Reading: I believe in the Holy Spirit (Apostles Creed)
Reflection: If someone was going to leave, perhaps to emigrate to the US, Canada or Germany, as so any from BiH have done, or as many foreigners have done recently, returning to their home countries because of concerns about the threat of Coronavirus to elderly parents or relatives, but they said they were going to leave you something to remember them by, that wouldn’t seem so strange would it? Maybe they’d leave a painting, a book, a bike (!) something that might speak of themselves but also be something that they would know that you might like to have. The possibilities are endless. Perhaps, of course, someone may be close to death and, in their will, they might leave you money, a house or land. This would not be so unusual. But imagine the person saying, or you reading in their will, that they were leaving you their spirit, that would be weird. Or worse still, if you were upset or scared at the thought of them leaving and they said; “It’s OK, I’ll leave my spirit with you, don’t worry;” I wonder how you would feel then?
I come to our Creed, our basic declaration of what we say is true, and say that I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I find myself in that upper room, on the day of preparation for the Passover feast. We’ve just had a meal during which Jesus explained the meaning of his life and imminent death in terms of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31), using bread and wine to enact it. He has demonstrated self-giving love, the principal mode of operation in His Kingdom, by washing our feet and now He’s saying that He’s going to leave. He says He’s going to leave but will send his spirit to be with us, just as he is here with us right now, but that his spirit would be in us, too (John 14:17). These close friends of Jesus, the one we call Messiah are finding His words rather cryptic and pretty disturbing. They don’t get it but, I must not be too hard on them as they struggle to grasp the enormity of what Jesus is saying to them, for I am a Time Traveller!
I step out of the room and find a computer keyboard in front of me. Was that a C S Lewis Narnia moment? As I look again at Jesus’ words and bring to them what I have known and come to understand during the few years in which I’ve tried to follow Him and give my allegiance to Him, I hear Him saying; “I am leaving you the very best of myself. Everything you have experienced of me, all that I have shared with you, taught you, and shown you, will continue because everything about me will live, even after the authorities have killed me!”
The German theologian Juergen Moltmann, in his book The Source of Life, said; “The Holy Spirit is the unrestricted presence of God in which our life wakes up, becomes wholly and entirely living, and is endowed with the energies of life.” I’m not sure that there’s any more I want to say; I just want to be present to Father, Son, and Spirit God as He exercises His freedom to be present to me. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
Photo by 卡晨 on Unsplash