Hope and the Holy Spirit
The Spirit is the faceless one. Although nameless, his goal is unity. His anonymity provides a greater platform for his primary activity, which is unwavering selfless love. While he is inconspicuous, his work is not. I like to call him the Whisperer. Many have tried to ignore him. Some deny he exists. Others attempt to harvest him through incantation. He has been pigeon holed to one dimension, epoch or time. But the Spirit is a flowing force that cannot be stopped. His power cannot be confined. Some have experienced his eternal presence but nothing is quite like it when He reveals himself personally. It altars all.
The Whisperer has always chosen to be anonymous. But He does not exist alone. He has existed in community long before our beginning. It was by listening to his subtle activity throughout our human history that the ancients discovered He was pointing to the others the whole time. He exists with two others. Together they are the Lover, the Loved, and the Beloved. And they are One.
This God-community was and is above all else pure unity in diversity. Mutual love of each member of God pores into the other members of the Triune Persons. It was God’s pure relationality in Himself that created an eternal infinity of love that was pored out into our world. Without their relationship one to another they would not be. This was how all of the particles of universe came together. This was the origin of passion, of reason, and of being. This was the origin of friendship. This is where love comes from. This was above all else where the longing of kindred kin comes from. Their relationship was a template for God’s relationship with humanity and for humanity’s relationship with itself.
Try to explain the Trinity and you’ll lose you’ll lose your mind; try to deny it and you’ll lose your soul. As G.K. Chesterton say’s the riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.
From the Trinity we learn that the Creator is not static or standoffish but a loving relationality and sheer liveliness.
All metaphors eventually breakdown, they are used to help us get at a common understanding of God. The Spirit cannot be imprisoned in concepts. Spirit is known by prayer as well as by study. To know the Spirit we must be people of prayer who are willing to yield in complete openness to God.
Father, Son and Spirit are the members of a divine community, unified by common divinity and singleness of purpose. The Trinity portrays God as a community of love and mutuality.
The Spirit is the loving, self-communicating, out-fanning, and outpouring presence of the eternal divine life of the triune God.
Persons in the Trinity are individuals in relationship and communion, not in isolation. The Divine Dance….
The Spirit is more than God’s presence: the Spirit is a Person in fellowship with, but distinct from, Father and Son. Called the Paraclete (Comforter) in John’s gospel, the Spirit is personal agent, teacher and friend.
The Spirit is the joy giver who fills our hearts with singing. I hear the Spirit saying: let the party begin, let the banquet be set, let us enter into the play of new creation. The Spirit choreographs the dance of God and also directs the steps of the creatures entering into God’s dance.
Spirit is also associated with hope. And Hope does not disappoint us… The Spirit brooded over the waters of creation to bring life and order out of chaos. Spirit makes dry bones live and raises up the firstfruits of those who sleep in death. The Spirit is the bringer of the future and creates hope in people, being the power by which this present world will be transformed into the kingdom of God. We have a hand in the future by acting in the present by the power of the Spirit.