Writing this letter on Whitsunday, it seems appropriate to reflect on the role and nature of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and therefore in our lives. What follows is by way of ‘notes towards a definition of…’
First of all it is clear both in the gospels of Luke and of John that the Spirit is the ongoing presence of Jesus in the world. Jesus gathers disciples round him and the Spirit continues that ingathering. The presence of Jesus during his life time was the presence of the Kingdom of God. When disciples followed him they entered that kingdom, even though life within the kingdom in the world required a great deal of growth in the disciples – a growth which continued as part of the work of the Spirit in them. The Spirit reminded them of Jesus’ teaching, it led them into the truth, it taught them what to say and gave them gifts of behaviour appropriate to the life of the kingdom.
Jesus and then the Spirit delineate the place of the church and the ordered life of the church into which all disciples come. This spiritual and material wholeness into which they were called is communicated through baptism and holy communion. The communion or eucharist was the place in which the concrete facts of Jesus redemptive life, death and resurrection were recalled, alongside the way prepared for Jesus by the story of Israel, its prophets, priests and kings. In this context Christian belief grew and developed, and Christian life in relation to the world was defined. And out of this context came the New Testament. The Church gave rise to the New Testament and not the other way round. And the many sided fullness of the life of the early church is revealed in its acceptance of so diverse a collection of Christian literature – four gospels, the Acts, twenty one epistles and Revelations. Only a church which trusted in the guidance of the Spirit could have been so unafraid of ‘tensions’ and which was able to discern without prejudice the ‘wholeness’ to be gained by putting together so much often contradictory material.
In fact the work of the Holy Spirit is perhaps best to be seen in the reconciliation of various tensions in a quest for greater wholeness. There is the tension between the once for all, historical specificity of the life of Jesus, and the growth of the church in many different but equally specific circumstances. There are those in the church who focus solely on what they believe to be the eternal and unchanging truth of Scripture; there are those who focus on the Tradition (or usually one particular aspect of it) found in the stream of the Church’s life down the ages; and there are those who focus on what they believe to be the immediate activity of the Spirit in the present. And all three foci can be in permanent tension.
Then again there is the tension between our call to judge the world, to identify all that works against God’s purposes for the world, and on the other hand our call to love and serve the world and to affirm what is good in creation, in human civilisation and culture. On either side the danger of distortion lurks around every corner.
Then there is the tension between our belief in the divine origin and nature of the church and the sinfulness of its members. Here there lies the danger of attempts to purify the church and cast out all imperfection, or attempts to moralise about what the church ought to do, what schemes for renewal it ought to adopt, instead of remembering what the Church is and the wholeness which is to be found in listening to the Spirit.
And yet that listening is not going to save us from the effects of the tensions I have described, and many others besides. If the spirit inspires a Christlike life in us and in the church, it communicates a life which is not immune form suffering, misunderstanding, powerlessness and vulnerability. The Spirit enables us to live such a life, prayerfully, truthfully and hopefully. If someone asks “Where or what is the Spirit” we can only point to Christian communities where people are being transformed and learning to bridge the gaps between the many tensions I have described. The face of the Spirit is to be seen only in redeemed human faces.
The Vicar writes
Stephen Tucker