Sermon for May 25, 2025
Easter 6 C
John 14:23-29; Acts 16:6-15
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
You may know that I am an Eagle Scout, but you probably don’t know that I almost didn’t make it. It is a hard and fast rule that you must complete all your requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout (including the daunting “Eagle Project”) before your 18th birthday. As my senior year of high school began about 5 months before my birthday, and knowing I would have lots of stuff going on, I had basically given up on making Eagle. But my dad advocated an idea I hadn’t thought of: “What if you just focused on finishing the few remaining merit badges you would need. Even if you don’t do an Eagle project, at least you could say you almost made it.” So I started working on those merit badges, which my Scoutmaster, Mr. Kruzik, took note of. Mr. Kruzik said, “If you finish these merit badges, all you’ll need for Eagle is the project. Maybe you won’t finish on time, but you’ll never know if you don’t try.” I realized he was right, and the advocacy of my dad and Mr. Kruzik inspired me to redouble my efforts.
Two days before my 18th birthday, I completed all the requirements! But I wasn’t quite done. I had to wait for the Board of Review (which could happen after you turned 18), where I’d have to be interviewed by a few adult Scout leaders from around the city. They would have the final say. Our troop was allowed to send one person to be on the Board of Review, and they sent Mrs. Iwoskow, the mother of one of our older Eagle Scouts. She was also a devoted Christian, who taught religion in the neighborhood Catholic school.
As I sat in the Board of Review, I was not afraid, but definitely nervous. And I was, you might say, a quieter person than most of our other Eagle Scouts. That, combined with finishing my requirements in just the nick of time, made some of them skeptical of whether I had truly earned the rank of Eagle. I made my own case as best I could, but what really turned the corner for me was the advocacy of Mrs. Iwoskow. “Yes, he’s quieter” she told them, “but different people have different kinds of gifts, and he uses his God-given abilities to be a leader in his own way.”
As I reflect on it these many years later, I know that I would never have made Eagle Scout without the advocacy of my dad, Mr. Kruzik, and Mrs. Iwoskow. All of them were not only committed to the ideals of Scouting and the boys of the troop, but even more so they were all devoted Christians who lived by faith in Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. It was not simply their knowledge of me and the situation, but their faith and their experience of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, which committed them to live lives of service to others. This inspired them to by my advocates.
And, I would say, their advocacy came because in every time and place Jesus keeps finding ways to fulfill his promise: that he will send the Holy Spirit upon his people. We hear this promise in John 14:26-27 where Jesus says “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you… Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Because Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate, he empowers us to be advocates for others. And that can lead you in some unexpected directions. Five months before my 18th birthday, I didn’t expect to make Eagle Scout. But a few advocates changed my direction and encouraged me to accomplish something that had a great impact on my life.
Acts 16 also shows us some unexpected direction that the Holy Spirit takes people. Paul, Silas, and Timothy have big plans to take the message of Jesus to Asia, but they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit”. So they changed plans and attempted to go to Bithynia instead (which in modern times is in northern Turkey). Again, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”. It’s not that they had bad intentions, it’s simply that their plans were not God’s plans for them. They needed to stop telling God what to do, and start listening for God’s plan which would lead them to a blessing.
Their listening for God came by way of a dream, and in that dream a man from Macedonia (in modern-day Greece) advocated for them to “come over and help us”. So they set sail across the Aegean Sea. Once again, the Holy Spirit complicates their plans. Instead of meeting the man whom they saw in the dream, they met Lydia. And “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what Paul was saying.” An interesting thing about Lydia—though her cloth selling business was in Philippi (the main city of Macedonia), she was originally from Thyatira—which is in…Asia! The very place where the Holy Spirit had forbidden them to go.
Lydia and her entire household were baptized, and since Paul and his companions had been advocates for Lydia’s household, by encouraging their faith with the message of Jesus, Lydia repays the kindness by becoming an advocate for Paul, Silas, and Timothy. “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home” she urged them. She was not only advocating for them to listen for the Holy Spirit’s direction once again, she was also advocating for herself. And in Lydia’s advocacy, we see the promise of Jesus being fulfilled, that “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything”. The Holy Spirit will teach us everything—as long as we open our hearts in faith to listen.
And because Paul and Lydia listened, the Holy Spirit gave them God’s blessings: blessings of hospitality, friendship, community, and the founding of the Church in Philippi. About 5 or 10 years later, when Paul had been imprisoned by the Romans, he writes to the Philippians from prison. It is one the most beautiful and encouraging letters every written, about faith in Christ, and how the power of Christ’s resurrection continues to help us—to Advocate for us—especially during the most difficult times of life.
Who is someone who was an advocate for you? Think on that for a minute, then I invite you to turn to someone nearby, and briefly share about it with someone….
[After a few minutes for people to share]: May God the Father send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, upon each of us, that we may be advocates for others, in Jesus’ name. Amen.