The Comfort of the Trinity

John 16:12-15

As the daughter of an army officer, saying, “Goodbye.” Is something I know how to do. Before I was 12 years old I lived in eight different houses, five different states, and one other country. And have added three more states, and six more houses to that list since I have become an adult. As of three years ago, every day I live in the parsonage, is the longest I have ever lived in one place.

One of my very early memories is from when I was four years old. I remember leaving the apartment in Germany, the first place I remember living, and being taken to some friend’s house. It was my last night. That night when we went to bed, I said, ”Goodbye,” to the first of many friends I would remember saying, “Good bye,” to throughout the course of my lifetime. We gave hugs and said our, “good byes.” And my four year old brain tried to grasp what it meant to never see somebody again. Forever ,was beyond me, but the permanence of these final moments in Germany were etched in my young mind and the poignancy of them are not lost on my adult self. I would say my farewells again in Oklahoma when we left for North Carolina, then again when we move off of the army base. They would be said again when we left North Carolina, then again when we left the first house we lived in, in Maryland. I said then, said, “Good bye,” to many people and to my whole childhood when I left to come up here to Quincy, for college. And when I left for NTS, I was leaving all my friends once again. And it continued to happen when I graduated from Seminary and I took my first Church in Kansas and then again when I came here 10 years ago.

In the pre-social media, pre-email, pre-everyday internet world, when getting on the “World Wide Web” took a special disc and involved what can only be described as irritatingly grating sounds of the 80s and early 90s, of my childhood, “Goodbye,” was pretty much forever.

To say I know how to say, “Goodbye,” is an understatement. It was such a reality in our lives growing up that the first time we lived somewhere for more than four years, my mother started getting restless and ill content and it took her a while to realize that her mind and her body did not remember how to stay put. It took her while to settle down and realize where they were in Maryland to stay and it would actually really and truly be home. Learning how to stay was probably as hard for us, as learning how to say, “Good bye” is for other people.

This passage, which we have before us this morning, is a part of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples. Jesus is saying, “Good bye,” to his disciples and preparing them for his death and his ultimate departure from this earth. As Jesus is speaking, I can imagine the disciples sitting there shifting uncomfortably. Passing nervous sideways glances at on another across the table, “What is he getting at?” “What does he mean?” “Is he saying what I think he is saying?” “Did he just say he is leaving us?”

As the speech moves on, you can see the disciples shifting from foot to foot and becoming noticeably distressed. Jesus clearly telling them that he is leaving them. He is going away, never to return. What is going on?

This speech would probably have made them all feel more than a little uncomfortable. And would give them reason to worry, and make them a little bit anxious. What does it mean to be a disciple of an absentee teacher? How can they continue to be disciples without anyone to disciple them? What will the future hold? What is the way forward?

When I think about my Dad, I think about all the, “Goodbyes” we said over the years, when I went to college, when I went to Seminary, every time I came to visit and left, every time he visited and then left. He would give me a big hug, kiss me on the check and say, “Love ya.” Every time, but that last time, but I know if he could have he would have given each us big hug, a kiss on the cheek and one last, “Love ya.”  Goodbye. This is Jesus’ hug, and kiss on the cheek–to his disciples. His last and final “Love ya.”

In this farewell speech, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the Triune God. Jesus explains, just as all that the Father has, belongs to Jesus, Jesus has all that is Fathers, and the Spirit will declare all that has not yet been revealed to them when the time comes. The Spirit will be their comforter and their advocate and their teacher, sharing all that belongs to the Father and declaring the things to come about Jesus.

Jesus tells us that he has much to say, but it cannot all be said here and now, some things must be said later, when they can be heard and understood. And this later task will be left to the Spirit and the Spirit can do this because the Spirit knows what Jesus has to say. The Spirit will declare to them what the Spirit hears from Jesus. The Spirit will declare the things that are to come, will share the things Jesus has yet to say, but cannot say here and now. They will not be left hanging, forever not knowing. The Spirit will tell them what they need to know and in doing so will join them in glorifying Jesus.

Jesus is saying, Good bye, but he was not just saying Good bye, peace, and then just leaving his disciples. He is letting them know that he is leaving but not leaving them alone. He tries to explain what is about to happen and prepare them to go on in his absence. And Since Jesus is a part of the Triune Godhead, Jesus can do something no other person before him or sense has been able to do, that is leave completely, but not really be gone.

Following the resurrection, Jesus ascended to Heaven but the Spirit remained. One member of the Triune God left, but another stayed behind, so although Jesus left the disciples, he did not leave them alone. It is this going away but remaining as the Spirit, which Jesus is explaining in this passage. Jesus wants to comfort his disciples by assuring them before he leaves, that although he is leaving, they will not be alone. They will not have to sort this out on by themselves. They will not be left to their own devices. The very Spirit of God which spoke out of the Burning bush, lead the Israelites through the desert, and comforted Elijah in the silence, would come to them.

We live in a scary world. It seems we cannot go more than a month or two with a school shooting, or a house of worship being bombed or some other tragically terrifying event happening in the world around us. In fact we live in a society which capitalizes on our fear. Car alarms, home security systems, schools holding active shooter drills, there are guards at the elementary schools and whole states where the general populace is so afraid that they enact conceal and carry laws.

And least we here in Cambridge, come to believe that this is a secular mindset and something that does not affect we Christians, I was recently speaking with a pastor friend at district assembly and she was telling me that she recently found out that nearly a quarter of her congregation carry guns into worship each Sunday. We are afraid, afraid to let our children play in our neighborhoods, afraid to walk at night, afraid of what cold possibly happen should we let our guard down. We live continually trying to figure out what unexpected atrocity we might need to come to expect next.

When Jesus looked at his disciples that evening, he did not just looked those there in the room, but the eyes of our savior looks down to through the centuries and looks at us and says, You are not alone. Be comforted, I am not leaving you alone. I have not left you alone.  In a world where loss, anxiety, and fear are great there is no shortage of those in our midst who are in need of reassurance, the kind of reassurance Jesus gives his disciples here.

Jesus lives continually in community. The Godhead, the very Triune nature of God assures that Jesus is never alone. And Jesus speaking from this place of belonging, and communal security, tell us that he has come to earth, walked with and has in all ways experienced the aloneness which comes from being human and so he assures us he does not leave alone. We are not alone.

Jesus is not alone because the Father, Son and Spirit are one, three together forever participating in the relationship we call the Trinity. And as a part of this Triune nature, Jesus assures us although Jesus is no longer with us, God is not leaving us, God will remain, the Spirit will walk with us, guide us direct us, comfort and lead us.

Jesus looks at us, Jesus sees we are frightened, anxious and lonely and he reaches out to us in his final hour lets us know that we are not alone, we are never alone. The Spirit is with us, guiding us, leading us and saying all the things to us Jesus would say to us, if he were here, because in reality through the Spirit’s presence, Jesus is here. God is here.   

Here in this world, that seems so far from God and all things that are “godly”, God is here. 2,000 year ago, Jesus may have returned to the Father, but God did not leave this earth, the Spirit remained, leading, guiding, teaching, and joining us in worship of God. We are not alone. God is here, always here with us, forever with us.