Inspiration

Last week I wrote on what could be considered the ‘news’ in the News and Views.  This week is more in the category of views – one of my favourite topics – the Holy Spirit as a source of inspiration in the church. 

The power and work of the Holy Spirit is something which seems, at least in the part of the Christian Church that I am most familiar with, not to be given much authority.  The Holy Spirit seems to be the poor relation of the family of the Trinity.  Anglicanism rests on three pillars of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.  The Holy Spirit does not I seem to enter into any of those in a prominent way.  Perhaps it is in the background of each of these pillars.  However, it has not taken the prominent role that I believe it should.  I guess I am drawing on, what can be considered the fourth pillar, faith, in this approach.

The Holy Spirit is, of course a part of scripture being the wind that blew over the waters at the creation up to and beyond the establishment of the church on Pentecost.  It does not, however, have a firm place in the tradition of Anglicanism.  Now, this may show a lack of a firm foundation in Anglican Church history on my part and I would truly like to be educated more on this.

The place of the Holy Spirit in the Christian church is founded on the passage of scripture, John 14:16-17:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” 

The direct implication of this passage is that the world was and is not ready to accept what the Spirit has come to reveal to us.  This, too, seems to be born out in the between time which began when Jesus ascended.  However, if we are to follow what Jesus has told us, we need to pay more attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the world. 

I believe that the church has not given the attention to the reality and authority of the Holy Spirit because those in authority do not like the possibility that the Holy Spirit may lead people to places that they do not approve of and do not have authority over.  If regular church goers are inspired by the Holy Spirit to be the church in new ways who knows what might happen.  Therefore, let’s not let get beyond the structure and strictures that are in place.

However, despite the attempts to maintain control over the all that is the church, the Holy Spirit cannot be contained and will break though in ways that are unpredictable and unavoidable.  An example of this was noted by Richard Rohr in the past week:

Jarena Lee (1783–1864) was the first authorized woman preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. If then, to preach the gospel by the gift of heaven, comes by inspiration solely, is God straitened; must he take the man exclusively? May he not, did he not, and can he not inspire a female to preach the simple story of the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord? . . . As for me, I am fully persuaded that the Lord called me to labor according to what I have received, in his vineyard. 

There are many examples of the church moving to align itself with the Holy Spirit from translating the bible into language accessible to ordinary Christians, to the movement to emancipation of slaves, to the ordination of women.

There are, of course, problems with discerning the Holy Spirit.  People can easily believe that they are being led by the Holy Spirit but in truth are being mislead by other forces or just believing what they want is actually the devices and desires of their egos.  I don’t want to minimize this reality.  People have been misled, sometimes with disastrous consequences, into following what is not the work of God.  We have to use our God given ability of discernment to move carefully into new places and in new ways.  As Jesus has told us:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? (Matthew 7: 14-16)

Unfortunately, it is sometimes more difficult to recognize whether it is grapes or thorns until we get to the source of them.  All we can do is to pray that God will give us ears to hear and eyes to see what is truly the will of God.

Blessings on your journey.

I Believe, Help My Unbelief

I am jumping the gun a bit in considering the doubting of Thomas.  He is the one who demanded proof of the resurrected Jesus.  However, as we enter the season of the resurrection, I believe it is worth considering doubt and Thomas who might be considered the patron saint of doubters. 

I checked on-line with the “Google machine”, as someone has called it, but couldn’t find any good quotes about doubting.  It doesn’t seem to have a lot of good press―at least at first glance.  Thomas didn’t do a lot to give it a good name.  He believed in the risen Christ only when he had physical proof that Jesus was not a ghost.  However, he did believe in the end.  Jesus acknowledged that Thomas did believe but Jesus held that it is better to believe without demanding proof, “Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’”

So, those who do not require proof and yet believe are upheld in this mini beatitude.  Where then does it leave those of us who have doubts at least some of the time?  I include myself as I tend to doubt at times and yet am able to believe much of what is in the Christian Creed(s).  Although, I must confess that I do have my own understanding of what it means that Jesus was “born of the virgin Mary” among other statement contained in the creeds.

In my times of doubt or unbelief I often fall back on the biblical passage, “I believe; help my unbelief!’  Faith does seem to be a God given gift so what if that gift is not as fulsome as we would like it to be?  Perhaps we should re-frame doubt so it doesn’t get such bad press.  I can think of the fairy tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes in which the child sees the proof that the Emperor has no cloths and has the naivety to simple wisdom to call out a fraud.  If the child had had blind faith that everyone else was correct in their assessment of the emperor, the truth would never have been revealed.  Certainly there are no shortage of emperors of various kinds today that need to be exposed for what they are.  Doubt can play an important role in bringing light on to a situation that desperately needs it.

Anglicans have three pillars on which their faith rests; scripture, reason and tradition.  I have found this to be a strength of my Anglicanism.  We need to balance faith so it can be informed by these three pillars.  I am not going to check my God given reason at the door of the church or my life.  My understanding of scripture is going to be informed by my education using my reason to help me understand how God is working in my life and in the world.  This does require work and can be messy at times, just as it must have been rather messy for Thomas to put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ side.   However, I have faith that God in all aspects of the Trinity understands my doubts and unbelief as well as my belief.  I can often come to believe in time so I hope I am blessed in this as Jesus states. 

Blessings on your journey.