I’ve stayed home all day as a plumber has wrestled with 80 year old pipe, clogged almost beyond belief, in a valiant effort to get us hot water once again. When that happens I will be satisfied but Vonnie, my wife, will be thrilled, happy, elated, overjoyed, excited, ecstatic, and, quite possibly, euphoric.

I’ve been thinking about clogs this morning – those little things that block the living of life. Most times clogs are little things that over time interconnect in such away that the arena in which they are located gets very messy and stops healthy living dead in its tracks.

I think of how clogged the world is today. Violence is everywhere, even in the beautiful city in which I live. Broken relationships that seem to be irreparable abound everywhere. Racism, unnecessary poverty, political demonizing and name-calling – the list goes on and on.

Can the clogs be unclogged? That is the question of the hour. I think we may need a good plumber or two, and it may take a while; but healthy living is not beyond the human experience. That things can change and that the future can be different than the past are remarkable thoughts to think.

As a Christian I am hopeful about the present and energized about the future. Reality is a hard pill to swallow sometimes, and I refuse to be naïve about clogs. However, We’re not Stepford wives and we do have power to choose. Whether or not people choose wisely may be in question but that they are free to choose isn’t.

How do we unclog the obstructions and barriers? The answer to that question may lead in a thousand directions for solutions, but one thing is certain. The unclogging begins with admitting to the clog. Maybe that’s the rub. Admitting might just be too much to handle.

I sure hope not.

Jesus told His questioning and unsettled disciples, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth…he lives in you and will be in you" (John 14:15-17). On the day of Pentecost that promise was fulfilled and the world hasn't been the same since; or, at least, the people of God haven't been the same since.

The life of Holy Spirit in the heart of a human being is a marvelous wonder to behold. The Spirit makes strong the weak, makes bold the fearful, makes clean the impure, and make faithful the unfaithful. This wondrous Spirit of truth moves into the open and hidden places in the life of believers, and baptizes them in the very life of God. Where the Holy Spirit is free to do His divine work all the possibilities of God are present.

It is in the life of the Spirit that Jesus makes His home in the life of His followers. Before His death Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18). In the Holy Spirit the Savior lives in His Church. We are not alone, orphaned, or disenfranchised. Jesus has come to us and Jesus is Lord.

In the Spirit the Church of Jesus is enabled to live truthfully and faithfully. In the faithfulness of Jesus we are free to ask the Father anything we need in order to be what He has called us to be, and He will give it (John 14:13-14).

Live this day in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and God will draw near to you. He will live in you and make His home in you. He will re-narrate the story of your life and work the wondrous work of God in you.

Jesus gave great comfort to His disciples when He said to them, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). This promise has been at the heart of the Christian faith for twenty centuries now, and it has been the source of great hope as the Church continually looks forward to what lies ahead.

Because His Church would live in light of what He had done and with the promise that something wonderful yet remains, Jesus prayed. At the heart of His prayer Jesus said to the Father, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22).

The Church does not wait passively for the return of Christ. Rather, it seeks to live faithfully to Jesus’ prayer that those who are of Christ “may be one.” Why is this important to Jesus? He answers the question, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me” John 17: 23). To let the world know; that’s why unity in a world that tends to disunity is so very important.

Perhaps the way local congregations best represent their God to the world is through the unity they embrace in the midst of the diversity they experience.

Being a community of faith in Jesus Christ means that we are a community in which the prayer of Jesus is being answered. We may be different in language, culture and even convictions, but we are one in Christ. This is our calling, our passion, and our pursuit.

Christians believe God is a relational God, that He is One God who manifests Himself in three unique personalities -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This mystery, referred to as trinity or tri-unity, has at its very core the sense of community. This being said it is no surprise that when God incarnated Himself into the human situation, He did so in a self-revealing Messiah who continually calls people into community -- community with God and with each other.

So it was Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23). Did you catch it? "We will come to him and make our home with him." And exactly how does God do this? Jesus says He and the Father do it through "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14:25).

Jesus says the Holy Spirit is a "Counselor" who continually leads God's people into a community of truth where Jesus is at the center of everything. This is the Father's will and it is that for which Jesus Himself died.

The Church is a community of the Counselor who continually woos the community into everything Jesus. The Good news in this is that wherever Jesus is allowed, through faith, to be Himself the peace of a sovereign God is in that place and in that people.

Prayer: O God. Show us how to be the Counselor-enabled community of Jesus that allows You to make us into all you would have us be, extending the fellowship of Your community into our world. In Jesus Name we pray; Amen."

When Judas had left the gathering Jesus said to His eleven men, "I will be with you only a little longer." (John 13:33). Its true, He was going to leave them but He was not going to leave them alone. He was going to go and prepare a place for them, with the promise that He would come back for them" (See John 14:2-3).

In the mean time He promised them "another Counselor … the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17). Of this "Spirit of truth" Jesus said that He would be with them and in them (John 14:17). Life, for them, wasn't going to skip a beat. In the Holy Spirit Jesus was going to be with them in ways their minds, at the moment, could not possibly comprehend.

And of all the things the Spirit of truth was going to help them do, the most important was to "love one another" (John 13:34). The Spirit was going to work the works of Almighty God within them and through them, and at the heart of all He was going to do He was going to enable them to love one another.

How important is the love of God in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ? Jesus said, "Love one another…By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35). By this! By what? What is the this to which Jesus refers? Simple and to the point: LOVE ONE ANOTHER. That's the this (pardon my English).

How are Christians to be in the world? Jesus says they are to be there as a people who love one another. Our witness is weak if it is not lived out in a community of the love God. Our testimony is flimsy if it is not lived out in a community of the love of God.

The love of God in the community of God ought to be the most outstanding feature of a faith that claims Jesus as Lord. May it be so. God help us; may it be so.