The Holy Spirit, Advocate and Guide

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Bible Readings

Today is the Day of Pentecost, and it’s an important day in the Episcopal Church. For one thing, today is one of only seven “principal feasts” in the liturgical calendar, feasts that outrank all other celebrations or commemorations. For another, today is widely considered to be the “birthday of the Church.” (That being said, it’s a bit of a misnomer; one can make a pretty good case that the Church was born when Jesus called his first disciple.) But perhaps the most important aspect of this great feast day is that it is an occasion to focus on the Holy Spirit, that mysterious third person of the Holy Trinity.

So, let’s review the three appointed readings, to see what we can learn about the Spirit of God. The first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, recounts the story of the first Pentecost, when the disciples encounter wind and fire and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They miraculously find themselves able to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in languages that they don’t even know. The heart of their message to the crowd is found in the very last line of the reading: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” So far as we know, this miraculous gift of tongues did not remain with the disciples, but even so, they were not left bereft of the Spirit.

In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he reminds the Christians in Rome that the Spirit of God is still very much active in the world. On a universal scale, the Spirit is birthing a new creation, a world that is fit to be called the Kingdom of God. On an individual scale, the Holy Spirit is guiding each and everyone of us into a life of true prayer. Now, prayer takes many forms. It can be the common prayer we share together on Sundays. It can be the personal prayer we offer daily for our loved ones in need. It can even be the wordless work we do out in the world for the children of God. Finally, as St. Paul teaches us, prayer can be the groans of agony and the tears of sorrow that we shed when we cannot even find the words to express our pain to our Heavenly Father. And the mystery of each and every form of true prayer is that it is the Holy Spirit, breathed into us at baptism, who enables and sustains that prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who urges us, sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently, to keep reaching out to God.

Finally, we come to the reading from John’s Gospel, which somewhat confusingly takes us back in time to the Last Supper, before the disciples had even received the gift of the Holy Spirit. There, Jesus promises his disciples that he will ask his Heavenly Father to send them an Advocate.

Now, the English word “advocate” is a bit problematic. Every time I hear it, I think of a trial lawyer. But that is not the kind of advocate that Jesus is speaking of. This advocate will not be a lawyer who will stand by his disciples in court to keep them out of jail, but the Holy Spirit, who will stand by them throughout the trials and tribulations of this world, to save them from the Evil One. Jesus goes on to promise that this same Spirit of God will continue to teach the disciples long after Jesus has returned to his Father and will guide them further and further into Divine Truth.

Jesus’ promise to the disciples at the Last Supper applies to us modern-day disciples as well. Yes, Christ has ascended and returned to his Father, but we are not left orphaned. When each of us was baptized, we received the Holy Spirit; a spiritual ember was implanted in our soul. When we were confirmed, we received additional strength from the Holy Spirit to endure the trials of this life. But being only human, we need more than these two infusions of the Spirit. And that is where the Holy Eucharist comes into play. And God willing, soon we will again be able to celebrate the Eucharist together and to partake of Holy Communion.

Like the first disciples of Jesus, we too have been empowered by the Spirit: empowered to pray to the Father, empowered to testify to the Truth, empowered to share the Good News, empowered to endure this horrid pandemic. It is all too easy to forget just what we have been given at Baptism, what we have had reinforced at Confirmation, what we have had renewed at Holy Eucharist. Well, folks, don’t let yourselves ever forget. You have the Holy Spirit within you even now! And when two or three of us gather in Christ’s Name, that same Spirit is among us working wonders.

Let us pray.

O Holy Spirit, by whose breath life rises vibrant out of death; come to create, renew, inspire; come, kindle in our hearts your fire. Amen.

© 2021 by Darren Miner. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Jesus Prayed for His Disciples and Jesus Prays for Us

Gospel Reading

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Last Thursday was Ascension Day. And next Sunday is the feast of Pentecost. So you might very well expect today’s Gospel reading to take place during the ten-day period between the Ascension and Pentecost. But surprisingly it doesn’t. Instead, we go back in time, and we get a snippet of a lengthy prayer that Jesus offered at the Last Supper.

In a sense, we are eavesdroppers. Jesus’ prayer is addressed to God—not us—and it is offered on behalf of the original disciples—not us. (Or so it would seem!) So why does the lectionary have us listen in? Well, I can think of two reasons. The first is that, as baptized Christians, we are meant to continue the ministry of the original disciples, and we can expect to encounter some of the same struggles that they did. The second reason has to do with a tradition of the Early Church to expound on the sacraments at every sermon during the 50 days of Eastertide. And, though it isn’t obvious, Jesus’ prayer does have profound implications concerning Baptism and the mission of the baptized.

But there is a problem! As we eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer, we find that he is speaking in code. One of those code words is the word world. We get a sense that something cryptic is intended when we hear Jesus say, “I am not asking on behalf of the world.” Why would Jesus refuse to pray for the world? The answer is that, in John’s Gospel, the word world almost always refers to those who willfully defy God’s will and actively oppose Jesus’ ministry. Given this understanding of the “world,” it is not so surprising that Jesus doesn’t pray on its behalf.

Jesus differentiates between a world that opposes God’s will and his disciples, who obey it. He states that his disciples are in the world, but not of the world. They act in the midst of sinful humanity, but they do not belong to sinful humanity. And to the extent that we live into our baptism, the same can be said about us! For at our baptism, we, just like Jesus’ original disciples, were sanctified in the Truth. We were consecrated as a priestly people. We were set apart for God’s express use. At our baptism, we were separated from the world of sinful humanity, even as we continue to live our lives in the midst of a world that is profoundly alienated from God.

Jesus warns the original disciples that, when the world realizes that they do not belong to the world, they will be hated for it. And they will be persecuted. In some parts of the world today, Jesus’ prophecy is quite literally true. Here in the United States, however, Christians rarely suffer real persecution on account of their faith. The situation here is usually more subtle. Instead of hate, we are more likely to encounter ridicule. But on occasion, you just might run into someone who hates you because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Yes, indeed, the world we live in can be confusing. It can be hurtful. And it can be exhausting—especially during this pandemic! Consequently, we are tempted to run away and hide. Now, it’s OK to take a vacation—hey, I just took one! It’s OK to find respite in a good book. It’s even OK to binge-watch a TV series on Netflix. And of course, it’s expected that Christians will take refuge in the church—even if church is no more than a weekly conference call! These little escapes are all well and good—so long as we remember to return to the real world to do the Lord’s work! Jesus reminds us in his prayer that, just as the Father sent him into the world, so he is sending his disciples. This world of fallen and sinful humanity is where we have been sent to serve. It is the locus of our mission. The world desperately needs to hear the message of Jesus Christ, so that it can cease to be the “world” and instead become the Kingdom.

This mission to bring Good News to a world that doesn’t always accept the message, or welcome the messenger, can be daunting. But we are not without means. And we are not on our own. Two thousand years ago, Jesus revealed God’s Name to his disciples. (And that Name was Love.) He prayed that his disciples might be sanctified in the Truth of the Divine Word. And he prayed that they might be protected from the Evil One, as they went about their mission. Well, that prayer for his disciples, first offered at the Last Supper, has never ceased. Our Risen and Ascended Lord is praying that very same prayer for us even now. So take heart!

Amen.

© 2021 by Darren Miner. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Receive the Holy Spirit and Mend My World

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Bible Readings

Today is the Day of Pentecost, one of seven principal feasts in the Episcopal Church’s liturgical calendar. It has been called the “birthday of the Church,” but this title is hotly disputed. In any case, all agree that it is a day to “pull out all the stops.” And so we will have incense at the Offertory.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us the story of that first Pentecost, when the disciples encounter wind and fire and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They miraculously find themselves able to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in languages that they do not know. The heart of their message to the crowd is found in the very last line of the reading: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” So far as we know, this miraculous gift of tongues did not remain with the disciples, but even so, they were not left bereft of spiritual gifts.

As St. Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians, the Church has at divers times received a variety of gifts: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, the proclamation of prophecy, the gift of healing, the discernment of spirits, and the working of all kinds of miracles. All of these have been useful to the building up of the Church, but later in that same letter Paul reminds us that the most important spiritual gifts are faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these three is love.

Since the Day of Pentecost completes the fifty days of Eastertide, we quite fittingly return to Easter Day in the Gospel reading from John, which takes place on the evening of the Resurrection.

Stand by Your Man

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Gospel Reading

We finding ourselves nearing the end of Eastertide. Just two more weeks to go. This coming Thursday is Ascension Day, when the Church commemorates the final farewell of the Risen Christ. The feast of Pentecost is on the 15^th, when we will commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Today, it seems, we are meant to look ahead to these two events and to prepare. I suppose that’s why the editors of the lectionary offer a Gospel reading from the farewell discourse at the Last Supper. Because, in this brief excerpt from that long discourse, Jesus tries to prepare his original disciples for his imminent departure from this world and for the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Inexplicably, the editors of the lectionary have omitted the question which prefaces today’s Gospel reading: “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” For Jesus had just stated that in a little while the world would no longer see him, but his disciples would see him. As Jesus is wont to do, he offers a response to a question that is not exactly an answer: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Now, he could have just explained that he had been talking about his future Resurrection appearances to the faithful. But instead of answering Judas’ question, Jesus says what he thinks needs to be said. He asks his closest disciples to keep his word, to follow his teachings, to be obedient to his commandments—in short, to stand by him, even when he is gone.

Jesus puts before his disciples a test of their faithfulness: if they love him, they will show it by following the love ethic at the heart of his every word and action. They will love God. The will love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They will love the stranger. They will even love their enemy. Now, by love, Jesus didn’t mean affection. Love for Jesus was less of an emotion and more of an action. You show your love when you feed the hungry. You show your love when you visit the sick. You show your love when you acknowledge the homeless beggar, even if you can’t spare a dime. You show your love when you come to church week after week, even when you feel exhausted. And last but not least, you show your love when you vote for a leader who cares about the weak and welcomes the refugee.

April 2014 Issue of The Word – a quarterly newsletter from Incarnation

The April 2014 Edition of our quarterly newsletter, The Word, is now online! You can catch up on what’s been happening at Incarnation and what’s coming up! Read it here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BjXKwS7KTydkgtekl6UlN1NEk/edit?usp=sharing