A Stubborn Advocate
Stories
Contents
"A Stubborn Advocate" by Frank Ramirez
"A Spirit of Gratitude" by John Sumwalt
A Stubborn Advocate
by Frank Ramirez
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
But 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. (v. 26)
In his extremely influential translation of the New Testament, William Tyndale chose the word “comforter” to translate the Greek parakletos in John 14:26, which the even more influential King James followed.
But the word seems to have had a multitude of meanings and this led to several different attempts to translate it: “companion” (Common English Bible), “helper” (Good News Translation), “…the one who is coming to stand by you…” (Phillips), “counselor” (Revised Standard Version), “friend” (The Message), and “Holy Spirit” (Contemporary English Version). In one case, the Douay-Rheims, no translation was attempted. The word was simply transliterated “Paraclete.”
While there is something to be said about all of these, I think both the New Revised Standard Version and the New International Version made a good choice when they chose “advocate.” When you sit down and study the word, it’s obvious that this translation is helpful because in common usage at the time it referred to someone who was qualified to stand up as a reference for someone else in court. The advocate’s testimony could save someone from underserved punishment.
On March 6, 1770, future President John Adams, then a Boston lawyer from Quincy, south of Boston, was asked to be an advocate in a very difficult case – because no one else would do it. The night before, in front of the Custom House in Boston, a British guard was standing sentry all by himself, when suddenly a church bell rang. Normally the tolling of a bell served as a fire alarm. In response a mob of hundreds of Americans filled the streets. They soon began to threaten the guard. Reinforcements in the form of eight more armed British regulars arrived on the scene. Objects flew through the air. Guns were fired. Five Bostonians lay dead.
Hatred of the British soldiers ran deep. Residents of Boston were often forced to house and feed soldiers against their will. Taxes were resented. Moreover, the British practice of boarding American ships and forcing American sailors to serve on British naval vessels in brutal conditions, with no recourse, raised tensions to the point where incidents like what came to be known as the Boston Massacre could veer out of control.
Passions were further inflamed by Paul Revere, who printed a Samuel Adams broadside in which, using the biblical image of King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, he called the incident “bloody butchery.” It is easy to see why no one wanted to be an advocate. It was a thankless task that could not only ruin a lawyer’s reputation but endanger them and their family.
Adams took the case, despite his fears for his family. His wife Abigail was pregnant and he worried about a mob doing her physical harm. Rumors that he took bribes in order to represent the British soldiers passed through town quicker than any internet meme. The possibility was very real that taking such an unpopular case would mean his cases would dry up and he would not be able to support his family.
But Adams believed that everyone had the right to a good advocate in a fair trial. Moreover, as he described it in one letter, “…it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is that guild should be punished.”
Not long before, Adams’ popularity had risen when he defended four Americans whose ship had been boarded by the British to coerce them into British naval service. In response, they killed a British officer. Adams pled that they acted in self-defense, and they were cleared of all charges. But now the shoe was on the other foot. He was defending British soldiers. The first thing he did, as he sat down at his writing desk, was to copy out a quote from an Italian expert at law, Cesare, Marchese di Beccaria:
If, by supporting the rights of mankind, and of invincible truth, I shall contribute to save from the agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny, or of ignorance, equally fatal, his blessings and years of transport will be sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind.
He would quote those words again in his closing arguments for the soldiers who were on trial.
Adams did blame the British authorities for making such conflict inevitable by the presence of these unwanted soldiers in Boston, but he also characterized the local rabble as a mob whose actions precipitated the retaliation of the soldiers, whom Adams said had no choice, eight against a hundred, to act in self-defense, and then he paraphrased these words from a French novelist, Alain-René Lesage that had been recently translated:
“Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
His arguments swayed the case. Not one of those on trial paid with their lives. The captain of the British contingent, along with six of the eight soldiers were acquitted of all charges. Two others were convicted of manslaughter, for which they suffered branding on their thumbs. Their advocate John Adams later claimed he lost half his clientele for taking the unpopular case, but in the long run, his reputation grew because of his commitment to his principals, and his willingness to stand up against public opinion because of those “stubborn facts.”
Late in life he took pride in having taken the case which he described as “one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”
(Want to know more? See David McCullough’s award-winning biography “John Adams,” pp 65-68.)
* * *
A Spirit of Gratitude
by John Sumwalt
Romans 8:14-17, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:29-30)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. (Romans 8:14-15)
I am filled with a spirit of gratitude, although it’s in the midst of sad circumstances. A dear friend is dying; our beloved daughter-in-law’s dad, Patrick Green, returned home for hospice care after five months of stem-cell treatment at the Mayo Clinic. She’s helping to care for him, so while our son is working, Jo and I are helping to care for their two boys, five and two years old.
It’s a privilege and a joy, but not without its challenges. It’s one thing to be visiting grandparents for a few hours – and quite another to be the enforcer of rules and to referee in the occasional sibling brawl.
Yesterday while ushering the five-year-old up the stairs for a well-deserved time out, he turned and shouted at me, “You’re an old man!”
He’s very observant and a truth speaker to a fault.
I wanted to shout back, “Yes I am, and grateful for it!”
These are the wonder years for our grandsons and for me. The boys are filled with curiosity about everything in the world. On the way to school, the five-year-old will pause to examine every ant, beetle and worm. Feathers, rocks, and colorful leaves are collected to be added to an ever-growing museum of natural history kept mostly on the kitchen counter.
The two-year-old hears the rumblings of the garbage truck coming up the street, runs to the window and cries out, “Look Bappa! Look!”
He stands and watches, fascinated by the automatic arm that snatches up the garbage cans and dumps their contents noisily into the belly of the refuse beast. It’s the highlight of his week, happening like clockwork every Wednesday morning.
I am learning so much, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. Yelling and screaming and crying are everyday occurrences. I keep telling them I can’t help it. My anger-management Zoom tutorial starts next Tuesday.
Child-proof locks on stair gates and cupboards are pretty much old-man-proof, too.
Why some dogs have poop breath is dinner conversation.
I wonder if I will live long enough to see these wondrous boys graduate from high school. Just a few blocks from their house is the high school where I wheeled my dad into the gym to watch his oldest grandchild receive her diploma. He was 80, and didn’t live to see the next six grandchild graduations.
My co-grandfather is only 74, four years ahead of me. It’s a special and unanticipated blessing to share grandfathering with him. I feel deep sadness when I think about how our boys will miss him. At the same time, I am profoundly thankful for all that he has given them and me. His legacy will last for generations in our families.
I took comfort this week from a Facebook post by my Texas colleague, Douglas Skinner.
He wrote, “I keep a little piece of paper tucked between the pages of my Bible with this quote from St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) carefully written on it …
“’Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; Rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things. And when you cannot stand, God will carry you in His arms. (So) do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and in every day to come. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to be able to bear it. So be at peace and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.’”
Author’s note: Pat “slipped into heaven,” as he said he would, just a few days after this was written.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 5, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"A Stubborn Advocate" by Frank Ramirez
"A Spirit of Gratitude" by John Sumwalt
A Stubborn Advocate
by Frank Ramirez
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
But 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. (v. 26)
In his extremely influential translation of the New Testament, William Tyndale chose the word “comforter” to translate the Greek parakletos in John 14:26, which the even more influential King James followed.
But the word seems to have had a multitude of meanings and this led to several different attempts to translate it: “companion” (Common English Bible), “helper” (Good News Translation), “…the one who is coming to stand by you…” (Phillips), “counselor” (Revised Standard Version), “friend” (The Message), and “Holy Spirit” (Contemporary English Version). In one case, the Douay-Rheims, no translation was attempted. The word was simply transliterated “Paraclete.”
While there is something to be said about all of these, I think both the New Revised Standard Version and the New International Version made a good choice when they chose “advocate.” When you sit down and study the word, it’s obvious that this translation is helpful because in common usage at the time it referred to someone who was qualified to stand up as a reference for someone else in court. The advocate’s testimony could save someone from underserved punishment.
On March 6, 1770, future President John Adams, then a Boston lawyer from Quincy, south of Boston, was asked to be an advocate in a very difficult case – because no one else would do it. The night before, in front of the Custom House in Boston, a British guard was standing sentry all by himself, when suddenly a church bell rang. Normally the tolling of a bell served as a fire alarm. In response a mob of hundreds of Americans filled the streets. They soon began to threaten the guard. Reinforcements in the form of eight more armed British regulars arrived on the scene. Objects flew through the air. Guns were fired. Five Bostonians lay dead.
Hatred of the British soldiers ran deep. Residents of Boston were often forced to house and feed soldiers against their will. Taxes were resented. Moreover, the British practice of boarding American ships and forcing American sailors to serve on British naval vessels in brutal conditions, with no recourse, raised tensions to the point where incidents like what came to be known as the Boston Massacre could veer out of control.
Passions were further inflamed by Paul Revere, who printed a Samuel Adams broadside in which, using the biblical image of King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, he called the incident “bloody butchery.” It is easy to see why no one wanted to be an advocate. It was a thankless task that could not only ruin a lawyer’s reputation but endanger them and their family.
Adams took the case, despite his fears for his family. His wife Abigail was pregnant and he worried about a mob doing her physical harm. Rumors that he took bribes in order to represent the British soldiers passed through town quicker than any internet meme. The possibility was very real that taking such an unpopular case would mean his cases would dry up and he would not be able to support his family.
But Adams believed that everyone had the right to a good advocate in a fair trial. Moreover, as he described it in one letter, “…it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is that guild should be punished.”
Not long before, Adams’ popularity had risen when he defended four Americans whose ship had been boarded by the British to coerce them into British naval service. In response, they killed a British officer. Adams pled that they acted in self-defense, and they were cleared of all charges. But now the shoe was on the other foot. He was defending British soldiers. The first thing he did, as he sat down at his writing desk, was to copy out a quote from an Italian expert at law, Cesare, Marchese di Beccaria:
If, by supporting the rights of mankind, and of invincible truth, I shall contribute to save from the agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny, or of ignorance, equally fatal, his blessings and years of transport will be sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind.
He would quote those words again in his closing arguments for the soldiers who were on trial.
Adams did blame the British authorities for making such conflict inevitable by the presence of these unwanted soldiers in Boston, but he also characterized the local rabble as a mob whose actions precipitated the retaliation of the soldiers, whom Adams said had no choice, eight against a hundred, to act in self-defense, and then he paraphrased these words from a French novelist, Alain-René Lesage that had been recently translated:
“Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
His arguments swayed the case. Not one of those on trial paid with their lives. The captain of the British contingent, along with six of the eight soldiers were acquitted of all charges. Two others were convicted of manslaughter, for which they suffered branding on their thumbs. Their advocate John Adams later claimed he lost half his clientele for taking the unpopular case, but in the long run, his reputation grew because of his commitment to his principals, and his willingness to stand up against public opinion because of those “stubborn facts.”
Late in life he took pride in having taken the case which he described as “one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”
(Want to know more? See David McCullough’s award-winning biography “John Adams,” pp 65-68.)
* * *
A Spirit of Gratitude
by John Sumwalt
Romans 8:14-17, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:29-30)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. (Romans 8:14-15)
I am filled with a spirit of gratitude, although it’s in the midst of sad circumstances. A dear friend is dying; our beloved daughter-in-law’s dad, Patrick Green, returned home for hospice care after five months of stem-cell treatment at the Mayo Clinic. She’s helping to care for him, so while our son is working, Jo and I are helping to care for their two boys, five and two years old.
It’s a privilege and a joy, but not without its challenges. It’s one thing to be visiting grandparents for a few hours – and quite another to be the enforcer of rules and to referee in the occasional sibling brawl.
Yesterday while ushering the five-year-old up the stairs for a well-deserved time out, he turned and shouted at me, “You’re an old man!”
He’s very observant and a truth speaker to a fault.
I wanted to shout back, “Yes I am, and grateful for it!”
These are the wonder years for our grandsons and for me. The boys are filled with curiosity about everything in the world. On the way to school, the five-year-old will pause to examine every ant, beetle and worm. Feathers, rocks, and colorful leaves are collected to be added to an ever-growing museum of natural history kept mostly on the kitchen counter.
The two-year-old hears the rumblings of the garbage truck coming up the street, runs to the window and cries out, “Look Bappa! Look!”
He stands and watches, fascinated by the automatic arm that snatches up the garbage cans and dumps their contents noisily into the belly of the refuse beast. It’s the highlight of his week, happening like clockwork every Wednesday morning.
I am learning so much, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. Yelling and screaming and crying are everyday occurrences. I keep telling them I can’t help it. My anger-management Zoom tutorial starts next Tuesday.
Child-proof locks on stair gates and cupboards are pretty much old-man-proof, too.
Why some dogs have poop breath is dinner conversation.
I wonder if I will live long enough to see these wondrous boys graduate from high school. Just a few blocks from their house is the high school where I wheeled my dad into the gym to watch his oldest grandchild receive her diploma. He was 80, and didn’t live to see the next six grandchild graduations.
My co-grandfather is only 74, four years ahead of me. It’s a special and unanticipated blessing to share grandfathering with him. I feel deep sadness when I think about how our boys will miss him. At the same time, I am profoundly thankful for all that he has given them and me. His legacy will last for generations in our families.
I took comfort this week from a Facebook post by my Texas colleague, Douglas Skinner.
He wrote, “I keep a little piece of paper tucked between the pages of my Bible with this quote from St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) carefully written on it …
“’Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; Rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things. And when you cannot stand, God will carry you in His arms. (So) do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and in every day to come. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to be able to bear it. So be at peace and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.’”
Author’s note: Pat “slipped into heaven,” as he said he would, just a few days after this was written.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 5, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
