The Spirit of Truth — A Pentecost Sermon on John 14

Title: The Spirit of Truth
Scripture: John 14:8-17, 25-27 (Pentecost)
Date: 2019-06-09

Brothers and sisters, peace be with you. By the catholic-church tradition, today is Pentecost Sunday, and the passage I am drawing on follows the standard three-year lectionary.

When modern Christians discuss the Spirit’s work, we tend to talk about how the Spirit revives the church, increases its numbers, gives the spiritual gifts, the gift of tongues, healing, mission, and so on. And in today’s passage Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do.” (John 14:12) — language that many of our charismatic brothers and sisters find thrilling.

But across the four Gospels, references to the Spirit are sparse — only Luke and John speak much of the Spirit. And John’s portrait of the Spirit is striking precisely because it is not the dramatic, awe-striking, vision-shattering, signs-and-wonders Spirit. In John, the Spirit comes as another Counsellor — to teach the disciples everything, to call back to mind what Jesus said, to lead them into truth.

In John, even the term “signs” (semeia) — which appears throughout the Gospel — has a low evaluative weight. A sign is a pointer. It must point beyond itself to the glory of God; otherwise the sign itself is meaningless. John’s Gospel even devalues miracle. Yes, John records Jesus performing miracles. But the miracle is never the point.

The Spirit in John is, frankly, a more intellectual figure. The Spirit is another Counsellor (parakletos) who will teach the disciples all things, remind them of what Jesus said, and lead them into truth.

So if we want to talk about the Spirit in John, we have to place that Spirit in the context of John’s first readers — the so-called Johannine community.

(The sermon then continues to a detailed reflection on this Spirit-of-truth as understood by the Johannine community and concludes with a story.)

A Story

I once sat with a few brothers and sisters in a small Bible-study evening. We had stayed late at work, ordered take-out, and were eating while studying. Three university student-missionaries arrived. They brought a guitar; they wanted to start with worship. But seeing that we were eating, they played us a video; then they led worship anyway. The student-missionaries leading the worship were swaying ecstatically — fully alive — but I, accustomed to liturgical worship, stayed calm. During their sharing, their language was repetitive. Afterward I left early. The difficulties they shared with us — I kept thinking: if they had had a more careful theological grounding, an awareness of the social context, many of those difficulties would not have arisen.

The Closing Reflection

Serving God with only passion and without reason yields more destruction than good. May the Lord help us, on this Pentecost, to know both the passionate Spirit and the rational Spirit. Amen.