Gospel Reading: John 14:15-21
In today’s Jesus story, Jesus continues his long good-bye to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. Because he knows he will physically leave them, he promises to send the paraclete, a Greek word meaning “advocate.” Later, on the day of Pentecost, it becomes clear Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. Jesus further informs the disciples: You know the Spirit because the Spirit abides in you, and the Spirit will be in you. Our Lutheran baptismal liturgy echoes Jesus’ promise that the Spirit would reside in the disciples. Indeed, one of the gifts of Holy Baptism, as understood by Martin Luther, is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the baptized by which we receive gifts and talents to be used in service to God and God’s people. But in Greek, the preposition we translate here as “in” may also be translated as “among.” Jesus not only promises the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individual followers but among the whole people of God. Instead of embodying the Holy Spirit only in our individual acts of love and service, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit is embodied among us, in the ministry we do together.
That may not sound at all noteworthy. You may wonder why I even bring it up. Of course, the Holy Spirit is embodied among us. But consider our culture, our common stories, our beloved heroes. Superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Civic heroes like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. Arts heroes like Virginia Woolf and Wendell Berry. Everyday heroes like police officers, first responders, nurses. We celebrate and lift up these heroes who give of themselves for the sake of the common good, whose work benefits each of us, whose influence pervades our society. We do so quite rightly. Not only do we celebrate our heroes, it feels good to be a hero. A family friend of mine is a lineman for his local electric company in the Midwest. After tornados, thunderstorms, and ice storms, when his community doesn’t have power, he is the one to climb up telephone poles and fix them, restore power to furnaces and A/C units, to refrigerators and medical equipment, to bring power and with it, safety to his community. He loves being the hero, not because he is self-centered. The very opposite, in fact. He loves it because he loves to help and serve and do something truly useful for others.
In a culture that celebrates heroes and among people who love to serve in hero roles, we sometimes fail to remember that no one works alone, that we need multiple hands and ideas and talents for any project, that the Holy Spirit equips and empowers the whole people of God for shared ministry that is impossible to do alone. Each of our heroes and each one of us are a product of many people on whose shoulders we stand, a product of parents and other loving adults who nurtured us, a product of teachers and pastors and coaches who challenged us to grow. Certainly, our individual acts of service are the building blocks of ministry together, but we do nearly all work, nearly all ministry together, not individually, no one hero claiming all the glory.
Just as an example, consider the ministry of GLOW, Grace Lutheran on Wednesdays, an evening meal and study. After two months of not meeting, GLOW seems a distant memory, but I can still call to mind the many people who make GLOW work. Marlene does the meal planning and makes the shopping list. Evalyn buys the groceries and later counts the GLOW offering. Donors donate the money for GLOW, and periodically, I write grants for it. Lori, Chris, and Alex receive food donations throughout the week in the church kitchen and document each donation. Adrienne and office volunteers send thank you notes for the donations. Marlene, Lori, Devalyn, Ann, Ron, and sometimes others cook the food. Come 5:00 pm on Wednesdays, Sheila, Fran, Carol, Emily, and others arrive to serve the meal and wash the dishes. Vicar Beth and I decide on a theme for the Bible study and spend time over a number of weeks inviting guests and preparing powerpoints. Finally, on Wednesday at 5:15, the doors open, and Ray or Brian or someone else sits with us at the welcome table to sign people in. I lead announcements and prayer and dismiss tables. We all eat together, all who have gathered giving of themselves in conversation, building relationships for the sake of the community. Then, Vicar Beth and I lead the study. Ray operates the powerpoint. Fran plays piano as we sing. Everyone asks questions and shares insights. The Holy Spirit is among us. Yes, we all utilize our individual gifts and talents, and those individual gifts and talents shared add up to a whole ministry. No one has to do everything. You don’t want me to cook for a crowd or count the offering, and you will never catch Devalyn leading a Bible study. But we don’t have to do those things…because other people with the appropriate gifts will. We each receive gifts from the Holy Spirit and get to use them for the sake of the common good. The Holy Spirit is among us, not just in us.
As Jesus says his long good-bye to the disciples, the promise of the Holy Spirit at work among the twelve of them—and not simply in each of them—shines with good news. They didn’t know it that night, but the disciples were about to embark on an adventure. Jesus would die and be raised and ascend into heaven. In the wake of Jesus’ ascension, the Holy Spirit would fill the disciples on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit would call them to establish the Christian church on earth, to heal people and feed them, to forgive sin and baptize, to establish and nurture Christian communities throughout the known world. Regardless of the Spirit’s presence in them, the multitude of these tasks and relationships would be too much for any one person.
So too for us. When we look to our heroes or our mentors or just people we admire, we may wonder: how do they do it? How could so much talent and energy and passion live alongside such organization and focus and dedication? The answer to that question is almost always that they didn’t do it alone. The Holy Spirit comes among us as, together, we do the work of God. If we feel stuck today, unable to do the things God is calling us to do, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, perhaps God is inviting us to ask for help, to include others in our vision, to admit what we don’t know and learn from others. For truly, the Spirit not only dwells in each of us but abides among us for the sake of the common good. Thanks be to God! Amen.
“If we feel stuck today, unable to do the things God is calling us to do, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, perhaps God is inviting us to ask for help, to include others in our vision, to admit what we don’t know and learn from others. ”