Here Comes the Paraclete!
Sunday, May 25, 2025 (Bethlehem Lutheran Church; Los Alamos, NM)
JOHN 14.23-31
[Note: The Appointed Gospel text in the Lectionary for Easter 6 ends at verse 29. Why? The last two verses (30, 31) are not only precious, they are essential to the story. Thus, they are added for this Sermon. — BLIII]
23 ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ με τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει, καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ἀγαπήσει αὐτόν, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐλευσόμεθα καὶ μονὴν παρ’ αὐτῷ ποιησόμεθα.24 ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν με τοὺς λόγους μου οὐ τηρεῖ· καὶ ὁ λόγος ὃν ἀκούετε οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸς ἀλλὰ τοῦ πέμψαντός με πατρός.25 Ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν παρ’ ὑμῖν μένων·26 ὁ δὲ παράκλητος, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ὃ πέμψει ὁ πατὴρ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου, ἐκεῖνος ὑμᾶς διδάξει πάντα καὶ ὑπομνήσει ὑμᾶς πάντα ἃ εἶπον ὑμῖν [ἐγώ].27 Εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν, εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν· οὐ καθὼς ὁ κόσμος δίδωσιν ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν. μὴ ταρασσέσθω ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία μηδὲ δειλιάτω.28 ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐγὼ εἶπον ὑμῖν, Ὑπάγω καὶ ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. εἰ ἠγαπᾶτέ με ἐχάρητε ἄν, ὅτι πορεύομαι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ μείζων μού ἐστιν.29 καὶ νῦν εἴρηκα ὑμῖν πρὶν γενέσθαι, ἵνα ὅταν γένηται πιστεύσητε.30 οὐκέτι πολλὰ λαλήσω μεθ’ ὑμῶν, ἔρχεται γὰρ ὁ τοῦ κόσμου ἄρχων· καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ οὐκ ἔχει οὐδέν,31 ἀλλ’ ἵνα γνῷ ὁ κόσμος ὅτι ἀγαπῶ τὸν πατέρα, καὶ καθὼς ἐνετείλατο μοι ὁ πατήρ, οὕτως ποιῶ. Ἐγείρεσθε, ἄγωμεν ἐντεῦθεν.
23 Jesus answered [Judas (not Iscariot),] “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.”
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
The murder of an Israeli Embassy couple in Washington, DC this past Wednesday Night is heavy upon our minds and hearts and souls as we gather to worship God on this Sixth Sunday of Easter. Many words and statements of horror and support have been offered, including those of our own Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton.
Here are words I sent by email yesterday to Rabbi Jack Shlachter and the Los Alamos Jewish Centre:
Rabbi Shlachter,
I have the honor and privilege of presiding at worship this Sunday (May 25th) at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the absence of Pr. Kate Schlecter and Deacon Amy Schmuck.
We are filled with horror and sadness at the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Our prayers reach beyond our hearts to you and your family, to our brothers and sisters at the Los Alamos Jewish Centre and beyond — indeed to all victims of anti-Semitism and hate. The very recent words of Johathan Greenblatt (Director of the Anti-Defamation League) could not be more grave; the call to bring an end to any word or action of hate and anti-Semitism could not be more immediate. May love and understanding be yours in this season of hate and violence.
b’Shalom,
(The Rev.) Benjamin Larzelere
Roots of hate and violence grow deep — embedded as they are in human history — even, as we tremble when saying so, they are even embedded in the history of people of faith. Called as we are to love God and love neighbor, that command is so very often ignored, misconstrued, and refused.
“Surely,” we ask, “that could not really mean people who are so different from me? Believe differently? Live differently? Walk and talk differently?”
“Yes.”
It is at very core of our faith, this love of others. It is the living breath of understanding, acceptance, and even more than that, invitation.
It was common in the ancient world to remember and record the parting advice of a revered figure.1
It is, I think, basic human nature and curiosity that we want to know at the end of a person’s life, what they have to say to us.
In February of 1546, Martin Luther, traveled to Eisleben in Germany, the very place where he had been born and baptized, to mediate an inheritance dispute between two families.2 While there he also preached at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, where he had in fact been baptized in 1483. We note with sadness that, as he aged, as his health declined, as he became more and more urgent in what he understood as the reforming of the Church, and even angry and bitter that all people did not understand how obvious it was to him — in that vein his final sermon included horrible words against the Jewish people.
Those and similar words of Luther our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has rejected, repudiated, and deplored.
[Please see the document that was handed out with your bulletins: the ELCA Declaration to the Jewish Community, which was adopted by the ELCA Church Council in 1994, and in fact was read aloud that same year from the Bimah3 at Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe on a Friday Night Shabbat Service marking the beginning of the Santa Fe Jewish and Christian Dialogue.]
Luther was in declining health, and his final hours were spent in intense pain in the presence of many people, including his son Paul, and a close friend Justus Jonas to whom he said “Oh, dear Dr. Jonas, I am certain that I will remain here in Eisleben where I was born and baptized!” He died of a heart attack about 3 am. In the pocket of one of his garments was found a scrap of paper upon which Luther had written in German and Latin: “Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.” “We are beggars. This is true.” Meaning before God we come humbly seeking grace and forgiveness and therein we receive it! God’s first, final, and immediate overwhelming gift to us is love and grace.
I have often been asked what might Luther do if he were with us these days? Would he hold fast with those anti-jewish words we so wish he had not said?
I believe he would have been the first to sign that statement in 1994; and then he would work endlessly to try and make people understand the embracing arms of God that become our own embracing arms of others.
So, we stand as people of faith against hate, against violence, and especially these days against Anti-Semitism. And, if we need to ask why, then perhaps we need to read again the Story.
This morning, that Story comes to us in that portion of the Gospel According to John that we call the “Final Discourse of Jesus to his Followers.” His “Last Words” if you will.
“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” It is the answer of Jesus to a question he was asked in the verses just prior, put to by one named Judas (but not Iscariot, the text is quick to remind): just how is it that you, Jesus, will love us and come to us if you are leaving us? (Leaving is a point Jesus made several verses before that!)
And what he answers is this: Just as he said before in the beginning of chapter 14 if you will, speaking of many dwelling places in his Father’s house, speaking there of heaven (or endless life with God if you will), here this image is given a new twist: WE are to be the dwelling places of God and Jesus!
And just when we might imagine that Jesus, going to the Father (as he said) [an event, by the way which we celebrate this coming Thursday in the Calendar of the Church as the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord) — just when we think we really might be orphaned and left alone, Jesus announces that God will send “ὁ δὲ παράκλητος, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον” as the writer or writers of this Gospel put down in Greek: [literally] “The Paraclete, The Spirit, The Holy” — and in English, “The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of Holiness).”
As Gus Portokolos (played by Michael Constantine) says in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “Give me a word — and I’ll show you that the root of that word is Greek.” Paraclete is a jackpot word, it comes from TWO Greek words: παρά (para, which means “to, toward, or next to”) and κλητος (klatos, pronounced CLAY-toss which means “someone who is called” (from the Greek καλεω (I call). It is a legal word, a word of the court and it means advocate. We get our word advocate from the Latin advocatus (and, believe it or not, that comes from two other Latin words: ad (to, toward, next to) and vocatus (call or calling or called; as in “vocation” — a vocation is a calling, which in fact is what Pastors have when they come to a congregation, Pastors (and Deacons) are not hired, they are called, they have a calling and when Bethlehem finds a candidate to be the next Pastor here, you will take a vote and then issue a “Call.”
It’s all very Biblical, and it’s all very Greek and Latin.
Do you remember the retreat center for troubled priests which once existed in Jemez Springs (down Highway 4)? It was located right across the road from the ruins of the very large church (now quite a Visitors Center). It was called the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete and was an order of men whose lives and ministry was dedicated to priests and brothers with personal difficulties. After a series of lawsuits relating to sexually abusive priests that had been treated there, the Congregation has moved itself and its holistic program to Missouri.4
What does Jesus say to his followers in these farewell words? He says that when he is away, God the Father will send the [ παράκλητος] the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in his name — and the Spirit will teach his followers everything, and remind his followers of everything which he has said to them.
Two weeks ago I taught four classes at Santa Fe Prep: all 8th graders of a marvelous teacher named Dina Jansen. She invites some members of the religious community (rabbi, priest, pastor, κτλ5) to come and speak about their tradition. I was invited (as I have been for the last three years) to come and speak about Christianity and the Lutheran Church.
This year Dina and I decided to have the students in her classes write down a question they had and when I arrived each student would pull one of the cards on which I had printed a question from a basket and I would try to answer that question. There were a total of 39 questions. They were very interesting and fascinating: everything from “Did the Pope really die?” to “What made you decide to become a Pastor? When did you know you would be a Pastor?”
[EXCURSUS: The answers to those questions were: Yes; and, to the second a story: I was in 8th or 9th Grade and sitting in church at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Dublin, PA — and one Sunday I watched the Pastor presiding and preaching and moving about the Altar and I thought to myself, “It would be really great to dress up like that!” Seriously‽ That’s the first moment I had in my life when I thought, “maybe I might be a Pastor.” Of course there were a whole host of other things, experiences, moments, words, people, advocates along the way, including The Rev. John W. Hauser, the Pastor who Baptized me and who held me up in his arms when I was 3 years old and let me pull the rope that rang the church bell! He was absolutely convinced that he and that moment were the reasons I became a Pastor. It probably was also because the few times I went with my Grandparents to visit him in his Retirement, he showed me the huge Greek and Hebrew Bibles he had open in his Study. He allowed me my first magical glimpse at Hebrew and Greek.]
This Gospel Story is actually about us — we, ourselves, who are “followers of Jesus.” The God who comes to us, who is Spirit, the Paraclete/Advocate who is (as my Rabbi friend calls God:) “Living Presence” — that God comes to dwell, live, be with us. And why? To give us strength, to give us hope, to give us a reason for moving beyond ourselves into life and into the lives of those around us — to work for peace, to abhor hate and prejudice and anti-Semitic words and deeds, to move the world one step closer to God, to work to heal the world and all who live in the world, to be the arms of God, wide open and welcoming and forgiving and loving.
Having heard these words from Jesus today, let us look less for where God dwells and become the dwelling of God.
Next Sunday we move to the end of the Farewell Discourse of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John (John 17.20-26, if you wish to read ahead). It is called the “High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus. We will find there a blessing and a mandate; and you already know who is being blessed and for whom the mandate is given. Us.
And let us all say: Amen.
Deo Gratias (+)
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired
1Here as with many sermons, I am indebted to The Rev. Dr. William Ronald George Loader (born 1944), a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and emeritus professor of New Testament at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.
2On November 11, 1483 (the day after his birth) Luther was baptized at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Eisleben. One can visit the very font (or what is left of it — for people following Luther’s death wanted to take a piece home as a souvenir. The font has been “reconstructed” including remains of the original. It is beautiful. The font’s inscription in Latin reads: “Rudera baptistierii, quo tinctus est beatus Martinus Lutherus Anno 1483.”
3The Bimah is the central point in the Sanctuary in the Synagogue from which the Torah is read and Sermons are preached, in addition to other rituals.
4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_of_the_Servants_of_the_Paraclete
5Κτλ is Koine Greek for και τα λοιπα, literally “and the rest”; It is the Greek was of saying “etc” (et cetera) and is, of course, one of my most favourite things to write in Greek!
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 