STREETZine

STREETZine is a program of The Stewpot.

Pastor’s Letter: The Advocate

By Reverend Amos Jerman Disasa

Editor’s Note: This essay is excerpted from a sermon that Rev. Disasa delivered at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas on May 14, 2023.

The STREETZine is a monthly newspaper published by The Stewpot, a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. The Stewpot provides services and resources for people experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of being homeless. The organization also offers opportunities for a new life.

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STREETZine is published by The Stewpot of First Presbyterian Church.

Managing Editor: Wendy Rojo

Editorial Advisory Board: The Rev. Amos Disasa

Brenda Snitzer

Suzanne Erickson

Russell Coleman

Poppy Sundeen

Sarah Disasa

William McKenzie

Betty Heckman

Photo Editor: Jesse Hornbuckle

The 16th verse of John 14 includes a word that is unique to John’s gospel. The word is paraclete, which is translated from Greek to English as “advocate.” Jesus says to the disciples in verse 16, “I will ask God, and God will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

John is the only gospel that identifies the Holy Spirit as an advocate, and Verse 16 is the first of four instances where Jesus reassures the uncertain disciples with a promise that after he is gone to be with the God, the Holy Spirit will come to advocate on their behalf.

Biblical scholars are still debating where the gospel writer of John sourced this strange name for the Holy Spirit. To those of us who don’t earn our living reading biblical Greek, the debate may sound academic. Does it make a difference that John’s Jesus can’t make up his mind if he will ask God for an advocate or a spirit in his absence? I don’t know about you, but I vote for both. Tomato, tomato. Potato, potato. If there is a difference, give me both and I’ll keep the one I like.

Jesus says the advocate is only available for those who keep his commandments

The problem with that approach is that we don’t get to pick. Jesus says the advocate is only available for those who keep his commandments. He said, “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.”

Which is Jesus’ way of saying that…

• The promise of the advocate is not for the know-it-alls that lean on their seniority, or their proximity to power, or their privileged position at the top of social castes dressed up as meritocracies.

• The promise of the advocate is not for the carnival barkers that confuse the volume of their voices as authority.

• The promise of the advocate is not for the churchgoers toting big Bibles that announce their righteousness, and big opinions about how the church should do this or that but get real quiet when it’s time to sacrifice their time or money.

I wish I could preach a nice sermon that doesn’t leave anyone out. But there will never be a good day to toss this wet blanket of a scripture reading onto our postmodern belief that everyone is entitled to their own version of the truth.

And it may be a disappointment to dis cover that neither your privilege nor your marginalization, your faithful church attendance nor your religious open-mindedness, your conservatism nor your liberalism, has anything to do with whether the advocate is in you.

There is a spark of the divine in each of us, but the fire for justice, and the glow of righteousness, and the flame of godliness is reserved for the keepers, not the qualifiers.

As Jesus tells it in our text today, the advocate is earned, not given. There is a spark of the divine in each of us, but the fire for justice, and the glow of righteousness, and the flame of godliness is reserved for the keepers, not the qualifiers. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who keep Jesus’ commandments, and those who qualify them with their own.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who keep Jesus’ commandments, and those who qualify them with their own.

Many will say they know what’s true in a broken world that believes truth is in the eye of the beholder. But before you click their like, follow, or share button, check to see if they keep Jesus’ commandments.

Sounds simple, I know. Maybe even too simple and a little too Christiany in a choose-your-own adventure world that centers the individual as the arbitrator of truth. We can see our preference for quick solutions to the perennial problem that is distinguishing one truth from another by observing the Christian church’s response to the decline in church attendance. We should note, though, that the

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