Life Coach: Encourager

From my message on Oct. 13, from John 14:15-19, 25-27

Encouragement.  Could you use some encouragement today?  A word of hope?  You may have had enough of entrenchment, and encroachment, and entrapment, and entitlement.  You may need encouragement today.

That's what Jesus promises us in the coming of the Holy Spirit.  I know we have a hard time grasping the Holy Spirit.  God as Father, we get it.  God coming as Son in Jesus, we understand. But Holy Spirit is difficult for us to grasp.  Today I want to claim the Holy Spirit as the Encourager.

This is the last in our series on Life Coach, where we have been placing ourselves under the God revealed in our holy book, the Bible.  Today our Life Coach is the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.

There is a special Greek word used for the Holy Spirit here in John's Gospel.  That word is Paraclete.  It is hard for us to translate this work into English, so our Bibles will have the following words for Paraclete:  Counselor, Comforter, Consoler, Advocate, Intercessor, Teacher, Guide.  Paraclete literally means, "one called to the side of."  I want to claim the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, today as the Encourager.

In this video from Coach Jennifer White, we hear her talk about the Holy Spirit as "the One who takes me to a place I cannot go by myself."  That is a good definition for the Encourager.

In this section of John's Gospel, Jesus is giving his farewell speech.  His disciples are sad.  How will they carry on without him?  They are afraid of being left alone.  Jesus promises that his absence will make possible the coming of the Paraclete,  He will not leave them alone.  He will be with them.  He will be in them, in the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.

There once was a pastor trying to talk to the children about the Holy Spirit, about how God was in each of them.  He asked them to feel their hearts, to feel the presence of God inside each one.  One boy David, put his hand inside his shirt.  The pastor asked, "How does God feel?"  David replied, "Damp, very damp."

The Holy Spirit is inside each of us encouraging us.  Jesus said that he would not leave his disciples orphaned.  You may think that this means without a parent.  But when a rabbi would die, his students were said to be orphaned.  Jesus is saying that he will not leave his followers without a teacher, the Encourager.

This past week, I was at Mt. Wesley, where I was called to be the spiritual director for 12 persons who are on track to be ordained as elders in the United Methodist Church in June.  I had them divide up into groups of 3.  One person would spend a few minutes sharing a situation around which they desired prayer.  Then the 3 would spend 9 minutes in silence, listening for what God was praying.  They would be seeking an image or a scripture or a word or a song.  They they would spend several minutes sharing what came to them out of the silence.  We are so good at telling God stuff.  We have a lot to learn about listening to God.  At the end of the time, several of these candidates for ministry said, "Where did that come from, those words, those images?"  I said, "It's just prayer."  They said, "No one ever taught us this in seminary.  It was amazing.  It was so simple.  To reverse praying.  To pause and listen for what God is already praying for this situation."

It was encouraging to me and to them, to know that we continue to learn, to be taught how to pray.  The Encourager takes us to a place we cannot go by ourselves in prayer.

The Encourager is also called the Spirit of Truth.  Sometimes, we need to hear the truth about ourselves.  On Thursday this past week, I was part of a Partners in Ministry workshop where we as a staff and church leaders were learning about communication, conflict resolution, trust building, and visioning together.  Something was said in my table group that was so truthful it laid me open.  Donna said, "I once heard a preacher say how we treat our closest families so differently, often worse than we treat our business associates or clients.  With our business contacts, it's 'how may I help you, how can I serve you, it was good to visit with you.'  With our spouse or children, it's '#$%&*."

Ouch.  I remember the time early in our marriage when Cathy refused to come to worship one Sunday morning.  When I got home, I asked her about it. She said, "I just couldn't stand to see you up front there dressed in your white robe, talking about love and forgiveness, when at home, I knew it wasn't true!"  Ouch.  Sometimes the Encourager takes us to a  place, a painful place, a place of truth, that we cannot go by ourselves.

Jesus says this Encourager will teach you all things.  It's not just more content, taking on more information.  It's going deeper, into the true meaning of Jesus' words.  As a Church, a world religion, we still have a lot to learn.  I look back over our history as a faith community and confess we have not realized Jesus' words.  We have practiced schisms,  we've gone on crusades against other faiths, and we've discriminated against people because of their gender, or race, or sexual orientation.  I pray that the Encourager is not through with us yet.  We still have much to learn.  We can't go there by ourselves.

This congregation is still leaning about Jesus' words.  We have an opportunity to go deeper in 2 weeks' time.  We will be having a consultation weekend where some consultants are coming to visit us, to pray with us, and to offer us 5 prescriptions for further health.  It is not that there is anything particularly wrong with us.  It is just that we have more to learn.  The Encourager is teaching us all things, taking us to a place we cannot go by ourselves.

Lastly Jesus offers us peace.  What encouragement!  A pastor friend of mine has been dealing his mother's declining health.  He is an only child.  He would get the calls from the bank in the little town in which he grew up, those calls wondering if his mom was making good decisions.  It is one of the most difficult transitions to make, to deal with aging parents and finding them proper care.  My friend after months of conversations finally got his mom to move out of her home of more than 60 years to a place near the church where he serves.  He was going through his old home, separating out what they would keep, what they would sell, and what they would give away.  Up in the attic, he came upon a box of letters and cards.  They were all about him, about the time when he was a youth and had a near fatal heart condition.  The cards and letters were full of prayers for him and his family.  He began crying at the outpouring of love from more than 50 years ago.  He realized he had not gotten to the ministry, to the place in life he was today by himself.  He was encouraged.

This Holy Spirit, this Encourager is in you, in us today.  That is the good news I have to share.