The Advocate

4/27/08 

Rev Jon Smoot 

Ephesians 3: 1-13 and John 14: 15-21

As you listened to Ephesians, I wonder what you were thinking as you heard this line: “the riches of God’s grace in Christ is to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to all creation.” Paul is just so outrageous. The Christian church is God’s poster child for humanity’s restored and reconciled relationships. Paul goes on to push our credulity as he says that even the unseen forces in the universe have their chins dropped-down, in slack-jawed, wide-eyed wonder at the inclusive, hospitable, and reconciling church. A church that experiences no crippling fear of what tomorrow may bring; a church full of trusting, Child-like people who expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. Who boldly go where no one has gone before. That kind of church.

So, I have to ask, is Paul lying? Or even better, is Paul nuts? Just what church would Paul be talking about? The one that gave us the Crusades? Or the one that looked the other way while Hitler was on a roll? Bringing it home, does the Christian church in the DC metro area pass for a poster child of inclusiveness, relevance, and city-shaking power? Do we? What is strange to me is that people haven’t given up on the church, and still yearn for something authentic, powerful, and relevant to guide them and goad them through our chaotic, post-modern life.   

So, just what is the church? What comes to your mind when you hear the word “church?”

For the inordinate amount of time we seem to spend on buildings, bucks, and bodies, either worrying about them, or trying to get more of them, church would appear to be about buildings, bucks and bodies. But it is not.

Our word “church,” derived through Germanic and Old English iterations, actually traces back to two New Testament words: kyriake and ecclesia. Kyriake means: “Belonging to the Lord.” And ecclesia means “the called-out ones”. Two powerful statements: We belong to God, and no one else. We owe our allegiance and our love and trust to God, above all other allegiances, affiliations, and loves. As “the called-out ones” – we are called by God to work in God’s world, surrounded and supported by one another as sisters and brothers. Pretty simple – and pretty daunting. 

When God thinks church – God is thinking of redeemed restored and reconciled persons, who have been grabbed by the grace of God and who express their love for God by obedience to the demands of the kingdom of God. Demands for inclusion, justice, compassion, stewardship of the earth and its peoples, and love. Love is where we get all sappy and loose in our theological thinking, infected by movies, marketing and trivialization. Love is not something we are commanded by God to feel for others. Love is something we are commanded by God to do for others. Love, in a Christian context means a life turned outward to others. Christian love is not a feeling or evanescent emotion – it is action. We love others to life because we have been loved by God into life. Much like in the “Story of Rachel,” we will love the outcast, because with God, there are no outcasts, no one outside the scope of God’s grace and compassion. To paraphrase Paul, no one must ever again be considered an outsider. Doing this day in and day out takes a special kind of vision, courage and faith – because we are terminally hard-wired to turn inward on ourselves and our own needs. We need help to tirelessly and joyfully love in an obedient, other-oriented way.

Jesus promises this help in John 14. He tells his friends that he is leaving but he is not leaving them to their own devices, or our own devices. He doesn’t say, “Okay – you know the drill now, get out there and love others. I’m gone - Good night and good luck.” He says: “I will not leave you desolate, alone, orphaned. I will send you the Advocate.” Interesting term for the Holy Spirit, Advocate.  What will the Advocate, advocate? The ability to love like Jesus loves. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth advocates for us the compassion, courage, the strength, the boldness of God to be me more than we could ever be on our own.  

And why does it matter? Because we belong to the Lord and are called out for service in God’s world, the church is to stand with the least, the last, and the lost, no matter the cost. – That’s what God means when God says church. We live in deeply perilous times: hunger is stalking the planet in almost unprecedented ways; injustice and intolerance are ripping apart our country and the nations of the world; 10 people last night in D.C. were either shot or stabbed; wars thrive and feed a growing global catastrophe; and industrialized nations seem hell-bent on planetary destruction. What’s a Christian to do? What’s the church to do? The church must not be caught sleeping on the job. Look, I know it’s overwhelming. And this is not just another “be a do-gooder” sermon. We’re not good enough to be do-gooders, but we are Christians – and we have to respond, for God’s sake.

Dr Diana Butler Bass, whom we will have here in September as our inaugural scholar for the Susan R Andrews Progressive Theology Series, tells a story in her blog on the “Sojourner’s” website. I like the image of the church she paints:  

Several weeks ago, a pair of doves built a nest on a front windowsill at my house. My family watched as the mother bird laid two eggs, as they hatched, and as the young chicks feathered. We grew attached to the winged family who made their home with ours. Two mornings ago, I was checking on the baby birds when a grackle (a large blackbird that a friend calls the "Darth Vader" of the bird world) swooped down and attacked the terrified mother. She flew off. Then, to my horror, the grackle plucked one of the babies out of the nest. Still in my pajamas, I ran outside with a broom yelling at the blackbird, hoping to frighten it and rescue the chick. But the grackle escaped with his prey. For a couple of hours, it circled around trying to collect the other chick. I stayed by the nest, however, waving the broom to save the remaining baby bird until its parents returned. Eventually, the much-calmer mother dove came back to one tiny offspring. Standing guard with the broom saved the other young bird's life. This episode reminded me how fragile life is—and that it needs to be protected by someone willing to wave around a broom to scare off predators who wish to destroy it before it can even fly.

She says that now, more than ever, the church, joining other social and political forces,  is called to speak out on behalf of God, the human future, justice, and change. Now is not the time to remain silent. God calls us to inspiration, imagination, risk, marshalling new resources, and reorganizing to serve. But Christians must also be willing to wave the broom—to ward off predators and the dangers they present.

Waving the broom – that is obedience to God, expressed in active love, powered and guided by the Advocate. We wave the broom wherever we see injustice, intolerance, hatred. We wave the broom in the balloting booth. We wave the broom in our boardrooms and schoolrooms. We wave the broom against the social, economic and political forces that actually promote hunger, homelessness and immigrant-bashing.

We do not do this alone. The Advocate, the Spirit of truth, tells us where and when to wave the broom – and also cheers us on. The Advocate brings one more gift – vision. Without vision, our best efforts often wither. But the Spirit of Truth gives us eyes to see what God is up to, and that revelation of God’s plan, is a powerful, motivating hope.

There’s a church in New England that commissioned a stained glass window depicting the New Jerusalem, the Golden City of Shalom, from John’s vision in Revelation. After it was completed, half the church objected that it was way too “other-worldly” – too divorced from hard-bitten reality with its golden hues and rainbows. Its designer urged patience – and patience won out and it was decided to live with the stained glass.

The miraculous thing is that through the years they discovered that the vividness of the glass had mellowed so that through the golden image of the New Jerusalem they could see the towers of their own city – One city seen through the vision of another – and it has fueled their love and passion for their city to make it more in line with God’s city of peace. That is vision.

Can we see what God desires to do through us - the church - We who belong to the Lord and we who are called into God’s world? We have the Advocate to guide us and goad us and cheer us on into the vision God has for a healed community and a healed world. Will you listen to the Advocate?

Benediction: (Dr. Richard Halverson)           

“You go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go God is sending you. Wherever you are God has put you there. God has a purpose in you being there. Christ who is in you has something he wants to do through you where you are. Believe this and go in God’s strength and love and power. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Amen.