The Holy Spirit arguably has more images in the Bible than any other being. The wind hovering over the waters of creation, the Spirit was also present in a burning bush and came around for Jesus’ baptism in the form of a dove. To use a singular pronoun for the Spirit seems incomplete. The Spirit is more of a “they”—wind, fire, breath, comforter, teacher, guide, advocate…
Our scripture reading today carries forward last week’s message of Pentecost and invites us to appreciate the Holy Spirit from a different perspective. Let’s listen together for what the Spirit is saying to the church in these words of Jesus to his disciples from John 16:12–15:
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, they will guide you into all the truth, for they will not speak on their own but will speak whatever they hear, and they will declare to you the things that are to come. They will glorify me because they will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that they will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Last week, on Pentecost Sunday, we heard how the divine Spirit showed up among a diverse gathering of Jesus’ followers and all heaven broke loose. In the Pentecost story in the book of Acts, the Spirit came like the rush of a violent wind, filling the space and the people in it, and resting upon them with foreign tongues as of fire. It was biblical drama at its best! No wonder biblical scholar Margaret Aymer contends that, at Pentecost, “The Holy Spirit proves not to be a quiet, heavenly dove but, rather, a violent force that blows the church into being.” (1)
While perhaps few of us have had such a direct experience of the wildness of the Spirit, our theological ancestors in the Celtic tradition sought to symbolize this element of the divine by portraying the Spirit not as a dove, as we often see in religious imagery, but as a wild goose—Holy Ghost as Holy Goose. If you’ve ever gotten too close to the territory of a goose, you know it is not only a funny creature, with its waddling and disruptive honking, but also a fierce one. A goose is unafraid to charge directly at you, baring its beak and webbed claws while braying like a donkey. So too can the divine Spirit be unpredictable—landing on whosoever they choose and refusing our feeble efforts to restrain them.
This week, our gospel text focuses on another primary dimension of the Holy Spirit: their relationality.
As we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, Jesus does not seek to explain the Spirit to his disciples, but rather to introduce the Spirit to them—to prepare them to meet this Advocate who is to come. Maybe you, like me, find that identity of the Spirit more approachable than the notion of a violent force or a Holy Goose. Maybe you find it more accessible than a metaphysical treatise seeking to explain the Trinity.
Have you ever wondered why, when we try to describe the Trinity, so often it seems like we’re talking about two dudes and a bird?
If so, then today’s text is for you. Jesus introduces the missing person in the Trinity. He seems to convey that the relationship among the divine Parent, Son, and Spirit—which we have come to call the doctrine of the Trinity—is really about God’s desire to be known. The God of all creation draws near to humanity as one of us in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit carries on the life and ministry of Jesus through us as we seek to follow his teachings and embody God’s love for the world.
In contrast with the public setting of the Pentecost narrative, our reading today drops us right into the middle of a long and intimate conversation between Jesus and his disciples. It comes from a section in the gospel according to John often called the farewell discourse, which spans four chapters (14–17). He has gathered them for a final evening together, given them a new commandment (to love one another), and knelt down to wash their feet. Then, like the dinner party guest who always has one more thing to say before finally taking their leave, Jesus has been expounding on the most important lessons he wants to impart about who he is and what kind of community he wants them to be.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (v. 12), he says.
We can wonder whether his followers cannot bear hearing more because he has already been talking for so long, or whether it is that they could never fully prepare for the coming realities of his death, resurrection, and physical absence—despite his best efforts. So John shows us Jesus in his most pastoral element, reassuring the disciples that he will not abandon them and that they might not yet know the Spirit, but he does. Because they know and trust Jesus, they therefore can trust the Spirit, who will be their advocate when times get tough, who will guide them in the truth as they put Jesus’ teachings into practice after he is gone.
Here, the first gifts of the Spirit will be familiarity and continuity as they enter a time of challenge and change. Another important gift, though, is community. Jesus addresses his followers with the plural “you,” conveying that not only will they have the Spirit as their guide, but they will also have one another—that they can, and must, continue along the life-giving path he has modeled for them as a community. (2)
In a time so focused on the individual, we too need to be reminded that we grow in faith by seeing how Jesus shows us God’s love—and that we come to understand that love most clearly through the Spirit working in community. The late Reformed theologian Shirley Guthrie has also cautioned that there is not just one spirit out there. There are many spirits (with a lowercase “s”), and it takes being part of a community of faith and practice to help us discern these spirits from the one Jesus introduces.
There are evil spirits—envy, hatred, greed, revenge, lust for power—that cause brokenness in our lives. There are the spirits of various interest groups, some of which encourage transformation and collaboration and others of which cause division and toxicity. (3) There are spirits of the times, and we know these spirits all too well.
We know the spirit of acquisitiveness that keeps our inboxes and social media feeds cluttered with messages that we don’t yet have enough but are always just one more purchase away from happiness.
We know the spirit of insecurity or comparison, which looks around instead of inward and tells us we are not and will never be enough to be content, to be accepted, to be loved.
We know the spirit of judgment, whispering to us of our neighbor’s not enoughness and our own superiority, moral or otherwise.
We know the spirit of scarcity and “me first,” filling us with fear that there simply is not enough for us and for the neighbor, the stranger, and the immigrant to thrive, and that we have to protect what we think is ours.
Those spirits of our times are powerful, but they are not holy. They animate so much of the chaos and destruction we see in the news cycle and may feel in our lives, and yet the good news is that Jesus invites us to know a different Spirit—the One who connects us with one another, who fills us with God’s love, who empowers us to share God’s love with others by taking our cues from Jesus’ ministry.
What does it look like when we help one another tune into that Spirit and allow the missing person in the Trinity to reanimate our lives and our life together as a community?
According to Jesus in Matthew 25, it looks like our relationship with God overflowing into acts of kindness and service for others, especially those society deems “the least” (Matt. 25:31-46).
According to the author of Luke and Acts, it looks like a community of faith rooted in the practices of baptism, prayer, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the sharing of resources (Acts 2:41–47).
According to the apostle Paul, it looks like all of us trying, however imperfectly, to embody the characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).
I would hazard a guess that it also looks like dedicating time and energy to neighbors in Alamosa through the La Puente service trip.
In short—because there are many things that could be said, but we cannot possibly bear them now—it looks like love.
Although we face chaos, fear, and uncertainty in our world in much the same way that the first-century disciples did, there is good news for us in the gospel today. My colleague Chelsea Yarborough, a womanist preacher and professor, summarizes that good news like this:
“Jesus reminds the disciples and those of us witnessing now that so much of faith is staying attuned to what is coming, and trusting in its unfolding. It is receiving the gifts of wisdom from the Spirit and walking through the uncertainty, even as we trust…that we are not alone and that the Trinity (above, around, within us) is guiding us to the truth that looks like love.” (4)
So friends, as hard as it may be to resist the lesser spirits of our times and follow the way of love instead, let’s keep the faith. We know the Holy Spirit. And we have each other.
In the name of the creative God who invites us into relationship and mission, Jesus who accompanies us on the journey, and the Spirit who united the ancient church at Pentecost and guides us still, thanks be to God!
Sources:
(1) Margaret Aymer, Commentary on Acts 2:1-21, Working Preacher, June 8, 2025 (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost-3/commentary-on-acts-21-21-18).
(2) Chelsea Yarborough, Commentary on John 16:12-15, Working Preacher, June 15, 2025 (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/the-holy-trinity-3/commentary-on-john-1612-15-6).
(3) Shirley Guthrie, Christian Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994).
(4) Chelsea Yarborough, Commentary on John 16:12-15, Working Preacher, June 15, 2025 (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/the-holy-trinity-3/commentary-on-john-1612-15-6).
