05-16-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 16, 2024
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and as we ponder the power of the Holy Spirit, I think about the promise of Jesus that we read about in John’s Gospel, “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 forever” (vs.14:15-16). Jesus spoke of “another Advocate.” The Greek word we translate as Advocate is paraklēton, which is a word that has challenged scholars, even leaving some of them to coin a word, Paraclete, that resembled the original Greek word. Other translations are: intercessor, counselor, comforter, teacher, or helper. The other word that causes some intrigue is the word "another,” because it assumes that a Paraclete has already existed. Was Jesus the first Paraclete? When we think about the life and ministry of Jesus, words like advocate, intercessor, counselor, comforter, teacher, or helper sort of fit. Or does it even go deeper, connecting us to the One True God that we speak of as the Trinity? And maybe the Paraclete is the essence of God that we can experience. It is how we meet the Sacred that is best known as love, and advocate, intercessor, counselor, comforter, teacher, or helper are ways we encounter love. And though the embodied version of this love, Jesus, would no longer be with the disciples, the promised Paraclete was John’s way of communicating God’s everlasting presence—letting the early church know that it would never be alone, and in every act of advocacy, intercession, counsel, comfort, teaching, and helping, the God of love was present.

For all the ways your love is known, O God, we pray for the capacity to bring your presence to life through the church’s advocacy, intercession, counsel, comfort, teaching, and helping. Amen.