The Spirit of our God
January 7, 2024
Scriptures: Genesis 1:1-5, Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7
I intentionally changed up the usual order of the readings this morning in order to show the progression of the Holy Spirit through from the very beginning of Creation up to the birth of the church in the Book of Acts. When reading through them all for today, at first they seemed a bit unconnected, as though they were chosen at random. However, as I continued to looked closer I realized that there was in fact a common thread running through all three of them. Perhaps I didn’t notice it at first because all too often it turns out to be one of the ‘best kept secrets’ of our reformed faith tradition. And that, is a real and deep understanding of the third person of the Trinity…namely the Holy Spirit.
We all surely believe in the Spirit, but there has been little attention paid to it within our tradition at least, for centuries…many centuries. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic tradition, from which the Protestant faith split away, has a vigorous and well developed doctrine of understanding and relationship with this mysterious and wondrous presence of our God.
When it came time to write my final paper on my understanding of the Holy Spirit in my last year in seminary, I asked my professor if I could write a series of letters or poems, rather than another lengthy play as I had done previously for my papers on God, and on Jesus. I explained that while I had a personal relationship with the Spirit from my time spent in the Catholic Charismatic movement through prayer meetings and bible studies in the 1970’s, I was not aware of a particular Presbyterian doctrine of understanding upon which to draw.
The professor refused of course, knowing that I needed to stretch and search in order to truly find my own understanding of the Holy Spirit. He also remarked to my chagrin, that he was looking forward to a ‘trilogy of plays’ to tie in with my previous two papers. And so off I went on a long and ultimately very inspiring journey of discovery to find the wonder and grace we know as the Holy Spirit. Today I want to share some of those findings with you.
Just who is this ‘Holy’ Spirit? As we see in our third reading, the disciples Paul encounters tell him, ‘we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’, revealing that indeed this is an age-old question. Even today, when we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism, it seems that there is more focus on repentance or cleanliness, than there is on the conscious inflowing of the Spirit of God. In truth, these are different even though they are often linked together. For most however, baptism is about being right with God, about being included in the family of God…and about being prepared for heaven. We are baptized, the reasoning goes, in order to make us somehow ‘more acceptable’ to God. Now as you may sense, there is more to this other ‘Spirit’ baptism which Jesus received that day than we might realize. Somewhere we are probably aware of it, we may have heard of it, but that is about as far as it goes.
As we see in the first reading from Genesis, the Spirit of God, (which in Hebrew is Ruah, or ‘wind’, and ‘pneuma’ in Greek which translates as ‘breath’), is portrayed as the creative force of God in Creation. In other references the Holy Spirit is seen as the movement of God, or the love of God made manifest within the realm of our reality. It ‘moves’ about, doing and being the presence of God all around us. In John’s gospel in Chapter 3 verse 8 he writes: ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’ In our third reading from the Book of Acts we see the Spirit in the presence of different gifts given to the believers, including the gifts of speaking in other languages and prophecy. Both of these are strange things to us today…perhaps not very comfortable ideas because we do not understand them, or the true nature of the Holy Spirit either.
Speaking in other languages or ‘tongues’ as it is often called, was and remains a strange gift. It is something that each individual must find their own level of comfort with. There are some who say it never happened, or that it may have happened back then, but not anymore. Others claim that it is unrealistic to say that the Spirit of God could or would empower someone to speak in other languages spontaneously and accurately. Others unfortunately make it a proof, or ‘seal of entry’ into the faith…a requirement that one must meet in order to truly be part of the family of faith.
Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe speaking in other languages by the power of the Spirit can happen, even today. However, I also feel very strongly that it was never intended to be a cause of division within the Church. I also feel that there are both private and intensely personal, as well as public manifestations of this gift. With the Apostle Paul, I agree that the private ones occur when one is overwhelmed with the presence and love of God, when mere words of one’s native language are not sufficient to express the love of God within one’s heart. As for public manifestations, I believe that when the Spirit acts in these ways, it is always for specific purposes. Perhaps in order to share the heart and words of God, or to speak a word of guidance or truth into the gathered assembly. But again with Paul, I feel that such revelations of the Holy Spirit in our midst, are always accompanied by an interpretation of what was said, in order for the assembly to understand and be strengthened by the gift. If no interpretation is present I feel one must be very careful not to fall into excessive emotionalism, and perhaps even being led somewhere God did not intend for us to go.
Another way the disciples in our reading from Acts experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, was through the gift of prophecy. As I have shared before, the gift of prophecy is not limited just to our modern notion of ‘foretelling the future’, predicting what will or will not happen. In fact, that is probably the least common way this gift is recorded in the scriptures. Usually, especially with the biblical prophets, the gift of prophecy refers instead to the act of standing in a place so as to be a mouthpiece for God. ‘Forth-telling’ rather than ‘foretelling’. Prophecy as speaking into the human conversation and life story, the words and thoughts of God. Prophecy is speaking truth into life…speaking the truth of God out into the realm of daily life. This notion of ‘prophecy’ is particularly supported by today’s reading as we hear that these disciples were teachers, who upon receiving the Spirit began to speak the truth of God into life, continuing to preach and teach as they were empowered by the Spirit.
But the question remains…just who is this Spirit? And how does it act as God in our lives? In my experience, the Holy Spirit is the personal touch of God’s love, the way God communicates the most clearly. All too often we talk ‘about’ God instead of ‘to’ God. The Spirit is the real voice of our living God, not simply some thoughts or understandings regarding God. It is the active love of God, the indwelling Immanuel…a patient, gentle, and merciful guide leading us into God’s ways of love. The Spirit will never force us to do, or to be, anything, rather it patiently seeks to turn us increasingly towards Godly ways and Godly thinking. Which is not to say that we cannot displease the Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is fully capable of being grieved over poor choices we may make. Indeed we can, and I am sure we often do disappoint the Spirit in our words or our actions. But that never even comes close to diminishing God’s love for us, even for the slightest moment.
That is the personal side of what the Spirit does within us. On another side the Spirit moves within the Church as a whole by raising the awareness of injustice and calling forth active engagement in and against injury, oppression, hurt, and every form of human evil in the world around us. The Spirit is God, and scripture tells us that God desires that all humanity be able to freely live in the love by which we were created. To the extent that we are not there yet, the Spirit calls us to action, calls us to live lives as a church that counter, weaken, and ultimately convert into love all of the energy presently at the heart of division and suffering.
The Spirit is the whisper of our God, the voice of guidance and direction within our souls, the one who keeps our feet firmly on the pathway of God. As we hear in Isaiah chapter 30 verse 21, ‘Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’’ It is the Holy Spirit who causes a yearning deep within our hearts, a yearning to draw nearer to God in our thoughts, and in all our ways. It daily seeks to remind us of who or what we already long to be or to do. It is the voice of our God…let it speak…each and every day…
…amen