A risky holy spirit

‘… he will guide you into all the truth’. (John 16:13)

John 15:26-27; 16:12-15 (Year B: Pentecost)

What about the Holy Spirit?..

The odd thing about Eastertide liturgy is that it ends with a bang!  After 40 days of Lent (plus a few days) and then 50 days from Easter through Ascension to Pentecost) the Holy Spirit ‘descends’ (after the ‘ascension’) and that’s it. There is no octave or no ‘SpiritTide’ following Holy Spirit (Pentecost) Sunday. It is straight into ‘Ordinary time’ or the time after Pentecost or a succession of Sundays including and following Trinity Sunday.

I sense that the Holy Spirit is a neglected person of the holy trinity in so far as we focus so much on God the Father and God the Son that the Holy Spirit – often explained as the mutual love between Father and Son gets a look in only occasionally. The sacramental practice of confirmation is a significant threshold moment in the lives of many young adults in most Christian traditions. Some observers remark, cynically, that it is a passing out ritual. There is some truth in that. However, the mark of the Holy Spirit never leaves us. This is especially true if at some point in our lives we have tasted and experienced a moment of intense light and joy that seems to come from deep within and touches us profoundly and stays with us in our conscious memory for the rest of our lives. If someone has not experienced this, yet, then that person has more living to do!

I believe in the Holy Spirit?..

Some years ago a famous theologian, Yves Congar, wrote a three part volume entitled ‘I Believe in the Holy Spirit’. He discussed not only the role of the Holy Spirit in transforming individuals but whole communities and, through them, the world.  Each time we recite the Nicean Creed on a Sunday we might take particular note of the words ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life….’

The Holy Spirit is the ‘other side’ of God. It is that person (face) that breathes on us and re-creates us. Since God is, strictly speaking, neither male or female (appellations of Father reflect our understanding and tradition) would it not be inappropriate to emphasise the very feminine dimension of the Holy Spirit? She breathes on us from all eternity as over the waters and breathes gently through our lives today until we join our last breath with hers. It is said that we do not know where she blows and where she comes from (John 3:8). Much of life is like that. We can never see what is around the corner of our roadway that leads to unfamiliar places: sometimes scary places and sometimes very restful places. We are witnesses to the first breath after birth and we are witnesses to the last breath when our loved ones slip into the next room (and what a breath that is).

The breath or spirit of God is all over the sacred scriptures composed by human minds, hearts and hands. The very first two verses of the Bible read as follows:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen 1:1-2)

There are dozens of references to the breath or spirit of God coming upon us from the Psalms to the prophets to the Gospel of St John and the some of the apostolic letters. The breathing on the disciples is linked to the sending of the Holy Spirit:

And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22)

But how do we know if we have received the Holy Spirit? As we journey through life we hope to grow in the Holy Spirit and in the fruits of the spirit: joy, peace, wisdom, discipline, courage and insight (Galatians 5:22). But, the proof of the pudding is in the eating – as the saying goes.  If we are not developing in a climate of peace, contentedness and real freedom – notwithstanding set-backs, betrayals, sicknesses and worries – then we need to check in with our hearts and minds (and perhaps with the occasional help of a trusted person who is wise and skilled in discernment). Am I on the right path?  Is there something missing? What is the Holy Spirit saying to me through others, myself ? We need to go to the sources.

A tragedy in the lives of many is life not fully lived, potential not fully realised and fruit never borne. We do not live fully when we are stunted by fears, prejudices and false ideas about ourselves and others. We live more fully when we put our trust in God-who-is-love and see ourselves and the world as God-who-is-live sees us.

Many people (generally a minority nowadays) live in a prison of false religion with very incomplete notions of God, morality and tradition. They seek shelter in certainties, formulae and a particular literal and selective interpretation of some passages of the scriptures or tradition.  They seem to fail to see the bigger picture (but who can see the big picture? – we each catch only a glimpse).

Take five..

The culmination of Jesus’s teachings as reported in the Gospel of John is conveyed to us in five key pledges that we can trust and hang across our minds and hearts at the dawn of every day:

1.  We are not alone (the Holy Spirit has been sent and continues to breathe on us) – John 14:18
2.  We called to live in a new commandment of mutual love (that the world may see and believe) – John 13:34
3. The continuing help and presence of the Holy Spirit is guaranteed – John 16:13
4.  Joy and peace and with that freedom are the fruit of that Holy Spirit (marking such gifts out from all else) – John 15:11
5.  We will know the truth and the truth will set us free – John 8:32

The ‘New Commandment’ grounded in faith is key.  The origins of Pentecost (literally fifty days after the Passover) stem from the Jewish festival of Weeks – commemorating the giving of the law on Mount Sinai after the people wandered through the desert.  Today, the Holy Spirit gives the ‘Law’ and it is that we should love one another as God-who-is-love has loved us and dwells now in us. For God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him (1 John 4:16).  This indwelling of God-who-is-love means that his Law of love is written on our hearts and minds.  But, we must be open to the Holy Spirit in costly discipleship (D Bonhoeffer). Martin Luther once wrote:

‘The Holy Spirit is given only to the anxious and distressed heart. Only therein can the Gospel profit us and produce fruit. The gift is too sublime and noble for God to cast it before dogs and swine, who, when by chance they hear the preached message, devour it without knowing to what they do violence. The heart must recognize and feel its wretchedness and its inability to extricate itself. Before the Holy Spirit can come to the rescue, there must be a struggle in the heart. Let no one imagine he will receive the Spirit in any other way.’ (Sermon for Pentecost Sunday volume VII:329-336 of The Sermons of Martin Luther)

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Being open to the Holy Spirit means divesting ourselves of useless and destructive patterns of thinking and acting. It means – in a certain sense – being ‘empty’ ready to be filled. We need to let go; we need to let God act in us through his Holy Spirit. If we trust in God’s Holy Spirit to guide us then we will find freedom to live more and more in the present moment firm in the conviction that God will guide us, step by step, to that place or that decision or that response which will be right at the right time. It is not a question of receiving the whole picture or truth in one go. The Holy Spirit leads us gradually towards the complete picture (John 16:13). Not for nothing has the Holy Spirit been referred to as the ‘Paraclete’ or advocate (παράκλητος in Greek). When words and claims are fired at us we have the best of lawyers to defend us, argue for us, advise us, console us, urge us forward. Better still the service is for free! Add to that counselling.

And so often we fret and worry about how we will perform or what we will say whether in a situation of a written examination, or a very difficult conversation with someone (e.g. breaking the news of a serious illness) or an interview for a job. The list is endless. Each time, we can slow down, rest in the present moment, breath easily and let the breath of God emerge in our thoughts and actions.  As Jesus is reported as saying by Matthew:

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say. (Matthew 10:19)

In that moment of trial we will be given the words and means to bear witness as we should. Trust! But we must conclude with a warning: be alert and ready because we don’t  know where the Holy Spirit leads us. We only have the light of today and of this moment. Walk in that light.