In today’s gospel reading, we hear Jesus promising to leave the Holy Spirit with his disciples. I want to begin by concentrating on just one word, the word which, in this translation, is the Advocate. I wonder if anyone can tell us what Greek word is being translated here? To give you a clue, it is a Greek word that is sometimes used in English translations. Anyone? To give you another clue, it begins with P… That’s right, the Paraclete! Now, the Paraclete literally means the one called alongside. Para, ‘with/alongside’, and kletos, a ‘helper/assistant’. We have lots of translations of this Paracletos in English. The helper, the councillor, the comforter: Comforter is fine as long as we remember that it is the original use of the English word meaning strengthener. We mustn’t think of the Holy Spirit simply as something that wraps us up in a spiritual blanket and gives us a mug of cocoa. But perhaps the expression that comes closest to keeping the original Greek idea of the Paracletos is something like a defense attorney. Hence the word we have here, advocate. At a trial, the Paracletos is the skilled ally of the defendant.
I will come back to the Paraclete in a moment, but first, I want to tell you a story. Do you know where the word bungalow comes from? Of course, a bungalow is a single-story house. Well, once there was a rich man who was building a very large house. The foundations had been dug. The walls of the first story had been built when, unfortunately, he ran out of money. Some economic catastrophe had taken all his wealth from him. So he goes to the builders and says, “You will have to stop work immediately.” And the architect says, “Why?” “Because I’ve no money left.” “Well,” says the architect, “what do you expect us to do?” To which the rich man replies, “Why don’t you just bung a low roof on it, given that you have already built the first storey?”
This is an example of what is known as folk etymology. It is a story that explains the origins of a word which is clearly false. I have another such story, one of my favourites, which you may have heard already. It concerns the word marmalade. Where does the word marmalade come from? Do you remember who Mary, Queen of Scots, was? She was a cousin of Elizabeth I, who seemed to have caused and got into trouble wherever she went. Indeed, she was imprisoned for nearly 19 years by her cousin Elizabeth and eventually beheaded in 1587. There are two things that you have to know about Mary, Queen of Scots. The first is that she was brought up in France, and indeed, her first husband was a French prince. And secondly, all her life, she suffered from migraines. And when she got these migraines, these really severe headaches, her Parisian doctors suggested that she eat a large spoonful of jam made with the best Seville oranges. This probably wasn’t such a bad idea. The sugar and the vitamin C may well have helped. So when she moved to Edinburgh and would wake in the middle of the night with one of her severe headaches, the French maids would scurry up and down the stairs to the kitchen saying, “Vite, vite, Marie est malade.” “Marie est malade.” “Mary is sick again.” And the Scottish soldiers who heard “Marie est malade” said, “Oh, they’re looking for the marmalade again.” It’s a great story, but complete fiction.
Why am I telling you these stories, and what have they got to do with the Paraclete? Simply this. When the Greek word Paraclete passed into the Aramaic language, the language that Jesus and his disciples and therefore which a large part the early church spoke, Paraclete sounded very much like the Aramaic praq lyta, which means praq to end, to finish, even to save, to deliver, and lyta a curse. So the Paraclete, for the speakers of Aramaic, became the curse ender.
And that’s a splendid understanding of the Holy Spirit, and a perfect job description of what he can do. We all live under curses: that is what is meant by living in a fallen world; that is what is meant by the doctrine of original sin. Not that we have come into the world full of wickedness, or – heaven forbid! – that love-making is bad and yet we have all come into the world as a result of love-making. No! It means two things: on the one hand, we have been born into a world where human institutions are not fair – indeed, the human beings before us and around us have created a world which is deeply unfair, which is deeply flawed. And on the other hand, we have been born into a world with hearts that are not naturally righteous or loving; we do not turn naturally to either God or our neighbour in love. These two factors account for the countless curses we live under.
Yet here we have Jesus’s promise: I will not leave you orphaned. I will ask the Father and He will send you another Helper, the Paraclete, the Curse-Ender, to be with you for ever. What a wonderful promise is this!
But notice that there are some conditions attached, before we can receive Christ’s promise: If you love me you will keep my commandments. In other words we must have a faith – a trusting relationship with the Lord Jesus – and we must be obedient, striving to love God and our neighbour. No matter that we will fail to do this, time and time over. God in His mercy offers us forgiveness, time and time over, and our Lord Jesus promises to send his Spirit to end all curses upon our lives and upon our hearts.
Here we are meeting Sunday by Sunday in the Church of the Holy Ghost, and this is what that name can mean: we can experience the Spirit’s presence – in prayer, in worship, and in community; this Church can be a family where no one is an orphan; and the Spirit can empower us to be present to others – by welcoming strangers and accepting His gifts in our lives and in our community. So let me end with a challenge and a prayer. The challenge is that this week you should invite the Spirit to reveal Christ’s presence to you. And the prayer is an ancient one:
Breathe in us, O Holy Spirit,
that our hearts may be open to your grace.
Ignite in us the flame of your love,
so that we may be transformed
and the world renewed through us.
Amen, and again, Amen.