THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR TIME

Fourth Sunday after EASTER

2 May, AD 2010

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 expedient that I go away:  for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. . . Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth (and) He shall glorify me.”  (St. John 16:7, 13, and 14).

How many times as parents have you uttered the phrase to your children or grandchildren, “This is for your own good?”  Or how many times as children do we remember that phrase spoken to us?  As children we saw little value in those words, especially when we were sick and had to take medicine that tasted bad.  But gradually we learned that if we took our medicine when we were sick and even if it tasted bad at first, it was for our own good because gradually, it made us feel better.  Well that’s the “medicine” the Apostles are having to swallow this morning in the Gospel lesson.  Jesus is preparing them for His Ascension and for the coming of the Holy Ghost to the Church at Pentecost and, as usual, the Apostles are not getting the point.  Remember now, this event is happening before Our Lord’s Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.  He is going to leave them at His Crucifixion and then again at His Ascension, but they are so overcome with sadness and so greatly disturbed by His words to them, that they don’t even ask Jesus where He is going.  They are so caught up in the moment of, “What’s going to happen to us?” that only the fact of Jesus’ departure is registering in their minds.  Jesus tells them quite bluntly that it is expedient or necessary that He goes away, because only in that way could He pass through death, be resurrected by the Father into His own Glorification, and then send them or impart to them the Holy Ghost.  He says to them, “I have to leave, or else the Comforter will not come unto you.”  These last Sundays in Easter and the Sunday after the Ascension can be seen as a mini-season that might be called the “advent” of Pentecost; for today, in this Gospel lesson, in Jesus’ own words, we find the purpose for the coming of God the Holy Ghost to His Church, the work He was to be about once He has arrived, and how He works still today.

What we need to understand from the outset about the coming of the Holy Ghost is that Jesus promises to send Him to us after His Ascension.  Some people have interpreted this to mean that Jesus sends the Holy Ghost as merely a stand-in, place holder, or bench warmer to hold his place on earth to remind the people that He really was here and all we have to do is to remember Him until He comes again with power and great glory.  This is clearly NOT the case.  There is a definite reason for the coming of God the Holy Ghost to the Church and He has a well defined purpose and work to accomplish, just as did God the Son, Jesus.  There is a definite two-fold purpose of the coming of God the Holy Ghost to earth, but His over-all, primary function is to act as the completion of Jesus’ Presence among His Apostles and the faithful in the continuous glorification and Presence of God with His people – not some kind of watered-down version of it!  St. Augustine said in one of his many sermons that Christ emptied Himself to become a servant, but that it is required, now, that the form of a servant be taken away so that the fullness of the Godhead could come to earth and establish God’s Kingdom thereupon.  That fullness of the Godhead is found in God the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Holy and Most Blessed Trinity, for He reveals the Father, and glorifies the Son to the Church and to the world!

The Holy Ghost goes about His work of revelation and glorification in two distinct, but related ways.  He is the convictor or convincer of the world and He is also the Teacher of the faithful.  In other words, His two-fold purpose is as Judge and Teacher.  As Judge, the Holy Ghost reveals to the people of the world who love themselves and the things of this world more than God, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, even if they do not accept Him as of yet.  As Teacher, God the Holy Ghost brings a deeper insight into that Truth revealed by Jesus Christ to one’s soul.  This two-fold function is seen clearly in the Scripture when Jesus says, “And when the Comforter is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, . . . of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. . . Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak:  and will shew you things to come.” (St. John 16:8-11, 13)  Now, in His role of Judge, God the Holy Ghost works in three ways:  the first is to convict the world of sin, in that the world has not accepted that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One sent by God the Father to forgive sin and to heal the breach between God and humanity that was caused by Original Sin.  St. Augustine said, when preaching on a text from St. Mark, that even the devils acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, yet the world does not.  Think about it for a moment.  If the world believed, loved, and hoped in Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Ghost would be perfected.  But we all know that this is not the case.  So this aspect of the work of the Holy Ghost convicts the world of the sin of un-belief.  

Jesus also told His Apostles that the Holy Ghost would convince the world of the righteousness or justness of those who believed on Him.  In other words, the world will be convicted that its way of living is contrary to the will of God the Father.  Finally, as Judge, God the Holy Ghost will convince the world that God, alone, is the Ultimate Arbiter and Judge by showing all people that they have sinned in not believing in Christ and looking to Him as their Lord and Saviour through the ineffable grace given to believers at the invocation of Jesus’ Most Holy Name.  These are the three ways in which the Holy Ghost is going to continue to function toward the unfaithful, the unjust, and the unrepentant of this world until Jesus returns to stand in Final Judgment at the end of time.

But for those who are faithful to Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost acts in a different way.  To Christians He is a teacher, a counselor, a comforter, a strengthener, and an Advocate.  The Holy Ghost is God’s Spirit and speaks the truth about God and all that Jesus proclaimed Him to be.  It is through the power of and by the influence of God the Holy Ghost in the lives of the members of the Christian Church that our faith grows; our understanding of God broadens; and our Love for Him becomes unfathomable.  This is how we can proclaim in the Creed that the Holy Ghost is the Lord of our Being.  It is He who makes us alive as the Giver of Life.  It is He who makes present in our body, mind, and soul the very presence of the Godhead and it is He who makes His home in our heart so that God will always dwell within us.  And finally, it is the Holy Ghost who convicts us also of our personal sin when we stray, act unjustly, or when we begin to judge others; but always in the way in which a loving parent guides and directs His children.

It is within this reality, this situation, in which the Church, that is, you and me, are called to live our lives within this time in history.  We are reminded of this truth as we approach the time of Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven and then, at Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Church, filling it with all wisdom and grace.  In those two events we are reminded each year that our earthly journey; its beginning, middle, and ending, has its essence in God and without Him, we have no future.  As it was difficult for the Apostles to go on after Jesus’ Ascension without Him, so to speak, and as we, too, can relate to that feeling of abandonment when we lose our center in God, always remember that the Holy Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God dwells inside you.  Turn to Him again and He will strengthen and grow your faith in Jesus Christ just as He has led and grown this Parish and her people for the past thirteen years.  For of God’s Kingdom, there shall be no end.

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+