 
 PARACLETE TEACHING - With this lesson we move from
the role of the paraclete in the world at large to the way that the paraclete will work
within the community of faith. Verse 12 sets the context for the fifth and final paraclete
teaching in the Farewell Discourse (vv. 13-15).
RECONSTRUCTED HISTORY - You may want to review Raymond E. Brown’s The Community of
the Beloved Disciple (Paulist Press, 1979). In this excellent book Brown offers a
reconstruction of the Johannine community vis-à-vis the apostolic community from which
they have been severed or isolated due to their Samaritan mission, but also due to their
unusual preoccupation with the paraclete.
EXPERIENCING THE PARACLETE TODAY -How can we appropriate some of what energized and
shaped these early Christians? The NIB suggests one way that the Paraclete can happen in
our contemporary faith communities:
The contemporary Christian . . . experiences the paraclete in the preaching of the
church. Each time a preacher attempts to proclaim the Word of God in a new circumstance,
he or she shares in the work of the paraclete . . . preaching is both at the same time old
and new, past tense and contemporary. The preacher is bound both to the traditions of the
church, so that his or her work is an act of reminding, and to the present moment, so that
his or her work is also an act of discovering how the Word of God speaks in a new day. The
gift and presence of the paraclete allows both the preacher and the congregation to share
in a fresh experience of the Word of God. [1]
 In what role is the Spirit best
understood in your community of faith? A theological idea? An amorphous Presence-not
really able to nail down? The red-flag part of the Trinity? Associated with aberrant
behavior and ecstasy? A power and presence that is honored and deferred to in reaching
decisions? That part of God through which we are aided in prayer?
Describe on a single sheet of paper what the paraclete means to you personally. When
and in what context have you become aware of God the Spirit helping and assisting and
encouraging you?
 Since, as one theologian has put, the
Holy Spirit is the "Cinderella of the Trinity," it might be useful to hit the
pause button and just spend some homiletic moments looking at the Holy Spirit through the
lens of the Johannine writer. Explore the titles and conveyed meanings of the titles.
Move your community of faith into a more positive listening posture for this neglected
part of the Triune God, by raising and responding to mis-understandings of the Spirit and
replacing misconceptions with more biblical helpful portraits of the Spirit-especially
from this lesson.
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[1] New Interpreter’s Bible IX, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 778.
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