"More on the Holy Spirit" John 16:5-33 (Friday's & Saturday's Reading!)

Well it's time to catch up. Last week, my schedule got way out of control. So I'm getting back to a little more regular sleeping pattern (which is a good thing) this week. In the first part of the Upper Room Discourse, we were introduced to the Holy Spirit as the no-longer confined to a single body presence of Christ in and through us. The Spirit was described as our "inner tutor" or teacher in 14:25-26. Here the Spirit is described as the one who keeps us truly Christian.

When I was growing up people would say "The Holy Spirit is your conscience." It reminds me of the cartoons in which there would be a little angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other trying to sway Fred Flinstone toward good or evil. I believe that the Holy Spirit is a lot more than conscience, but it does seem to be part of it. There is a ministry of "conviction" that the Spirit provides, a sense that we are out of step with God's ways and His purposes for our lives. When we are in sin, it tends to show up as guilt (guilt can be a good thing), and when we are nursing bad attitudes it tends to show up as a gnawing discomfort. Both are meant to spur us to repentance and to change of attitude and behavior. When we ignore that ministry of God in us, we can grow spiritually and relationally cold, what Paul calls "grieving the Holy Spirit." I don't like this ministry of the Holy Spirit (I would rather be guilt and shame-free), but it is absolutely necessary if we are going to authentically follow Jesus.

In verses 17-33, Jesus returns to preparing them for his coming death. They soon are to experience a grief like they have never known - the loss of a friend, the apparent end of a movement and their reason for living. The disciples have followed him for three years, leaving their work and their families, so that being Jesus followers is who and what they are. But Jesus promises that their sorrow will become joy. Interestingly, the joy of hollow victory will happen for Jesus' opponents - picture the high priest and his cronies giving high fives to each other when Jesus is crucified. The agony of defeat is for Jesus, his famil, his disciples and his friends. But that all reverses by Sunday morning!

The big message here is that in the lowest points of our lives (what seems to be our end) is when joy and new beginnings seem to enter the picture. I have watched it in the lives of hundreds of people and have experienced it personally. Like the Phoenix that rises from the ashes, joy trumps sorrow, and the empty tomb trumps the crucifixion.

"In the world you will have trouble", says Jesus, "but take heart, because I have overcome the world."

This, too, is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8:11 that the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in us. So we, too, by the grace of God, become "overcomers," not just someday in heaven, but over and over through the tough times of our lives. That makes me want to just about shout - which is saying quite a bit for a hybrid United Methodist/Presbyterian!