In today's Gospel Jesus is leaving His disciples. We are deep into the "farewell" table-talk that takes up a major part of John's Gospel. Jesus is saying good-bye to His disciples. Is He leaving them to their own devices? Does He say to them, "I've now given you proper preparation for your roles without me? Good luck. You're on your own"? No.

For three years Jesus has been patiently instructing them in the particulars of His Way in the world. Jesus has allowed them to be first-hand witnesses to all of His wonderful "signs."  Now He says, "I'll give you another Advocate" (John 14:16). This "Advocate"  will be the Holy Spirit who is the same Counselor, Comforter, and Guide that Jesus has been when He was with His disciples.

He does not leave His disciples alone. He does not expect them to find their own way as best they can. He tells them that this companion, this "Advocate,"  the Holy Spirit "will abide with you and will be in you"  (John 14:17). In other words, they will have the same intimate, personal connection with the Advocate that they have enjoyed with Jesus.

There is a message here for us today just as there was for the disciples. When Jesus calls you to follow Him, He doesn't expect you to be some kind of spiritual-super hero. He just wants you to be obedient to Him...to follow Him.

I think this is a message that goes against our ingrained cultural predispositions. We want to be independent-not dependent. Why do students go to college? Rarely do I hear students say initially "to get a good education," or "to gain wisdom." They say, "So I can be out on my own; so I can live my own life free of parental interference.

What do older people fear about getting older? Not the loss of a spouse or even death. They say, "I fear becoming dependent upon my family."

I've even heard a child tell me that he was excited about going to camp this summer "because there you are free to do just about anything you want!"

Today's Gospel depicts another way. It is a way that is characterized by obedience and dependence. Jesus says that we are to obey His commands. If we love Him, then we are to obey Him. Our Gospel today links the command to obedience to Christ with the gift of the Holy Spirit to strengthen our obedience. We are reminded that our Christian faith is not meant to be lived alone, or in isolation. It is meant to be lived in complete, daily dependence upon the love and presence of Christ. We are not to launch out and attempt to love on our own. Our love is dependent upon, derivative from, Christ's love for us. For Christ to be present to us means not simply that Christ is present with us to comfort us, but also ever present to enable us to obey His high commands to love.

Think of that Gift! In order to love in this obedient Christ-like way, we are promised that we shall not be "desolate,"  not left to our own miserable devises, not "orphaned"  and alone. We shall be enabled to love because of the Gift of the Spirit of Truth who "dwells with you."  A major work of the Holy Spirit is to enable us obediently to love.

The other Sunday, I used the example of RCA's Nipper, listening to "His Master's Voice" for the children's message. Of course the children did not know anything about phonograph or gramophone "records" that recorded voice and sound. You may have some of those 45's or 78's stashed in a drawer somewhere around your home. Besides an Elvis recording of "Nothing But a Hound Dog," or the Crickets' "Peggy Sue," or the Paris Sisters' "I Love How You Love Me," or you might have a recording of the blues master, Jimmy Reed.

There's an interesting story behind Jimmy Reed records. In placing the needle again and again in the grooves, and listening carefully, there could sometimes be heard, ever so faintly in the background, a soft woman's

voice murmuring in advance the next verse of the song. The story that grew up around this -- and perhaps it is true -- was that Jimmy Reed was so absorbed in the bluesy beat and the throbbing guitar riffs of his music that he simply could not remember the words of his own songs. He needed help with the lyrics, and the woman's voice was none other than that of his wife, devotedly coaching her husband through the recording session by whispering the upcoming stanzas into his ear as he sang.

Whether or not this story is accurate, we Christians can surely recognize a parallel experience with what Jesus is telling us today about the role of the Holy Spirit: to whisper the love of God and His will in the ears of the faithful. That's what Jesus did when He was present with His disciples. And now that Jesus approaches His death, now that He draws near to His time of departure, now that the disciples will be on their own without Him, that coaching task is to be handed over to the Holy Spirit: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth ..." (John 14:15-17).

The primary task, then, of the Holy Spirit is reminding the faithful of the truth, jogging the memories of the followers of Jesus about all of His commandments so that they can keep them in love, whispering the lyrics of the never-ending hymn of faithful obedience in our ears. It may surprise us to think of the Holy Spirit in this way, as a quiet, whispering teacher of the commandments of Jesus. Often the Spirit is advertised in flashier terms: The Spirit gives ecstasy; the Spirit evokes speaking in unknown tongues; the Spirit prompts dramatic and miraculous healings. Indeed, the Holy Spirit of God does perform such deeds, but these are all derivative of the one, primary activity of the Spirit -- reminding the children of God about everything that Jesus taught and commanded (John 14:26), whispering the gospel lyrics into the ears of the forgetful faithful.
 
The reason we need the Holy Spirit murmuring the gospel in our ears, of course, is that we are notoriously forgetful. As one commentator has pointed out, "an early Christian definition for being lost ... was 'to have amnesia.' "  We are amnesiacs who cannot keep our calling clearly in mind. We drift off majoring in minors, or like the great Jimmy Reed, we are so caught up in the rhythms of the world, that we forget the lyrics of our Lord's commands. We know that we are created for the higher purpose to serve and love one another, but pressure builds to conform and the temptation to seek our own ends increases and we simply forget who we are and what we are purposed to do and be in life.

One way to describe sin is willful forgetfulness. We choose amnesia; we play ignorant and decide, as an act of the will, not to remember that we are God's very own son, God's very own daughter. But then God's Spirit whispers in our ear, refreshing our memory about who we are and to Whom we belong. When, in situations of challenge and stress, when in the midst of curving life in upon ourselves we remember the comfort and demand of the gospel, it is because the voice of the Holy Spirit whispers in our ear.

I'll never forget my experience with Dora Ackerman, a charter member of the previous congregation I served. She had been a dedicated and faithful member of St. Matthew, but was now in a nursing home with the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. From the first time I met her, you could tell she had had the highest regard for the pastoral office-high regard for what and who the individual represented, not unlike what we witnessed by the people who thronged to see the Pope on his visit to the United States. There would be times when she would recognize who I was, and other times she was confused and disoriented. Sometimes she simply could not remember anything, including who she was.

Being hard of hearing did not help the situation, and I would speak to her in her "good" ear, and when she would recognize me, she would say, "Aaaaahh, pastor!" I recall times setting up the communion elements, when her confusion increased. Seeing the bread and the cup on her bed table, she furrowed her brow and tried to sweep them off with her hand, "What's this? What ...?"

But when I would begin the familiar communion liturgy, she grew calm. The Holy Spirit irrigated furrows in her memory deeper than any disease, more profound than any confusion. "On the night that our Lord was betrayed ...,"  I would say, and she began to repeat the words silently with her lips. "This is my body, for you,"  the woman was now quietly speaking the words along with me and then eagerly, hungrily taking the elements in her hands-the gifts of God for this daughter of God. I'll never forget the very last time I visited her on her death bed. I had been summoned in the afternoon, but could not evoke any response from her at all. Her family had assembled to say good-bye, and they were disappointed that there was no acknowledgment. Later that night, I was called out of a council meeting, telling me not to come, since I had already been there that afternoon, but they wanted me to know that the doctors thought it was just a matter of hours. After the council meeting, I went to the nursing home, and her room was filled with family-literally crowed with family members. I went up to her good ear, shared with her who I was, but there was no response. Then I was inspired to begin praying The Lord's Prayer in German, and she immediately chimed in as if the Spirit were whispering the words in her ear. When she came to the Amen, she opened her eyes, and I heard again those words, "Aaaahh Pastor!" but quickly added in a faint voice, "I'm glad you're here."  I shared with her that I wasn't alone, that her whole family was present. With every ounce of strength she could muster, she scooted herself up in bed and greeted everyone in that room by name. I shared with her that we were there to say farewell, and to express our love and gratitude for all she had been to us; and to assure her that our heavenly Father was waiting with welcoming arms to receive her. And she responded, "Thank you, pastor. I'm ready."  With that I pronounced the benediction, commending her to her real Pastor. And with that "Amen!" she breathed her last. And there was silence in that room like there is here in this sanctuary. All one could hear was the silent whispering of the Holy Spirit assuring all of us, including Dora, of God's love

Friends, even when we do not have a faithful memory, God remembers, and by the grace of God, the Spirit still speaks to our soul with the saving gospel that Dora lived and knew so well.

Well, at the end of this worship service, we are going to open up the doors to this church and send you back out into the world as Jesus' disciples. We are commanded to love, but the world doesn't work that way. The world doesn't recognize that kind of servant love. It is more comfortable turning things upside down, toward number one, or it looks at the bottom line. We are also commanded to witness to Jesus' love for us; but the secular world commands us to keep quiet about our faith, and just go along to get along.

Jesus says obedience is required:  a dogged determination to obey Jesus and to walk in His loving Way, no matter what nine out of ten average Americans do. That will take obedience.

And if walking out of here and praising God in all that you do or say, or being honest about your sinful limitations, or forgiving those who persecute and wrong you seems like an impossible task for a person like you, well, take heart! Jesus will not leave you alone. He doesn't expect you to be faithful on your own. He sends you the Holy Spirit, that constant, near presence of God to embolden you, to strengthen you, to enable you to be more than you could be on your own.  Amen!