What I said this Sunday – Easter 6
Here’s my sermon from this morning.
Acts 17.22-31; 1 Peter 3.13-end; John 14.15-21
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done: it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”
The last words spoken before his death by Sydney Carton, in Charles Dickens’s great novel A The Tale of Two Cities. They are, probably, the most famous and most widely quoted last words in all fiction.
Well chosen words at the point of death can convey so much and can expect to become a kind of verbal memorial to the person who utters them. History records for us, of course, the final words of many famous people, and while some are perhaps best forgotten others still resonate. Take the final words of Edith Cavell, for example, executed by German firing squad during the First World War: Standing, as I do, in the view of God and eternity I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness to anyone. Who can fail to be stirred by those words?
Sometimes, people didn’t get it quite right and couldn’t think what to say. Pancho Villa, the Mexican bandit and revolutionary, who died in 1923 after being assassinated by a political opponent, said to newspaper reporters as he lay dying: Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something. Sometimes, people seem to have been completely unaware that their end was near. It is recorded that H G Wells, the great novelist, said just before he died: Go away, I’m alright!
My own favourite last words are those of General John Sedgwick. John Sedgwick was a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864 he was directing artillery placements when his corps came under fire from confederate sharpshooters 1,000 yards away. Members of his staff, and his soldiers, ducked for cover. Segdwick strode around in the open: What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance. His men continued to flinch, and he repeated: I’m ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance. I don’t need to tell you what happened just a few seconds later! And history doesn’t record for us the look of embarrassment of General Sedgwick’s face.
The writer of the fourth gospel has recorded for us the last words of Jesus before he faced death. And fortunately for us these last words, spoken to his disciples in the upper room, are somewhat more encouraging and far more helpful than those of General John Sedgwick. Last week we thought about the beginning of the passage where the writer of the fourth gospel records for us Jesus’ final words to his disciples as he prepares to face death. And today’s gospel passage continues that farewell speech to the disciples, and it is the first of four teachings in the gospel about the Holy Spirit.
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 for ever.
What exactly does Jesus mean by that? What does he mean when he says the Father will give another Advocate? Well, the word translated as advocate is the Greek word “Paraklete”, the literal meaning of which is “a person summoned to one’s aid” and it’s a word only used in the New Testament Johannine books – the gospel and letters of John. Paraklete has a range of meanings that communicate who the Spirit is by what the Spirit does. Among other things, paraclete can mean to encourage, help, or comfort. A Paraclete is someone who helps you, who does what is best for you, who supports you, who speaks out for you. And the use of the word ‘advocate’ in our gospel reading comes from the way the word is used in other settings to convey the equivalent of a defence lawyer. Not, of course, a defence lawyer who defends you when you’ve done something wrong by getting you an injunction. A defence lawyer who supports you when by doing what is right you find yourself in opposed by others. And the Advocate, the Spirit, comes as a gift from God just as John earlier portrayed Jesus as God’s gift.
The emphasis in this passage is not so much belief in Jesus as it is love for Jesus. The importance of the Paraclete as ‘advocate’ is one who supports and helps us as we seek to love. Such love is revealed, Jesus says in this passage, through action. The exercise of love is connected with keeping Jesus’ commandments: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Jesus had announced a new commandment in John 1334 : love one another. Now Jesus makes it clear that disciples keep Jesus’ commands in acts of love in and for the community. Love, Christian love, is not just a nice warm feeling towards one another – love is something that results in action. Christians love, and therefore keep the commandments of Jesus – and as a result of that Jesus asks the Father to send the Paraklete, the Advocate, to be in us.
And then Jesus goes on to use the language of family to expand upon the reality of our relationship with God and his presence – as Father, as Son and as Spirit – with us. He continues the imagery of God as “Father” – and introduces a new expression as he declares that the Christian community are not being left “orphaned”. This use of the word “orphan” makes connections with other parts of John’s gospel. We are told at the beginning of the gospel that Jesus gave us power to become children of God. And in the chapter that precedes today’s reading Jesus addresses his followers as “little children”. This language of relationship with God, spoken of in terms of the closeness of family, is used by Paul in our first reading where he reminds us that we are God’s offspring.
And this longing for an intimate relationship with God, and God seeking such relationship with us, flows through all our readings this morning. Paul, in Acts, asserts a universal human longing for God. Peter describes God’s seeking in the farthest of places in his imagery of Jesus visiting the “spirits in prison”. God’s reach includes the places and people others might write off as hopeless. God’s love knows no bounds.
Jesus says that it is those who have his commandments and keep them who are those who love him, and that those who love him will be loved by the Father. It is a sobering thought, perhaps, that according to Jesus in our gospel reading, if we want to have the Father love us, if we want to have the Spirit – the Advocate – living in us – then we must not just be people of love. We must be people who actively carry out the commandments of Jesus in the way that we live, the way we behave towards one another, the way we engage with the world around us. God seeks to create community by the gift of the Spirit and the exercise of love. We, in turn, find the means to live in community by the Spirit’s gift and through love’s call.
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 for ever.
As we approach Pentecost and the celebration of the Spirit’s coming in power upon the Church it is useful to reflect upon those words of Jesus and ask how they might spur us to action as we strive with the Spirit’s help to keep his commandments. What has been your experience of the Spirit’s gift in your life and that of your church? In what ways might the call of Jesus to love change how you – as an individual, and as a church community – respond to the situations you face in your life and in your community, both local and global?
Let us pray.
Holy God, Holy Spirit, you always seek our good and ever bless our lives. Come to us now. Remind us of Jesus’ way and his call to love. Empower us by your presence. Shape us as individuals and communities, that our love may indeed be spirited and Spirit-filled. Amen.