Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
How Our “Advocate” Helps
Us
5/17/2020 Easter 6A
Our group studying the book SAILBOAT
CHURCH (by Joan Gray) has really appreciated and enjoyed what she has to
say, reminding us of the work of God’s Spirit with us in the church. Jesus, in
our text we just read, talks about that same Spirit and uses several interesting names for how
God’s spirit helps us. I know we all can
affirm the doctrine of “God in three persons, blessed trinity!” like in the
hymns I posted for today, Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. In the traditional language of our Creeds,
we affirm I believe Godthe Father
Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his son our Lord….and onto I believe in the Holy
Spirit, but that’s a short part, and goes on to the holy Catholic church and
more. We don’t talk a lot about the
Spirit unless we’re trying to sound like we’re affirming the trinity, God as
three-in-one. We’re good Methodists and
good Presbyterians, structuring our lives with method and order, left-brained
and valuing our thinking; God forbid we should sound like holy rollers and be
all emotional. Although, to be fair, our
hearts are strangely warmed and we value ardor processed through our
order. So we have emotions, we’re just
not ruled by them. Something about the
Spirit sounds like it may be beyond our control. Of course it is! God is beyond our control! God is beyond our understanding, except a few
things we comprehend like the commandments that Jesus says…..and I’m not sure
we really understand the depth and breadth of those either. Walking with God is walking by faith, as the
Spirit seeks to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight.
Interestingly, the Spirit is one
place that people have often seen a feminine energy in God. In the Hebrew language, the word for Spirit,
or breath or wind, takes a feminine article, and people have wondered about that. If you remember the book and movie called The
Shack, you might recall that the Spirit was represented by a female
figure. And the figure of Holy Wisdom,
too. Actually, the figure of God was
shown as a woman and a man in that movie, depending on how God was relating to
the bereaved dad. That was actually
pretty cool, although there was a lot of discussion about it in churches. Wisdom is personified as a woman in the book
of Proverbs and actually the book of Wisdom in the intertestamental books as well.
The Roman catholic church found the feminine energy of God in Mary, who is
pictured as Queen of Heaven in much artwork from the 13th century onward - and
finally decaled Queen of Heaven by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Early mystics of the church often spoke of
God using metaphors from both male and female imagery, as the Scriptures of
both testaments do contain metaphors of
both. After all, God is not human, so
doesn’t have to be male or female...and when humanity was created in God’s
image, humanity was created make AND female.
The historic church has had trouble with that in its teachings….. Fortunately in this generation, our English
language has broadened so we women don’t have to assume we are included in the
concept of “man” and “mankind,” and language has become more inclusive of humankind
and all people. Many theologians have
also worked on language about God that also moves towards the inclusivity
within God. I like the conception of the
holy trinity that speaks of function, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer - all one
God.
Okay, a little digression. Actually, Jesus himself uses a good many
illusions to the figure of Divine Wisdom in his words, and especially in the
gospel of John. John seems to point out
that Jesus as the “Word” or Logos of God, has a continuity with the figure of
Hokmah, the Hebrew“Wisdom” of God. I
think that’s interesting. And it’s Jesus who compares himself to the mother hen
who would love to gather all her chicks under her wings, when he looks out at
the city of Jerusalem. So I’m
comfortable with imagining God as encompassing all we might try and divide into
female and male gender-wise. Some folks
have criticized that this makes God genderless - difficult to think of. I suggest that perhaps we think of God as
gender-full, encompassing all we know of human energies.
Yes, we’re
talking rather metaphorically and mystically about God - but...you know, this
is the mysterious and God who is ultimately beyond our understanding - yet the
God who knows us intimately. In fact, Jesus’ remarks in this passage of John are
rather mystical in the union that he proposes between God who he calls Father,
and we might call Creator; himself who he refers to as the Son and we may also
think of as the Redeemer; and this Spirit of God who comes to dwell in each of
us, and binds us in an invisible but real unity with the whole of the
Godhead. (Now there’s a weird word -
Godhead - trying to refer to the three persons/parts/aspects as one.)
Is this all
confusing? In my language, I use the
word “God” to refer to the whole Trinity, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and
Christian Scriptures. Maybe I err a bit
on the side of the oneness of God, and not perhaps separating Father, Son and
Spirit as much as others do. I think of
this as a corrective - many people get hung up in the threeness of the trinity,
and try to assign this to Jesus/Redeemer, and that to the Spirit/Sustainer and
this other to the Father/Creator. I
think we need to remember the unity, the oneness. When the Spirit indwells us, that is
Godself. God is with us. When Jesus is born, he is God with us,
Emmanu-el, the Immanent God.
This is
religion, folks - it’s mystical and it’s metaphorical. It’s trying to express the hugeness of the
Divine and Holy in the limitations of language, and for the limited human
brain. None of it can be taken
literally, although it expresses a truth - when we come to follow Christ,
somehow the very Spirit of God becomes a part of us, binding us to God and into
the mystery of the Divine. Christ calls us sisters and brothers - part of the
same family. We become part of the body of Christ, another expression of us
becoming part of Christ, and therefore, God.
Jesus is telling his followers that
even if he dies, he will not leave them.
The translation I read today translates it, I will not leave you
orphaned. The King James translation
said, I will not leave you comfortless.
In modern parlance we might say, I am not abandoning you. You will not be alone. There’s been a lot written about abandonment,
whether intentional or unintentional, and what it does to children and even
adults. Leaving - loss - a parent dying
while a child is young is experienced as abandonment - unintentional, but still
the feeling of the child is of being left abandoned; the loss of an intact
family when parents divorce is experienced as abandonment; a significant
relationship broken by death - the loss is still felt as abandonment. A preacher leaving us may be experienced as
an important person abandoning us. I’m
sure that now the loss of the use of our buildings has also felt in some way as
an abandonment - we are alone in a confusing place on our own, a center of
stability gone. Nobody wants to be
abandoned - it’s scary. Even if we like solitude sometimes, when we go to it ourselves, that’s seeking alone
time. When somebody leaves us and we are
alone, it feels different.
God knows how these followers will
feel after Jesus is physically gone - so Jesus says, I’m not abandoning you -
my Spirit will be here now. Physically
I’ve only been with you a few years - the Spirit of God will be coming, you
won’t be left like orphans.
Jesus uses an interesting variety of
words to describe this Spirit - Advocate, in more recent translations. The King James says Comforter, to match
saying I will not leave you comfortless.
Eugene Peterson’s The Message uses the word “Friend” for the coming
Spirit. Advocate is probably the more
correct translation. I used to think of
Advocate as a legal thing, like someone who would stand with me and interpret
me to God’s court, so God would be more lenient to me. That’s a pretty judgemental way to look at
God, isn’t it? Like part of God has to
say to the rest of God, Well, look at what she was working with, or something
excusing or explaining. Like God is
going to throw me away if the Advocate doesn’t make a good enough case for
me.
We need to turn that image around -
switch who’s being advocated for and to - perhaps the Spirit advocates for God
to us, explains God to us, helps us understand more about God like Jesus did,
brings verses we’ve learned and experiences we’ve had back to our memory, as we
reflect on new circumstances. That’s actually more in line with what the
scriptures say the spirit does, bringing what Jesus said back to recall,
reminding us of God’s love and God’s presence, reminding us that God is here in
our times of need. There is that verse
that says the spirit intercedes for us when we have no words for our prayers,
so in that case the spirit translates for us - sounds like the Spirit enables
communication all around...
Jesus also uses the term Spirit of
Truth, God’s truth, reality, the way it is, revealing where we are being
defensive or equivocating, or trying to find loopholes - or honestly
misunderstanding. I remember growing up
with the old english of the King James version of the Bible and trying to
understand it. I had it in my ears a
lot, you know, like many of us here. I got to the place where the sense of the
words, the intention of the words, often interpreted the actual words I was
reading... I later thought this must have been the spirit, communicating what
the intent was, what the larger sense was, and then I could see how the words
went together. Communication again. Listening to that mysterious and mystical
union that is us and God.
In Sailboat Church, Joan Gray
reminds us that even though the Spirit has been a part of our theology from the
beginning, that Spirit often gets overlooked in our day-to-day noticing and
appreciation. If the Spirit is about
God’s abiding presence, God’s truth and two-way communication with God, perhaps
we need to find methodical and orderly ways to acknowledge the need for the
spirit’s work in our lives and our church. And acknowledge that the Spirit more
in our prayer, our decision-making, and in the practice of our Christian
living. Gray’s book discusses
deliberately seeking the direction of our Advocate as we make decisions in our
personal lives as well as in our communal life as a church. Not just a token prayer to open or close a
meeting, but in a larger way of prayerful discernment. She reminds us that our own spiritual life
and walk with God is what undergirds our church’s life and walk with God, and
thus the importance of our own relationship with God, calling on our Advocate
to help lead and teach and direct.
You may recall I asked for
volunteers to form a prayer group or two and begin to pray for our
congregation, and all the capital-C Church in this time of learning to cope
without our buildings. Like many clergy,
I’m seeing that this may be our new reality for a while, and we need God’s
Spirit to lead us to being church in a different situation. Many of us are
thinking that this may be the renewal that the Capital-C Church has needed, and
lead to a better witness all around. I
would love for folks who feel a tug of interest in this to email or call me and
let me know, so we can do this.
Meanwhile, I’m assuming we all will be praying for the church in these
current conditions, as well as the world, which will experience some large
changes in the coming months and years.
And our government, and other nations.
And specific families we know that are affected. And your pastor, who was never trained to be
a pastor in a pandemic and is learning as fast as she can.
And may the spirit of Truth, our
Advocate, Comforter and Friend, be with us.
AMEN.
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