The Advocate: John 16:12-15

John 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,

he will guide you to all truth.

He will not speak on his own,

but he will speak what he hears,

and will declare to you the things that are coming.

He will glorify me,

because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Everything that the Father has is mine;

for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine

and declare it to you."

This is Trinity Sunday in most of church land, and many Rev. Bloggers are getting their Creed on. Not long ago, I would probably have been smug or incredulous about the whole thing. (I am the person who in seminary wanted to make prank phone calls to the Prot Schools, saying, "The trinity is silly!" and hang up. Thankfully, I was at least mature enough not to follow through.) But in reading these blogs, I am impressed with the serious struggle each preacher makes with the meaning of trinity. Balancing tradition with modernity, mystery and faith, and fears of facing blank, bored faces in the pews. It isn't my struggle, but I've made similar ones.

So what does a good Unitarian Universalist make of this passage? I'm struck by the line, "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now..." You can feel them pressing him with questions, and his own sense of the time running out. Maybe they were just starting to get what he was saying. The disciples are a famously clueless lot, and I have the sense that Jesus was fed up a good bit of the time. And yet, he still wants to teach them, he still has faith in them and their worthiness to learn and spread his message. He sounds so human and so sad. He wants, somehow, to love them and teach them beyond his own life.

I think of the bride I met a few months ago, whose father died when she was four. Before he died, he made a tape for her, telling her about everything he wished for her life - love, education, children of her own. What an act of generosity, I thought. To say things she could not have understood then - and in so doing, to love her well past his own life. She is planning to transcribe some of the tape and have one of her uncles read it in the wedding. The groom was a little nervous when he heard this. He thought she might lose it during the ceremony - or more likely, that he might. These would be some powerful words. She assured him that they would be just fine. I assured them they would probably not be, but it would be worth it.

I don't know what Jesus means about the Advocate. I do know some of the words of Jesus were actually words they believe he spoke, and some of the words were added later to describe their shared experience of Jesus after his death. They grew in understanding after he died. He somehow continued to teach them. And he continues to teach us now. Tradition, mystery, faith and sometimes apathetic community all have a hand in it.