A, The Sixth Sunday of Easter - John 14:15-21 "The Help of the Holy Spirit"

John 14:15–21 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

When a child calls out in the night, it’s usually mum who responds.  If it’s not mum and it’s dad who responds, it’s most likely still mum who hears the cry and digs dad in the ribs to get out of bed and go and help the child.

Most mums are the primary caregivers in the household; they help the children, and they help the husband, before they help themselves.

Today is Mother’s Day.  How do you remember your mother?  Some of our mums are living some have departed this life.  Some cherish the relationship they had with their mother, and some not so much.  Some mothers help us and some hinder us.

Despite today being Mother’s Day, the day is not so much about our mothers but our Father in heaven who gave us our mother and our father through whom we have life.  God gave us parents to help us.  We might harshly judge the help they give us as being overbearing or absent.  We might be tempted to worship them more than God himself, if we see them as the be all and end all of our existence in this life.  Even so, we’re called to recognise them as the primary representatives of God’s authority on this earth, regardless of how good or how bad their parenting might seem.

It should be obvious to us why we need our mother’s and father’s help.  As babies we are helpless and need the nurturing of a mother and a father’s protection.  Those who have lost their parents, receive this help through agencies and people that stand in the place of parents, under the authority that God gives to parents.  Such as governments, law enforcement, welfare agencies, and other social structures.

Although we might understand why we need parental help from mums and dads, today Jesus tells us that God the Father sends us another helper, the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is another helper, who  is our original help?  Are our parents­—our mums and dads—the original help?  And why do we need another helper in the Holy Spirit?

The first we hear of a helper in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden.  God creates Eve from Adam to be a helper fit for Adam. Eve was created to complement Adam.  They were created to be one flesh in each other since Eve was taken from Adam’s flesh.  Adam and Eve are our primal parents.

Adam was created in the likeness of the image of God, and Eve was taken from the flesh of Adam to stand opposite Adam—face to face—as a helper fit for him.  But in what way was Eve to help Adam?  Eve was to encourage Adam in being face to face with God in the garden.  Likewise, Adam was to lead the other half of his flesh in the goodness of God’s Garden of Eden, to Sabbath face to face with God in his holiness.

However, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent.  Instead of being a help to each other in their worship of God in the goodness of his garden, created to celebrate the life he gave them, in the likeness of himself, to have face to face fellowship with him. Their complementary relationship became opposition to each other.

Rather than eating the fruit of fellowship, the fruit they ate finished their fellowship and they hid from God.  The perfect three-way community between God, man, and woman was desecrated.  Man desired to be like God!  Woman desired to be like God!  God’s first family, his first son and daughter, helped themselves to his knowledge of good and evil; to be like God rather than knowing and trusting in the love of God.

Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May.  We give thanks to God for the help of our mothers and fathers.  Ironically though our primal mother and father became helpless when they should have helped each other to worship face to face with God.  We can see Adam as the original pastor who gives Eve instruction to join him in worshipping God in the garden.  Yet Eve didn’t receive this leadership from Adam when it counted most. 

So, we come back to the promise of Jesus who says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16-17a ESV)

This “another helper” is the Holy Spirit but the original helpers are not our primal parents, Adam and Eve, nor our mum and dad.  The function of the helper Jesus speaks of is one who is “called alongside”.  The Greek word is Paraclete (paracletos).  This word is found only in the writings of John’s Gospel and  First Epistle.  Here in John 14 to16 the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit because he is going to the Father. 

We hear in John’s First Epistle, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  (1 John 2:1 ESV) Here paraclete is translated in English as advocate—one who defends or speaks on behalf of someone.  Jesus has now ascended to the right hand of the Father; he’s called alongside the Father to advocate for us through his righteousness. 

So, we have received the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our paraclete on earth, and at the same time Jesus is our helper, our paraclete, before the Father in heaven preparing a place for us there. It’s a comfort to know that in our helplessness we have a helper here and a helper there.  With these two helpers we are called out of ourselves and into God’s Word where, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV) Rather than hide from God we can walk in the light of his Word and do what God now commands us to do in Christ. 

Therefore, whenever we cry out in the darkness of our sin, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are here to help us to receive and believe the Word of God.  So, when we confess our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)  Now that we have the Holy Spirit as our helper, Jesus promises us when we do the greater works of confessing sin and asking for forgiveness, he will do it and cleanse us!  (John 14:12-14)

God calls us to thank him for our mothers today regardless of them being a help to us, or a hindrance.  We also thank God that Jesus is the New Adam—the Holy bridegroom­—and he awaits the coming of his bride.  As his holy church we thank God that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be our helper who guides his church in the works of peace on our way down the aisle towards the heavenly wedding breakfast in God’s eternal garden of paradise.   We are his holy body who receives help from the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and who makes us—his church and bride—holy in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ our bridegroom. Amen.

*****

Sermon Summary

The sermon begins with the familiar image of a child crying in the night and a parent—often a mother—responding. This everyday experience highlights the deep human need for help, care, and presence. On Mother’s Day, we rightly give thanks for our mothers and the help they provide, yet the sermon reminds us that the day ultimately points beyond earthly parents to God the Father, who gives us life through them.

Human parents—whether helpful or flawed—serve as representatives of God’s authority and care. But they are not our ultimate helpers. Scripture shows that even the first parents, Adam and Eve, failed in their calling to help one another remain face to face with God. Their fall broke the perfect fellowship between God, man, and woman.

Into this brokenness, Jesus speaks a promise: the Father will send “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit (John 14:15–21). The Greek word Paraclete means “one called alongside”—a helper, advocate, comforter. Jesus himself is also our Paraclete, now advocating for us before the Father in heaven (1 John 2:1). So we have a helper on earth—the Holy Spirit—and a helper in heaven—Jesus Christ.

These divine helpers call us out of hiding and into the light of God’s Word. When we cry out in the darkness of sin, the Spirit leads us to confession, and Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Through this ongoing help, we are drawn into the life of God, empowered to keep Christ’s commandments, and prepared as the Bride of Christ for the heavenly wedding feast.

On Mother’s Day, we thank God for our mothers, but even more, we thank him for the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and for the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Church—Christ’s holy Bride—on our journey toward eternal life.

Reflection Questions

1. About Help and Dependence

•      When you think of the word “helper,” who comes to mind first—your parents, a friend, or God?

•      In what ways do you still try to “help yourself” spiritually instead of relying on the Holy Spirit?

 2. About the Holy Spirit

•      How does understanding the Holy Spirit as “one called alongside” change the way you think about his presence in your daily life?

•      Where have you recently sensed the Spirit calling you into deeper obedience or trust?

3. About Jesus as Advocate

•      What comfort do you find in knowing that Jesus is advocating for you before the Father right now?

•      How does this truth shape the way you approach confession and forgiveness?

4. About Family and Mother’s Day

•      How has your experience with your own mother shaped your understanding of God’s care—positively or negatively?

•      What does it mean to honour your parents while recognising that God is your ultimate helper?

5. About the Church as Bride

•      What does it mean for you personally to be part of the Bride of Christ?

•      How is the Holy Spirit preparing you—and the Church—for the “wedding feast” to come?   

A, Post-Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30 "No Need - Know Need"

Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30  (ESV) Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Boastful big-mouthed immature children, call out and scoff at those passing by.  They are obnoxious youths, who have no need.  They do not listen.  Therefore, they do not hear!  They are children who do not know what they want!  They don’t want to mourn, nor do they want to rejoice!  Nothing is good enough for them!  They mock and scoff at those who mourn, as well as those who celebrate.  These are the children Jesus compares to the generation around him.

Jesus likens those who reject John the Baptist as children who do not mourn at the singing of his dirge, at his call to repentance before the coming of the kingdom.  He quotes Malachi and follows it up, saying, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:10–11, 15 ESV)

The children who reject John the Baptist have no need for the past.  They do not need the law to call them to repentance, nor do they need a prophet to expose their need for a saviour!  They need neither Elijah nor John the Baptist.  As they scoff, “He has a demon”, they have no ears with which to hear.  They languish, with a bad spirit, because they do not listen.

Similarly, these children also refuse to celebrate the coming of the Son of Man.  They have no need either way!  Either mourning in repentance nor rejoicing at the coming of the Redeemer is not what they want or need.  It seems nothing is good enough for them!  They are brash boastful children who do not have ears with which to hear!

Jesus speaks of this generation like children in a town’s public marketplace.  He also addresses himself as a child too!  He calls himself the Son of Man!  A son, a servant of those in the public place. 

Despite the shaming of those mocking him in public, Jesus declares, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19 ESV)

Jesus is not only the Son of God and Servant Son of Man, but he is also the Wisdom of God, personified, in flesh, and Wisdom is justified by her deeds.

Some of the ancient manuscripts do not say “deeds”.  Rather, they say, “Yet wisdom is justified by her children.”  This is the same as what Jesus says in the parallel account in Luke seven chapter thirty-five.  Therefore, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ is justified in the children produced.

So, who are these obnoxious children in the marketplace?  The children that chide and scoff are not those from the outer but rather from within the town centre.  They are those who should have ears to hear, to have received the Wisdom of God, through hearing what has been taught to them.  Rather than having no need for the Word from John the Baptist and Jesus, they should have listened as those who knew they needed a Saviour.

They should have known what Paul reports, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”  (Romans 3:19 ESV)

But the mouths of the children were not stopped by the Law, they did not receive a knowledge of sin.  Therefore, they boastfully block off their ears having no need for salvation.  Without knowledge of sin, they did not know they needed to stop their mouths, and hear with their ears, to receive the Word of Life!

We are the generation to which he says these things.  Jesus speaks to every generation.  He is the New Adam, the Servant Son of Man to all children of Adam.

Like Paul, we are called to a knowledge of sin, having had our mouths stopped, and our ears opened.  We know we need!  We know nothing good dwells in us.  Our sin makes us tired and heavy burdened, often leading us to dis-ease with God and therefore, disease.  We are debased and cry out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV)  Such is the reality of all recreated from Adam!

God peels back the layers of our blindness to sin; he repeatedly stops our boasting.  He replaces it with Holy Spirited repentance.  In our knowledge of sin, we know our need.  As God the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of our sin, peeling and re-peeling us, he shows us the eternal magnitude of Jesus’ generosity and forgiveness.

Even the children chiding and scoffing in the marketplace are offered a new place under Jesus’ forgiveness.  This is the Wisdom of God, justified in Jesus Christ, and him alone.  All people need Jesus Christ, some know, and some don’t want to know and say “no”.  He takes the depraved children who know their need, burdened and heavy laden with sin and gives them the yoke of forgiveness and rest in the promise of his Word!

We are the children in the marketplace.   But unlike us, the Son of Man is the Son of God who is not haughty nor hollow.  He is meek without being weak.  He is humble and serves all people in his fulness as the Son of God, but he does it in humility.       

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit.   We who allow the Holy Spirit to remain within, allow him to stop the unruly child within, recreating us as the children of God.   Therefore, as God’s children, with the Holy Spirit within, we know we need and have received our Saviour Jesus Christ!

Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Matthew 11:25–26 ESV)

We once, boastful children, have been stopped and given the Holy Spirit.  We are the little children of God!  Literally, we become non-speakers, as opposed to the brash foolish bad-mouthed babblers we once were.  As non-speakers, we become hearers of the Word in the Holy Spirit.  This is God’s will and his good pleasure.

As children of God our ears are opened, and our mouths are shut.  Our mouths open only to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ and tell others of our forgiveness.  We are the body of Jesus Christ!  As his body under the headship of Jesus Christ we are the Wisdom of God for the whole world, as we remain in his Word. 

The wisdom bestowed upon us, gathers us as the faithfully receiving church of God.  The church is the new bride of the New Adam being born from his side.  Not like Eve, who was created from Adam’s side with his bone and flesh.   But the church is the justification of Jesus’ death at the cross.  From the cross, the Wisdom of God flowed as water and blood from the side of the New Adam, Jesus Christ. 

The church, the faithful body of Christ, is the new woman, created by water and the Word, and sustained with the blood and body of Jesus Christ, as his body of Wisdom in Christ.  In Christ the church gives life to those the Holy Spirit calls through his Word and sustains with the sacraments.

When the church uses things other than Jesus Christ and remaining receptive to his Word, the church loses its wisdom in Jesus Christ, and she soon finds herself turning away from God’s Word in worldly pursuits of good and evil.  Confused at best, she returns to join the children in the public marketplace pursuing the popular opinion of folly and foolishness.

But the church remains wise, she remains Christ’s bride, when she allows the Holy Spirit to return her to the knowledge and forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ, the Word of God in flesh. 

Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Amen. 

B, Pentecost 19 Proper 22 - Mark 10:11-12, 14-15 "Jesus on Divorce and Children"

God gave humanity co-creative power when he created Adam and then Eve from Adam and gave her to him in the Garden of Eden.  And in cleaving to one another they produced children.

One might say, “But the animals do the same, they have co-creative power too!”  And they do but only to a certain extent. 

God brought forth animals from the earth, whereas humans were created from the earth but are also created in his image, and in his likeness.

A male and a female human being have the co-creative power to make images of God in the likeness of God.  And further to that God has given humanity dominion over all he has created from the earth.

The blessing of God fell on Adam and Eve after he created them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)

Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, without her cleaving to a man, without the effort of a man.  Jesus was both the Son of Man but also the Son of God in the one person.

Jesus is tested twice in the Gospel reading for today.  First by the Pharisees when they tested him on divorce and then by the disciples when they incensed him by rebuking those bringing children to him.

Jesus teaches his disciples from these two testing events.  First, he says in response to the Pharisees, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11–12 ESV)

Second, when he saw the disciples rebuking those who were bringing children to him said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:14–15 ESV)

Divorce, adultery, and hindering children; things have obviously changed somewhat since God placed Adam and Eve together to be fruitful and multiply.  Yet Jesus is placed right in the thick of humanity’s destructive ways. And in doing so brings the kingdom of God into the presence of these difficult situations.

Anyone who has had anything to do with divorce or relationship breakdown knows just how complex the issues are that feed the collapse.  At the heart of a separation one deals with guilt, fear, grief, anger, betrayal, role responsibilities, loss of trust, and insecurity. 

When Jesus is tested by the Pharisees, he tells the Pharisees it is because the hardness of heart that Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written.  He then takes his hearers back to the beginning of creation, to the foundational function of being male and female.

When we are in a relationship with another person, regardless of the type of relationship, we are in a relationship with someone who bears the image of God.  

We can ask God, “How am I honouring you in my dealing with the other person who bears your image?” Then we can think about our relationships with our spouse or our partner, and then our children or our parents, and then our neighbours, who all bear the image of God.  But as you do, ask yourself, “What is it that I want or need from that relationship?”

Now ask yourself, “What does Jesus want or need from his relationship with me?  Are my wants and needs from my relationships the same as his wants and needs with me?  What were Jesus’ wants and needs from his disciples and the Pharisees?”

Divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children quickly bring to the fore all the messes in our families, the church and society today, and with that judgementalism and egalitarianism issues. 

So determined has our society become to provide a safe place for children and to stop gender discrimination that in our zealousness we have forgotten we are blessed as men by God and blessed as women by God, both being created in his image.  And the children we’ve created in his image have been indoctrinated and confused by the judgementalism of gender rights, identity, and equality.  And with that comes the suppression of the blessedness of serving each other as men and women, and as children and adults.

Through this self-centred mentality of seeking our rights in sexuality, in gender equality, as autonomous children, and as individualistic adults; divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children, seems to be accepted as normal.  As divorce, adultery and the hindering of children becomes the norm we continue to lose the blessedness of being fruitful and multiplying on this earth.

But Jesus comes to us right in the heart of divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.  He shows us what it is to be blessed and fruitful without being the son of a human father, without ever being married, without having children and without hindering children.

How does he do it?

He comes as the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Jesus was sent as the new Adam.

In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.  (Hebrews 1:1b–3 ESV)

Jesus came to be the Saviour of us and our fallen relationships.  He does this through the forgiveness of sins.  He can do this because he comes in the image of God, without sin, but bearing all sin for the forgiveness of all sin.

He brings forgiveness within marriages, he brings forgiveness where marriages have ended in divorce, and he brings forgiveness in adultery.  Jesus also serves children who are caught up in divorces and relationship breakdowns, and he seeks to reconnect with children who have been hindered from coming to him.

God has put all things in our messy world under his control.

Now in putting everything in subjection to him [Jesus], he [God] left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.  For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:8–11)

We might not see that God is in control of our broken families, church, and community, but we are called to trust his word.  God conquers all broken marriages, all adultery, and all hinderances of his children created in his image.  He does it by teaching us in his word how we get it wrong, by showing us the righteousness of Jesus’ life, but gives us forgiveness and salvation through his death.

God calls us not to divorce ourselves from him or his church by seeing and hearing he is making all things new as he showed John, recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-one, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:2–3 ESV)

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and from it came divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.

You and I are called to eat from the tree of knowledge of sin and salvation, that is the cross, so you and I are forgiven and saved from this adulterous and Fatherless generation. 

Receive God’s invitation of blessing and fruitfulness, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

And, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2 ESV)

Amen.