The Holy Spirit Promised

How Christianity ever reached this point is something we marvel at.   If we set Jesus and the gospel in the appropriate historic position we can see that he was promised by God many, many years before he actually came.   It was hundreds of years that the Jews of Israel yearned for the Messiah foretold by the prophets.   At the time of Jesus’ ministry there was a very long history for the people to look back on.   This was the time when God chose to intervene in history and it made an immense difference.   Just a handful of close friends and supporters went around with Jesus as he talked to the population.   Towards the end of his ministry, as our gospel reading confirms, he began to prepare them for the work they would begin when he was no longer with them.

Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another to be your advocate, who will be with you forever.”   These very ordinary men, workers in the pastoral scene were to be the ones to spread the gospel once Jesus was no longer around.   So it makes sense that Jesus began preparing them for their new work.   It would not be very long before they would meet behind locked doors for safety.   Yet they had been chosen, not just to follow Jesus, but take over from him the greatest task anyone had ever undertaken.   They were to become the continuing representatives of the Messiah as the work began to build.   What a responsibility they would have!

These men had little power of their own.   They did not consort with kings, governors and the like.   They were not well known among the population for all eyes would have been on Jesus during the three years he preached the good news.   Suddenly there was going to be a huge burden laid upon them.   Their first thoughts, I would imagine, would be fearful indeed.

But Jesus lost no time in assuring them that they would have a new force to carry them along.   The Holy Spirit would come upon them and truly empower them.   Now, depending on which translation of the Bible you happen to read, the Spirit is described as one of three things.   You will hear the Spirit referred to as a helper, a comforter or an advocate.   I find it interesting to consider all three descriptions separately.

We know, from our current viewpoint that the Holy Spirit was and is an amazingly powerful force.   In all three descriptions we can see the power made available to all who follow Jesus.   To me, it makes complete sense that what Jesus promised as a permanent force would be an all powerful entity.   After what Jesus had accomplished in those three years of ministry there would have been a feeling among the apostles of “How do we follow that?”   Alongside Jesus, they had experienced a power on which they could solidly rely all through.   He had all the answers to all their questions.   He had sent them out on occasion to do his work and they felt less than equipped to do the job.   Sometimes they returned having not achieved their aims.   But Jesus was there to explain that this was only to be expected.   Perhaps it was a part of their training for what was to come after Jesus.   With the benefit of hindsight we can see the enormity of the task they would be carrying out in Jesus’ name.

The first word to consider is “helper”.   Evangelising the whole known world at that time was a challenge of epic proportions.    When the helper came it was initially an experience of wind and fire, two powerful forces indeed.   These two powerful forces were anything but personal or private.   Many people were present and marvelled at what they saw and heard.   This was a helper quite different in meaning from any helper we have ever known.   Its everyday meaning of assistance was certainly part of the picture.   But beyond this was a helper that gave the disciples energy and power well beyond that with which they had been born.   They would be energised to live for God in a beautifully refined holy way.   How they lived would be something emulated by millions of followers yet to be brought to God.   They would also have to be able to inspire great things in those to whom they brought the gospel story.   It would spread like wildfire as the power passed through them into many new followers of the way.

Look at the effect on Paul.   He was to take the gospel to the gentile world and bring many, many men and women to God.   He would be instrumental in changing their lives completely.   They would be new people experiencing a complete new start in life.   For them it would really be re-birth in all its meanings.   Paul found himself unable to support the various groups beginning to be known as churches.   It was always best to be with people to encourage them in their new lives.   But this was something with human limitations.   So he wrote letters to churches when he could not be with them and they felt renewed bu what they read.   Eventually his letters were the only means of communication when he was in prison.   So powerful were the words he wrote that we read them today and become inspired.

Paul was just one man and there were many others out on the mission who also inspired the people they met and brought them into the emerging church.   These men were out there in the world talking to anyone who was prepared to listen.   They were challenged in many ways, some of which we know like the case of Philip encountering the Ethiopian eunuch who wanted to know more about what he was reading.   Often it was a case of latching on to an enquiry and explaining the gospel to the enquirer.   But the Spirit was truly active and caused the early missionaries to go to many places to tell the good news.   This was a clear case of a helper making all the difference.

The second word to describe the Holy Spirit was “comforter”.   It is plain that the inspired work carried out by the early followers of Jesus was dangerous.   We know from historical records how many new followers did not live long as they encountered persecution.   One of the worst forms of persecution was the sending of committed Christians to fight wild animals in the arenas of Rome.   There was one case when a prisoner, brought before a judge of a Roman court, was supported by a member of the public in the court itself.   For supporting the prisoner they were challenged and confessed to commitment to Jesus.   Immediately they were seized and sent to an arena to be torn apart in a public spectacle.

There were many church leaders who were even pleased to die for Jesus, such was the strength of their faith.   They almost queued up to die for him, because he had died for them in the first place.   This could only have been a time when they knew the Holy Spirit as a comforter.   The Spirit came to them to give comfort as they faced trials that many today could hardly envisage.   In more recent times Rosa Parks would have felt both help and comfort when she took issue with the discrimination of the day which required her to stand and give up her bus seat to a white person.   This led to a year long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama with the black community winning as the bus company was almost financially ruined.

The black people of the southern states were inspired by preachers like Martin Luther King, himself inspired by the Holy Spirit.   The inspiration enabled them to become empowered with a strength eventually sufficient to win the arguments and gain civil rights for all.   The hardship they endured would be softened by the “comforter”.   People who have risked everything for Jesus have need comfort in their times of struggle.

Some of the people who resisted the Nazi regime in Germany found that, in prison, they experienced a strange sort of comfort that told their families that they were still alive.   They spoke of being able to pass an encouraging message home by a prolonged smile.   Even in the depths of a horrible prison, with countless doors locked between them and the outside world, they experienced comfort brought by the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly we now consider the word, “advocate”.   For us in the 21^st century, “advocate” is a description of someone who speaks up for another.   It is true to say that, in a life where we are tested in many ways as we carry the gospel to others, we could make good use of an advocate.   In my experience as a former trade union branch secretary I found many occasions when it was better that I speak up for members who were attending disciplinary hearings.   Simple matters were usually dealt with by departmental stewards and the more difficult cases fell into my lap.   There were occasions when the member would be advised to let me answers certain questions in case he or she were so nervous that they admitted guilt when they were not really guilty.

Jesus also refers to the coming Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Truth”.   In last week’s gospel reading we heard Jesus say “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Here again in today’s passage we hear Jesus referring to the Spirit of Truth.   It is quite obvious that Jesus set great store by truth, that it was the most important thing to realise that when it was the truth you wanted you could guarantee to hear it from him.   In Oscar Wide’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest”,   Mr John Worthing, speaking of being found in a handbag on a railway station, declared, “That is the truth, Lady Bracknell, pure and simple.”   Lady Bracknell comes back as sharp as a razor, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple!”   But, in this case we attach huge importance to truth because it is one of the titles of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit carries absolute truth there can never be a better advocate.   In fact it was demonstrated that, with the Holy Spirit embedded in all that they did and said, the disciples had all the power they needed to successfully preach the gospel learned from Jesus.  

The most amazing thing about all this is that we have the Holy Spirit in support to this very day.   Two thousand years on and we can still call upon the Spirit to be our advocate.   This is why the greatest cause of all has lasted to now.   The Spirit has preserved it and has driven it over many centuries.  

On 24^th May 1738 this is what happened to John Wesley:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a Society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.   About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.   I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the Law of Sin and death.”

What happened to one man that evening caused him to preach salvation with a renewed power and thousands have come to a personal relationship with God as a result, and it is still happening.

So we can say how amazing it is that we meet here today drawn by and influenced by the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus to his closest friends.   We are blessed indeed!

Safe & Secure

A young and new lay preacher was asked to lead an evening service at a church he had not visited before. A few days before the service he met a farmer who he knew to be a member of the church he was to visit. The hugely over-weight farmer was apologetic, saying that he would not be at church that evening and what was his sermon text? The preacher told him, and even went through how he was to expound the particular scripture. The farmer was delighted that he had shared it with him and went on his way.

 The preacher decided that he would attend morning service that Sunday at the church to get a feel for the place and its ambience. As he took his pew he noticed a ladder left against the side of the pulpit. When the service began he was surprised to see that the farmer was the preacher. As he could not get into the pulpit by the narrow door the farmer had to climb the ladder and swing himself over the pulpit side. He then proceeded to preach the same sermon as that prepared by the young preacher.

 The young man was extremely annoyed after he had put hours of work into his sermon for that evening.   When he eventually entered the pulpit that evening, he announced to the congregation, “My text this evening is St John, Chapter 10, verse 1, ‘Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber! ’

Whenever I come across this passage in John’s gospel I always think of this story told to me by an old friend of mine who worshiped in the Anglican Church in Yorkshire.   It is certainly a good ice breaker!  

The 11th verse of John 10 says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”   Jesus always spoke in terms his listeners would understand.   Theirs was a rural life and shepherds and sheep were common sights there.   It made sense to use these as characters in his stories and explanations.   After all, if today an audience were all engineers, a speaker would almost certainly use engineering terms when addressing them.   You could also say that we, in the church, have words and expressions that outsiders would not readily understand.

In Palestine in those days there were shepherds who were the owners of the flock and others who were paid to take care of them.   The good shepherd would be the owner whose livelihood depended on the safety of his sheep.   Without his sheep he would be lost.   A hired shepherd could always find another employer but an owner would be completely brought down if he lost his flock.

We know from gospel stories that sheep would often wander into danger.   If a sheep were missing it could be that it had fallen over a cliff or been drowned in a river.   This was disaster to the shepherd.   I remember, on holiday in Crete, watching a Greek shepherd watching over his flock whilst talking to a friend.   The sheep were fairly close to a river and if one were to become too close to the river bank the shepherd would whistle and very accurately throw a stone to scare the sheep away from the water.   All the time he was in conversation with his friend he was watching the sheep very closely.   In his hands those sheep were safe.   He was a good shepherd.

I read somewhere that if two flocks of sheep were to shelter in a large cave each flock would come out only when called by their own shepherd.    What is also worth remembering is that sheep in other countries follow their shepherd.   Here our sheep are driven from the rear.   The picture of a shepherd leading both sheep and goats up in the mountains of Crete is one that will always stay with me.   It is a picture that reminds me of the separation of the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25.   The level of trust in the shepherd is the key thing in the stories told be Jesus.

Not only do the sheep rely on their shepherd but the shepherd needs his flock.   They are his life and without them he is bereft.   George Psychoundakis was a young shepherd in Crete at the time of the German occupation of his island.   He ran countless errands with messages for the allies up and down the mountains of Crete.   He wrote an inspiring book, “The Cretan Runner” about his experiences.   At the end of hostilities he returned home to find that someone had stolen all his sheep.   He was penniless and could not replace them.   Suddenly he was reduced to abject poverty.   His sheep were everything to him and he had lost them.

I firmly believe that this is the situation that Jesus is in with us Christians.   We, his sheep, are vital to his work and without us that work stops.   He is counting on us to do our job.   In employment terms you will have heard it said t hat no-one is indispensible.   In terms of our volunteer employment I think the reverse is the case.   Each is needed to perform his/her part with the gifts God has given.   When this happens we see an incredible difference to our life in terms of joy at being part of mission.   Get yourself involved in worthwhile work under God and you will feel incredibly privileged because you see how the partnership achieves remarkable goals.

Just like the sheep, we discover what having a good shepherd means.   It empowers us for one thing.   God gives us ownership of the job he has for us and empowers us to do it for him.   Taking ownership of our jobs at work is something that we find inspirational and the same inspiration comes with our mission work at church and whatever the church is called to be doing.   If we attach great importance to what has to be done we shall know we are working for God.   An old lady was greeted after a church service by that morning’s preacher.   “What do you do for the Lord?” he asked.    She replied proudly, “I wash up!”   It is surprising, sometimes, how people realise the value of what they are doing as part of the mission handed on by Jesus.

I spoke earlier about a Cretan shepherd watching his sheep.   During the same holiday we hired a car and our first trip was up into the mountains that rose up behind our location.   As we went higher and higher, we crossed a number of plateaux.   At one of these crossings we stopped as a shepherd led his flock across our path.   Following him were sheep and goats.   I could not help thinking of the story.   It was very Biblical because he was at the front not, as in this land, where the sheep are driven.

Thinking about this makes me think that if I were a sheep or goat I would follow the shepherd because I trusted him.   Following Jesus is to trust him.   Yet, in addition, our task is to share the leading of the sheep.   We are not just hangers on.   We are totally involved through our commitment to him.   So we have work tasks to perform.   Turn to Matthew’s gospel and you find a list of all that the followers of Jesus would do:   Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned.  

None of this is without risk.   As Jesus talked about being a Good Shepherd he was addressing a group who were ready to stone him at any moment.   I don’t suppose this was either the first or last time this danger faced Jesus.   But throughout the story we sense a calm and steady approach in preaching to his enemies.   He drew strength from knowing he was preaching God’s message.   Doing this he was ultimately safe and yet able to get the message across.   He felt safe and secure because of his relationship with God the Father.

Reflecting on this we may be sure that doing God’s work in the right thing to do and we are working under his support and protection.   From time to time it can get hairy as we ally ourselves to the greatest cause of all.   It often appears to be a dangerous job.   But God is behind it and that is what matters.   We are cared for by the Good Shepherd who protects his sheep by lying across the door to the sheepfold.   He is the first one to be in danger as we shelter within.   This is how far he is prepared to go for us and this is what makes us feel safe and secure.   As Christians we face a life of many facets, some of them scaring us.   But we have the protection of Jesus as her walks by our side.

Recognition at Emmaus

One evening at a school reunion, someone spoke to me, saying, “I recognised you by your body language.”   Body language is something that the individual is not really aware of and it is another who sees it and uses it in recognition.   It is a means of recognition that has many facets.   It can be how you turn your head, how you smile or frown, how you react in given circumstances, how you walk or run.   There are so many ways of using body language that we could probably fill a book and still not have run out of things.   The last reunion I attended was actually at the school just before the building was demolished to make way for a totally different edifice.   Many people were turning into the gateway and I suddenly saw a woman in her sixties walking through the entrance.   I immediately knew who she was because her walk was so distinctive.   The last time I had seen her was at the age of sixteen, but her identity was quite obvious.

Having listened to many sermons I have heard many theories about the various gospel stories.   In my teens I heard a student minister suggesting that the people walking towards Emmaus didn’t recognise Jesus because they were walking towards the sun which was in their eyes.   But that only dealt with the journey.   He did not suggest why they didn’t at first recognise him as they were at table with him without the sun interfering with their vision.   My personal take on this is that I have no idea why they didn’t realise who was walking with them.   But I think they knew him eventually by the way he broke bread.   Everyone has their own way of tearing bread apart and I think this was how the penny dropped.   The narrative doesn’t say whether they were trying to remember where they had seen their guest before but this is quite possible.   Suddenly they had Jesus in their presence and all was joy.   In breaking read they knew his identity.   Had any of them been present at the Last Supper?   Did they have a friend among the two disciples we know were there?

In the gospel story we are seeing this recognition by people who were there on the day.   Having followed this remarkable rabbi for up to three years the supporters came astonishingly to an experience that was a bolt from the blue.   The one they had followed with hopes of a great conclusion was there with them at table.   There was absolutely no doubt that he had risen from the dead.   This was a new start for them and a great many others as the greatest cause of all moved forward.   It would take them and millions of others to strange places and to great heights.

Today we wonder about the church’s chance of survival.   So much negativity surrounds us that we often think we are witnessing the end.   The effect of Easter is to reinvigorate us and remind us that we really are equipped to set off again on our own mission.   Speaking personally, I have found over the 55 years of preaching that the church, generally, has been in a depressing decline.   It has been a period during which there appeared to a freshness lacking in the way we have tried to continue.   This lack of freshness has also been part of my experience of our circuit since first worshipping at Amlwch in January 2005.   Just about everyone seemed to be accepting that we were just seeing ourselves out.

But in the last twelve months we have seen new work everywhere.   There is a sense of renewal among us.   At St Paul’s the work has been seen most clearly and it has spread throughout our five churches.   It reminds us that renewal can happen at any time and anywhere.   It feels as if quite a number of us have, like those on the Emmaus road, seen Jesus with fresh eyes.   It is so encouraging.   We have now been officially dubbed a mission circuit.   That is an accolade worth celebrating.

As a youthful Christian of the sixties, I remember singing choruses on coach trips to places like Maine Road stadium, Manchester and Cliff College in Derbyshire.   One chorus verse was “I’ve got that Nicodemus new born feeling down in my heart.”   I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Nicodemus.   He was a pious Jew and member of the Sanhedrin.   Having heard about Jesus he came to him by night because he did not want publicity surrounding his meeting.   We mostly think of him as someone, who found that re-birth was not for him.   Yet, we know of his part in the story of the burial of Jesus.   He, together with Joseph of Arimathaea, took the body and wrapped it in cloth with layers of myrrh and aloes he had supplied.   So, we see that the Nicodemus new born feeling was about the man himself rather than a reference to the meeting with Jesus.

Nicodemus obviously thought that he should keep his new born feeling to himself as he continued as a member of the Sanhedrin.   There he was, rather like a sleeping spy, until the time came when he could emerge as a supporter and give Jesus a truly respectful burial.   For me he has become a hero.   It makes me wonder whether he was able to warn Jesus of any plans that were formed in the sessions of the council.   It would be a good strategy to have someone on the other side of the battle lines.

Going back to the journey towards Emmaus it is worth considering how these travellers felt.   They said to Jesus that they had hoped the man from Nazareth was going to be the one to redeem Israel.   So they were not just thinking of themselves but the whole of the country.   It is easy to see the disappointment they had.   All their hopes had ended with that death on a cross.   So they had to be taken through the whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry to see what its purpose was and how things were going to continue and not, as they thought, stop.  

Sitting at table they would be thinking about everything the apparent stranger had explained.   Then suddenly they realised they had been taught by Jesus himself.   They had been singled out to be among the earliest witnesses of the Resurrection.

Now, there is another aspect to this story which I think very important.   They invited Jesus to come into their house and stay with them, and he did.   Their tradition of hospitality prompted them to ask him in.   Like William Holman Hunt’s picture of Jesus knocking at a door with no outside handle it was they who would invite him in.   He would not have entered if he had not been asked.   We, toady, need to take this a a template and ensure that Jesus is asked inside.   This is when the real work begins.   It might appear old-fashioned but it really is how it all starts.   Once we recognise the in-dwelling God we are equipped to accomplish some good work for him.   We can only be successful for him if we go in his strength.   Our strength is not sufficient.

Shortly after his wife, Frances, died, Rev Keith Forecast shared with the North East Manchester District of the URC his thoughts and feelings.   Of what was said to him by others, he attributed the highest value to those who looked him in the eye and said “I am praying for you” or touched him on the arm and said “I shall be thinking of you”.   For me this is clear evidence of God standing so closely that we recognise his presence with us.   Christians often talk of God coming to us at key times.   It is on these occasions that God comes in the person of another human being and assures us of his support and strength.

In these moments we recognise the presence of God in much the same way as those travelling to Emmaus.   One of the most dramatic instances in the last few years was when I was attending a church service in Oswestry as a representative of Mission Aviation Fellowship.   The service leader suddenly said, “Oh, we’ve forgotten to pray for Keith!   Is it alright if we pray for you, Keith?”   I agreed and then she came forward together with the organist and they placed their hands on me and prayed.   It was a feeling of great intimacy with God.

This is how we have our Emmaus Road experience.   God comes so close that we are aware of his presence as his power takes us over.   Remember what those people said: “Were not our hearts on fire as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?”   When the penny drops it is a wonderful experience.   From that point we are empowered to do the job.