Scripture: John 14:15-20
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a soul like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was bound but now I’m free.
One of my favorite stories about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is about his great friendship with Mahalia Jackson, known as the Queen of Gospel. There are at least two incidents that came to me as I pondered our scripture for this morning. The first is about MLK’s speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of 1963. Apparently, King’s advisors told him during the preparation that it should only be about five minutes and King was torn between the metaphors he should use. He was struggling between “the dream” and a “bad check,” representing America’s failure to deliver on its promises of freedom to its black citizens. Apparently, when it came time to deliver the speech, the metaphor he settled on was that of a bad check. But when he started speaking, he started improvising. And, Mahalia, from a ways away, called out to him, “Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!”
Clarence Jones was one of King’s advisors and he was standing about 50 feet away from King during the speech. He recalled that King looked over at Jackson briefly after she shouted. “Then he takes the text of the written speech that’s been prepared, and he slides it to the left side of the lectern, grabs the lectern, looks out on more than 250,000 people there assembled.” Jones remembers turning to the person next to him and saying, “These people out there, they don’t know it, but they’re about ready to go to church.”
The second story I think about happened many times, but this time it happened when King was very worried about what might happen in Selma. His house had already been firebombed, he was regularly getting death threats and he was scared, exhausted, and losing hope. In the middle of the night, some time amidst this period, King called Mahalia and said to her, “the Lord’s voice” with him. And Mahalia responded with:
Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.
The power of the Holy Spirit… the Comforter…the Helper… the Great Mystery that Blows like the Wind… the Inspirer of Songs and Dreams…
[Pause]
This morning is the sixth Sunday of Easter, and in two weeks we will celebrate Pentecost. As Allison said during her sermon last week, this is the time when the Christian Church traditionally grapples with what it means to be the Body of Christ in the world, with how it is that we are to live together and together in the world.
Our scripture reading comes from the gospel of John, from what is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. It’s a portion of John’s gospel that shows Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples, as he prepares them for life after his crucifixion. He’s trying to both teach and prepare them spiritually.
Now, I know I’ve said this before, but John’s gospel is a huge mixed bag for me. It’s riddled with language that has been used in deeply problematic ways- particularly to uphold virulent, violent anti-Semitism. It also shows Jesus pointing toward himself as the ultimate message, while Matthew, Mark and Luke show Jesus pointing toward the Realm of God. These are but two things with which I struggle. It is also true that there is a mystical power to the gospel of John that often speaks to my soul. Today is one of them.
I will ask the One who sent me
to give you another Paraclete, another Helper,
to be with you always—
the Spirit of truth,
… you can recognize the Spirit
because she remains with you
and will be within you.
I won’t leave you orphaned;
… I am in God,
and you are in me,
and I am in you.
This in-dwelling Spirit that John’s Jesus speaks of, is the one that I have felt over and over again in my life. Sometimes, it has been like the winds of inspiration… like Mahalia Jackson calling out to Dr. King, “Tell them about the Dream, Martin!”
I’ve felt that Holy Spirit, palpable evidence of God’s in-dwelling presence when we gathered together, people of all genders and sexual orientations at Christ Church on Capitol Hill the night before the Minnesota Senate voted for marriage equality and we sang, “and God will delight when we are creators of justice, and joy, compassion and peace, yes, God will delight when we are creators of justice, justice and joy.” And the Holy Spirit, the in-dwelling of God’s palpable presence practically pulsated in the room.
Or, when Audrey Benson, our beloved, beloved member and teacher, died. And Don sat down in her mechanical wheelchair. He sat his able-bodied-self down and pushed the start button. And then he paused, took a deep breath, and became one with the chair. With one hand he drove, in sinuous circles, with his other hand raised in praise and release. We watched as he danced for her and with her, into new life…
Sometimes, the in-dwelling is more like Mahalia singing for Martin amidst his deep exhaustion and fear. Sometimes, it is more like the Great Comforter, the Helper, the Healer of our Every Ill, the Precious Lord. I felt that manifestation of the Spirit when Joyce Battcher Malchow and Dan VanderPloeg and Kayla Collins were each dying and the Lyndale choir gathered in their homes… or with Elly Wagner in her garden during Covid… Be Not Afraid, Love Will Guide Us, Be Thou My Vision, How Great Thou Art, How Can I Keep from Singing… The words, when given voice by the gathered community, became the Spirit of truth, the in-dwelling of God’s presence.
How about for you? When have you felt the Spirit with you and within you?
[pause]
But there is a second part of the passage that feels important to lift up. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is wrapped up in the act of loving and doing justice in the world. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is wrapped up in following the commandment to love God with our whole hearts and our entire minds and our full bodies and our expansive spirits and our neighbors as ourselves. It is this ability to love wastefully and foolishly that allows us to know the Holy Spirit and experience the in-dwelling presence.
Our text describes the Holy Spirit this way:
whom the world cannot accept
since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her;
Now, this might be another part of John’s gospel that might be used dangerously: namely this distinction between “the world” and the followers of Jesus. So, I want to tread lightly here. But I think it is helpful to draw some discernable outlines around what Jesus means by those who can accept and perceive and recognize the Holy Spirit.
One scholar I read pointed to John’s Jesus linking keeping God’s commandments and loving God. And he suggested that the commandment against idolatry was especially important here. When we make money and power-over, into God; when we value violence and supremacy; when we worship capitalism and profit, we miss the living, loving presence of the Holy One. We literally cannot perceive nor recognize her.
We are living in idolatrous times. The worship of money and power-over feels very similar to the world Jesus’ disciples were facing and the world for which Jesus was trying to prepare them. Mahalia and Martin were living in similarly idolatrous times. And so was Julia Ward Howe when, shortly following the Civil War, she penned her Mother’s Day Proclamation as an exhortation against violence, militarism and greed. We try to have a more nuanced understanding of gender these days. We try to not use gender binary language. But Ward Howe’s exhortation still resonates:
“Arise, then… women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession.”
The lure to worship power and violence is as strong today as it was for Jesus’ disciples, for the country coming out of the Civil War, for the country amidst a backlash to the Civil Rights movement. In each of these times, Jesus’ promise to not leave us orphaned remains something to stake our lives on. The Spirit is with and within us. We have what we need to love with our whole selves. We don’t have to be afraid amidst whatever white nationalism, or disease process, or transphobic b.s. is happening. God is with us. The Spirit is within us. We claim our voice and call out with Mahalia. We can allow ourselves to be inspired and dance with Don. We can feel the boundaries dissolve between us and sing with the Lyndale choir into life and life eternal.
Amen.
John 14:15-20 from the Inclusive Bible by Priests for Equality
If you love me
and obey the Command I give you,
I will ask the One who sent me
to give you another Paraclete, another Helper,
to be with you always—
the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot accept
since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her;
but you can recognize the Spirit
because she remains with you
and will be within you.
I won’t leave you orphaned;
I will come back to you.
A little while now and the world will see me no
more;
but you’ll see me;
because I live,
and you will live as well.
On that day you’ll know
that I am in God,
and you are in me,
and I am in you.
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