As Baptists, one of things we should have some confession time around is the fact that we are pretty non-committal and indifferent when it comes to the Holy Spirit. We are people of the Word, so long as the Word pertains to God the Father and Creator, or Jesus, God’s son and our Savior.
We are pretty good at ignoring or at least being indifferent to the parts of the Bible that speak of God and Jesus in different ways than those, but we are excellent at only giving word or lip service to the Holy Spirit. And yet this aspect or person of God is absolutely a critical part of what we call the Trinity. Perhaps we treat the Holy Spirit as the ugly duckling because It requires that we take stock of what God is doing now, and where God is leading in the future.
When we are not at our best spiritually, we prefer to remember what God has done and how God has moved in our lives, because it helps us to keep our faith personal, and located in a place in which we can exert control over our thoughts and actions: the past.
The Holy Spirit, in contrast, pushes us and stretches us in the present, as well as leading us into the uncertain, uncontrollable, and sometimes overwhelming or intimidating future.
Hans Kung, a famous theologian and philosopher, said that the Holy Spirit works where He wills, when He wills, and that “God’s Spirit does not blow when He must, but only when He wills.” He goes on to say, “No decrees of the church [or contracts, deals, compromises, or threats], in doctrine or practice, can force Him [the Spirit] to act or not to act at a given time.
God in the Spirit is absolutely free.” So let’s go on and admit it: life would be much easier without the Holy Spirit stretching us and calling us out of our routines, and let us confess that thought as a sin. But let us also remember that what God has done in our lives, and in our life as a church, from the times we creatively met the challenges of the community, to the times that we thought our heart was being ripped out, were once the intimidating, overwhelming, and uncontrollable present and future.
And the same Spirit that pulled us and led us through those times, is the Spirit that is pulling us into God’s future for us right now. So during this Pentecost season, let us not shy away from God’s Spirit, but instead, let us lean on, and call upon the Spirit for our guidance and strength.
Blessings, and may worship be an experience of God’s presence in your life today.
Sonny