A young female student tilts her head toward me, looks me in the eyes, and asks, “Who am I to stand before a congregation and preach, or to stand in a hospital room and pray for the sick or bereaved, or to sit with the confused and abused and speak words of hope, or to touch a broken and hurting sister on the arm, or to embrace and offer love to a lost or homeless child? I am only a mildly gifted person who deals with loads of insecurity, guilt and self-doubt. Who am I to act as though I bring a word, a touch, or a presence that will guide, heal, and give hope?”
I lean toward her and confess. “And who am I to teach a seminary class? Who am I to act as though I am an example of Christian service, witness or piety? Who am I to offer advice concerning marriage, ministry, missions, or life situations? The answer to your questions and mine is the Spirit.”
While a discussion of the Holy Spirit could center on whether the gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues, are valid, our ultimate concern is whether the Spirit does in fact act in and through our lives. And if he does, what does this mean for the way in which we are to live. Who is Spirit and what does he do?
First, the Spirit is God. Thus, what I might say about God, the Creator, and God, the Son, I must also say about God, the Spirit. Each has distinction but in the end are expressions of the same God. God, in his three-in-oneness, cannot, should not be parsed like a verb or diagramed like a sentence. The ‘persons’ of the Godhead are not grandstanding competitors, vying for supremacy. Rather, as Karl Barth explains, our “knowledge of God is still only an event enclosed in the mystery of the divine Trinity” (CD II/1, 181). I, with Barth, do not understand God’s three-in-oneness. But the mystery of the Trinity does not prevent me confessing that the Spirit is God.
Second, I have also learned from Karl Barth that our best understanding of God is in his revelation of himself. Thus, I am able to know something of who the Spirit is, as I observe his activity. Scripture tells me that the Spirit is the one who moves (Gen. 1.2), descends (Mt. 3.16; Mk 1.10; Jn 1.32), speaks (Mt. 10.1; Acts 8.29, 10.19), teaches (Jn 14.26), leads and guides (Lk 4.1; Acts 16.7), convicts of sin (Jn 16.8), gives life (Jn 6.63), provides comfort (Jn 14.14-26), sanctifies (Rom 15.16), gives power (Acts 1.8), bears witness of Jesus (Jn 15.26), and calls and sends out witnesses (Acts 13.2, 4). His activity is broad, encompassing all of life, and thus far from passive or hidden.
Third, life remains one-dimensional and profane without the Spirit. The biblical witness tells me the Spirit moves upon mundane historical happenings and frail, ordinary people, as he wishes and for his purposes. The Spirit is the apocalyptic interruption of the stream of historical happenings. As he interrupts, happenings and people are transformed. While Christ is the historical incarnation of God with us, the Spirit is the ever-coming, apocalyptic encounter of the divine within time and space. How and when this happens is beyond my understanding and certainly outside of my control. Like the wind that blows where it will, so the Spirit moves and serves his purpose or mission.
Fourth, mission and ministry are not works the church just does. Rather, as Lesslie Newbigin reminds us, mission “is something done by the Spirit, who is himself the witness, who changes both the world and the church, who always goes before the church in its missionary journey.”[1] The Spirit is the preacher, teacher, missionary, chaplain, student worker, and social worker – in both an eschatological and existential sense. God, as the free and acting Spirit, creates, launches and enables the church for witness and service. The church, according to Craig van Gelder, is the community created by the Spirit for the purposes of the Spirit.[2] Thus, if the church is to be the church, it must be founded, led, shaped and empowered by the Spirit. If the church is to participate in the coming of the kingdom of God on earth, the reign of the Spirit must be inaugurated and established in her midst.
Fifth, the question should never be – How do I get more of the Spirit? Or how do I get the Spirit to do what I want? Rather, the question is always – Does the Spirit have or possess me? Can the Spirit do with me as he wants? Whatever I might say about faith in God or submission to God becomes reality in the work of the Spirit. All things considered, the Spirit’s activity is about who is in control of ministry and life. Either ministry is my ministry, life is my life, or ministry and life are the Spirit’s.
So, I confess that the Spirit is the potential for every act, the possibility in every reality. If I preach a sermon, doing everything just right, but the Spirit does not speak in and through my words, gestures, face, and ideas, then it is just my sermon – well crafted, cute, even award-winning, but still just my sermon. If I rush to the hospital room of a dying person, perform all the duties of pastoral care in a competent and professional manner, and yet the Spirit does not enter the room with me, in me, then I bring only skill and competency, not healing and comfort. If I open my Bible, reading it with adroit exegetical prowess, and yet, the Spirit does not teach me, correct me, or reprove me, then the text is not a light to my feet, nor will it shine through me. If I befriend and love my neighbor and in due time speak clearly and appropriately of my faith in Jesus Christ with skill and empathy, but am void of the Spirit’s witness, then friendship and love remain merely my friendship and my love, and thus, surely fall short of true love and fail to transform.
As I ask the Spirit to come upon me and then wait upon the Spirit to do his work, I thereby do more than merely rely on being cute, making people laugh, turning a phrase, acting like a pleasant person, working hard, or sounding smart. These are not bad. In fact, they are good – too good. When I rely on these rather than the Spirit, then preaching, teaching, witnessing, writing, and ministering can rise to greatness but in the end remain one-dimensional and temporal in their effect. When filled with the Spirit, these have the potential to be acts of grace and hope, divine expressions of love and mercy.
So, as you and I live our lives, we must not quench the Spirit with our pride and self-confidence, or with our insecurity and fear. Rather, we are to be filled with the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Brains, looks, good intentions, and even a great education are not enough. In fact, they are all a bit over-rated. Instead, in the course of ministry and life, we are to ask the Spirit continually to convert us – our words, actions, and intentions – into the likeness of God. Through the Spirit’s continual conversion, there is great liberty to preach, write, witness, parent, befriend, serve, converse, smile, befriend – to love.
2 Corinthians 3:17 reminds us – “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
[1] Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 56.
[2] Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000).
Tags: Barth, conversion, Spirit
Thanks Mike for the good thoughts,
As a young seminarian, taking a unit of CPE at the Oakland CA County Hospital, I was assigned to work on the Obstetrics & Gynecology unit. I was terrified. What right did I have to walk through those doors and face rows of beds of women who had just given birth, had just lost a baby, had just aborted an unwanted fetus, or had just been told they could never bear a child. For three days I tried to walk through those doors. Each day I would return to the CPE office defeated and sit wondering if I was really called to ministry. My status as a seminary student was not enough. My commitment to service was not enough. My role as a hospital chaplain was not enough. By what authority could I walk through those doors? My fellow CPE students helped me struggle with this dilemma. That week I grew immensely as I finally realized that I had No right to intrude on the private lives of these women. I had no authority to ask them questions. I had no credentials to offer advice. The only thing I had was a call to follow Christ as God’s Spirit walked through those doors. The power to do what can do on our own is the true power of the Holy Spirit. By myself I had nothing but a few clever questions of counseling techniques. But filled with the Spirit of Christ I had the “potential to be (do) acts of grace and hope, divine expressions of love and mercy.” Through years of ministry as pastor, missionary, husband, and father I have faced lots of difficult doors. The ones I walked though by myself turned to failure. While the doors through which I followed the Spirit of God lead me to genuine service and community.
Thank you Jim for your thoughtful response. Yes, the Spirit is the witness, healer, father, husband, pastor, et al, we are to be responsive and responsible to him.