Who is the Holy Spirit?
Some names for them include the “Shy Sovereign,” Dove, Breathe of God, and the Spirit of Adoption.
Or look at those that show up in our hymns today:
Sun of the Soul,
Wise Counsel,
Root of Life,
Eternal Vigor…
Wisdom.
In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is named “The Paraclete.” Literally:
The One Called Alongside…
often translated:
Advocate, Companion, Comforter, or Helper.
Yes, the Paraclete.
This name might be hard to get our heads around,
each time we seem to grasp Paraclete it slips through our fingers,
but let’s try to catch a glimpse…
You might not have heard of The Paraclete before.
But, I bet you have heard of Paradise
—The space where one dwells in the presence of God.
One of the ways the Church Fathers understood God was that:
The Father is the Lover,
The Son is the Beloved,
and The Holy Spirit is the Love Between Them.
Think about that…
The relationship between the persons of the Trinity is the third person of the Trinity!!!
For that matter, in John’s gospel, this relationship between Father and Son…
AND between The Son and those who follow Him
!(including us today)!
—is continually describing as Abiding
—dwelling
—the act of a child laying on their parent’s bosom…
…Have any of you ever fallen asleep in the back of the car when you were a little kid?
Or perhaps in the passenger seat next to a close friend or spouse?
—you felt safe back there,
trusting the love of the driver…
Wasn’t that paradise?
You were abiding!
The abiding of God with God’s self, and also God abiding with God’s people…
The connection within the Godhead and God’s connection to us… that is the Paraclete.
You might not have heard of The Paraclete… but you may have met a Paralegal before
—someone who works on behalf of a lawyer, whose work the lawyer is responsible for.
Luther writes that the Holy Spirit, “calls, enlightens, makes holy, and keeps” the whole church for Jesus’ sake.
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 Jesus’ responsibility and his doing
—they flow from him through the Spirit.
-Whenever our trust in God moves us to follow Jesus…
-Whenever we practice an active faith…
-When we love and live in Christian ways,
that’s the Paraclete.
You might not have heard of The Paraclete but you remember parallels from geometry, or maybe you just watched Marvel’s Multiverse of Madness and are thinking about Parallel timelines.
—Side by Side—a person similar, or analogous, to another.
Did you know the Father is sending us Another Advocate, Helper… Paraclete.
The Spirit will act in ways that Parallel the works of Jesus Christ.
If you were a computer programmer, you might call this parallel activity “Jesus 2.0.”
The Spirit is not doing something UTTERLY new.
The Spirit’s work among us is NOT a break with Jesus’ ministry
It is a continuation of it,
a parallel track with it.
In fact, some traditions call the Holy Spirit, “The Spirit of Jesus.”
To make it plain for you all
—if Jesus called the Church to be Mets fans,
the Spirit would not now be empowering us to be Yankees fans…
The works of the Spirit parallel the works of Christ
—Personal, humble, relational, work
—when that happens among us, that’s the Paraclete’s doing.
You might not have heard of The Paraclete, but you probably have been asked to write a paragraph before
—A distinct section of a piece of writing.
The Spirit’s message is a distinct message for us
—we ought not attribute every little coincidence to the Spirit
—instead the Paraclete writes a particular paragraph in the book of our life
—teaches and reminds us of the message of:
God’s Abiding Love,
the Kingdom of God drawn near
—in fact present with us…
the message of our Resurrected Lord is the Paraclete’s message.
You might not have heard of The Paraclete, but the meaning of Paramedic, and Parachute is probably perfectly plain to you.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures his disciples (both then and now) that he’s not abandoning them…
abandoning us…
Jesus promises the coming of the Paraclete to the disciples
-right after one has betrayed him
-and right before the other denies him.
He is telling them, “I won’t leave you as orphans.”
The Holy Spirit is a Paramedic of the soul.
Just as a Paramedic walks with us through our emergency,
often times literally beside our gurney,
the Spirit will walk with them through the trauma and confusion of the Crucifixion and out into the world on Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit is a Parachute, catching the Church as it is in free-fall,
leading up to Pentecost,
offering us peace.
Be not Afraid
—it isn’t as scary when you know the Paraclete is with you.
Paradise, Paralegal, Parallel, Paragraph, Paramedic, Parachute
—all glimpses of the Advocate, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.
Now that we have glimpsed the Holy Spirit, let us pray for the Paraclete’s presence among us:
Sun of the Soul, sanctify us—make us holy—so that we might abide in the Holy Love of God.
Wise Counsel, enlighten our faith and empower our works, so that both may reveal God.
Root of Life, graft us into the True Vine, gather us around Jesus Christ.
Eternal Vigor, call us again and again to the Gospel.
Wisdom of God, keep and guard us in your peace. Amen.
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