THE TASK OF THE HOLY GHOST TODAY

Fourth Sunday after EASTER

10 May, AD 2009

TEXT:  St. John 16:5-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send Him to you.  And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness, and judgment: . . . I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. . . . All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it unto you.”  (St. John 16:7-8, 12-13, and 15) ESV.

As last week, the Gospel lesson for this morning is taken from the Farewell Discourse from the Gospel of St. John, but it comes just before the section that Dcn. Sweeney preached on last Sunday.  It was clear to Jesus, as it is to us, that the Apostles are greatly concerned that Jesus has spoken of His impending Crucifixion and death.  So much so that they cannot comprehend their Lord’s words to them at this point.  Jesus even says this to them when He tells them, “Now I go my way unto him that sent me; yet none of you asketh me, ‘Whither goest Thou?’  But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.”  The Apostles were panicked and grief-stricken.  All they knew for certain was that they were about to lose Jesus.  What would become of the mission and ministry of their Lord?  They were certainly not able to sustain it all on their own!  But Jesus reassures them and tells them the goal of His journey; that He is now going back to the Father by His own volition.  Now, whether they are able to comprehend that or not, Jesus goes on to tell them that it is necessary that He goes away because, if He does not, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whatever you want to call Him, cannot come, because Jesus, Himself, has to send Him to the Apostles.  Jesus must withdraw from them as a visible, external Presence, in order to return in the Person of the Holy Spirit as the very breath of their lives!  Jesus withdraws His physical Presence, but He does not leave them desolate or comfortless.  To the contrary, He promises the Apostles the Holy Comforter in the form of His very Spirit, the Giver of Life, and turns an apparent loss into a real and true blessing!

It’s very important for us to realize that as we transition from this time of Jesus’ physical Presence with us during the forty days of Easter, through His Ascension, and then at Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Ghost and the time after, that the coming of the Spirit was not some kind of ethereal substitute for Jesus’ real Presence but is, rather, a completion of it.  Only by the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost would He be available to all men and not limited by earthly restrictions of space and time.  And as such, He has a specialized task or ministry to work in the hearts of all people as He will remain here in this world until the time that Our Lord comes again at the close of the age.

Jesus uses a very specialized term in the Greek for the function of the Holy Ghost in the world – elegko – which means, simply, to convict or to convince.  You remember Jesus using this specialized word in the Gospel of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, otherwise known as Passion Sunday, when He said to the Pharisees, “Which of you convinceth or convicts me of sin?”  This word can also mean to reprove or correct – as showing someone the weakness of their argument by pointing out flaws in their logic and their misconceptions.  So, specifically, the task of the Holy Ghost in the world today is two-fold; to convict the world or to convince the world in that it has rejected Christ who is the Truth and needs to accept Him for its salvation; and as a teacher of the faithful in the on-going revelation of God to His people.  

The first part of the Spirit’s task is three-fold.  He will reprove the world of its sin, correct its misconception of righteousness, and will stand in judgment over it.  This can all be interpreted on two levels – the obvious and the more profound.  Man’s failure to believe in Christ, even to put Him to death is proof of the world’s sin – the rejection of Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world.  The fact that Jesus is speaking of His return to the Father and will not rot in the tomb is proof of His righteousness, and finally, the judgment upon the Prince of this world, that death could not kill Jesus Christ, is proof that God’s judgment is operative in this world.  But these are merely the obvious interpretations of the task of the Holy Ghost at work in the world today.  

On a more profound level, the work of the Holy Ghost continues with those three elements of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  He convinces those who hear Him within their souls that they have the wrong conception of what sin, righteousness, and judgment are.  Formerly, it’s like treating only the symptoms of a disease without addressing the cause.  Therefore, on a deeper, spiritual level, the Holy Ghost convinces us all of sin in that He reveals to us that we are, at our deepest levels, self-centered, not God-centered.  We try to cure that disease by tempering our symptoms of lying, cheating, resentment, envy, contempt, but the disease, itself is left untouched.  The only cure – that which the Holy Ghost brings to us, is faith.  For if we don’t at least seek faith, we have no understanding of the seriousness of our illness.  

Likewise, we come to understand that our conception of righteousness is all wrong.  The world admires and approves its honorable and successful men and that’s OK as far as it goes.  But when it comes to radical self-sacrifice as we see in the life and ministry of Jesus, the world brands Him a heretic or a fanatic – good only for a criminal’s execution.  In the eyes of the world, Jesus suffered that disgrace.  But He did not go to a felon’s grave, but back to the right hand of God the Father from whom He had originally come to us and the world has taken note of that fact for over two thousand years.

By the work of the Holy Ghost, we also come to know what true judgment is.  The world thinks judgment is the imposition of jail time or some imposition of penalties upon us.  The Holy Ghost has taught and still teaches that true Judgment consists in our reaction to the Light of God when it is offered to us as children of Light.  By that reaction our souls are stamped either as children of Light or children of darkness.  As Archbishop William Temple said in one of his commentaries on this subject, “If we love darkness rather than the light there is nothing more or worse to be done with us.  With Judas we go out from the Light of the world into the night.”  All of this comes full circle and reveals to us at our core whether we are self-centered or God centered.  

As teacher of the faithful, the Holy Ghost brings with Himself not a new Truth but the revelation and deeper insight into the Truth brought to us from God the Father, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  In particular Jesus told the Apostles that the Holy Comforter would assist them to discern the true import and significance of the “things to come” which were Our Lord’s Passion and Ascension at that time and the events of the coming ages before our Lord’s Second Coming – that time in which we now live.  It is the Holy Spirit of God who lives within us now; leading us, guiding us, and teaching us if we would but listen to Him.  The promises that Our Lord made to His Apostles in last week’s Gospel, in this week’s Gospel and in all the other Gospels of Our Lord Jesus Christ are true for each one of you, as well.  All you have to do is to pray for the faith needed to become less self-centered and more God-centered so God the Holy Ghost can work more and more through you in His power to your salvation and glory.  And then you will come to know for yourselves and begin to live into His Mission, which is the same as that of Jesus, Himself – to reveal the Father and to glorify His Son, Jesus Christ to the world.  This do and ye shall live!  Let us pray.  Come, Holy Ghost and enkindle within our hearts the fire of Thy Love.  Amen.

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+