Presbyterians have never been big fans of the Holy Spirit. I believe that is because we are not sure what to do with it. Both God and Jesus seem very predictable. We can study them. We can write books about them. We can place them in neat little pockets. The Holy Spirit on the other hand seems to be very unpredictable. The Spirit shows up at unexpected moments, causes people to speak in tongues, dance in crazy ways and utter often uncomfortable prophecy. The Spirit is the wild card in how God deals with the world. If we are not careful the Spirit might make us do things that are not as orderly as we would like. None-the-less the Spirit is just as important for the church as are the other two members of the Trinity (God the Father and God the Son).
The Spirit of God appears in the New Testament in its earliest writings, those of the Apostle Paul. In fact the role of the Spirit is critical for Paul's understanding of how God and Christ work in the world. We see this in that a believers' faith journey is entirely dependent upon the Spirit. Faith begins when the Spirit enters into the life of an individual and insures our adoption (Romans 8:15) as God's children. This same Spirit then gives us a new way of seeing the world; through Christ's eyes and not through our own (Romans 7:6). The Spirit gives us hope (Romans 5:5), helps us to pray (Romans 8:26), shows us God's love (Romans 15:30), guarantees our salvation (II Corinthians 5:5) and empowers us to say that "Jesus is Lord" (I Corinthians 12:3). We see additional evidence of the Spirit in Paul's life. Each time Paul makes a move from one location to another it is the Spirit of God that drives him (Acts 16:5-7 is a good example).
Paul's experience and understanding of the Spirit appear to coincide with that of writer of Luke-Acts. In Luke it is the Spirit that incarnates Jesus in Mary, fills Elizabeth, Zechariah and Simeon, descends upon Jesus at his baptism, sends Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, anoints Jesus for ministry, and according to Jesus is a gift that will be given to the people. The book of Acts continues this focus on the Spirit where the Holy Spirit is mentioned more than 50 times. Just as the Spirit played a key role in Paul's life it does the same for the other Apostles. The Spirit helps the Apostles discern God's will, empowers them to proclaim the Good News, demonstrates the presence of God and God's salvation, helps them see the future, fills believers and guides their journeys. Some commentators have said that the book should not be called the Acts of the Apostles but the Acts of the Holy Spirit. While the other Gospels mention the Holy Spirit it is not as central to their story telling as it is to the author of Luke-Acts.
The Holy Spirit continued to play a role, though not as prominent in the writings of the early church fathers. The Spirit finally got its due when it was incorporated into the Creeds of the church in 381 at Constantinople. In that rewriting of the Nicene Creed the bishops added the language, we Believe in "the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father, Who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, Who spoke through the prophets." These words are a reminder that the Spirit is integral to the life and work of God's people.
All of this brings us back to the Presbyterian reluctance to deal with the Spirit. Once again, if the Spirit plays this large a role in the scriptures and the Creeds why haven't we emphasized the Spirit more? My answer would be not only that the Spirit is unpredictable (as noted above) but that the Protestant church wanted to lift up the importance of the scriptures above all else. This meant that the scriptures were more important than church tradition as well as personal religious experience. If the church were to proclaim that the Spirit was still speaking and acting then it might mean that the scripture was not closed, new understandings of faith and life might emerge and people might worship in ways that were not decent and in order. This was simply too much to bear as the Protestant Reformation worked out its fundamental belief structure. Fortunately as time has gone by even we Presbyterians have begun to reassess the work of the Spirit.
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