Last week I
reflected on the attitude of the organized church to the Holy Spirit. I believe that the organized church, at
least in most established parts, does not revere the third person of the
Trinity. As I noted, if the Holy Spirit
is given the attention and reverence it is due, religious leaders would not
have the control that some believe is necessary to ensure that Christianity, as
they understand it, will survive and thrive.
The question I want to explore further is whether or not the
Holy Spirit ever destroys what is there or does it just bring about
transformation in the world. I believe
after some consideration I clarified my position regarding the transformative
nature of the Holy Spirit.
The best example of the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is
the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came with roaring winds and tongues
of fire and speech. Those present were
so transformed that a new church was born, one which spread quickly over the
known world. There was no destruction in
that act; rather, something new was born.
However, when
viewed from the perspective of those involved it can be very different. The lives of those who were present in that
room were changed radically. They were
no longer the same people. They were now
new people in a new way. They went out
from that place and changed the world.
To them it must have seemed like the old way had died. Richard Rohr addresses this, “I see
transformation and change occurring in three stages: order > disorder
> reorder”. When the old way dies
the birth pangs of the new order can seem to be like destruction and perhaps
even chaos as the new way takes root.
The wind and fire of Pentecost caused confusion to those who witnessed
it.
This process of
transformation is captured wonderfully in the sacrament of baptism. As I discuss in my sermon this week, in
baptism we die to the old life and are born to the new life. This is done symbolically in the Anglican
tradition by pouring water over the head of the baptismal candidate. Unfortunately, this is not direct enough for
people to realize what it represents as it does not truly capture the impact of
what happens—the symbol has lost much of its energy. When we are immersed into the waters our old
selves are drowned and die. We are born
anew when we rise out of the water. This
is exactly what is portrayed in the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. Jesus was fully immersed by John. When Jesus was raised up out of the water the
Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove.
Immediately after that, what happened?
He was “led” by the Spirit into the wilderness for a forty-day spiritual
retreat/vision quest.
The Gospel of
Mark states, “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He
was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the
wild beasts; and the angels waited on him”.
I prefer this version to the other Synoptic Gospels of Mathew and Luke
which has the spirit leading Jesus. I
believe that usually we resist the new life that the Holy Spirit brings because
our lives are going to be changed irrevocably in ways we cannot fully conceive
or perhaps can conceive and do not want to embrace. People do not generally embrace change.
The prophets
were often reluctant to take on their missions given to them by God as in the case
of Jonah. Richard Rohr distinguishes the
role of the prophet from the role of the priest in the church today:
The role of the prophet is to
lead us into sacred space by deconstructing the old space; the role of the
priest is to teach us how to live fruitfully inside of sacred space. The
prophet disconnects us from the false, and the priest reconnects us to The Real
at ever larger and deeper levels. Unfortunately, most ministers might talk
of new realms but rarely lead us out of the old realm where we are still
largely trapped and addicted. So not much genuinely new happens.
This brings us back to the Holy Spirit and organized religion. We have a “divinely intended tension” between
the old and the new. How do we as
Christians seek to follow where the Holy Spirit is leading us and maintain and
renew a community which we are called to as the church, born two thousand years
ago on the Day of Pentecost? We need to
let go of what is no longer gives us new life and try and discern where the
Holy Spirit is calling us. That is truly
a challenge but one that we are called to.
Blessings on
your journey,
Greg
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