Another Paraclete

Pentecost Sunday
St Paul’s Church Ipswich
8 June 2025

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Today we conclude the Great Fifty Days of Easter.

This is a day of celebration.

A week of weeks has passed since Easter morning and now we move into a new phase of our life and mission together in the heart of Ipswich.

In another 50 days—another week of weeks—we shall be welcoming Mpole and his family among us as he commences his ministry as our new Parish Priest.

Today we look 50 days back to Easter and 50 days forward to a whole new beginning.

We are at the midpoint of a very special 100 days.

In the Gospel today we are introduced to an unusual word: paraclete.

That term is used four times in John’s material relating to the Last Supper and just one other time in the New Testament: 1 John 2:1 where Jesus is called our Paraclete.

It is never used in the other Gospels. Paul never uses it. Nor do any of the other NT books. It is a word only found within the Johannine communities around the end of the first century.

I would not normally base a sermon around one word in a Bible passage, but I think this word is worth us spending some time to mull it over, as it were.

We discussed this word during our Thursday night online Bible study when we looked at the readings for the next Sunday, so I want to share some of our insights from that discussion with you all here this morning.

The basic meaning of the Greek word is plain enough: called—or maybe, sent—alongside.

We have quite a variety of ways in which this Greek term is translated into English, and even more variety when translators try to express its central idea in other world languages and cultures:

• KJV (1611) – Comforter
• Douay-Rheims (1750) – Paraclete
• New American Standard Bible (1977) – Helper
• New Jerusalem Bible (1990) – Paraclete
• New International Version – Counsellor (1984), Advocate (2011)
• ESV (2016) – Helper
• NRSV (2021) – Advocate
• Holman Christian Standard Bible (2003) – Counsellor

When Jesus speaks of this other Paraclete who he or the Father will send once Jesus is no longer with us, it is quite clear that Jesus is describing the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Truth as the ongoing presence of God with us, among us and between us.

But I am intrigued—and we were all intrigued last Thursday night—by the phase “another Paraclete.”

This invites us to think of Jesus as also being our Paraclete, and indeed as the original Paraclete.

This invites us to reflect on how we understand the role Jesus had in the lives of the people of his time, as we seek to grasp what may be the role of the Spirit of Truth in our lives now.

Without going too deeply down the rabbit hole here, let’s just pick up the idea that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us.

Emmanuel may be one way to get to the heart of what paraclete means.

It is a familiar way of describing Jesus, although we tend only to use that word in Advent and at Christmas time.

• As God-with-us, Jesus comes among us and calls us to turn to God  
• As God-with-us, Jesus forgives our sins and offers us new life.
• As God-with-us, Jesus heals us and calms our troubled souls.
• As God-with-us, Jesus teaches the wisdom we need for everyday life as the people of God.
• As God-with-us, Jesus sends us out to share the good news.

This other Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, is also God-with-us, also Emmanuel:

• As God-with-us, the Spirit of Truth comes among us and calls us to turn to God.
• As God-with-us, the Spirit of Truth forgives our sins as we are baptised.
• As God-with-us, the Spirit of Truth renews the life of God within us in the Eucharist.
• As God-with-us, the Spirit of Truth speaks to us as the Scriptures are read.
• As God-with-us, the Spirit of Truth empowers us to share the good news with others.

The God who has been known to us as Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, is the same God now known among us as the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus.

The same God.

The same dynamic power seen wherever God is active.

The same enlivening, healing and transformative presence.

Emmanuel once more, as always.

With us during the next 50 days, and all the days after that as well.

Alleluia. Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.