SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
by: Rev.
Fr. Richard L. Stapp
John’s Gospel is unique among the four Gospels in respect of the farewell discourses by Jesus. None of the other Gospels has any reference to these conversations between the Disciples and our Lord. The Gospel Lesson appointed for today is part of that continuing conversation. As you may recall from last Sunday’s Gospel, the disciples were puzzling over Jesus’ announcement of his imminent departure. They hadn’t a clue as to what He was talking about. We should point out, as a parenthetical note in this sermon, that the actual chronological sequence of these discourses is a bit mixed up because John is editing his Gospel. Moreover, John although writing retrospectively, wants to lay the foundation for Jesus’ explanation of the coming of the Holy Ghost by trying to tell the story in the present tense leading up to the climax of the crucifixion and the resurrection.
The Disciples know by now that Jesus is leaving them and they are distraught beyond belief. But, as Jesus remarks in today’s Gospel, that even with this knowledge, none of them have had the presence of mind to ask him where He was going (except for Peter who did ask Whither Goest Thou near the end of the Last Supper as recorded by John in Chapter 13 earlier).
We should also note that until now little has been spoken about the Holy Ghost; also called the Comforter and the Paraclete. Jesus explains that the Holy Ghost cannot come unless He, Jesus, departs. Telling them why and what to expect from all of this was a complex and difficult problem because there had been few reference points in their own religious upbringing. All they knew was that Jesus, upon and for whom they had given up everything in their lives, was apparently serious about leaving them and talking about sending them someone they had never met in His place.
Not unlike the Disciples, our purpose today is to try to see the unseeable; to understand the nature of the Holy Ghost as revealed to us by our Lord and to anticipate the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, just three weeks away, where the Holy Ghost physically manifested himself in tongues of fire that settled upon the heads of the Disciples.
Our Lord summarizes the operations of the Holy Ghost as our ghostly companion and spiritual teacher on the one hand and a prosecutor and judge on the other.
He is that mysterious person of the Godhead that inspires our Holy Scripture, animates and strengthens our Faith and is everywhere present. He is also the Chief Prosecutor for God; and Jesus Himself, tells us that the Holy Ghost will prosecute and convict the world of sin, righteousness, and of judgment.
First, the sin of unbelief. Those whose belief in the slavish conformance to a set of rules governing physical conduct that blinds them to Jesus, the Christ and Redeemer of the World. This unbelief and spiritual blindness that rejects Jesus is Sin itself. The Holy Ghost, being the spirit of Truth convicts this unbelief and reveals it to be the sin that it is.
The Holy Ghost affirms within ourselves that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the World and converts the heart molding human conduct in the way in which it should go as exemplified in Mother Teresa and others like her.
The second charge is righteousness. The enemies of God sought to affirm their own righteousness by condemning Jesus to an ignominious death by crucifixion. The death sentence of a common criminal in the ancient world. But, the Resurrection of Jesus has made the cross a symbol of righteousness and hope, not despair. As it has been said by others, in the Cross of Jesus are met together God and Satan, righteousness and sin, good and evil. The Holy Ghost gives testimony to the triumph of Jesus over death and the devil. We affirm this triumph in our Baptism where we are spiritually re-born into the death and resurrection of Jesus and become the children of God through the operation of the Holy Ghost.
Finally, of judgment by showing that the evil of this world even if it succeeds in co-opting the tools of an empire in a cruel and unjust execution, is impotent against the will of God.
The faith of the Disciples was given a fiery strength and steely purpose by the coming of the Holy Ghost in dramatic tongues of fire that settled upon each of them gathered together on that first Pentecost. They spoke in the languages of the world, and tongue-tied Peter gave eloquent testimony to our Risen Lord in an extraordinary sermon. Jesus’ promise in this morning’s Gospel to send the Comforter to them was thus amazingly fulfilled in the presence of the world represented in Jerusalem that morning.
But, in our own spiritual lives here at St. Mary Magdalene, the Holy Ghost infuses us with spiritual strength with less obvious drama. We appreciate the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We discern our Risen Lord in the spiritual sense invoking in our Eucharistic prayers the Holy Ghost to Bless and Sanctify the gifts and creatures of bread and wine that we may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood.
The Disciples were blessed with the physical presence of our Lord. He spoke to them, ate with them, guided them in the way in which they were to go. They could not imagine his physical absence or how they would carry on without Him. We, here this morning, on the other hand must of needs perceive our Risen Lord as the Holy Spirit lights our reason giving us an understanding of Holy Scripture and inspiring our spiritual vision. Without the coming of the Holy Ghost, our protector, guide, and enemy of untruth, our church would have long ago succumbed to temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
As our Epistle today reminds us: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning...and continuing: let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
As
Jesus has told us, the Holy Spirit will come and remain with us until the
end of time. He will teach us all
things that we need to know and endue us with grace and spiritual gifts and
defend us from the enemy. As the
psalmist says: The Lord himself is thy keeper; the lord is thy defense
upon thy right hand; So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither
the moon by night. The Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil; yea it is even he that keepeth thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this
time forth for evermore.
CHURCH OF ST. MARY
MAGDALENE
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA
APRIL 28, 2002
Return to index of Fr. Stapp’s Sermons .
Return to the Diocese of the Pacific and Southwest home page.