“I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

Eleventh Sermon on the Apostles’ Creed

Ordinary Time V; February 5, 2006

John 14:15-17

With so much going on today, this sermon has to be quick and dirty. Well, quick, anyway, and by “dirty” I mean that I’m going to indulge in a teaching element that I don’t normally include in a sermon. That is, I’m going to talk about a Greek word.

One of my biggest gripes about Christian theology is the tendency to use Greek words when there are perfectly good English words that mean the same thing. When talking about the Holy Spirit, however, there is a Greek word that has no English equivalent, and so I’m going to do it. The word is “paraklete.” It’s the word that Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit in this text, and in other places in the Gospel of John; it gets translated as “Advocate” in the version I read to you (NRSV) and as “Comforter” in some other versions and “Counselor” elsewhere.

You have to be careful to pronounce “paraklete” carefully. In seminary choir, we were working on an anthem that had in it the phrase, “Come, Holy Paraklete.” Being between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-seven, for the most part, we of course sang, “Come, Holy Parakeet.” We amused ourselves so much – we never could get through that doggone anthem, even if we sang the right word – that the choir director finally gave in and changed the word to “comforter.”

A paraklete is a comforter. When you’re grieving, and you need someone to sit down next to you and perhaps hold your hand, the one who sits next to you is a paraklete. But that is not all a paraklete does. When you’re accused of something, and you need a defender, someone who will stand with you and argue your case, the one who does that is a paraklete. When you need to make a decision, and you need good advice, the one who sits down with you and gives you counsel is a paraklete. When you’re in a rut, or heading the wrong way, and you need a whack in the side of the head, the one who comes alongside and belts you the way you need it is a paraklete.

“Paraklete” means “one who is called to come alongside.” When you call upon someone to come alongside and help, you call for a paraklete: someone to comfort you, someone to advocate for you, someone to advise you, someone to give you a good, swift kick.1

According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit does all those things. When you grieve, the Holy Spirit comforts you, especially when you grieve for your sins and for the crucifixion of Jesus. When you are accused, the Holy Spirit advocates for you, especially when you are accused of being a follower of Jesus. When you need to make a decision, the Holy Spirit counsels you, especially if you are trying to decide whether or not to do what Christ is calling you to do. And when you are in a rut, the Holy Spirit gives you a push in the right direction, especially if the rut is your own will, rather than the will of God.

The Holy Spirit might do those things by the sense of the Spirit’s presence inside you. The Spirit might whisper the ideas you need in your head. The Spirit might send someone to do it, as happens so often in the New Testament. And sometimes the Spirit might send you to someone else.

Jesus also calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth.” This text is not the only time he does that; he uses the phrase elsewhere too (John 15:26 and 16:13). Jesus says that the Spirit’s work is to testify to Jesus (15:26) and to teach the disciples more of what they need to know (14:26 and 16:13). And Jesus says that the Spirit’s job is to prove the world wrong about many things, but particularly about sin (15:8).

Whew! Slow down, preacher! All right, I don’t expect you to catch all that. Here’s the point: pretty much any time the right thing happens in the life of faith, you see the Holy Spirit at work. Sometimes it’s pleasant, but sometimes it’s not. Let me tell you part of a story.

About fourteen years ago I was appointed to an administrative commission of our presbytery to investigate the life and health of a church. Many people in our presbytery thought the church ought to be closed. We asked one of them – an official of the presbytery – why the church should be closed. He said, “Because the Holy Spirit isn’t there.” We asked him how he knew that. He said essentially, “Because every time I go there, I feel so bad.”

We interviewed members of the church. We asked why the church should remain open. One of the elders said, “Because the Holy Spirit is here.” We asked how she knew that. She said, “Because of the good feelings here.” We know the Holy Spirit is absent because we feel bad; we know the Holy Spirit is present because we feel good. Obviously feelings are not a reliable indicator of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Parenthetical statement: the great heresy of our age is “If it feels good, do it.” We evaluate relationships, institutions, congregations, politicians, pastors and philosophies by how we feel about them. Pretty useless.

Anyway, the members of the Commission got out our Bibles and decided to see what the Bible says are reliable indicators of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We concluded that the Holy Spirit was indeed present in the life of that congregation, but was having a hard time getting through.

So here’s the point: When you say you believe in the Holy Spirit, you say you believe that God comforts, advocates, advises and corrects you and me and all of us together. It’s no accident that the word “you” in this text from John is plural; the Holy Spirit is in each of us and among us. The Holy Spirit works for us and the Holy Spirit works through us. In other words, sometimes the Holy Spirit is paraklete for you, and sometimes the Holy Spirit uses you to be paraklete for another.

Let us pray. Come, Holy Paraklete. Comfort the grieving, advocate for the accused and the tempted, advise the confused and stir up the complacent. In Jesus’ name; amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa

[1] One worshiper, after the service, suggested that such a good, swift kick could be delivered with a “pair o’ cleats.”