Holy Spirit: The Story - Romans 8:1-11

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In our scripture focus, the writer Paul sets out a contrast between walking with the Spirit, and walking in our own self-ness. He asks: are you living according to the Spirit? Is your mind working according to the Spirit? Is your hope resting in this world? Or are you looking to the Spirit?  

Right now, my church is on a path, taking time to learn what it means for us as a congregation—for us as individuals—to pray the prayer, “Holy Spirit, come.” 

In order to pray that prayer, we need to know who it is we're talking to. Who is Holy Spirit? Who is Paul talking about?  

Theology 101. Foundational, absolute beginning point: we believe in the Trinity. 

We believe that scripture teaches that God exists not as three gods, but as one God who exists as 3 distinct but entirely unified ‘persons’ whom we refer to as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The best metaphors that we can come up with are things like an egg: made-up of shell, yolk, and white that together make one thing. Or a shamrock: three leaves that create one plant. I've heard it said that the best explanation of the Trinity is the math equation 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. 

Those all have some benefit. They all sort of help us, but they all break down. They all have very, very limited application in helping us to understand the mystery of Trinity. The mystery of Father, Son, and Spirit, or as some people prefer, Speaker, Word, and Breath. So we begin with the Bible: our theological Point A, whose writers and compilers were inspired and guided by Holy Spirit. 

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The Bible consists of two parts. 

The Old Testament is the part of our story that happened before Jesus was born. It's the first and longer part. As we work to understand Father, Son, and Spirit in the Old Testament, it's easiest to see the Father working there: the most visible of the Three in creation when the world came to be. Making plans and establishing the Law. Drawing lines and giving life its best shape. We see the Father doing stuff like speaking, judging, moving, shaking, singing, grieving. We see the Father very active in the Old Testament.  

The New Testament begins with the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This is the part of our story that happened after Jesus was born. His earthly life and that of the church. The story of us as we begin to do the work that he's given us to do throughout history, until today, and into the future. In the New Testament, I would say, the Son is the most visible. The easiest to identify. He is central in the re-creation of our humanity. He teaches us who we are, opens the door to restoration and to peace. We see the Son as he loves, forgives, heals, calls, invites, welcomes and embraces.   

In both the Old and the New Testaments, the Holy Spirit is more often than not working behind the scenes. But he is working. 

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In the beginning (the real beginning—the beginning that wasn't even technically a beginning, because when you say ‘beginning,’ it implies the movement of time. We're talking about a beginning that was and is an eternity where clocks don't tick, an eternity before creation, when planets hadn't started spinning yet, when stars hadn't yet begun tracing shadows across soil. In that beginning) God danced.  

That is a really interesting idea woven through a lot of theological writing and thought. “The Dance of God” is one of those metaphors that, although limited, helps us to get a handle on who God is, and how God is.  

God's unity within himself is like a dance. I love that image; there is an eternity in which all that exists is the dance of God. How cool is that? In the everything and the nothing of infinity, God dances.  

Then we come into the story.  

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. Genesis 1:2

The writer is painting us a picture of an eagle perched on its nest, rustling the branches to wake up its young and spreading its great wings over them as they hatch and begin to move and look up. 

And God said, “Let there be light...” Genesis 1:3

In that moment the clock began to tick, as out of the no-thing of eternity, God created some-thing.  

God said:

• ‘Let there be light and energy,’ and the Spirit hovered.  
• ‘Let there be matter and dimension,’ and the Spirit hovered.  
• ‘Let there be trees and clover and moss,’ and the Spirit hovered.  
• ‘Let there be birds and fish,’ and the Spirit hovered.  
• ‘Let there be land animals walking around,’ and the Spirit hovered.

Then then God said, ‘Let us make someone like us...’  

Then the Lord God formed a human from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the human became a living being. Genesis 2:7

God's fingers shaped the dust into a body that reflects (dimly) God himself.  

And the Spirit stopped hovering. And went to work.  

God leaned close to the one and only human, close enough for his cheek to touch ours.

God breathed, blew, puffed out his life into the nostrils, into the lungs, into the bloodstream, into the brain. Into the heart, the bone, the muscle of this creature, and that breath completed his image in us. Spirit entered our empty bodies. Spirit sparked our brains, gave us life.  

The next bit may be familiar to you.  

There was another breath in the garden, another spirit, another voice. This one inferior and malicious, but pretty. We listened to the wrong voice. We made the wrong choice. We fell away from God. 

God put into motion the plan to bring us back, but that plan would take time. It would take his time. Over that time, humanity began to move and to grow and to spread. Families, cities, nations, cultures, and God continued to speak through the breath of the Spirit into and through humans.  

In particular, throughout the Old Testament, into and through judges, kings, and prophets.

• God said: let there be judges. Let there be heroes who can save my people from themselves.  

So the Spirit leaned close and went to work in and through people like Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. The Spirit “came upon” them, “clothed” them, “filled” them, “began to stir” them. They went into action.  

The Spirit filled them with wisdom to know what was needed and the courage to do it. God's chosen judges, sometimes afraid, often reluctant but filled with the Spirit... ran into battle. Fought. Saved.  

But the people had enough of that. Enough of the status quo, of living from battle to battle, from judge to judge, from change to change. People wanted stability. They wanted a secure border, so they demanded a king. 

• God said: OK. Let there be kings. Let there be shepherds: leaders who will care for their people, build systems that put love into action, set a good example. 

So the Spirit leaned close and went to work in, for example, David. 

Filled with the Spirit’s compassion and empathy, David was a man who understood forgiveness and humility. Filled with the Spirit... he ruled Israel. He served them, he loved them, he guided them. Not perfectly, but faithfully. Because even the best king is only human. And power corrupts.  

We all need guard rails. We all need help to stay on track, and our rulers—the people to whom we give power and influence—need accountability. They need to be brought back when they stray. We never, ever, ever want to have kings without prophets.  

• God said: let there be prophets. Let there be tellers of truth. People who will speak out and speak loud, especially when it is difficult. People who have the courage to say all of the things, not just the happy promises, not just the pats on the back. Everything that needs to be said.

So the Spirit leaned close and went to work in, for example, Ezekiel.

...The word of the Lord came directly to Ezekiel the priest... The Lord’s hand was upon him. Ezekiel 1:3

For the first, but not the last, time Ezekiel says, “I fell face down and I heard a voice speaking.” 

For the first, but nowhere near the last time, Ezekiel says, “The Spirit lifted me up and set me on my feet.” 

Prophets talked back to kings. They sometimes talked back to God. But God never let them off the hook.

Prophets carried within them fire and passion, lament and hope, knowledge, truth, and courage.  

Filled with the Spirit... God’s chosen tellers of truth saw what God saw, grieved what God grieved, spoke what God spoke. 

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From the beginning, even before our beginning, Holy Spirit has been for eternity completely God and an inseparable part of who God is. Getting to know who the Spirit is can be easiest when we pay attention to how the Spirit works.  

Throughout the Old Testament, he leans close to humans: comes upon them, clothes them, fills them. He, throughout the Old Testament, gives women and men whom God has chosen—for a task or for a moment or for a lifetime—a divine measure of courage, of wisdom, of compassion, of empathy. Of forgiveness and humility. Of knowledge, of passion, of hope. Whatever is needed by people whom God has set apart for the work that needs to be done.  

Extra power, extra presence. The opportunity to represent God on earth in a way that nobody else can do in that moment.  

That is how the Holy Spirit works. Can we begin to see who he is? 

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