The Holy Spirit Looks Like...

John 14:8-17, 25-27

The bags were all packed.  The car was loaded from bottom to top.  My friends and family gathered the day before to wish me well on my journey eastward.  Bright and early in the morning, my mom and I piled in the car and drove away from our house.  We drove through South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before arriving at my new “home” in Gettysburg.  I had been away from home before, but I had never been this far away from home for an extended amount of time.  I had said goodbye to my family and friends before, but I had never been this far away from them.  I knew it wasn’t goodbye forever, even though at the time it kind of felt like that.  It was a “see you later.”

We have all said goodbye on many occasions.  Goodbye as you drop your child off for their first night away from home.  Goodbye as your children have left for college.  Goodbye as your best friend has moved across the country.  Goodbye as one of your co-workers has left for a new job.  Goodbye as you left the care facility where your aging parents live.  Often our goodbyes are more like “see you laters.”  We really expect to see the person again somewhere along the journey of life.

In our text today Jesus is gathered with the disciples on the night of his arrest.  He is sharing his final words with them and saying goodbye.  However, I don’t think his goodbye is really final.  I think he is saying more of a “see you later.”  It is only a “see you later,” because God is sending another Advocate.  God is sending the Holy Spirit to be among them as Jesus leaves this earthly kingdom.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think the Holy Spirit is difficult to talk about.  It is especially difficult to preach on twice in one month.  I think it is most difficult to talk about, because frankly I don’t know what it looks like.  The image of the Holy Spirit can be a bit difficult to wrap our minds around.  However, I think our Gospel text for today can help shed some light on the image of the Holy Spirit.  The text describes the Holy Spirit as an Advocate.  An advocate is one who supports you, who stands up for you, who speaks on your behalf, who lends a helping hand, who takes your side in a debate, and who doesn’t leave you alone. 

The next descriptor of the Holy Spirit is “another.”  Yes, God will send another Advocate, meaning that God has already sent one Advocate.  The first Advocate was Jesus, God’s only Son.  The next Advocate is the Holy Spirit.  I think this means that the second Advocate will look a lot like the first one.  The Spirit will abide with us in the same way that the Word made flesh has abided with us.  The Spirit will mediate Jesus’ presence in the same what that Jesus mediated God’s presence in the world.

So, I think the lesson is that the Holy Spirit is an advocate that looks a lot like Jesus.  If that is the case, then I think I know what the Holy Spirit looks like.  Anytime that one person supports another person, anytime that someone lends a helping hand, anytime that someone speaks up for those whose voices are not heard, anytime that someone feeds someone who is hungry, anytime that love is shown for the last, the lost, the least, and the little in our midst…then we have seen the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit looks like a group of high school students that are sent forth today at their graduation.  Young people who will impact the affairs of the world through their words and their actions in a special way, because of how they have been brought up in the church and are rooted in their faith.

The Holy Spirit looks like the waters of baptism that wash over two young ones this weekend.  Through these waters Savannah and Anika are claimed by the God who created them and welcomed into a loving community of faith.  That faith community is then empowered to teach them about faith and what it means to be a child of God.

The Holy Spirit looks like a community of believers that join together to raise funds for others.  Each month they have the opportunity to support a new ministry in their midst, offering their financial gifts and prayers.  And then when special events like World Malaria Day comes up they are still able to raise enough money for 360 mosquito nets to protect our brothers and sisters in Africa from the deadly effects of Malaria.

The Holy Spirit looks like a group of women who were brought together by their love for quilting and their desire to bring comfort and care to other people.  Realizing that there are people in our world who really need the warmth and love that a blanket provides they make quilts to send to Lutheran World Relief, so that others may truly feel that warmth and love.

The Holy Spirit looks a lot like the people of South Canyon.  As we hear in Acts “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men and (I would add: women) shall see visions, an your old men (and women) shall dream dreams.”  With the help of the Holy Spirit the people of South Canyon are able to do just that.  No wonder Jesus says, we know the Holy Spirit.  It is true.  We do know the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, on occasion, has looked a lot like you and like me.  Look to your left (yes, Lutheran friends – actually look at the person next to you) …there is the Holy Spirit.  Look to your right…there is the Holy Spirit.  And the next time you look in the mirror notice that the Holy Spirit looks like you, too.  For the gift of the Holy Spirit, another Advocate, who allows Jesus to say “see you later” and then takes up residence in our bodies and uses us to mediate God’s love and Jesus’ presence in the world, we say, “Thanks be to God.”  Amen.

Indwelling of Peace

John 14:23-29

          Each week I go to the hospital.  I usually visit on Thursdays or Fridays.  Pastor Bruce visits at the beginning of the week and a member of the congregation visits mid-week and on the weekend.  Each week as I drive to the hospital I hope and pray that there is no one from South Canyon at the hospital.  I hope that not because I don’t want to see anyone or because I don’t want to do my job, but because I want people to be healthy.  I don’t want people to be at the hospital.  However, for the past six weeks or so when I have went to the hospital we have had babies in the hospital.  Now, I really don’t want to see babies in the hospital, unless it is for that short time after a healthy birth.  Then the hospital is a happy place.  The babies I have been visiting haven’t been healthy babies.  They have been sick babies.  For the past six weeks or so I have visited babies in the NICU: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  The first time I saw on the list that there was a baby in the NICU I had no idea what to do, but now I am becoming a pro at visiting the NICU.  On all my visits to the NICU I have been surprised to always find the parents or some member of the family there with the infant.  Even though the baby cannot go home the parents are almost always by the side of their babies.  That is the love of parents.  That is what parents do.  When they could leave their newborn in the complete care of the nurses and go home, get a good nights sleep and eat a nutritious meal, all things they will find harder to do when they bring their baby home, they still spend the majority of their time at the hospital.  That is the love of a parent to a child.

            Parental love.  That is the love of God to us, too.  Jesus uses the language of Father here to describe God.  Now, I don’t think we need to see that “father” language as a masculine figure.  Rather it is the language of parent or a caring, loving figure.  The masculine language of father is not comforting to all people.  The feminine language of mother is not comforting to all people.  Yet, we all know what a caring and loving relationship feels like.  Whether that is a biological parent, an adoptive parent, a foster parent, an adult mentor, a school teacher, a pastor, or some other parent-like relationship.  Think of that person who has loved you with parent-like love.  Now double it or quadruple it.  Imagine that love being even bigger than you can imagine.  Imagine that love being divine love – God love.  That is what Jesus is talking about here.  Big love – God love.

            After Jesus talks about this big, divine love, this God love, then he mentions that he will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus mentions this because he can’t stick around on earth.  He will soon be leaving and he wants us to know that even though his earthly presence is leaving, the Holy Spirit will still be present with us.  Jesus does not leave us alone.  He does not abandon us.  God sends someone to take Jesus’ place.  The Advocate will teach us everything and remind us of what Jesus has said to us.  Through the Holy Spirit, God will make a home in us.  God will take up residence inside of us. 

            All this leads to peace.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  Often when we think of peace, I think we immediately think of world peace.  As I grew up, in my sheltered world, I can’t really remember a time without world peace, until 9/11.  Still, I was a high school freshman at the time.  I can’t say that 9/11 really threw me off guard for more than a couple of days.  However, in the past few months, the lack of peace has become more obvious to me.  From Aurora, Colorado to Newtown, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts we have been short on peace in our own country, let alone in our world.  Of course, that is one part of peace.  When it comes to defining peace is it about the absence or freedom from disturbance?  Or is it about the presence of something else, something completely different from absence?  Maybe peace is actually about the presence of God, which gives hope and confidence in the future?

At its core in our text today, I think this peace is referring, first and foremost, to our relationship with God.  Before Jesus’ death, he wants to make sure he is at peace with his disciples and they are at peace with him.  Jesus is also giving to us inner peace.  He wants us to have peace in our hearts, peace in our souls, and peace in our lives.  In fact, I think that is where we have to start.  Then Jesus wants that inner peace to spill over into our relationships with others.  He wants us to have peace with other people.  If we cannot have peace within ourselves and peace within our relationships then we will never achieve world peace.  That kind of peace is born out of peaceful people living in peaceful relationships with others.  All of this peace comes from the indwelling of God’s spirit in us.  Jesus says that both God and himself will come to us and make their home within us.  That home is love taking root in us.  That is big, divine, God love living in us.  God sends the Holy Spirit to us and Jesus leaves us with peace.  This is all done because God does not want our hearts to be troubled or for us to be afraid.  God does not want us to live in disturbance, but wants us to live in peace, with hope and confidence in the future.  And that comforting peace leads us to love ourselves and others with that parent-like love that God first loved us with.

Can you see the cycle here?  God is love.  God shows us parent-like love.  That love leads God to send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to dwell within us.  That indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us peace, which leads us to love others. 

So know that God loves you so much that the Holy Sprit wants to make its home within you.  Let that indwelling of the Spirit give you peace.  Peace that is comforting.  Peace that only God can give.  Let that peace infiltrate your life, your relationship with God, and your relationships with others.  Let the presence of that peace turn into love and let it have an effect the world.  Amen.