You know that there are many different ways that churches practice baptisms, from sprinkling drops of water to pouring water over the head to immersing an infant in an infant-sized baptistry.  I know I am biased, but I like the way that we Baptists baptize.  There is lots of water! “Why do I like a lot of water?” you ask.  Because it reminds us that God is generous; that the grace and mercy and love of God is boundless.

We’re talking about God’s abundant generosity.  Listen to this description of Jesus from John 1 – “From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.”  Grace upon grace!  Listen to this from John 3 – “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.”

We’re in the Gospel of John today, which is very much about the mystery of faith in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  When we say mystery in the Christian faith, we don’t mean a case to be solved.  We mean a profound truth which has been revealed by God and which remains beyond our full understanding.  At the same time, as we walk with Jesus, our understanding grows.  Why?  How?  Because the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper, has come.  God with us.  God is with us in a special way in the waters of baptism.  

How wonderful to hear the words of Jesus this Pentecost Sunday.  “I will not leave you orphaned,” is the promise.  Let us hear that good news this day.  The gift of the Holy Spirit that is given without measure.  Fifty days after Jesus was raised, the Holy Spirit came to the church in the wind and tongues of fire.  The breath of God in us.  New life.  God is with us in a whole new way.  The advent/the arrival of the Holy Spirit.  Christmas in May, as we break out the red colours for one day only.

But of course, the Spirit is for every day.  Every moment of every day.  Let us ask for God’s help

We are in the section of John today known as the discipleship discourse or farewell talk.  It’s mostly Jesus speaking and comes right before his arrest.   John 13 to 17.  I encourage you to read the whole thing through in one go.  It starts with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.  It contains Jesus’ new commandment, “that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  We talk about the mystery (the ungraspability) of the grace of God, but let us make no mistake – it is meant to be revealed, and it looks like something.  We have Jesus comparing himself to a vine, and we are the branches.  Living connection!  We have Jesus praying for his present followers in chapter 17 as well as those who are to come.  Us. 

God is with us.  God is among us.  God is in us.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” are the words of Jesus with which this chapter begins.  Jesus repeats them in v 27 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”  This is not a call to live carefree, untroubled lives.  We read that Jesus’ spirit was troubled twice in John’s Gospel.  Once at the grave of Lazarus (11:33) and once when he declares that one of the 12 will betray him (13:21).  “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” says Jesus.  We are talking of the Biblical notion of the heart as the centre of our being.  The foundational centre of our will/volition/emotion/intellect.  We need not despair.  We need not fear.  No matter our circumstances.  We have another Advocate to be with us forever.  This is the Spirit of truth.

We’re looking at something foundational to the love of Christ here and loving Christ.  “If you love me,” Jesus says in v15, “you will keep my commandments.” We can describe Jesus’ gracious commands in two ways.  I say gracious commands because they’re not self-serving or domineering in the way that so many commands are.  These commands are gracious because they are rooted and grounded in God’s grace and favour.  One is vertical, and one is horizontal, and they are as inextricably connected as the two pieces of the cross; as inextricably connected as love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. 

Here’s the first.  “Believe in God, believe also in me.” (2)  What does belief look like in John’s Gospel?  Belief is trust, devotion to, hearing, following, remembering, resting in – entrusting one’s life, one’s everything to, loving.  It’s the vertical aspect to life in Christ

The second gracious command/invitation is horizontal.  We heard about it in the foot-washing story, too.  “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”  The outward movement/visible sign of living and moving and having our being in the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Jesus will put it this way in chapter 13 – “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” (13:34-35)

“If you love me,” says Jesus, “You will keep my commandments.”  This “if” could be translated “When”  When we love him, we will be keeping his commandments.  There’s no question here.  I saw a reel recently where a UK comedian was talking about a conversation between two friends of his.  One was a Californian.  One was German.  They were talking about losing their driving license.  The Californian said, “In Germany, what would happen if you lost your license, and you know, drove your car?”  The German said, “No, you cannot do this.”  The Californian said, “Yeah, I know, but what happened if you did?”  The German said, “You cannot drive.  You have no licence.”  The Californian said, “Yeah, man, I know, but what if, late one night, you just decide to…” The German said, “IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DRIVE WITHOUT A LICENCE!”

Impossible!  Jesus is not questioning his disciples’ love for him here; he’s assuming it.  He’s not saying “You should be” or “You ought to be.”  He says, “You will.”  To belong to Jesus is to love him.  To love him is to keep his commandments.  I know we love and trust God imperfectly, and I know we love one another imperfectly.  The invitation remains – believe and love.  Someone has made this gracious comment on Jesus’ words here – “To want to believe is an authentic form of believing. (We can think of the prayer here – “Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.”  Or “Lord, I trust.  Help my lack of trust.”)  To want to love is a legitimate way of beginning to love. (All disciples want to do what Jesus says.  Not many of us will ever honestly feel that we fully do what Jesus says.”

In the middle of this, we hear Jesus words.  “I will not leave you orphaned.”  We have not been left alone in trusting, loving and serving.  “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” (16-17)

The fulfillment of an ancient promise! Joel 2:28-29

28    Then afterwards     I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

This promise is for everyone.  The promise is a gift we could never get enough of.  The gift is a mystery we could never measure, but we can pray and sing “Come Holy Spirit!”  Fill us.  Flow in and through us that those words of Jesus may find their fulfillment in us – “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”  As Jesus had been sent, the Holy Spirit is sent to us.  God in us.  God among us.

Another Advocate.  Helper.  Comforter.  These are all ways in which the Greek word is translated here.  Paraclete.  Our comforter.  Our helper.  Literally, one who comes alongside.

Have we known the importance of having someone alongside us, or having come alongside somebody perhaps in the middle of difficulty?  Tragedy even.  Have you known the comfort of having another or others simply being there, holding us, sharing our grief?  Helping to give us strength for the moment, then the next moment, then the moment after that…  This is the Holy Spirit who is with us all the time.

Our Advocate.  The one who pleads for us.  The one who understands our plight and pleads for us.  The Holy Spirit prays for us.  When we don’t have the words.  When words fail, the Holy Spirit prays with sighs too deep for words.  How wonderful is this truth?  Our Advocate.  Paul describes this in his letter to the Romans: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, that that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows that it is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

Do you know what we have to fear?  Absolutely nothing.  Jesus spoke to his followers about preparing a place for them, and we are comforted by this.  He also speaks of how we are at home all the way along our journey.  A kind of being “at home on the way.”  Henri Nouwen described being at home with God like this: “The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry is to bring us to the house of his Father.  Not only did Jesus come to free us from the bonds of sin and death, but he also came to lead us into the intimacy of his divine life.  It is difficult to imagine what this means.”  It’s too wonderful to imagine what this means, but we know that the concept of home (at its best) means.  Safety.  Acceptance.  Understanding.  Freedom to be ourselves.  A place that is good to be.  A place of love.  Listen to how Jesus describes our union with himself and the Father in the Holy Spirit – “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

It is difficult to imagine what this means.  It is impossible for me to describe what the experience of the Holy Spirit is like.   Jesus describes it like this – “You will see me.” (19)  “You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (20) “Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (21)  We have this cycle of seeing God’s love and grace; of knowing that we are caught up in the loving life of Father, Son and Spirit; and of more of God’s grace and love being revealed.

“They’ll know you’re my followers,” says Jesus, “By the love that you have for one another.”  It’s a wonderful truth of our faith that we are called and enabled to be experiences of Christ to others.  In our words.  In our actions.  Not on our own.  “I will not leave you orphaned,” is the promise.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.  Teaching us everything.  Not everything is in every subject in the world.  The Holy Spirit is not teaching nuclear physics.  Teaching us everything of God and the ways of God.  Reminding us of all Jesus said and teaching us what it means on May 24th, 2024, in Toronto or from wherever we may be hearing Jesus’ words.  Bringing us peace.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” (27)   In whatever circumstance we find ourselves, peace as the deep-seated assurance that we are in God and that God is in us.  A gift given not with strings attached or ulterior motives or self-interest at the heart of the gift – but because God is good and God gives good things freely.

There’s an interesting line at the end of chapter 14.  “Rise,” says Jesus, “Let us be on our way.”  The talk goes on for another three chapters, so either this was once where the talk ended, or Jesus and his disciples decide to take a walk.  Either way, we are always figuratively rising and being at home on the way in our following of Jesus.  “Rise,” says Jesus, and how can we not think of being raised out of the water to walk in the way of Jesus at baptism?  As we walk together, may the Holy Spirit bring Jesus’ words to us.  I am the light of the world.  I am the bread of life.  I am the good shepherd.  As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Abide in my love.  Do you love me?  Feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep.  Feed my sheep.  And this:

“Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Amen