Because Another Advocate Abides in You
Easter 6
May 10, 2026
Rev. Joanie Brawley
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
This morning, we join Jesus and the Disciples at the Last Supper, during which, for five full chapters of John’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing and reassuring His friends for His imminent departure and death. In the midst of what must have been an anxious time for the Disciples, Jesus makes a mystifying promise to them… that He will not leave them, but will give them “another Advocate” who will be with them forever. And… whoever this “another Advocate” is, He will actually come to live in them… forever! Even 2,000 years on, we strain to fathom the wonder of all Jesus promised them (and us) on that evening before His death.
So, especially on this Sunday when little Oliver Joseph is baptized and receives his own Gift of the Holy Spirit “Advocate”, Jesus gives us an ideal moment to reflect upon who God’s “another Advocate” is. Today is Olive’s new-birth day, and he will be “sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever” … and everything will change for him.
The Greek word here translated as “Advocate” is Parakletos, literally meaning ‘one called alongside.” No single English word can convey it’s meaning, but in other places, Scripture translates the Greek as … the Helper, or Counselor, or Encourager, Comforter, Strengthener, Consoler, Intercessor… someone to stand by you, the One who befriends you. Nikki Gumble, creator of the ALPHA program, said that a Mom is a type of Parakletos for her child. How’s that for confirmation of the high calling we cooks, cleaners and cab-driver-Moms have?! So, Happy Mother’s Day, all you Paraklete Moms!
During His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself was the Disciples’ Paraklete (1John 2:1) His presence provided peace … He taught with
Patience and Grace; He created communion with His friends and followers. He consoled, guided, encouraged. Jesus loved them! When Christ says God will send them another Advocate, the Greek word allos is specific: this Being is “another of the same type” as Jesus. The Holy Spirit is of the same character, authority, power and divinity as Christ, and at our baptism, actually comes to dwell within us … and will never, ever leave us!
The book of Acts, especially, reveals the Holy Spirit at work… in the events of Pentecost and beyond. Throughout, the Holy Spirit never draws attention to Himself, always, rather, pointing us toward Jesus. The Holy Spirit also never forces Himself on us; He is patient and His Call is personal (sometimes present in a still, small voice; sometimes in spectacular wonders that bring us to our knees in humble awe and gratitude.) Each person - every Soul - must personally decide to respond to the Spirit’s presence and call in his own life. This is why, as Oliver Joseph matures, we pray he will seek - invite - his own relationship with Jesus through the Spirit.
But, we can never fully comprehend the Holy Spirit! Descriptive words fail, concepts collapse, our minds founder when we try to comprehend the cosmic, yet intimate wonder of the Holy Spirit. So, I want to tell you a true story - the story of a couple and their son with whom I had dinner while on a mission trip to China when I was in seminary many years ago. When I met the Connors they were devout, dynamic Christians, but Lucy and Jeff had not always been Christians.
A series of late-term miscarriages early in their marriage had shattered their dreams of having a family. In their crushing grief, they cried out to the God they did not yet know, and as they prayed, they felt an unexpected presence - an inexplicable solace and calm - assuring them that they were not alone, that there was Hope and a future they could not yet imagine. They came to know the Holy Spirit as their Comforter and Intercessor, their Strengthener and their Encourager, during those hard years of many losses. As their seeking faith grew, they came to know and love Christ as their Healer and Provider.
The couple thought they would never have a child, and each developed outlets for their energies. A pilot friend from church introduced Jeff to flying, and he decided to take a few lessons on the weekends. A friend in Lucy’s Bible Study had signed up for a class in Mandarin Chinese at a local college, and Lucy decided to join her. Looking back, they said that the Holy Spirit had connected each of them with the exact friends who would introduce them to these new pursuits. They began to sense that the Holy Spirit was Guiding them, and Providing opportunities. They were both certain that it was the Holy Spirit who “came alongside them” with Energy, Hope and even Joy during that shifting time of re-directing their energies.
Sometime in the 1970s, Lucy learned that thousands of babies were warehoused in orphanages in China under the CCP’s One Child policy, and that it might be possible to adopt (for a price) one of those infants. The Holy Spirit opened seemingly impossible doors … exactly as needed, at just the right, last possible moment. They found Patience through indecipherable, international bureaucracies, and the Holy Spirit provided them with Wisdom in often-delicate cultural navigations. Jeff unexpectedly received a bonus at work, which covered both adoption and transportation fees. During their many stressful trips to and from China, they discovered Endurance which was more than their own. Finally they were able to adopt their son, whom they named Samuel.
Sam was baptized within a month of his arrival in California. His parents told anyone who would listen how the Holy Spirit, had created their new family across cultures, political stressors, and even continents.
Their son grew into an exceptionally bright young man, absorbing his native Chinese language alongside and from his increasingly-fluent Mom. By the time he was 16, he enrolled in college, graduating cum laude from Stanford with a tech degree; this during the earliest iterations of the internet. Sam found himself in just the right place, at just the right time, and quickly made a substantial fortune in Silicon Valley. One of the first things he did was to buy his dad a small plane.
But by his mid-twenties, Sam was experiencing an emptiness, a deep dryness, he could not escape. ”I had everything,” he said, “and had achieved more than I’d ever imagined, but I felt so hollow, off-track… alone.” He experienced a seeking curiosity about Jesus - a hunger for relationship with Christ. He found his choices - his life - was shifting. Sitting together at dinner that night, Sam confessed that throughout those unsettling years of internal unrest, he discovered deep and intimate spiritual connections with “the best friend my soul had ever known.”
And… Sam began to sense a surprising Call, not to the power and glitz of Silicon Valley, but unnervingly, to return to his birth country - to China - a place he’d never known and had been saved from. Like his parents before him, doors opened and opportunities appeared as the Holy Spirit Counseled him, Encouraging him along a path he had never imagined he’d take.… and this at the moment Communist China was opening its doors to the West for the first time in half a century. The CCP was eager to acquire Western technology and languages (especially English) for their own benefit. Into that moment arrived Sam, a Chinese native, fluent in English, Chinese and technology, and with the wealth to create his own “start-up” in China. The CCP was more than happy to give Sam free reign to create an American-staffed technological university in an outer Chinese Province.
But, what the CCP did not know was that this young man felt led - called - to design his university as a specifically Christian university, employing teachers and staff, imported from the US, all of whom were eager to introduce not only English and technology, but forbidden faith in Jesus Christ to the best and brightest of Chinese students.
Essential to this budding missional vision lay two major hurdles: first, there were no Bibles in China. None. The enforcers of the Cultural Revolution had burned Bibles - as well as the possessors of those Bibles - decades earlier. And even if they were able to purchase Mandarin Bibles, transporting them into the country endangered anyone even peripherally connected with their transport. They alone would have to somehow get the Bibles into China.
And that became the Connor family’s collective “ah-ha” moment! Suddenly decades of seemingly unrelated, serendipitous choices and decisions were now revealed as God’s unusual - and perfect - mosaic of their family’s life! Their Bible-delivery dilemma was solved before it ever began! As Lucy said “We were giddy with awe!”
As you might by now expect, they soon found a US publisher to print Mandarin Bibles (a feat unto itself.) Jeff and Sam sold their small plane and Sam purchased a jet capable of overseas flights. After decades of multiple FAA certifications, Jeff was fully qualified to fly a jet. After years of studying Mandarin, Lucy would be their interpreter to deal with flight registration and other issues in China.… and just like that, they created an international commercial airline company… consisting of a total of 1 pilot and 1 flight attendant!
After decades, the Holy Spirit had truly and completely prepared, lead and protected their family for this very moment … to transport Bibles in Mandarin Chinese into the hands - and lives - of the Chinese people, under the radar of the Communist regime.
Their story could easily end right here. The Holy Spirit’s guiding Provision, Grace and Discernment had led and shaped their lives in myriad, amazing ways. But there is one last element of their Holy Spirit adventure that literally left all of us speechless.
After several years of their “corporate airline” mission, Jeff and Lucy had flown many-thousands of Bibles into China. Over time, they had relaxed into their back and forth routine visiting their son at his university, with duffle bags full of Bibles in tow. Then, after one flight, a team of military inspectors appeared on the tarmac as they were unloading the plane. CCP agents grabbed the duffle bags, and shunted the couple into a tiny windowless building, where they sat on a wooden bench, watching inspectors drag their precious cargo into a locked room. Jeff and Lucy knew better than most what their punishment could be. Uniformed men came in and out of the inspection room… in groups of 2, then 5, then metals-clad officers arrived.
They sat on that bench for 5 long hours. Finally the door opened, and casting a quizzical look at the couple, three officers exited the building. A few agents followed, departing in silence. Finally, the last inspectors trudged out of the room, dragging the couple’s huge duffles behind them. Dumping the bags at the couples’ feet, one of the inspectors said, in broken - but clear - English: “Go!” They were being released! Shaking uncontrollably, Jeff and Lucy gathered themselves and their bags. As the lead inspector exited the building, he looked back over his shoulder and mumbled, in Chinese (which of course Lucy understood): “Fools! Who brings bags and bags of empty books half way round the world?! Blank books!! Fools!”
The CCP inspectors - all of them - had poured over each of those hundreds of Bibles … for 5 hours… and not one word was visible to any of them!
I tell you the story of Lucy, Jeff and Sam not to suggest that the Holy Spirit is some magical Santa Claus figure, who delivers gifts on our quasi-spiritual coping lists! Their story is so much more profound - more glorious - and approachable - than that! The Connors are just regular folks - imperfect and flawed souls just like every one of us. All they did was to obediently say “Yes, Lord. Here I am” at each (sometimes anguished) moment. Your “yes” may start with nothing more than “Help, Lord, I need you” or “I’m so tired of this struggle, Lord.” Whenever we sincerely, transparently cry out to God from our hearts, the Holy Spirit meets us - envelopes us - right where we are! All we need to do - as Jeff, Lucy and Sam - did, is to choose Faith over Fear, Trust over Will, Hope over Despair, Engagement over Doubt. And as they trusted that the Holy Spirit was guiding - using - them for God’s purposes… amazing things happened. The Lord gave each of their ordinary lives a deep, satisfying Meaning and Purpose more vibrant and consequential than anything they could have asked for or imagined. For when we truly place our lives into the Lord’s Hands, no matter what unfolds before us… all is Well… and all will be Well - even amazing - for our fragile Souls!
Maybe that Chinese inspector was actually more right than he knew… the Connors - Lucy, Jeff and Sam - were fools! Fools for Christ, through the companionship of the Holy Spirit… Fools whose lives were Blessed, Guided, Comforted, Consoled, Encouraged, Shaped, Protected and Delivered by the Power of the Holy Spirit… so that they - astoundingly - truly became the hands and feet of Christ on a life-adventure beyond their wildest imaginings!
So, happy New-Birth day, little Oliver Joseph! May you receive now, and claim for yourself later, your own great Holy Spirit Adventure of Faith in Christ, for He will be with you from this day forth forevermore!
Thanks be to God Almighty! Alleluia! Alleluia! AMEN