Bible Studies
THE SPIRITED COMMUNITY
Read Numbers 11, John 16, 1 Corinthians 12
Trying to describe God as the one and only God who somehow exists in three persons is like trying to nail a blob of Jell-O to a tree.
Trying to explain who the Holy Spirit is can be like trying to draw a summer sunset with four crayons.
How do we explain mystery?
It is one thing to see a chart diagramming how a piano works; it is entirely another thing to hear great music coming from a piano. It is one thing to hear someone tell how a fresh strawberry pie ought to be made; it is quite another to taste that strawberry pie still warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream melting on it. We put words to what we experience. We learn by words. Words help and words often come up short. On a classic from TV’s “Family Feud,” Richard Dawson asked a contestant this question: “In what month of pregnancy does a woman begin to look pregnant?” She thought a split second and said, “September!” How do we explain mystery?
It was a special treat to have our six-year old grandson with us last weekend. He has heard how we celebrate Pentecost. The day before I explained to him the timeline: Easter, followed in forty days by Ascension Thursday, followed in ten days by Pentecost when Jesus kept his promise to send the Holy Spirit. That night I said nighttime prayers with him. He prayed, “Thank you, Jesus, for dropping the Holy Spirit on us.” I hadn’t heard those words used before, but they were accurate. Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on the Church. He dropped the Holy Spirit on us!
Who is the Holy Spirit? That is the right way to frame the question. The Holy Spirit is not an it, but God, the third person of the Triune God. All that is true of God, is true of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God appears first in Genesis 1, in the opening chapter of the Bible, hovering over the chaos of early creation. He never leaves. Wherever God is working, there God’s Spirit is working. Wherever Jesus is honored, there the Spirit is working. The root word for spirit is wind. The Spirit moves in mysterious ways, like the wind. Anyone who has sailed knows that we don’t control the wind, we depend on it. And we learn to read the wind and cooperate with it. Jesus promised to send the Spirit and he did, but not just for one big event once a year. The Spirit has come to keep us following Jesus all the time. When Gordon Fee wrote a commentary on all the New Testament references to the Holy Spirit, he entitled it “God’s Empowering Presence.” That is who the Spirit is—God’s empowering presence.
In John 16 Jesus teaches us to depend upon the Spirit. Notice in this teaching how the three persons of God are working together, as I read it from “The Message.”
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’”
One of the ways we get to know a person is by finding out what that person does. By that I don’t mean just the person’s job, but what interests the person and what energizes the person. A section of the Brief Statement of Faith tells us something of what the Spirit does: “The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church.” Hear those present tense active verbs: rules our faith and life, engages us, claims us, feeds us, and calls us.
That Spirit fell on Eldad and Medad. Have you ever heard anyone refer to Eldad and Medad are two of their Bible heroes? We ought to know them better. After all, they are mentioned once in Scripture! Here is my own version of what happened. “The Lord God actually took some of the Spirit which he gave to Moses and gave that same Spirit to the elders and they spoke God's word clearly. Two people named Eldad and Medad weren’t at the right place at the right time, but the same Spirit rested on them and they too spoke God's word clearly. When a tattletale ran and told Moses, his loyal helper Joshua overheard and blurted out, ‘Let's stop them now--shut them up!’ ‘Wait just a minute.’ Moses said. ‘What's your problem? Are you trying to protect me? I'd be thrilled if all the congregation experienced God's Spirit so that all would speak God's word clearly.’” Now let’s hear those amazing words of Moses in a more accurate translation: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” What a heart God gave to Moses. What an understanding Moses had of the ministry of all God's people. What a largeness there was to Moses' spirit. His was an amateur spirit, not a professional one.
In popular usage, amateur often means second rate while professional means first rate. That is a superficial understanding of both words. Amateur means doing something for love. An amateur athlete is not necessarily second rate, but is pursuing excellence for the love of the pursuit, not for any monetary payback. A professional, on the other had, is getting paid for doing something. That may imply that the professional does that task well, but it doesn't guarantee it. In the proper understanding of these words, the very best person at a task may be an amateur who is doing it merely for the love of it. Joshua thought that Moses was the professional and Eldad and Medad were but amateurs. Moses had a better understanding of the ministry of all God's congregation. The Bible has a better understanding of the ministry of all God's congregation.
To amateurize ministry is not a fad. It is not a New Age whim or a trendy approach to organizational structure. It reaches back to the Reformation's call to the priesthood of all believers. It reaches further back to the New Testament's understanding of diaconal ministry. It reaches even further back to the Old Testament, where God called a people for his namesake. The great majority of people God used throughout biblical history were amateurs, serving for love not money. The minority who were paid for their work served with amateur spirit. I ask all the paid staff of
On my month of sabbatical I had some experiences of the Spirit in communities. In the first week I worshiped twice at the Community of Jesus in
The design is simple, all based on God’s working described in 1 Corinthians 12. “God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.”
I am convinced that each one of us is gifted by the Holy Spirit for royal service. Have you identified the Holy Spirit working in you and gifting you? If not, let us help you. Nothing hinders the Church from being the Church—not money problems, not building limitations—as much as our reluctance to believe what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and us. When the Church becomes a two-class society it strays from God’s best. When we think pastors and paid staff are somehow more spiritual and better Christians that the rest of the people, we are in spiritual danger. We need great leaders like Moses. And we need great leaders like Eldad and Medad. Picture a church in which every member is gifted and actively serving the Lord every day. We need one another for that, opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit, serving Jesus, and glorifying the Father. “Thank you, Jesus, for dropping the Holy Spirit on us.” Send more.
Harry is senior pastor at Brunswick Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York.
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