I wish I was a ghoster… have you heard of
them? They are people who “ghost”—it’s a verb.
Now this term is often used in the dating
world… but it can also describe a person who, at a party, does not announce that they are going to leave, they don’t
say farewell to the host or anyone else, they
just go.
You
know, you’re at a party and you’re waiting for your friend Ben to get back and
finish the conversation, but after a while you conclude, “Man, I though Ben
went to the bathroom, but I guess he ghosted.”
Social
scientist who study this kind of thing, found that people who ghost are more
likely to be invited to the next party…
So,
I’d love to be a ghost, but I’m decidedly not, I engage the poor host in
awkward farewells until they have to shut the door on me.
A
friend of mine sometimes has to remind me, “They key to leaving a party… is leaving.”
But,
I’m in good company. Jesus isn’t a ghoster either. In chapter 13 of John’s
Gospel he gives a final commandment before he leaves… and he doesn’t leave.
Then in chapter 14 he states that he is going…
but is interrupted by the disciples… then he announces “Get up, we’re leaving
this place,” but doesn’t leave…
In chapter 16 he tells them again that he is
leaving, he has more to say, but he has to leave… and then doesn’t leave…
In chapter 17 it is said he has finished
saying all these things… and he keeps talking,
Then, finally, in chapter 18 he is arrested.
…Jesus’ farewell address has more endings than a Lord of the Ring’s movie.
And
in the midst of all this talking, you can see him holding open the screen door
letting out all the nice cool air conditioned air, he’s going on about this and
that, and then he mentions the Paraclete… often translated:
the Companion,
the Comforter,
or the Advocate
—he mentions the Paraclete, and you can just
see one of the disciples whispering to the other, “now he’s talking about his
pet bird? His Parakeet.”
But
no, he’s talking about the Paraclete…
You
may not know what a paraclete is…
but you probably know what a paralegal is…
someone
who works on behalf of a lawyer, whose work the lawyer is responsible for.
You
may not know what a paraclete is… but you probably know what parallel means
—Side
by side—a person similar or analogous to another.
You
may not know what a paraclete is… but you probably know what a paramedic is
—a
healthcare professional who walks alongside you in your medical emergency.
Don’t
know who the Paraclete is? Well, let’s talk about paralegals, parallels, and
paramedics.
Let us pray
While
Jesus is not ghosting in a modern sense, he does tell people about the
Paraclete—sometimes called the Holy Ghost, sometimes called the Holy Spirit...
The
Holy Ghost who empowers us to keep Jesus’ commandments—the Spirit “calls,
enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps” the whole church for Jesus.
In other words, the Paraclete makes us
into Paralegals for Jesus—we work on
his behalf—keeping his commandments, the greatest of which is Love—yet these
works are ultimately his responsibility and his doing, they flow from him
through the Spirit.
When
we love and live in Christian ways, that’s
the Paraclete making us Paralegals.
When we stand beside the last, least, and
lost, when we advocate for them—that’s the Spirit’s doing.
For example, the Presiding Bishops of
the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have just
called on us to fast on the 21st of each month through
December 2018 as a reminder that that is the day on which most people on food
assistance run out of food—that their next 10 days or so are the hungriest days
of their month.
As
Jesus continues his awkward conversation out that screen door, he tells his
disciples the Father is sending Another
Advocate, Companion, Paraclete.
The Spirit will do a parallel work to Jesus.
If you
were a computer programmer you might call this parallel activity “Jesus 2.0.”
The
Spirit is not an utterly new thing
—not a break
from Jesus’ ministry
—but a continuation
of it.
It isn’t as if Jesus called the Church to be Mets fans, but now the Spirit empowers us to root for the
Yankees
—after all we all know the entire of the Godhead
roots for the Rockies…
that was a joke, what I’m saying is that the
works of the Spirit parallel the
work of Christ
—Personal, humble, relational, ongoing works—as
I talked about last week—the Works of Christ.
They’re like two skis—Jesus and the Spirit, both upholding the same rider.
Jesus
assures his disciples that he’s not abandoning them
—and
not just because he seems incapable of leaving…
he tells them, “I won’t leave you as orphans.”
He’s telling them that the Holy Spirit—the Paraclete,
is also a Paramedic of the soul.
Just as a Paramedic walks with us through our emergency
—often times literally beside our gurney
—the Spirit walks with the Disciples through
the dislocation of Jesus’ death and moves them forward at Pentecost.
And
the Spirit walks beside us, as well.
We
are not a people left alone to contemplate Jesus’ actions in the Gospels—a really successful book club.
No!
The
Spirit is with us, comforting us when that gap between Jesus and the Church
become too great to bear,
guiding us to greater works than these.
Jesus
the Great Physician, the Spirit the Paramedic, both working so that the
Father’s love might circulate in the hearts of those whom he loves, we are not
abandoned—but found in Christ and Christ in us through the power of the Spirit.
And
Tawanda, your Baptism today,
it is much more than mere water, it is rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit will never abandon you, but will
walk beside you like a Paramedic.
The Spirit is Jesus’ Spirit, it parallels Jesus.
The Spirit will help you work on Jesus’ behalf
like a Paralegal.
In Baptism you will receive the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. You may not know exactly
what that means, but know this, the Holy Spirit won’t ghost on you
—it will never leave you
—the love of God will never leave you.
A+A
