John 15:26-27, John 15:26-27 The Work of the Holy Spirit

Two points jumped out at me from this part of John’s Gospel. The first – the Holy Spirit was to be Jesus’s ‘Advocate’. What’s an advocate? One of the meanings is ‘a person who puts a case on someone else’s behalf.’

This reminded me of something that happened to me as a child.

When I was thirteen, I spent every day of the summer holidays helping at a riding stable. I was horse-mad. It wasn’t just riding, I loved being at the stables, which was about a mile from Richmond Park in Surrey, just helping out.

The stables were managed by a man called Peter Churchill. He was very good with us children and he was our hero!

Nearer the park was a large house which let us use its stables. One day, Mr Churchill asked the stablegirl Carol and myself to ride two of the horses up there and settle them in loose boxes. I was thrilled – I getting a free ride but I was also being trusted. Mr Churchill told us not to forget to put the horses’ headcollars on and tie them up before we started grooming them.

We rode the horses to the courtyard and I put a headcollar on mine and tied her up. Carol, however, said she wasn’t going to bother and simply looped her horse’s reins through an iron ring. Suddenly, her horse decided he’d had enough, jerked his head back, freed his reins and trotted out of the courtyard and back to the home stables. We were appalled. I quickly put my horse in a loose box and we ran back after Carol’s horse.

We found that it had arrived safely but Mr Churchill was waiting for us. He didn’t shout – far worse, he told us that he was very disappointed and that he had trusted us – ‘especially you, Geraldine. I thought I’d give you a chance to see if you could do this.’ I was beyond heartbroken. I went to do some task or other but thought I’d never be given the chance to help again.

Then Mr Churchill came to find me. He said that Carol had told him what had happened and that he understood it wasn’t my fault. In fact, he apologised to me. Imagine how I felt – my hero, saying sorry to me! He said that Carol had spoken up for me, when I wouldn’t have spoken for myself. My great sorrow was turned to joy; I was on cloud nine! I spent the rest of the holidays at the stables and it was the best holiday of my childhood.

The take-away line? Carol was my advocate. She spoke up for me when I couldn’t, and by doing so turned my sorrow into joy.

Sometimes, we need an advocate because for one reason or another, someone else can put our case better than we can ourselves. I think this is what Jesus is explaining to the disciples. He has just told them the truth about something that is going to happen. Verses 4 to 6: ‘I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.’ They’re too grief-stricken to understand what Jesus is saying and what he wants them to do when he’s gone. He tells them – verse 26, ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.’ He’s preparing them for what is to be their mission – to continue the work that he began – to bring the Good News of God’s love to God’s people and the Holy Spirit will be his Advocate. Jesus is returning to his Father and the Holy Spirit of God will speak on his behalf. Verses 13 and 14: ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.’ Through the Holy Spirit, they are then to pass on that testimony.

But at this stage, they don’t know that. They’re too sad.

Which leads me the other point. Grief.

Grief is more than just being sad. It’s a deep, overwhelming emotion. When we’re full of grief, we’re not capable of thinking clearly. Someone said to me recently, ‘There is only so much grief that a person can stand.’ No wonder Jesus says, ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear’.  He doesn’t want to overwhelm them. They couldn’t at that moment take in what was happening – that Jesus had accomplished what he set out to do. He’s been the role model for God’s redemptive love in action and now he’s handing his mission to his disciples – his friends, his constant companions and co-workers for over three years. He’s leaving them and they are bereft.

But he’s telling them, ‘This isn’t the end, in fact, the story is still unfolding and you’re part of it.’ They have a task in front of them but they won’t be alone – the Holy Spirit, who will speak for Jesus, be his Advocate, will come and inspire them. This word ‘inspiration’: the Latin word for breath is ‘spiritus’ but it also means ‘spirit’, so if we’re ‘inspired’, we are touched by the spirit of God. The disciples will be filled with the breath, the spirit of God.

I can picture a beautiful encircling, from God the Creator to Jesus, God incarnate on earth, to God’s Holy Spirit, who will come to the disciples when Jesus returns to his Father and who, as the breath of God, returns to the Father. They won’t be left alone, they will remain in God’s presence, in God’s Spirit.

Why did this life-changing event happen, not only for the disciples but for us, two thousand years later? Surely so that the message of God’s love would remain through the generations, spreading across the world as first the disciples, then those who continued their mission were inspired by that Divine message to – see verses 8-11, ‘prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment’.

Back to my advocate. Carol spoke up for me when I was too sad and inarticulate to speak for myself. In her own way, she was doing the work of the Holy Spirit. By speaking up for me she gave me wonderful Gifts of the Spirit – a rekindling of faith in the people around me and confidence that I was trusted.

Every time we have the courage to speak up for the voiceless – the sick, the very young or very old, the stranger, the ‘foreigner’ – aren’t we also doing the work of the Holy Spirit, continuing what Jesus started, here as God Incarnate for just a few short years, and who needs us, just as much as those first disciples were needed, to evangelise that Divine Message of the love of God? Don’t we need the Holy Spirit to be God’s Advocate in us today, as they did?

‘Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire

And feed us with Celestial fire.’ Amen