Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Sermon: The Child Advocate
John 14:15-21
When the home life of a child is not safe, when there are drugs involved,
or physical abuse that threatens the child’s life, our society has to make a
difficult decision. Should the child stay in that situation, or would it be
better for the child to move to a new home, a foster home or perhaps even an
adoptive home? Often in the midst of this process the court appoints an
advocate for the child. That person’s job is to listen to the child and to
speak what he or she cannot in the court, which could be a very frightening and
confusing place for the child. But even more than that, the hope is that with
the help of this person, the child’s best interests are looked after.
An example, Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers Connie and Pam have
working together with a boy named Cal since 2006. The Agency has had permanent
custody of him since he was 10. Cal was placed in two pre adoptive homes, but
both ended up not working and Cal returned to foster care four years after entering
the system. Despite the families not working out, “one positive came out of the
second pre-adoptive placement; that family had enrolled Cal in an excellent
Charter school that was a perfect match for his special needs.”
But when Cal returned to foster care, “the new Foster Mother decided she
couldn’t provide transportation for Cal to and from the Charter school and
wanted him moved to a public school in her neighborhood. The Agency who held
custody of Cal agreed and decided to remove Cal from the Charter school.”
The two advocates knew Cal better than anyone else on the case because they
had worked with him for so long. They “objected and asked the Agency to find
alternative transportation. The Agency declined, stating that no transportation
was available. Knowing this Charter school provided something very special for
this troubled child,” they asked their Court Appoint Special Advocate Office
for assistance. “This request was not made lightly.” Connie had been a
volunteer for 25 years and had asked for attorney assistance only once. Pam had
been a volunteer for 9 years and had never had an attorney to represent her.
“To say they felt strongly about the Charter school being in Cal’s best
interests is an understatement.” A motion was filed on behalf of the
volunteers, “and the Agency was ordered to keep Cal in his Charter school for
the time being. Pam and Connie immediately went to work looking for
transportation for Cal that would both accommodate him and meet with Agency
approval.” They found that the city had a special bus service for riders with
disabilities that transported some other children to that Charter school. Two
months later Cal was approved for that transportation without ever having to
leave the school that met his needs. Cal is 15-years-old now and his volunteers
continue to advocate for him.[1]
That’s a great story, right? There was someone to speak up for Cal and what
was best for him when he couldn’t do it for himself. I tell that story because
in our scripture lesson, Jesus tells us that although he is leaving earth,
God’s spirit will remain with us, and that spirit will act as an advocate for
us. Let me read it so you can hear it as the gospel of John tells it. Jesus
says,
“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, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he
abides with you, and he will be in you.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am
coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will
see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am
in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and
keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
It is a bit of a confusing passage, I admit. But focus for a moment, just
on the idea that the Holy Spirit that Jesus has sent us is an advocate. In many
ways the word used here for our advocate is like the work done by a child
advocate. The spirit’s job is like that of a protector and defender, who is
meant to encourage, help, comfort, and above all make sure that our best
interests are looked after. If you look at the scripture carefully you will see
that Jesus tells us that the Spirit will listen to us, love us, and ensure that
we are not orphaned or lost in the system. Which is all wonderful. Especially
in those days when we feel like no one is listening to us.
So even though Jesus is no longer physically here on earth, even though he
isn’t walking along side of us, he has made sure that another is looking out
for us. Great message, and we could stop there and feel good about ourselves,
saying, “Yay! We have an advocate!”
But if we stop there with Jesus’ message to us, we will miss an important
piece of what he is teaching here. He is not simply telling us that we have a
person we can go to so that we can have all our wishes fulfilled. Our advocate
isn’t just a wishing well.
Five times in this passage the word love is used as a verb[2].
Jesus is not talking about the idea of love, but reminding us that love
is an action, a thing to be done, an activity to be pursued. It is a
commandment to be followed, but also a power to be received.
Think about it for a moment. Imagine that you are a puppy in the shelter
awaiting adoption. One day two families come in and both want to adopt you. The
first family says that they love you. They tell you that they have a loving
home, they say that they have strong feelings for you, and that they are very
interested in you. The second family also tells you they love you but when they
come in they give you hugs, they have brought a toy and they sit and play with
you, they let you lick their faces and laugh. Which family would you want to go
with? The one that talks about love as an idea? Or the one that loves through
their actions?
Most of us would probably choose the second because the love is lived. That
is what it means to say that love is a verb, an action. Likewise, Jesus isn’t
talking about an idea that comes from God which we receive with our mind, but
Jesus is talking about an active power that flows through the Spirit, and then
fills us until that same love flows through us to others. It moves through us
and is shown, and lived in our actions towards others.
So Jesus when he says that he will not leave us orphaned, and that he is
sending us an advocate, and then speaks of love using a verb form of it five
times, he seems to be suggesting that the Holy Spirit has a role in our learning
about love.
In a sense you could say that we are being sent to a charter school by the
Holy Spirit, and the lesson we are expected to learn is a lesson in love. This
is how God looks after our best interests. God knows that one of the problems
that sometimes happens to those who feel abandoned, to those who are afraid, is
that they don’t have anyone to teach them how to love, and so God has left us
the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and do just that for us.
So as I read it, Jesus is quite clear, that our advocate not only listens
to us and our needs, but also is striving to push us and challenge us – even
commanding us – to love. That command in this passage is to love Christ, but in
the very next chapter Jesus will also command us to love others. In a sense,
the advocate is like that person who looks out for us and shows us love, and we
learn to love that person in return. Eventually we learn that this individual’s
unconditional love is an example to us on how we can love others, and so in
learning to love them we also learn to love others.
So let me summarize: I realize that the scripture today was complicated,
but think of the Holy Spirit as though Jesus appointed a special advocate who
wants the best for us, who dwells with us through thick and thin, who shows us
love. This is good news. In doing that, the advocate expects us to learn from
the example we have been shown, and to grow in our ability to love. This is the
challenge to put the good news into action.
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