Sermon for Pentecost B

June 4^th, 2006

Pentecost B

New Hope and Zion

Chapter 15

²⁶When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

Chapter 16

⁴
"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' ⁶But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. ⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; ¹¹about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
¹²I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

I want to start off today by thanking you all for inviting me to come and to serve along side of you. I’m excited to start this journey with you, and I cannot think of a more appropriate text for new beginnings than the one which is before us today. I’m here with you today, sandwiched between two graduations. The first graduation happened yesterday. About 30 of my classmates marched across the stage in Mees hall on the campus of Capital University and accepted their freshly minted Masters of Divinity degrees. After worship today, I will be headed to Pittsburgh to watch my little sister walk across the stage of Northgate high school auditorium to receive her diploma. These are bitter sweet moments. On one hand these are endings. The classes are completed and so are the tests. It is quite possible that these graduates will not step foot on campus ever again. But on the other hand, these are beginnings. Most of my classmates are headed off to their first call. In short order they will be ordained, and they will be responsible for their own congregations. Some of my sister’s classmates will be headed off to college, or technical school, some will join the armed forces, and some will enter the workforce. New beginnings abound.

It has become a tradition at graduation ceremonies that some well known, successful person is invited to offer a few words of wisdom and instruction to the graduates. Enthusiastic commencement speakers brace graduates for change and try to soothe their anxieties. Their speeches typically confirm graduates’ credentials and encourage them to make an impact on the world by drawing on the knowledge and experience that they take with them.

In high school I heard from a local TV personality, in college it was the president of Princeton who came to speak with us. In both cases the speakers offered congratulations on what we had thus far accomplished and then encouraged us to use what we had learned. Our gospel text for today reads like Jesus commencement address to the disciples. Not that the disciples ever graduate, per se, but they were at a major cross roads. They have been with Jesus for several years. They are about to experience holy week. They will see their leader arrested, beaten, and hung on a cross to die. He will be raised from the dead and he will be taken into heaven. So Jesus is preparing his disciples, getting them ready to step out into the world on their own. Thanks to the Gospel of John, we have a chance to listen in.

So, like many a commencement speaker Jesus begins preparing the disciples to step out into a new world. But, he begins in an unusual way. He begins by giving them distressing news. He’s not going to be around all that much longer. Their leader, their rabbi was going away. They were going to be abandoned, left on their own to fend for themselves.

This sense of abandonment is far from restricted to Jesus’ day. Our time is rife with ways to experience abandonment. It can be a loved one who has moved away. It can be a mother or grandmother who died. Or that first night spent alone after moving out of mom and dad’s house. Congregations may even have this sense of abandonment when a pastor leaves. Being abandoned is one of the most powerful ways to have your heart broken. There’s nothing quite like being left alone, away from all you know and love, with very little hope of being reunited with the familiar. Abandonment breaks our hearts and makes us angry. Some people respond by becoming calloused and bitter. Some people respond by falling into despair and hopelessness. Some respond by learning and growing and developing a heart of compassion for those who have and who will experience the same pain.

It is into this despair, this sense of abandonment that Jesus speaks his words of comfort and consolation. The disciples will not be left alone. Sure, Jesus will be leaving, but he is sending the Advocate in his place. This Advocate goes by many names. He’s most commonly known as the Holy Spirit, or as many of you probably learned, the Holy Ghost. He’s the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Spirit of God.

We met this Spirit in the first reading for today from Acts 2. Here the Spirit took the form of tongues of fire and rested on the heads of the disciples, giving them the ability to speak in a variety of languages. Not only this, they are inspired to use this newfound ability to proclaim the Good News of Jesus. There was a great crowd there, many had come to the city to celebrate the festival. They had come from far and wide and yet each heard the Gospel in their own language.

This God-given gift was not a one time occurrence. Jesus doesn’t speak of a single event which will come and go. In the midst of their abandonment Jesus tells them of the coming Holy Spirit. But not only the coming holy Spirit, but the staying Holy Spirit. This Spirit will not come and go, the Spirit is here to stay. Better than that, this Spirit is more than a good luck charm or some warm-fuzzy feeling. This Spirit lives in the disciples and makes it possible for them to speak the truth in every situation.

An amazing transition takes place in the Acts text. Did you catch it? Peter, quotes the prophet Joel and says, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” The Spirit will be sent to live inside each baptized believer. In the days of the prophets and of King David, the only place to encounter God was in the temple. Later, God took a step closer to humanity in the person of Jesus. Jesus came to earth and took frail human flesh. Still, encounters with God were limited by the physical. The human Jesus could only be in one place at one time. On this day we celebrate the time when God took another step closer, sending the Holy Spirit to be with all believers.

Brothers and sisters, by virtue of our baptism, we each have the Holy Spirit with us wherever we go. This same Spirit which sat as tongues of fire upon the disciples burns within each of our hearts. The Spirit which overcame the language barrier 2000 years ago, is still active in the world today, overcoming our own barriers. The Spirit continues to carry out God’s mission in the world through the faithful. By the power of the Spirit, Faith Mission in Columbus serves over a quarter million meals to the poor and the homeless each year. By the power of the spirit millions of dollars of disaster relief has been sent to devastated regions of the world such as Indonesia and New Orleans. The power of the Spirit guides and sustains a small congregation in rural Ohio. And through the work of the Spirit each of us has been given all that we need to take the life-giving message of Jesus into our little piece of the world. And so, class of 2006, I challenge you to let the Spirit lead you this day, for God is closer than you realize. Amen.