(In this article I am dependent in part on Disciples’ theologian Clark M Williamson in his book Way of Blessing Way of Life: A Christian Theology. Williamson’s contributions can be found in quotes from his book in bold print. The remainder of the article contains my own ideas regarding the identity and role of the Holy Spirit. I have purposely stayed away from any discussion of Trinity although the Triune God is assumed in all that has been written. The doctrine of Trinity was developed after the Bible was written and would involve and deserve more consideration than we can allow in this article.)
The Holy Spirit in Scripture: (Both the Hebrew word and the Greek word for “spirit” can also mean “breath” or “wind.”)
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Spirit of God is the agent of creation—both in creation’s beginnings and in creation’s sustaining and evolving nature.
The Holy Spirit is active in history. The “dry bones” vision of Ezekiel speaks to the creative and transforming power of God’s Spirit in the story of Israel.
The Spirit of God inspires prophets to speak truth to power, to unveil the consequences of injustice and idolatry, and to reveal the dreams and will of God. Transformation is the work and goal of the Spirit.
Through the prophetic word and through the Spirit’s presence in history, the Spirit creates the future which is always an alternative future to the one chosen by the those forces indifferent or hostile to God’s way and will in this world.
In the Christ Event, we see the indispensable role of the Spirit in the birth of Jesus, his baptism, his overcoming temptations in the wilderness, his first sermon (Luke 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because She has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. She has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Jesus was reading from the book of Isaiah 61. In that reading he omitted the verse calling for vengeance.), his exorcisms (“If by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 12: 28), his healings, and his resurrection.
The Holy Spirit gave birth to the church at Pentecost. Peter, in the first sermon in the history of the church, said, “Repent and be baptized and you will receive the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit inspires the church as an organic whole as well as the individual members within that body.
Pentecost also reflects the radical equality of God’s love and calling of Her people. Peter interpreted what happened that day through the lens of the prophecy of Joel who promised that one day God’s Spirit would rest on all people regardless of their station in life. “In Christianity, all provincialism of place, book and ethnicity are transcended—at least, in principle.” Clark Williamson)
Throughout Acts, we see the Spirit shatter one obstacle after another as the “unhindered” gospel spreads throughout the Roman Empire. Today, we can scarcely appreciate this radical movement in that era.
Paul refers to the Spirit of God countless times in his letters. We are blessed, inspired, and challenged by God’s Spirit, and we are encouraged to live “in the Spirit.” If we live in the Spirit, we will live lives of integrity, compassion, service, humility, and, above all, love. Love is the greatest gift of God’s Spirit (Romans 5:5 “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”) “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). In other words, this is what the Spirit is all about in our lives and this world.
In John’s Gospel, the Spirit gives birth to children of God. We are “born again” or “born from above” in the sense that we begin afresh regarding our identity and destiny. (John 3 and the story of Nicodemus.) We are called to worship “in spirit and in truth.”
In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says, “The wind (breath, Spirit) blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so, it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” The Spirit will not be co-opted, manipulated, controlled, possessed, or used. The Spirit is radically free to do God’s will in this world and in each of our lives.
In John 4:24, we read, “God is Spirit.” (“Implied in ‘God is spirit’ is that God is active in the world like the wind, unseen but not unknown. God is not a mere immanent principle in the world, nor is God aloof from the affairs of Earth or the needs of people. All this defines God as spiritual and the Spirit as divine.” Clark Williamson)
In John 14, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you will know him, for he dwells in you, and will be in you.” The word translated “Counselor” can also be translated “Advocate, Strengthener, Consoler, Comforter.” The Spirit is called “another paraclete” since Jesus is the first paraclete. The Spirit is to be the Comforter, Champion, and Teacher of the church. The Greek word translated “paraclete” is made up of two words: para which means “beside, alongside” and kalein which means “to call.” Thus, paraclete is one who is your companion and one whom you can call out to in times of need. (In I John 2:1, the author writes, “…if any one does sin, we have an advocate (paraclete) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous…”)
In John 14:25-26, we read, “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, She will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” In John 16:12 we read, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, She will guide you into all the truth; for She will not speak on Her own authority, but whatever She hears She will speak, and She will declare to you the things that are to come. She will glorify me, for She will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that She will take what is mine and declare it to you.” In this passage, the Spirit has the role of Teacher and Revealer of the inexhaustible truths of God which will affirm and expand the message of Jesus and the significance of the Christ Event.
In Romans 8 (one of the richest passages of Scripture in the Bible), we read these words: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit herself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And She who searches the hearts of men and women knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27) The Spirit prays and intercedes for us, even in those times when we don’t have a clue as to how we should pray. As Paul writes later in this chapter, “If God is for us, who is against us?” The Spirit is pulling for each of us to experience the joys and blessings “according to the will of God” who seeks only what is the best for Her children. The Spirit is so profoundly present in each of us (right down into what we might call our subconscious) that Deep resonates with our depths and understands what we cannot. This insight reveals how profound God’s presence and involvement is in our lives and in the most hidden parts of our being. God is our own Advocate. This God is no absentee Lord!
The Spirit is also the One who unites and connects. In Ephesians 4:1-4 we read, ”I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to be one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Mother of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Through the Spirit, God is above all, through all, and in all, and, therefore, able to connect and unite all creation and all followers of Jesus into the Body of Christ. The Spirit is the supreme Connector.
The Significance of Spirit in the Contemporary World:
1) The Holy Spirit is the giver of life and the agent of creation. One of the ancient creeds of the early church (The Creed of Constantinople in 381 CE) states, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.” All creation is dependent on the presence and work of God’s Spirit. Every particle of the cosmos exists and endures through the power of that Spirit. God’s Spirit is present in every place, every moment, every part of creation, and every person. The omnipresence of God exists through the Spirit. The psalmist says that he cannot escape the presence of God’s spirit even if he descends into Sheol. (Read Psalm 139.)
2) This omnipresence of God’s Spirit has profound implications for God’s presence and involvement in every part of creation and in every human life. Fundamentalist and conservative Evangelical theology restricts God’s presence to Israel before Jesus and to Christians after Jesus. The ubiquitous presence of God’s Spirit assumes that God is involved in every act of creation and in every individual life. A healthy appreciation of the role and presence of the Holy Spirit will keep the church from the arrogance and presumption that has tragically characterized much of church history. The Spirit, like the Word in John 1, has always been available to those open to Her presence. Consider the significance of these words from the “General Principles and Policies of the Division of Overseas Ministries” of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—“God has never, in any time or place, been without witness. One who is more fully known in Jesus Christ has been and is at work in the creation of community, the sharing of love, the seeking of freedom, the search for truth, the reactions of wonder and awe in the presence of nature’s power and beauty and creativity, and the awareness of the worth of persons.” The same Spirit we find in Christ has been and is still at work throughout all creation, in every faith, and in every person. Such an appreciation of the omnipresence of God’s Spirit should lead the church into authentic dialogue (not arrogant monologue) with other faiths as well as with those with no faith. In that dialogue, we can share what gives meaning and joy to our lives in our own faith and listen openly and respectfully to others as they share what is precious and meaningful in their faith. As we do so, we may find much common ground to work for the common good, justice, peace, reconciliation, and the mending of the world.
3) Clark Williamson laments that the church too often has been made up of “the frozen chosen.” These frozen chosen are more concerned with the maintenance of the status quo (in the church and in every part of society) than in the radical transformation of creation through the restless movement and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Williamson asks, “Will the community freeze up in the icy grip of a past, perhaps a glorious past, and justify the epithet ‘the frozen chosen’ or will it respond in faith and hope to the transcendence that now confronts it?” That transcendence is made possible through the work of the Holy Spirit who seeks to make all things new according to the radical agenda of the Kingdom of God present in the Christ Event. Can the church trust that God’s Spirit is still present and active and still calling us to faithfulness, risk, courage, and sacrifice? Do we believe God is still speaking in our day? If the Spirit is like the wind blowing where She will, shouldn’t we expect surprises as earthshaking as Yahweh’s call of Abraham and Sarah and Jesus’ call for us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?
4) Pentecost in the church is related to the awesome prophecy of Joel which promised the pouring out of God’s Spirit on everyone, regardless of station, wealth, power, pedigree, sex, or age. This radical equality is an extension of the unpredictable, surprising, and unexpected movement of God’s Spirit to create in every “now” that Beloved Community which has always been the goal of the Creator. Part of the reason for the focus of the Black church on the Spirit is this experience and promise of radical equality. With this radical equality also comes awesome demand. We are each responsible for our individual response to the call of God’s Spirit. We each have access to the presence and power of God through God’s Spirit. And we each have our role to play in the cosmic drama of healing and mending this fractured world.
5) An appreciation of the Spirit of God will keep the church from the idolatry of literalism and “bibliolatry.” As Williamson writes, “The biblical metaphors for the Spirit, wind and breath, make it bluntly and straightforwardly clear that we cannot objectify God, cannot turn God into an object that we can control. Wind and breath are, like God, invisible (Romans 1:20; Hebrews 11:27). . . The temptation of all literalism in religion is to forget or deny this point. The error, indeed the heresy, of literalism is to objectify and seek to control God. The purpose of objectifying God, reducing God to a thing, is to control, to gain power over God. . . Throughout its history the church has struggled with the temptation to identify the Spirit so strongly with the letter of scripture that the letter has protected the church from the Spirit. Appeals to biblical inerrancy, and ironically, to the doctrine of inspiration of scripture, are guilty of this. The problem with inerrantists is not that they take scripture seriously or regard it as authoritative. The problem is that the word of God is looked upon as an objective fact, a datum subject to our control, a law that can be used repressively (always an illegitimate use of torah) to put down whatever just cause is afoot at the time. All efforts to control, tame, domesticate, and manage God’s Spirit are attempts to control the ways of God, to deny that God’s ways are inscrutable (Romans 11:33). The doctrine of the Holy Spirit repudiates all efforts to turn God into a thing or to deify a thing, such as the letter of scripture. God is faithful to God’s promises for blessing and well-being, in ways that we constantly find surprising, in ways that to our normal expectations are paradoxical.”
RZ: Bibliolatry is the worship of the Bible. Christianity is not a religion of a book; it is a religion of a Person whose Spirit is in our midst. As a pastor, I never called the Bible “the Word of God.” Jesus is the Word. The Word might become active in Scriptures through the presence of the Spirit AND through our openness to that Word. The Word is more an event than a written document. (See Isaiah 55:11 where God says, “My word which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me void, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.“) We should also remember that in Mark 7:13 Jesus said, “The traditions of men make void the word of God.”
6) So, does that mean that we of the postmodern era are free to interpret Scripture and claim truth outside Scripture in any way they choose? No. The subjectivism and individualism of our time must not confuse freedom with license. If we are Christian, we have a commitment to the Word revealed in the Christ Event and through the Holy Spirit. Listen to the wise words of Williamson: “God’s Spirit is not just another name for whatever we may think of as ‘spiritual.’ God’s Spirit is the Spirit that brings well-being and blessing, the Spirit that reconciles the alienated, that gathers the scattered into community, that rescues the fallen, illumines the confused, gives hope to the hopeless. The human spirit, as we have all too many occasions to observe, is frequently self-abusing, self-destructive, capable of catastrophic damage to the well-being of others.
7) In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that he has much more to tell them, but they are not ready (cannot bear) the full truth he can share. So, the Holy Spirit will come and reveal “the rest of the truth” as Jesus’ followers are able to understand and appropriate that truth. Nothing the Spirit shall reveal will contradict the essence of Jesus’ teachings and being. But with the living God and with the Resurrected Jesus, there is always more truth to tell and to be embraced.
So, what does the church do when it faces questions, challenges, and controversies about which the Bible says nothing or about which it says things that themselves are at odds with the nature and spirit of Jesus? I can think of three examples when the church decided to follow the Spirit instead of the letter of Scripture:
- The abolition of slavery: Even the New Testament commands slaves to obey their masters, a fact that slaveowners and their toady ministers stressed every chance they could. Over time, Christians (some of them, at least) began to ask how slavery could be justified in light of Jesus’ teachings in the Golden Rule, on the importance of compassion, on the tradition of Jubilee, and in the solidarity seen in Matthew 25. Finally, the truth of the Word/Christ overruled some of the words of the Bible.
- The ordination of women as ministers and elders: Conservative churches quote a few verses attributed to Paul which are used to deny ordination and teaching ministries to women. However, if the radical equality of Pentecost as interpreted through the prophecy of Joel has any merit, half of the human race should not be prevented from answering the call of the Word through the Spirit. After all, even in the Bible, we have women prophets (Huldah), women leaders (Deborah), and women deacons (Phoebe) who were the leaders of the church.
- The full acceptance and affirmation of the lgbtq members of the human race and the family of God: The questionable interpretation of a few esoteric passages in the Bible has served as the basis for a cruel persecution of lgbtq persons for many centuries. Three factors have changed the minds and hearts of some Christians regarding the validity of such interpretations and actions. a) The massive evidence in science and psychology that one’s sexual orientation is not chosen but a given part of God’s splendid, beautiful, and diverse creation b)The brave testimony of members of the lgbtq community who have shared their pain and struggles and the willingness of reasonable and compassionate people to listen to and believe their witness. c) The movement of the Spirit which is always, always on the side of justice, compassion, inclusion.
8) The Holy Spirit is all about the connectedness and relatedness of all creation and all parts of creation, including human beings. As such, the Holy Spirit is the agent of reconciliation. She creates a web, a matrix which brings together all of creation and all of humanity into a healing and liberating Beloved Community—what the Quakers called “the Peaceable Kingdom.” Today, we are in great need of being connected and reconciled. The Holy Spirit has Her work cut out for Her. And so do we.
