Will You Love Me When I Don’t Keep Your Commandments?
Is the gift of the Holy Spirit dependent on my actions?
Gospel Reading: John 14:15-21
For Sunday, May 29 , 2011: Year A – Easter 6
I’m confused. You know, about this whole Holy Spirit thing. The heading in my study Bible calls this pericope “The promise of the Holy Spirit.” I guess I’m wondering what the exact nature of this promise is. It seems to be conditional:
If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father to send another Advocate (later identified as the Spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit) to be with you forever.
Now, the world cannot receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But I can receive him because he abides with me and he will be in me?
I’m Not So Sure
A couple of things here: I am not so sure about the dividing line between me and the world. Secondly, I’m not so sure that the way I understand my ability to love (both God and my neighbor—which are the commandments John is talking about here) is always as a gift from God.
The world in the Johannine writings seems to act as short hand for the death-giving-power-structures-that run-the-world, or the system-of-the-kingdom-of –this-world. So, I can understand that world being unable to see, hear or receive the presence of the spirit of God.
What in the World?
It is a no-thing, it has no eyes or ears or soul. But John also tells the reader that Jesus came to save the world, that it might have life. Did Jesus fail or give up? I sure hope not, because living out the machinations of the world-system is where I spend most of my time. It is hard not to, I am surrounded by it, held in it, have internalized it.
Furthermore, if love is not simply a feeling or intellectual assent, but looks more like doing, then I am not loving Jesus and keeping his commandments, like a lot of the time. Does the Holy Spirit depart and then reappear depending on my actions of love?
Important, but Confusing
Theologically that does not make any sense to me. Are there parts of me the Spirit is always with? Does the Advocate translate my actions into love before the throne of God? Is the world, on this side of the resurrection, saved? All this seems important, but confusing. Makes a fella want to preach on the Psalm.
The Hardest Question
Is the gift of the Holy Spirit dependent on my actions?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
Hey Guys, loved the video conversation about the text. I too struggle with this. The theme I keep coming back too is one of responsability. What does it mean to keep the church “going” after Jesus is gone? Or, what does it mean to be the responsable ones who have to “keep this new commandment”? Is failure even an option, or just a reality? For me, grace is found when we realize we CAN’T do it alone. We need help. The image of the lady shouting “help, I have fallen and can’t get up” comes to mind. –Well, there is my two cents. Thanks again!
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:57 amif a teenage girl told me that her boyfriend told her, “Honey, if you really loved me you would…..” I would suggest that it was time for her to get a new boyfriend. But when a neighbor says, “if the crocus are blooming, spring is on the way.”, I know that she is talking about a “sign” of spring. For Jesus, obedience is not a condition of love, but a sign of love. And of course, the thing that Jesus said we should be doing just prior to this is not centered on commandments, but trusting. Perhaps we need imagine Jesus pushing up his shades, looking us in the eye and saying “trust me” Except, of course in Jesus case, we can offer up our trust in confidence.
May 26th, 2011 at 11:08 amActually, I appreciate the words in which Marianne P explains what I was trying to outline: “if” sometimes means because, and “if” sometimes means unless. The second half of the sentence (following the if clause) shows some textual variants. These certainly allow for some variation in translation. However, because of my own tendencies to always choose in favor of Jesus being in total control, I agree with the last line of the article: I just might preach about Paul in Athens!
May 28th, 2011 at 4:28 pm