Last week, we remembered the Ascension of Jesus, when he left the disciples with the promise that they would receive power from on high, and today the Acts text tells us what happened ten days later when the disciples and “Jews from every nation were gathered” were filled with the Holy Spirit, but today’s gospel returns us to a time when Jesus is still with his disciples, before the crucifixion.
These verses are part of what’s called the “Farewell Discourse” and it is the second time we hear this promise from Jesus, that he will send an Advocate to the disciples when he leaves them. (14:16, 15:26, 16:13)
So, what does it mean that we have an advocate?
The Spanish word for lawyer is “abogado” or “advocate” and certainly, one definition of an advocate is “one who pleads in a court of law”, but advocates have other public roles, too, pleading for the care of the vulnerable or becoming a champion for a cause or policy in the public square. We speak favorably of “patient advocates” and “guardians ad litem” who advocate for children in cases of abuse or neglect.
When Jesus promises that he is sending an advocate to us, he is acknowledging what we are so often reluctant to admit – that we are vulnerable, and that we are we are dependent upon God for our understanding and for our strength and endurance, against the powers and principalities of this world.
After all, Jesus has traveled with Peter and the other disciples, and has seen how they still do not understand when he tells them that He is the Messiah, sent by God to us. He has heard their questions and misunderstanding and confusion. He knows that, like our ancestors in faith before us, we will falter, and we will continue to need God’s salvation from our brokenness and sin.
And so, he promises to send an Advocate who will intercede on our behalf, and who will defend us against the powers that rebel against God and draw us away from God.
Other names we hear for the Holy Spirit are helper, comforter, or counselor, but in his description, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit both an Advocate and the “Spirit of truth” and promises that this Spirit will abide with us and in us. (14:17)
Psalm
43 when the psalmist is addressing God, also says,
“O, send out your light and your truth; let them lead me,….”
So, on one hand, yes! we have an advocate who is for us. But I think we are also guided by this same advocate,who is the “Spirit of truth”, to speak truth into difficult situations and be advocates for others.
A preacher I know tells the story of a woman who was suffering from addiction who found herself in despair one night. Somewhere along the way her mother had given her the phone number for a counselor, and, at some point in that very long night, as the minutes stretched into hours, she pulled out the scrap of paper, and called the number.
She poured out her story to the person who answered the phone. The two of them stayed on the line talking until daybreak. In the early morning light, the woman thanked the person on the phone and complimented them for caring so well, and for listening to her, saying, “How long have been a counselor?” And the person answered her, saying, “I have to admit that the number you called was a wrong number. I’m not a counselor. I’m a nobody. But I knew I couldn’t hang up on you [i]
And today, when the woman tells this story, she says, “It only takes a tiny pinhole of hope to let grace come flowing into your life.”
In faith, we are guided by God’s light and truth, through God’s Holy Spirit, and when we show up for others, in our words and actions, we are ambassadors of the hope that is in us through Christ Jesus.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “…hope that is seen is not hope…. 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” And it occurred to me that hope can be a difficult thing to explain.
One could say a hope is a dream, an aspiration, even a wish. But it is more than that. Poet Emily Dickinson wrote,
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,…[ii]
And
Dickinson isn’t wrong, hope is unstoppable.
But Christian hope is grounded in the knowledge of Christ Jesus and of the truth of the gospel that tells us “God so loves the world that God gave God’s only Son …in order that the world may be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
When
Jesus is speaking to the disciples, he says that they “are to testify because
they have been with him from the beginning.” But that doesn’t mean that we are
off the hook!
And although we did not meet Jesus face to face during his earthly ministry, we do have the testimony of our ancestors in faith - generations upon generations of those who came before us, who testify to the ongoing power of God in their lives.
And today, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth is alive in us, and we too can be witnesses to those who may not yet know the truth of God’s love for each and every one of us.
Let
us pray,
Holy
and loving God,
Thank
you for your Son Jesus who came and lived among us to show us your boundless
love.
Thank
you for sending your Holy Spirit to us to advocate for us when we turn away
from you, and to guide us and lead us in truth.
Help
us to show up for those who are hurting and vulnerable, that all may know your
love.
We
pray in your Holy name,
Amen.
[i] Pastor
Taylor Mertins, “Crackers and Grape Juice” podcast, May 17, 2021.
[ii] Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers” from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.
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