John 15.26-27,16.4b-15 – In Times Like These
Have you ever felt all alone? Have you felt boxed in –– caught between a rock and a hard place? Have you ever been overwhelmed by a situation that seemed hopeless.
If you have felt that way –– or are feeling that way now –– wouldn't it be a blessing to know that God was there with you –– loving you –– willing to help? Wouldn't it be a blessing to know that you aren't alone!
Let me assure you that God is with you –– that God does love you –– that God is more than willing to help. I know that is true, because I have experienced it.
You all know of my history of alcohol and drug abuse. The only reason that I am standing here this morning is because God does love me and he stayed with me through the worst years of my life. Yet even today, I often find myself in situations too difficult to manage on my own. "Between a rock and a hard place," is a place with which I am very familiar. I have often wondered “how can I do what needs to be done?” When faced with situations like that, I ask God to help me. And God has helped me. Not always when I wanted help. Not always the exact way that I wanted help. But doors opened that I hadn't noticed before. People whom I expected to be difficult turned out to be helpful instead. Fresh ideas gave me new options.
I don't want to make it sound easy. I have to work hard. I had to stay focused. The doubts and worries are often waiting just beyond the door, waiting to take over my thinking, my mood, sometimes my very faith in the power of God. But God has many times blessed me when I needed help –– when I prayed for help.
God loves you as much as he loves me.
God stands ready to help you through your difficulties just as he has helped me.
You see, God has sent someone to help us. That someone has a name. It is a name you have probably never heard. The name is Paraclete (PEAR-ah-kleet). It's a name that comes from the Bible, but you aren't likely to find it in your Bible even if you were to read it from cover to cover, unless you read the translation know as the “New Jerusalem Bible”. It doesn’t even appear in the King James versions. Let me explain.
Paraclete is a Greek word, the original language of the New Testament. It was in our scripture reading today, but you didn't hear it. Our New Testament says, "When the ADVOCATE comes"(John 15:26) –– but the original word was Paraclete ––"When the PARACLETE comes."
Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to die. He is telling them that after the resurrection, he will ascend to heaven to be with the father.
He is getting ready to leave his disciples, who have staked their lives on him. He is reassuring them that they have nothing to fear –– that, although he will be leaving them, he will send this Paraclete –– this Advocate –– to help them.
In fact, he was telling them that it would be better for them when this Paraclete came. He said:
"It is to your advantage that I go away,
for if I do not go away,
the Advocate (the Paraclete) will not come to you;
but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7).
So who was this mysterious Paraclete? In the Cub Scouts, when we are out camping or some such thing, the boys have Paracletes. William Barclay says the same thing was true of Roman Soldiers. Here’s what I mean. Both Cub Scouts and Roman soldiers had a "buddy system." They were paired together so that they could help each other. In the case of the soldier, if one needed sleep, the other would pull guard duty. If they were surrounded by the enemy, they stood back to back so that they could protect each other. Having a Paraclete was like having an extra pair of hands. Having a Paraclete was like having eyes in the back of your head. In the Scouts, having a Paraclete means safety when going to the latrine without an adult and it means help is available if someone gets hurt.
Fighter pilots still use that system. They don't talk about Paracletes, but they do talk about wingmen. Fighter pilots are trained to watch out for each other –– to help each other –– to protect each other. Each fighter pilot has a Paraclete –– a buddy –– a helper –– a friend.
I read a story that illustrates very well what a Paraclete is supposed to do. A woman named Linda set out in a little Honda Civic to drive from Western Canada to Whitehorse, Alaska. She stayed overnight in a motel, and asked for an early morning wakeup call. The clerk looked surprised when she asked for that early morning wakeup call, and she couldn't imagine why. But the next morning, when she got up, she understood. The place was totally "socked in" by fog.
She went to the restaurant for breakfast, and two truckers asked to join her. They asked where she was going, and she said, "Whitehorse." The truckers laughed, and one of them said, "Whitehorse! In that little Civic! No way! The pass is dangerous in weather like this."
But she said she had to get there, so the trucker said, "Then I guess we're just going to have to hug you."
Linda drew back and said, "Don't you touch me!"
But the trucker said, "Not like that! We'll put one truck in front of you and the other in back, and we'll get you through the mountains."
So Linda spent the morning following the two red taillights of the truck in front of her –– and had the comfort of knowing that there was another truck following her –– and they made it through the mountains.
Those truckers were Linda's Paracletes –– her buddies –– her helpers –– her Comforters.
So what does this have to do with us? Just this! When Jesus told his disciples that the Paraclete would come to help them, he was talking about the Holy Spirit –– God's Spirit. That's who the Paraclete is –– the Holy Spirit. Jesus was telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit would come to serve as their Paraclete –– their helper.
The Good News is that the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete too. The Holy Spirit is God with us –– God living in us –– God guiding us –– God protecting us. The Good News is that we aren't alone, because God's Holy Spirit lives within us. God's Holy Spirit is part of our lives.
Now, I want to be careful not to give you the wrong impression. The fact that we have the Holy Spirit living within us doesn't mean that we won't experience hard times. Jesus' apostles didn't get a free ride. They were beaten, imprisoned, and even martyred for their faith. Jesus didn't promise them a bed of roses, and they didn't get one. But what they did get was a life worth living –– and faith to sustain them through good times and bad.
That's what we need –– lives worth living –– and faith to sustain us through good times and bad. And, that's what Jesus offers. That's what the Paraclete –– the Holy Spirit –– freely gives.
Now, you might be surprised to hear me say that we need faith to sustain us through good times and bad. Some folks might think that we need faith only to sustain us through bad times.
We'll be just fine when times are good –– thank you very much!
But good times can be dangerous. We have seen that recently with the economy. If people had behaved themselves during the good times, we wouldn't be having bad times right now. The prices of our houses and stocks wouldn't have soared to the sky, but neither would they have plummeted to the depths.
I'm not sure how we solve that problem at the highest levels, but I do know how to solve it at a personal level. Whatever is happening around us, we can ask God to take charge of what is happening inside us. When God takes charge, wonderful things can happen.
But there is another characteristic of God’s Holy Spirit that I would like to discuss this morning. You know, in both Hebrew and Greek, the word for wind and spirit is one and the same. God breathed the breath of life, the very spirit of God, into his new creation Adam and even today, Christians across the world are energized and directed by God’s holy breath which we call the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit.
Charles Swindoll tells about a bazaar that was held in a village in northern India. Everyone brought his wares to trade and sell. One old farmer brought in a whole covey of quail. He had tied a string around one leg of each bird. The other ends of all the strings were tied to a ring which fit loosely over a central stick. He had taught the quail to walk dutifully in a circle, around and around, like mules at a grist mill.
Nobody seemed interested in buying the birds until a devout Brahman came along. He believed in the Hindu idea of respect for all life, so his heart of compassion went out to those poor little creatures walking in their monotonous circles.
“I want to buy them all,” he told the merchant, who was elated. After receiving the money, the merchant was surprised to hear the buyer say 'Now, I want you to set them all free.”
“What’s that, sir?” asked the merchant.
“You heard me. Cut the strings from their legs and turn them loose. Set them all free.”
With a shrug, the old farmer bent down and snipped the strings off the quail. They were freed at last. What happened? The birds simply continued marching around and around in a circle. Finally, the man had to shoo them off. But even when they landed some distance away, they resumed their predictable march. Free, unfettered, released . . . yet they kept going around in circles as if still tied.
So many Christians are like these birds. They are good people. They believe in God. They accept the great doctrines of the church. But they are marching around in circles like those birds. They do not feel God’s presence in their lives. They have never heard the sound of a violent wind blowing or they haven’t heard it in a long time.
We can’t see the Spirit, but we should be able to see its effect in our life. We should have more joy, more love, more vitality if God lives within us. The church at Pentecost was a joyful, loving dynamic group of individuals when the Spirit came upon them. We need that kind of Spirit if we are going to be what God calls us to be.
So today, you might ask, "Do you really believe that God can help us?" –– “Do you really believe that God can help this church (to rise up out of the financial mire in which we find ourselves)?” – "Do you really believe that God can help even me to be different and to change?" –– to which I answer "Without a doubt!" I've seen God change far too many lives and help far too many people in the past to believe that God cannot or will not do it again.
God is with us. God's Holy Spirit –– his Paraclete –– dwells within us. With God's help, all things are possible. Believe it! Live it! Amen.
