by the Very Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson
Click here to watch the sermon recording on YouTube.
I suppose this might go without saying, but my bingo card for 2026 did not have “Getting arrested” on it. And, it certainly didn’t have “getting arrested at MSP Airport with 100 Minnesota clergy and Labor Union organizers protesting the un-Christian mass deportation of my immigrant neighbors”. But, this week, I submitted payment for the fines resulting from that arrest and the case was finally closed. In all honesty, I was surprised by how smooth and relatively painless the process was, from arrest to case completion. But, I suppose that’s what happens when you have a good lawyer. As we were rounded up and loaded onto a bus, hands in zip ties, I remember thinking I was going to need a lawyer! And thank God, because of my relative privilege and the fine work of some community organizers, we ended up with excellent counsel, who advocated for us, communicated the options for defense to and getting a relatively unified response from a group of mostly clergy from a myriad different traditions (a feat in and of itself – a massive step forward for ecumenism in my mind), and shepherded each of us through the process to a satisfactory end. If only the immigrants being rounded up and deported, facing an often uncaring immigration system, could be afforded the same level of advocacy and care at every turn. Sadly we know this is all too often not the case.
It caught my attention then, this week, when I read this morning’s gospel in preparation for today’s sermon when Jesus tells his disciples:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”
Jesus is preparing to leave his disciples, and he knows what challenges and trials the future holds for them and those who will follow them, the suffering and pain, even the violence that will be brought against these beloved who have known him and struggled to understand his teaching, and he promises that God’s Spirit will come to them and abide with them when he is gone. He calls this Spirit, “Advocate”. In Greek, this word is “paraclete” a word that Johannine scholars have studied and debated and admired for millennia, and can mean “lawyer”, or, more accurately, an attorney for the defense. Seeing the conflicts and struggles of the church on the horizon, is Jesus assuring his disciples – “Don’t worry, I’ve got a great lawyer for you!”? Perhaps.
But, as with all things in John, there are layers. This passage is happening in the midst of what scholars call the “Farewell Discourse” , a set of teachings by Jesus that the church hears now between Easter and Pentecost – between Jesus’ resurrection and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. His Ascension, a feast the church marks this Thursday, looms in the story as a point of departure and a significant transition. What will his disciples do without him? There is grief and no small amount of fear lingering still around the edges of this story. And so it is that another meaning of the word Paraclete is made known – namely “Comforter”. For inasmuch as his disciples will need someone to advocate for and defend them, they will need comfort too. I am reminded that “goodbye” is but a merger of the old English farewell – “God be with ye”. In his leaving, Jesus is giving the greatest comfort of all, an assurance that God’s Spirit, a spirit of love and care and healing and advocacy, will abide with them, indeed can be found within them.
We could all use a little comfort from time to time, not least when the world seems to be falling apart and there is much to fear – from the threats of authoritarianism, the crumbling of norms and the erosion of trust in our systems of law and government, from war, economic collapse, and ecological disaster. There is much to fear and much for which we seek to be comforted. And comfort is never far off from courage. After all when someone is afraid, we not only reassure them, we en-courage them, we seek to be a source of support for the facing of that which besets. We stand alongside. We declare in word and deed that we are in this together – take heart, take courage. Like that Spirit which Jesus promises, we abide with those who are afraid.
In the reading from his first epistle, which we heard this morning, Peter encourages his readers saying:
“even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated…Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you”!
Comfort and encouragement have this funny way of transforming us into those who can lend comfort and courage to others. Hope received is hope we can share with others. So, says Peter, be ready to give an “accounting for the hope that is in you.” If in John’s gospel Jesus is promising an Advocate that will indeed be in us, Peter is arguing we must be ready to advocate for others. This practice of being a conduit of hope, a channel of courage and comfort from the Advocate to the disciple and the disciple to those most in need, is a well worn path for so many of our forebears in faith, from the likes of Civil Rights activists like Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers and Pauli Murray – whose life’s work brought us such landmark changes like desegregation and the Voting Rights Act – or to abolitionists and peace activists like Julia Ward Howe. I was reminded this week how on multiple occasions our former preacher in residence, the Rev’d Barbara Mraz would preach from Howe’s famous Declaration because of which we now have this annual celebration of Mother’s Day, a statement of encouragement and advocacy for the end to needless war and violence. Rooted in a commitment to Jesus’ way of love, Howe writes:
“Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! …
…Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: Disarm, Disarm!”
This is the courage we are called to model and proclaim. To face down violence and injustice, no matter our circumstances, knowing that we have been given an Advocate, a Spirit of comfort and courage and love, that abides within us and empowers us to give hope to others. I am mindful this morning, as I prepare to step out of this pulpit today for the next three months, that I am saying goodbye to you in just a few weeks, at a time when our world, our country, our state, and our own community are facing perils as great as any in living memory, I am mindful that a word of encouragement and hope is needed now more than ever.
Take heart, friends, for you have been given an Advocate, a Spirit of Truth, who will abide with you. By the power of that Spirit, you need not fear what others fear. You can proclaim the hope that is within you, standing up for those who are oppressed and afraid, advocating for others in their hour of need. God be with you. Indeed, God IS with you and within you and will never leave you or forsake you. Take heart and take courage by this truth. Let it embolden you to get into some good trouble for the sake of others. And, if you need it, I know a great lawyer.
Amen!
