 Today we celebrate the birth of the church as God poured out his spirit and breathed life into his church. The Holy Spirit is the helper, comforter or advocate that Jesus told the disciples about in John 14 when he promised he would never leave them alone. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16-17 In the original Greek of the New Testament the word is paracletos. The word has been translated Advocate, Counselor, Comforter, and Intercessor, but each of those expresses only one facet of parakletos. The original readers of this Gospel would have heard the full richness of its various meanings.
As I did my usual google search for an image to paste onto this page I was surprised to discover that Paraclete is now a brand name used for the kind of full protective military armour used by modern soldiers in combat. At first I was a little shocked but the more I thought about it the more I concluded that this was indeed another great image for the Holy Spirit. Because not only does the presence of the Holy Spirit give us life, it also full protects, shields and equips us for all that the world throws up at us as believers. Today as we celebrate Pentecost remember Jesus promise that he would never leave us on our own and that the presence of his Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts means that he is always with us to strengthen and guide us as we go out in his name. Till next time. Andrew Download this week's sermon THIS WEEK'S READINGS: Acts 2:1-21, PSALM 104:26-36, Romans 8:14-17, John 14:8-17, (25-27) DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK'S PEW SHEET Comments are closed.
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Rev. Andrew SmithVicar of Light in the Hills |