Meaning - Pastor's Pen for 26th July 2026

Scandretts Regional Park

In his recent anthology Beyond the Border, Owen Marshall writes; "That something exists doesn't ensure meaning, despite our anxious compulsion to bestow it, both the trivial and significant have a power to move us."

We are the species which never tires of making meaning, wrestling with what we find in the world. Out of all God's creatures we are the storytellers and recorders of histories, at least that we know of. A life without meaning seems a hopeless life.

This week as we progress through John's Gospel, we come to the three chapters dealing with Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit to his disciples. They are at the stage of the narrative when they are becoming unnerved by the way Jesus is speaking openly of his death. Soon their lives will be disturbed by the brutish reality of a Roman execution. They will scatter in fear, later to gather in secret, trembling. How will they make meaning of this pointless and terrifying violence?

Jesus teaches that a helper (parakletos) will come. Various bible versions have translated this word differently, but the meaning is that when Jesus departs, one will come alongside the believer and help with what is needed. 'Advocate' is a better translation than 'comforter' because of modern English usage. Who are we to define the role of Holy Spirit anyway? We read in John 3:8; "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit".

So be it; may you know the leading and guidance of God as the Holy Spirit comes alongside you in your struggle to make meaning out of this life we live in the body, with all its unexplainable circumstances. Shalom