THE COMFORTER
Today
we read verses 5-15 from Ch.16 of the Gospel according to
Firstly
it shows the compassion of our Lord.
That comes through in every word when he says, I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How well he knew his Apostles and how deeply
he cared for them!
Secondly,
it shows us the nature of God’s Love. It
is an all knowing Love which brings firm discipline as well as compassion,
gentleness and generosity. Jesus knows
that the hearts of his Apostles are breaking because he has told them he must
leave them. But that knowledge does not
weaken his resolve one tiny bit.
Gently,
but firmly, he tells them, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you
that I go away. He goes on to
tell them why, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
God
Loves us, but in his Love He knows us intimately and knows what is best for
us His Love is so perfect that we can be
absolutely sure that God will give us only what is best for us, which may
coincide only rarely with what we think we want or need. This is a tough love; a Divine Love; a love
we must accept in all its fullness.
Now
one of the things which we all need is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter. But we need to examine that
need rather carefully and to put it in the context of God’s Love.
The
Holy Spirit is God, the Third Person of the Trinity. That is why I cringe when I hear ministers,
or lay people, declaring that they will call down the Holy Spirit. Such people often go as far as telling us
that we will tremble, or get hot, or fall over; that the roof will shake and
the windows rattle, as a mighty rushing wind blows all around us.
Who
do they think they are, to demand anything of God? God does not dance to the tune of a human
piper. What arrogance such demands
betray and how clear the New Testament teachings are about such proud
hearts. He hath scattered the proud
in the imaginations of their hearts, says Mary in Luke 1:51, part of what
we should say daily during Evensong in the Magnificat, the beautiful Song of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In
v6 of Ch.4 of his epistle, James refers to Proverbs 3:34, stating that, God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
St.
Peter says exactly the same thing in his first epistle, ch.5:5.
If
we think about it, why would the Comforter come to someone whose heart is so
filled with pride that there is no room for anything else. Such a person is not even aware of their need
for the Holy Spirit. The Greek word used
by
Many
of us are supremely, blindly confident of our own self sufficiency and when
such arrogance drives us to think we can make demands on God, it is our own
power we are trying to demonstrate, not God’s power.
The
Psalmist wrote in psalm 51, The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a
broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise.
That
is how we make room for the Holy Spirit.
When we are truly contrite and able to fall on our knees before God,
asking in all humility for the Holy Spirit to fill us.
In
the Gospel according to Matthew, the first words of Our Lord’s public ministry
are Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Similarly, in Mark we find, The time is
fulfilled, and the
Repentence
is clearly high on the Lord’s list of priorities, so we can be sure that he is
not referring to some casual, “Oops, sorry God!” What we are talking about is gut wrenching,
heartfelt, totally sincere repentance.
Usually such repentance is accompanied by acts of contrition – giving to
the poor, for example. Not public breast
beating, but genuine acts of contrition, offered to God and known only to Him.
Of
course, in order to repent, we first have to know what sins we have committed,
to understand the harm they do to us and to our relationship with God. This is not as easy as it sounds because it
can be quite comfortable and even enjoyable to waltz through life in blissful
ignorance of what we are really doing.
How
many times, for example, have we used that self serving term, a little white
lie, and convinced ourselves that the deceit was ever so small and
therefore unimportant. How many times
have we looked at a member of the opposite sex and thought, Wow, what a
corker! And gone on into raunchy
fantasies. But no one was hurt, because
it stayed in our minds, right?.
Wrong
on both counts. Jesus tells us that and
we need to develop a serious respect for what those sins will mean if we do not
truly repent, but carry them with us to the time when we come before God to
receive his judgement and justice. None
of us can escape that, lease of all those of us who tell ourselves it will
never happen.
In
verse 8 of John 16, Jesus begins to explain the work of the Holy Spirit and
that work begins in convincing the world of sin in all its aspects, especially that
the fruit of sin is death. In Romans
6:23,
Jesus
also explains that the Holy Spirit will convince us of Righteousness, that is
that Jesus is righteous. The Spirit will
guide us in all truth, showing us, teaching us, convincing us that Jesus Christ
is the way, the truth and the life. The
Holy Spirit is sent to convince us of the mighty, saving power of the crucified,
risen Lord.
Then
Jesus says, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convince us of judgement. We must let the Spirit into our hearts to
show us without a shadow of doubt that on the Cross evil was condemned and
defeated. But we must all know that one
day we will stand before God to answer to him for our sins.
It
is necessary to know the danger we are in, in order to appreciate and
understand fully the salvation given through Jesus Christ.
Such
knowledge, such appreciation and understanding will come slowly to most of
us. Con version to Christianity in the
most profound sense is much more a journey than it is a
But,
to the glory of the Lord, the Holy Spirit will be there to help us to pick
ourselves up, re-focus our eyes on the light of Christ and struggle on towards
our heavenly home.
It
has been that way for 2,000 years and if it were not so, Jesus of Nazareth
would be buried in the silt of the ages as just one more criminal who got his
just deserts.
But
Jesus is not buried in history. He is
here today, risen, living, loving us and calling us to his side. The Holy Spirit will convince us of that.
Veni, Creator Spiritus!
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with Celestial fire;
Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, life and fire of love,
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our blinded sight.
Alleluia,
Christ is risen. Alleluia.
Peter
Jardine+
Easter
IV, 2005