Kindling hope

James Cathcart May 05, 2024 2 0

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John 14: 1-7 (NRSVA)

1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled’ Jesus says to his disciples 2,000 years ago... and he says the same thing today!

To the restless and uneasy, the discontent and anxious, throughout the ages, Jesus says: there is room for you, I’m not abandoning you!

It was an uneasy and apprehensive time for the disciples gathered together in our reading. The atmosphere is tense but Jesus is about to introduce them to someone who will guide and comfort them…

At the heart of Christianity is the divine wonder of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons who together are God in community with God, all one! The three in one and the one in three! The Holy Spirit is not a metaphor, an abstract fuzzy feeling, or a nameless life force. The Holy Spirit is someone who loves us and encourages and sustains us through daily life. The Holy Spirit is distinct from God the Father but not independent of God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — all speak together consistently the timeless messages of love and compassion that bind us together.

It can (famously) be hard to get our heads around the Trinity! Some openness and humility is always helpful. Within the constraints of human language and reasoning we are trying to put into words a tentative grip on the eternal wonders of God! What we learn in the Bible and throughout the history of our faith is that the divine power of God comes to us in three ways, in three people! One — the nurturing Father, another the loving Son, and third the graceful Holy Spirit.

There’s a limit to family analogies but there are ways in which the Holy Spirit expands our experience of God-as-parent and God-as-sibling to God-as-friend. A wise, insightful, helpful friend who speaks up for us, and comforts us, always having our back, always showing up.

Is the Holy Spirit a strange uncanny energy wafting about the universe offering cryptic picture of enlightenment?

No.

The Holy Spirit is our friend.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, says Jesus, let me introduce you to my friend…

Prayer:

Holy Spirit,

You tug at our heartstrings

and scruffle our scarves!

You sing to us of heaven

and jab us in the ribs!

You are power and laughter

wisdom and friendship.

Hard to describe but not hard to know.

You speak to us in so many different ways

having the sensitivity of an old friend

who knows the right words to say

and indeed when to say nothing at all

and simply sit with us.

When our hearts are troubled

help us to remember you

help us to feel your friendship.

Thanks friend.

Amen.