HOLY,HOLY IS JESUS
'Spirit'/'breath' can be seen as a type of noun that has the implied character of a verb. Picture the thing known as 'wind'. Do you think of it as being still? Doesn't every image the word creates have motion, activity, movement, effect? Verbsare 'action words', but then, in their own way, so are nouns like 'wind'. The Spirit is an 'action noun', too.The Spiritverbs all that exists-- the Spiritacts, moves, agitates, births, andenergizes.The Spirit is often -- and rightly -- described as 'God in action'. But the description cannot stop there, because:1.the Father and the Son act, too, and each has a presence of their own.2.what makes the Spirit a person, before anything else, is how the Spirit relates to the Father and Son. We can find out how well they work as a unit, but we have no handle on how that comes about. Thisrelationshipis part of what defines the Godhead.3.The Holy Spirit is not merely present and 'in action'. The Spirit is in actionwith a mission-- bringing in the re-born Creation, the Kingdom. Andin a particular place-- among humanbeings right now. Andwith a direction-- unceasingly toward the Son.The Spirit is a source of energy, butis not a divine wall socket. The Spirit can't be stored away for later use, nor saved up like money in the bank, nor sprinkled over people like some sort of champagne. The Spirit usesus, not vice versa. And the Spirit uses usfor mission, together and individually, for whatever big or little mission needs are at hand.WHY OUR SPIRIT-TALK SEEMS SO VAGUEThe early church had many different shades of belief about the Spirit. TheAriansheld God to be only what we call 'the Father'. Others were interested only in the Father and the Son and identified 'the Spirit' as being a different way of showing the Son or the Father to us. Even so, the vast mass of Christian believers clearly believed in a Holy Spirit, and that this Spirit was divine as againstangelicor human. They didn't seek or want a definition. The most able theologians of the day, such as Athanasius, were busy trying to rightly describe Christ and what He did. These writings led to the ecumenical creeds, which stated the most important truths about Jesusandasserted the Spirit's place in the Trinity without comment (theApostles' Creed) or with brief comment (the Nicene Creed). The Athanasian Creed says nothing more about the Holy Spirit than what it says about God as Father and as Son; it says the Spirit is distinct, yet chose to say nothing much abouthowthe Spirit is distinct.Between then and this past century, the Christian church didn't think much more about the Spirit. There's a practical reason for this: the Spirit is so hard to describe that thinking about the Spirit too much will drive you loony. Anyone who tries to describe the 'Holy Spirit' eventually finds themselves on the edge of the cliff ofheresy(teaching lies about God). Even describing the presence of the Spirit is hard to do right. So, it's usually best to stick with what matters most: what the Spirit is doing with us here in this time and place. Christ is the Spirit's message, Christ's Kingdom is the Spirit's mission, and in any case, the Spirit's primary job is to bring us Christ and to bind Christ's believers together asJesus' Body among the living.Pneumatological thought(thinking aboutthe Spirit) reallyissecondary -- at least, next to actuallylivingin the Spirit. That'snot to call theology unimportant -- if you don't think, you'll fall for anything -- but the Spirit is here so we maylivethe Kingdom.
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