John 16:1-15 Spirit-filled

Here we are on Pentecost, the day we remember and celebrate the birth of the church and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Many of us are wearing red, to commemorate the red tongues of fire that fell down upon the apostles and rested on their heads that day in Jerusalem; red, that also represents the uproariousness of that event, the wildness of it all: the loud wind that blew as the Spirit came, the clamor of the crowd- those thousands that gathered and spoke in so many different languages; the noise of the preaching, the wails of repentance, and the praises to

God who had made a way for forgiveness and salvation. We can find all this told in Acts chapter 2, our usual text for Pentecost. It is a wonderful passage, and exciting, but it likely isn’t our experience of conversion and church life; normally, our experience is a bit more sedate, wouldn’t you say?

The noise and wildness and redness of Pentecost is Luke’s story of the Spirit coming and the church’s beginning- and it’s only Luke’s story- this account by the author of Acts who also wrote the gospel of Luke. But John’s account is much different. Not to say that one is right and the other wrong- though some aspects are difficult to reconcile. Rather, each account has it’s own purpose, and Acts 2 is certainly dramatic and fun to imagine, but John- in John 20, where the resurrected Jesus appears to his followers the night of Easter and shows them his scars and breathes on them and says, “Receive the Spirit”- that scripture may be more real to us: those of us who have never been part of a mass conversion like the 3,000 that day in Jerusalem, or felt the emotional exuberance of spiritual possession. But we have been broken and lonely and sorrowing, as the disciples surely were. And what greater comfort can we ever know than the assurance of God’s presence with us, and hearing these words of our Lord, “Peace be with you; Receive my Spirit.”

And so, today’s sermon text is John 16, Jesus promising his disciples that he would send the Spirit when he returned to the Father. Here we see the Spirit as the divine presence that builds up and holds up the church. The Spirit, called the

Paraclete, which may be translated Helper or Comforter or Counselor, always present with the church during persecution, ever close to us in those times of fear or doubt; he is the “Spirit of truth” that teaches, that leads us into greater knowledge of God and guides the church into all the truth. So, if we are growing- maturing, if we are trying, if we are listening for the words of truth the Spirit of

Jesus teaches, then we are “Spirit- filled,” just as much as any other place where the people worship with high energy and emotion and loud voices and lively music. I do not say that one is better than the other or that God prefers this worship over that worship, only that we must receive the Spirit and willingly be guided into the truth.

Thus, this passage shows us the dual work of the Spirit: that the Spirit resides with us or among us or in us as Comforter and Counselor and Teacher; and that the Spirit also is the one who has come into the world, as verse 8 tells us, to convince- or to convict or to convert- the world, or as one translation has it, “to expose the world to the truth of sin and righteousness and judgment.” We could easily get confused here, except that verses 9-11 are a helpful commentary on verse 8, I think, describing the meaning of sin and righteousness and judgment.

We may think of these three terms as complex theological issues- and they can be- but here they seem to be dealt with quite simply, within the context of understanding who Jesus is. Sin is not seen here as any of a long list of religious or social errors or wicked activities or evil thoughts, but just this- disbelief in Jesus; so we might say, sin is living outside a relationship with God, like the relationship patterned so perfectly by Jesus. Righteousness is not seen here as the lifestyle of the holiest among us, but the possession of humble and loving and obedient Jesus.

We should understand that Jesus- humble, loving, obedient- is the righteous one, who obeyed God perfectly, and was called back to the Father; so that his righteous life is the way of living we should emulate. Judgment is seen here not as a job for us to perform, not that any one of us- nor the church- is so good that he or she or it may judge others; but our Lord’s redeeming work has judged and condemned once and for all “the ruler of this world” and has judged the evil works of prejudice and lying and violence; even the works of the best of us have fallen short, even our best works are vain and false; but Jesus’ work of love and sacrifice has passed the test, and he is the sinless, righteous judge.

So this is the work of the Spirit in the world: to show the world where it has gone wrong, and where the right path lies, to show the world this one, Jesus, who got it right. But understand, that is also the work of the Spirit in the church: to show us the places we go wrong and to teach us the truth and how to walk in the right paths. It requires humility on our part (humility, which is the Spirit of Jesus within us) and eyes and ears focused upon the God who loves us and is always with us.

And this is one way we can see the right path: at the Lord’s Table, where we remember the selfless love of our Savior, and where we practice sharing.

Several hundred years ago, and off and on since then, leaders of the church debated the meaning of this passage, in particular verse 7, where Jesus says he will send the

Spirit. The Western church, which was known and is known as the Roman

Catholic Church, and the other churches that have “reformed” out of it, declared that the Holy Spirit has been sent to us by God the Father and God the Son, while the Eastern church- that is, the Eastern Orthodox and the Greek and Russian

Orthodox Churches, said that only God the Father has sent the Spirit. I’m not convinced that it’s something to get too upset about. It may simply demonstrate that in many ways we do not really listen to the “Spirit of truth.”

So instead of using this scripture- or any other- as a proof-text for one’s favorite theology, perhaps we should read it as a theology of the God who never abandons those who believe in him, but always sends help and hope; that it is the nature of God to love and to heal; it is a message we can believe- for our benefit- and can believe it as well as the good news of Jesus for the benefit of the world.

I said earlier that the Spirit has a dual work- as God’s abiding presence in the church, and as the one sent to show the world the truth about “sin and righteousness and judgment.” Well, it’s really just a single work, because the

Spirit shows the truth to the world through the voice and the activity of the church. This is very important, because we aren’t here just to be pleased with ourselves-

“Hey, look at what we have done!” God works in the world and for the world through the work of the church. The church is Spirit-filled for this reason, for this great work in the world, which the Spirit of our Lord directs the church to do.

So let us read this passage not as a complicated theology of the Holy Spirit, or of the Trinity, but as an easily-understandable theology of the church: that the world may come to know the truth, and may see God’s love in our speech and in our work, that the hungry and lost of the world might find the relationship with

God that will give them peace and hope and wholeness and salvation.