"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
- - -
In our text today, Jesus is saying good bye to his disciples. He tells them when he leaves them he will not leave them alone. He says he will send them send them some help. In fact, he promises to send them a helper. Here is how Jesus describes the helper whom he will send to his disciples: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." (John 14:15-ff)
We know the term advocate. Some of us serve as advocates for others. For instance, Partners in Educational Advocacy is a ministry of St. John's Presbyterian Church. This ministry was created when some of our members learned about a 12 year old boy who could not read. This 12 year old boy could not identify and give the sounds of all 26 letters in our alphabet but had passed the 6th grade modified state mandated tests. A few of our members took it upon themselves to serve as counselors for this boy and his family and advocates for them in dealing with his dsyfunctional school system. As one of them said about their experience with that school district (and no, it wasn't Houston Indepedent School District): "I felt like Alice at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party when trying to talk with them."
An answer to prayer occurred last summer when YES Prep opened a campus in that school district serving grades 6 and 9 and adding two grades each year. This year they will serve grades 6, 7, 9, and 10. Administrators told our advocates they were very surprised at the levels at which the students performed. Our advocates worked with the family of the 12 year old boy who couldn't read and got all three of the children from that family enrolled in YES Prep in early June. It was rewarding to help these parents get their children into a better school where they can learn to read and other vital skills. This is an example of how we at St. John's are serving as advocates to others and meeting their needs. We commit such acts because we are reflecting how Christ works with us. Christ sends us an advocate, a counselor, to teach us the Holy Spirit's ways and means. We reach out to others because God in Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to reach out to us.
There are other ways you can be a counselor. A counselor is a person who listens, guides, comforts and challenges. A counselor may be a friend or a professional. Professional counselors include career counselors at the high school level or counseling psychologists who get paid by the hour. Finding a friend to listen to your ideas and thoughts and confide in about your dreams is an important part of a personal resilience strategy.
In order to find a friend you will need to be a friend. This means you will need to be available to the other person. Spend time with them. Listen to them. Friends who listen are the most cost effective counselors available. You can be a counselor to a friend by developing your listening skills. Active listening is the term used to describe how to listen to someone. The main thing to do is to keep your mouth closed and your ears open while your friend is talking. Do not make moral judgements or jump to conclusions or try to solve their problems for your friend. By practicing active listening you are giving your friend the opportunity to hear themselves think out loud. This in itself is a healing experience. Often just hearing ourselves think out loud gives the speaker a broader perspective or insight about a problem, issue or concern.
In our text today the Holy Spirit is called the Counselor. John, chapters 14-16, is the high water mark in the Bible about the Holy Spirit. If you want to find out about the Holy Spirit, you can read the book of Acts, but an even better place to read about the Spirit is John 14-16. Within these three chapters, the Spirit is called "counselor" five times.
When we think of the Spirit of God as counselor, this means that the Holy Spirit is personally concerned about us. God, our counselor, is not a detached listener who listens politely to us for fifty minutes, asks for payment and then wants us to leave, so the next customer can get in. If the mark of a good counselor is that he/she is personally concerned about our welfare and well being, then God is truly a good counselor. God is truly concerned about what is good for us.
What kind of counselor is the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is a non-judgmental counselor. God, the Spirit, does not judge us for what we say, think or feel. Can you imagine God hearing every word we ever said; listening in on our every thought; seeing our every action? It is embarrassing to think that someone knows that much about us, seeing and hearing our every thought. And God still does not condemn us. Nor does God condone our thoughts and feelings and actions. But God does not condemn us in our humanness, and therefore we are free to tell God more.
The purpose of this Spirit/Counselor is to help us grow towards maturity and wholeness. Our goal in the Christian life is not to reach perfection. Our goal is to reach maturity. Maturity does not mean we do not make mistakes. Maturity means we are more experienced and seasoned and wise in our approach to life. We know that money is not the goal of life. I know people who are striving to make millions of dollars and some of them have. That is fine and good. I have no problem with people making money. But when making money becomes your number one goal in life then you have lost the plot. Go find a way to help a million people make a middle class income. Find a way to create a million good jobs. That is better than finding one job that makes a million dollars only for you.
The Holy Spirit, the Divine Counselor, facilitates growth and maturity within us. We all have blocks that prevent growth. Blocks of sin and imperfection. These qualities block us from becoming what God wants us to be. We have blocks due to the inner scars of childhood conflicts. Blocks due to our birth order. Blocks due to deeply ingrained personality habits. Blocks due to addictions. Blocks due to bad decisions and choices we have made. We all have these blocks within us. What are those blocks in your inner life? What are those qualities which are preventing you from growing into maturity and wholeness? God, the Holy Spirit, helps us see the truth about ourselves, and our blocks that inhibit growth. God guides us into new directions and ways of dealing with our inner blocks.
Some people have the illusion that God, the Spirit, the Counselor, will solve all our problems. That is not true. Like any good counselor, the Spirit enables us to become stronger. Nor does the Spirit/Counselor make decisions for you. Sometimes, that is just what we want; we want God to make the decisions for us, especially difficult decisions. Rather, God is the Spirit/Counselor who comes to our side and gives us the strength and new resources and new insights, so we can make difficult and painful decisions. But the Spirit/Counselor does not solve our problems or make decisions for us. Nor does any good counselor. I like that passage from Philippians where God says that the love in us is to grow and grow and grow so that we will make the best choices. I like that; the focus is on love and wisdom growing inside, whereby we can make the best choices.
It was the evening of Holy Thursday and the disciples were gathered together for the last supper. This was Jesus' last meal with his disciples and he soon was to be leaving them to die. And he said, "When I go, I will not leave you deserted. I will not leave you orphans. But I will send my Spirit, the Counselor, who will live in you and guide you. I and my Father will come to live in you and we will guide you in the truth. We will be your Counselor."
We thank God for the Holy Spirit who is our divine counselor. We praise God for the divine counselor, the Holy Spirit who ...
is a non-judgmental counselor.
will not leave us desolate or orphans.
is personally concerned about us.
is a non-judgmental counselor.
is a facilitator of growth and maturity within us.
helps us see the truth about ourselves, and our blocks that inhibits growth. God guides us into new directions and ways of dealing with our inner blocks.
does not solve our problems or make decisions for us.
who helps us follow Jesus by doing his work (vv. 12-14) and keeping his commandments.
As you may know, I'm going to be away for the next four weeks. While I am away, I am going to leave you with a counselor. Her name is Rev. Linda Herron. She will be available to visit those who are ill, encourage the faithful, support the downhearted, and share the gospel as she sees it in the sermon each Sunday. I trust that for the next 4 weeks you will welcome her into your hearts and into your homes as you have welcomed me. In the meantime, I solicit your prayers for me while I am away. Pray that the Holy Spirit will be a Divine Counselor to me. Pray that the Divine Counselor will encourage and support me, renew my energy and spirit, and guide me back to this congregation with a rekindled faith and vision for how God wants us to engage in mission with this community and our world. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support. I will also use the time to be in prayer for you and for our congregation. May the Holy Spirit be very close to each of us throughout the rest of this summer and on into the fall.
--
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan L. Burnham preached this sermon at St. John's Presbyterian Church on July 17, 2011.
