, teaching, and reconciling. This all sounds a little like a CSI episode, very clinical and somewhat lukewarm. These are really important concepts but this isn’t a very inspiring discussion of the person and works of the Holy Spirit. These words don’t properly describe the Spirit that blew across the waters at creation. These words don’t properly describe the Spirit that filled the hearts of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, and Joseph, giving them the courage to leave the security of home behind and to journey with God to distant lands. These words don’t do justice to the Spirit that drew Moses into God’s plan for him to lead the Hebrews out of bondage through the power of a bush that burned but was not consumed. These words don’t properly describe the Spirit that drew Joshua and the Israelites across the river Jordan and into the land promised to them and their forebears. These words don’t explain the fervor and the courage and the power of the Prophets like Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Maybe that’s why there’s so little written about the Holy Spirit that we’ve gone to the trouble to define. What do you write down to describe what it feels like to receive the gift of Grace from the Holy Spirit at your baptism? How do you use language to describe what St. Stephen felt when, filled with the Spirit, he testified to the truth of Jesus Christ despite the fact that it would cost him his life? How do I describe in words the emotion that shook me to weeping as we sang “Come Holy Spirit” during my ordination? What words would you use to describe the feelings that overtake some of you as you step forward to the communion rail and receive the body and blood of our savior?
Words and language fail when describing the Holy Spirit and the work the Holy Spirit does because the Spirit of Truth is living and breathing and always in motion. The Holy Spirit is not some stale, distant legend you read about in a book. The story of the Holy Spirit is not a tale about some ancient good that was present for a time in creation and then faded back into the recesses of history. The Holy Spirit is not ancient history.
The Holy Spirit is a living gift, full of power and truth, given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to sustain us all through the journey that is our lives. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t just sustain life; the Holy Spirit brings NEW life; inspires new life, teaches about what new life feels like, reconciles us and heals us so that new life comes to every relationship we have ever had, every relationship we have now, and every relationship we will ever have.
And the Holy Spirit can do these things because the Sprit doesn’t know us by reading about us in some written account of our lives, or because of things others have said about us. The Holy Spirit can do these things for us because the Holy Spirit knows us intimately, the Holy Spirit abides in us, the Holy Spirit dwells with us, the Holy Spirit lives within the very depths of every imperfect human heart, every human heart.
This same Holy Spirit blew through the heart of Paul the Apostle, and gave Paul the words he needed to make known to the Athenians the name of the previously “unknown” god they had been honoring. St. Paul not only made known God’s name to the Athenians, and to many, many other peoples as well, but Paul also preached the unique Good News of God’s forgiveness and offer of salvation to them again and again, ultimately at the cost of his own life.
This same Holy Spirit blew through the author of the First Letter of Peter, the Apostle, when the author reminds us that Jesus himself “was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit”; just as St. Peter himself, when fleeing persecution in Jerusalem, turned back to the Holy city at the last minute and died with many other Christian martyrs by the same crucifixion as our Lord; just as we will one day die in the flesh but be made alive in the Spirit because of what Jesus did for us.
The Good News in today’s passage from John is that, just like the Apostles and other disciples before us, we have not been left orphans by the departure of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Just as he promised his disciples he would, as he promised us he would, Jesus has left us the gift of the Holy Spirit to sustain us in our journey toward God and with God. And this is not some stale, unfeeling specter watching us from a distance. This is not some mild breeze that leaves us wanting for refreshment. This is the wind of utter joy that blows not just on us but right through us, pure Spirit that penetrates to the very center of our hearts, pure love that raises us up and brings us to that place where we feel the very hand of God resting on us. This same Holy Spirit sustains us in this life and, when the time comes, carries us through the valley of the shadow of death into the new life in Christ that will come. This same Holy Spirit whisks us out through our own empty tombs and sets us gently down in the middle of that garden of life surrounding those empty tombs. This same Spirit sets us lovingly down into the presence of Jesus the gardener who has been waiting in excitement for us to bloom with new life through that same Holy Spirit. The Spirit is living and life-giving, and is there for us in this world and the next.