Today the whole Anglican union is prevailed upon to pray for Zimbabwe.  We are called upon, as Christians of all denominations in all nations, to focus our prayers today on the critical situation in Zimbabwe, a nation in dire distress and teetering on the brink of human disaster.
In dedicating this sermon about the Holy Spirit to the people of Zimbabwe I pray:
God of glory and unquenchable spirit, may your Son direct us afresh to the fire of your presence where nothing may amaze us more than your love, nothing may inspire us more than your forgiveness and nothing dazzle us more than your beauty, disclosed to us in your world, your story and your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

This little box of tricks is called a ‘Satnav’.  A fair number of people here will have one and will use it on a regular basis.  It replaces maps and it audibly tells us how to get from one place to another in the car.  It’s amazing. By referencing itself to signals emitted from three satellites it can locate itself within 10 metres.  We call ours ‘Jimmy’ for no good reason.  More amazingly you can choose the voice it speaks with.  Margaret elects for Jimmy’s husky masculine drawl.  A colleague has the voice of John Cleese on his – just imagine!  I prefer the authoritative and romantic intones of Jemima who guides me effortlessly to obscure places in Oldham, Rochdale or Liverpool.  Unfortunately, I recently left it set on the ‘motorway route’ preference and when Margaret used it to get to an address in Corby she found herself routed via Northampton and Birmingham and then back on the M69 to Leicester. It was only when she was on the outskirts of Crewe that she realised she had been misled.  No, I jest. But it can mislead and literally take you up the garden path unless you give it very clear instructions.

On the face of it, that has nothing to do with today’s gospel reading from John, but I ask you just to park the idea of the Satnav somewhere in your mind for the next few minutes and then we’ll come back to it. Two phrases from this morning’s reading, and one from a few verses further on, characterise the poetry and majesty of John’s writing.  They are: (firstly) ‘I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever’; (secondly) ‘On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’; (thirdly – later on) ’Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you’.  I don’t know about you but every time I hear those phrases it sends a little shiver through me and subsequently I feel a warm and comforting glow. The setting for these wonderful words is the conversation between Jesus and his disciples as they celebrated the feast of the Passover at an evening supper.  Known as the last supper it is a key event in the Jesus story, placed between the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the betrayal, trial and crucifixion.  John describes the conversation in considerable detail - much more so than in any of the other gospels.  This level of intimate detail, combined with the often complex, but beautiful, language and imagery the writer uses, strikes a big difference between John’s Gospel and those of Matthew, Mark and Luke.   It’s worth pausing for a moment to explore the reasons for this difference. The key point here is that John was an eye witness – he was actually there.  This is in contrast to the other Gospels written for distinctive audiences by folk who were steeped in the Jesus story but who received it second hand.  John was, I quote, ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’ and there are no less than five indications of this in the text.  Theologians think that the gospel was probably written a little later than the synoptic gospels and one of the purposes was to supplement or even possibly correct the writings of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  He aimed to appeal to Greek thinkers and his main purpose was expressed clearly in chapter 20: ‘These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’.. It must have been scary for the disciples, John included.  Here was Jesus foretelling of his own destruction and invoking a new piece of the jigsaw – the Holy Spirit.  He promised a friend, a counsellor, an advocate, a helper who would, as it says in verse 18, not leave them orphaned.  He was also telling them that this Spirit would live within them and that Jesus would be with the Father and that they were all one.  Here was the first indication of what we now happily and often uncritically accept as the Holy Trinity. Yes, the cross would separate those on earth from Jesus, whom they would not see again, but he would always be there for them – providing they loved him and followed his command.  Through this they would have life eternal. But remember, all this was said before the crucifixion, before the resurrection, before his recorded subsequent eleven appearances, before the ascension and before the Holy Spirit actually came to them, as described in Acts.  We have the benefit of knowing the whole story. For them this was complex, scary and subject to disbelief.  For them, accepting what Jesus said was the supreme act of faith and Jesus knew that.  In verse 27 (a bit later on) he empathises with them and prevails on them: ‘do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid’.  I don’t know what you think, but if I’d been there I would have been, as my children would say, using today’s vernacular, ‘well scared’! From our frail human position it’s not surprising that Peter denied, that Thomas doubted and that Judas became irrational.  Ask yourself and reflect on what your reaction would have been.  Would you have happily accepted all this, stuck with Jesus to the bitter end and then gone out and preached his good news?  Or would you have done a runner and gone back to family, friends, central heating, home comforts and soap operas on TV? The great and good news is that they did stick with it, and that through them (the disciples) we have come to hear the goods news for ourselves.  And that is just what Jesus wanted.  He wanted his disciples to go forward in faith and comfort, guided and supported by this new third party, the Holy Spirit, to bring the Father’s love to us all.  He wanted us all to know, through his sacrifice on the cross and subsequent separation from us, that we could live in him and he in us. You know, it just doesn’t get much better than that and we should rejoice in knowing that the mighty counsellor, the friend and guide, the supporter and helper is here among us and in us forever.  All we need to do, as it says in verse 21, is know Jesus’ commands and obey them. The Holy Spirit that Jesus promised may have come to you with a bang and in a moment of cataclysmic revelation or it may have crept quietly upon you and be there without you knowing. But whichever way, if you seek it, it will be there.  That’s what Jesus promised his disciples and if we become a disciple too, it will be there for us. Now, back for a moment to Satnavs.  Have you seen the connection?  For me, it’s this.  The Satnav is akin to the Holy Spirit –there to guide and direct, support and provide.  The requirement for me is to a) set my linkage to it correctly so that b) I can here what it says in order to go to the right place. I can choose the voice through which I hear it and the options for this we have as Christians are the four gospels and the epistles that supplement them.  I said earlier that I prefer the intonation of Jemima on our car based Satnav.  But which of the gospel writers would I personally prefer to hear about the Holy Spirit from? That’s easy and that’s why it is a great joy to preach this morning from my favourite gospel – the one according to John.  I love the language, I love the poetry, the imagery, the detail and the by ways he takes me along.  If I wanted to go on the motorway I would choose Mark, breathless and fast paced.  If I wanted verification that I was on the right road I’d choose Matthew.  If I wanted detailed acquaintance with the map maker I would choose Luke. So there.  He we are.  Our first look in this year’s Christian calendar at the foretelling of the Holy Spirit.  Now, it’s time for me to set this week’s homework and here it is:  Three questions each to be written up neatly and handed in for marking next Sunday.

1.Are you still and quiet enough, often enough, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life?

2.Can you take the same leap of faith that the scared disciples took in order to carry the good news onwards and outwards?
3. If we only ever had John’s gospel what would our Christian belief look like?

To answer the third question you need to read it.  Perhaps the best couple of hours you could invest.  Amen.