"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 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.

"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (John 14:15-21 NRSV)

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.... for I will not leave you desolate."

Jesus promised us that,
in these days between the times of his Resurrection
and his return to reign on Earth in Glory.
He would have the Father send us the Holy Spirit
So that we would not be desolate.
So that we would not become quickly orphaned
from our Eternal Father in Heaven.

Who is this Holy Spirit?
What role in our relationship with God does the Holy Spirit play?
And, does any of this even matter today,
in this enlightened age?

Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

It’s an old question,
a question which I’ve asked before of you,
and a question which we need to hear, again, today.

What do parents want from their children?
Their obedience?
or
Their love?

Yes ... I know what you’re going to say:
“I demand both.”
Indeed -- we would all like to have both,
and you can have both
but, too often, we live and act as though
these are Mutually exclusive alternatives.
They're not, you know.

It is impossible to have true love
without also having obedience.

It is possible, however, to have obedience
without having true love.

And, so, perhaps the question ought to be:
"Which would you rather have first"

Love --
Love which, if it is true and abiding, leads to obedience, Faith, honesty, and trust?
or
Obedience --
Obedience which comes from terror and leads to avoidance, mistrust, and abhorrence.

In the Old Testament the law sought to describe to the Israelites
what obedience to God looked like
and, at first, this obedience was out of love --
Love in response to God’s deliverance of the Israelites out of Captivity in Egypt.

But, that obedience quickly lost its foundation in love,
as realization of the distance between human beings and God grew.

Guilt for Sin grew so great that the Israelites
looked upon the law as the way of salvation,
rather than as a reflection of the righteous woman and man.

And, so
obedience to the Law was motivated by terror and by guilt,
and neither of these motivations are any good
as reasons for following the Lord.
One may act based upon terror and legalism,
but there is not faith,
no devotion,
no hope
no peace
and no love
in such action.

And, so, in response to this failure on the part of us humans,
God broke into His creation as Jesus of Nazareth
to set the horse back before the cart, again
(so to speak)

Jesus revealed to us the long lost truth of the Old Testament Patriarchs:
The truth that God
does not demand obedience for obedience’s sake
does not demand obedience to alleviate guilt
and the fear of going to Hell.

No, indeed, Jesus showed us
that God desires our obedience
because he both loves us
and
wants us to truly love him.
And, he showed us that obedience
is best expressed through faith.

In Christ, God showed us the true meaning of love:
A love which was more than just a sentimental, mushy emotion
A love which loved enough to give itself completely on the cross,
In faithful obedience to the will of God, the Father.

The commandment of Christ is that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
And in such love, offer our obedience to God.

But,

As the Jews discovered,
So long as God was immediately present in their lives,
Love and obedience were easy to hold together in balance.

The moment man pushed God away through his sin
and made God difficult to reach and know
through the barriers of empty tradition and harsh legalism--
The moment we locked God away from us,
in a private, safe little man-made box,
under our control and within our understanding,
In that moment,
In that very instant,
True love died and
obedience became an end unto itself.

When Jesus ascended into heaven,
He knew that, if he were to leave his disciples here,
alone,
they would be like orphaned children,
lost to wander away from him.
And, so, God sent the Advocate,
the Counselor,
the Parakleat,
to provide that dynamic,
living,
immediate
link between
The Father
and His adopted Children.
And that is who the Holy Spirit is.

Is the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit, for the church today?

If we are the Church, today, in the place --
If we proclaim membership in that Universal Church
which looks back to Pentecost for its foundation,
then the Holy Spirit certainly is for today.

Unfortunately, we often get so bogged down in arguing over
the gifts of the spirit,
and the place of the Spirit in the Christian life,
that we fail to come to grips with the fundamental nature of the Holy Spirit --
And His role in our daily living.

The Holy Spirit maintains the connection of love
between us and the Father ...
A connection which the Son opened for us
in his Real Presence, ministry, death, and Resurrection.

Through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit,
we can, each of us, live in the life of Divine Love with the Father.

It is a life of obedience to the commandments of God,
but it is, first and foremost, a life of love maintained by the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, the Holy Spirit is such an active part of the Christian’s walk with God,
that it is more than appropriate that we address prayer to Him.

Think about it;
We pray to God the Father
We pray to God the Son.
Why not pray to the Spirit?
Why not ask the Spirit
to move within us, daily,
revealing to us, anew,
the love of God which is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord?

It sounds weird, I know,
Most Christians not used to hearing about prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit.
We, so often, tend to think of the Holy Spirit as some vague,
amorphous,
gas-like entity or thing,
which is not truly distinct from the Father or the Son.
But -- if the Holy Spirit is God,
and he is, just as much as Christ is God--
Then He is a fit object for our worship and our prayers.

Jesus prayed the Father
and the Father sent us the other Counselor, the other Advocate
the one who walks with us,
and within us,
night and day,
waking or sleeping
through whom we have our immediate,
eternal,
and true connection with the Divine Love of the Holy Trinity.

The Church Fathers knew the truth of this immediate presence.
St. Clement of Rome,
before the end of the first century,
told the Church of Ephesus,

“The Father loved us enough to make us. The Son loved us enough to both reveal the Father’s love for us and then Redeem us so that we might live in that love. And the Holy Spirit loved us enough to communicate the immediacy of God’s love to us all.”

We have not been left desolate.
We have not been left as orphaned children without a heavenly Father.
We have not been left to walk this Christian life alone and without God.
No, God is present to us,
and within us,
through the glorious power and indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

As we approach Pentecost Sunday,
now only a few weeks away,
when we will remember and celebrate
the gift of the Spirit to all believers.

Let us spend some time meditating on
and praying about the life of the Holy Spirit in our lives today.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen