The Advocate

John 16:7-15

         I don't know when Jesus had full awareness of his divinity. As God I imagine he would have a complete awareness of everything, he'd see the whole picture, no limits such as we have, not time, not space. The question remains in my mind, perhaps as an intellectual exercise, when did Jesus know he was God? In this passage he said I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

As Jesus leaves though, he promises that the Spirit will come upon us. It is the Spirit that will impart all the knowledge that we perhaps could not bear at that time. What knowledge? Why wouldn't Jesus tell us everything?

              In the early eighties I lived in a very poorly insulated house and I installed a coal / wood stove to insure my family would be warm and that I wouldn't go broke trying to do so. A coal stove burns incredibly hot. While it's a great source of heat for a small house it is quite dangerous in many ways especially if you happen to make contact with any part of it. One day my young toddler daughter was making her way toward that hot stove. I yelled at her just as she approached it and I believe I stunned her with the intensity of my bark. I am not a believer in screaming and yelling as a means of raising kids but that one time it was called for and appropriate. I could not explain to my young daughter why she should not go near the stove. She would not understand fully until many years later why she should avoid the stove.  At such a young age, she was not capable of understanding the reasons to stay away from the stove.

              As humans, our capacity to learn and know things mirrors the learnings of children.  God conveys truths to us in a way we can understand and eventually we become capable of deeper truths. One need only read Genesis with it's description of the sky as a bowl. In fact most of the Genesis descriptions are somewhat laughable now but they did convey truths we yearned to know and needed to know.  Another point is the idea of Adam and Eve and the creation of the world in seven days. That seems patently false compared to the scientific knowledge we now have but again, the story conveys certain truths. Now we are capable of understanding more.

             The Advocate, the Holy Spirit is alive and a work in our world. It is through the Spirit that we have come to know so many things we may take for granted. For example, Jesus may have hinted at the dignity of women by his revolutionary relationship with them as he walked the earth. He gave them respect, spoke with women that would render him 'unclean' by the standards of his day. Jesus was a radical. He did not literally speak of women's rights but he lived it. The Spirit has helped us more fully realize the dignity of women and of all peoples.  Do we believe in slavery anymore? Isn't that seen as a fundamental disrespect for God's other creations? Isn't everyone else on this orb our brother and sister? Certainly everyone is due respect, dignity and freedom. This concept was not common in Jesus' time but it is the Spirit that reveals this kind of truth that we were not capable of bearing at the time Jesus walked the earth. What other truths has the Spirit revealed? What have we come to know now that perhaps we once thought of as unheard of? Gay rights? The dignity of all God's creations? The revelation that God did not create just black and white, male and female?  The Spirit has helped us see that God creation is a witness to diversity that is evident in humanity. 

            Many things that we ( humanity ) were not able to comprehend when we were 'young' , we are now capable of understanding. We need to grow and mature as people and as humanity.  We cannot fall back on tradition and false thinking and continue to live and grow. We must discern what is of God and what can be respectfully abandoned. It is the Spirit that helps us do this. The Spirit reveals new truths to us in details we may not have been ready for. Perhaps this is how Limbo was both created and now is summarily dismissed. It is how the woman's right movement was born. It is how the gay rights movement was born. It is how scientific knowledge is revealed and helps us see how even more impressive our creator is.

               Perhaps this is why the only so called only unforgivable sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It denies God and the truth about ourselves. We need to grow and learn to live. Again I am called to rfeernce my personal motto: work hard, play hard, prya hard.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.