Sixth Sunday of Easter 2023
For several weeks now, after the Paschal celebration, we have been hearing the last teaching of Jesus from the Gospel of John. This long speech and promise is positioned by John at the Last Supper, but it would also make sense in the period between Easter and Christ’s Ascension into heaven. The promise is made to those who know that Jesus must depart from their company as an individual. Jesus cannot be restricted to a small area of Palestine; His mission is ultimately to bring all the people of the world together in one assembly for right worship, right praise.
The promised one is variously translated helper, Advocate, or Counselor. It is the Gk word parakleton. So literally, another paraclete. Now in Hellenist tradition, a “paraclete” is someone who helps you through a court proceeding. We might translate it as “lawyer,” but it means more. It refers to an advisor, a counselor, even a consoler, someone who is with you when you are facing troubles or opportunities. This divine Paraclete, who is sent to the apostles and Mary and the other disciples at Pentecost, equips the whole body of disciples to continue the work of Christ, but not just in one little part of the world, or one snatch of time, but all over the world and to the end of the age.
How did that work out? Well, Luke’s book of Acts, last week, told us that the apostles, almost as soon as the Church was constituted, found their work to be overwhelming and chose seven men of good repute to wait on tables. Almost immediately, we are then told the story of how deacon Stephen got into a dispute in the Synagogue of Freedmen, one that led to his being stoned to death at the feet of Saul. Right after that, and just before today’s story, a great persecution broke out, led by Saul. Followers of Christ were being arrested right and left, and, except for the apostles, the Church scattered all over the land, spreading the good news of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, everywhere they went.
Deacon Philip, you see today, was one of them, and he wasn’t just waiting on tables. He went to Samaria. Now you may know that Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along very well. There was a kind of hatred there that went back hundreds of years. But when Jesus visited Samaria, through the agency of a local woman with a bad reputation, He changed her heart and those of many of her fellow Samaritans. The people of Samaria not only remembered Jesus, they recalled the miraculous signs He had worked to heal people physically and spiritually. So when Philip came to their region, preached like Jesus, drove out demons like Jesus, and healed like Jesus, they came to believe. Even the local magician, Simon, was impressed enough to be baptized. He backslid a bit by wanting the power Philip had exercised, giving the spirit to others, but repented and followed the right path, probably to the end of his life. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not for us to get power over others, or recognition or material wealth. That gift, the greatest we can receive, is for serving the Church.
Saint Peter today is telling us how to be evangelists to a culture that, more than ever, needs to repent and follow Christ. Don’t hide your faith. Exercise it in the public square, but “always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” I have a huge background in Scripture studies, theology, and other God-focused disciplines like worship styles. But I am constantly studying and reading, because there is so much about Jesus and His Church that I don’t yet know. And much of it is on-line and free for anyone to take. Be ready to share your faith with others, but spend time every day letting the Holy Spirit make that faith more understandable, and more ready to profess before the world.
