Years ago, language chosen by the Church to talk about God could strike terror into the hearts of impressionable young children. And it certainly struck terror in the young heart of this writer some decades ago in Sunday school. One of the Persons of the Trinity, after all, was a ghost, and this fit well with the frequent injunctions of the King James Version that we “fear” God. Pretty frightening stuff!
It’s significant that in most of our churches the Holy Ghost has become the Holy Spirit, a far less foreboding image. And that Spirit is described in today’s gospel in terms of advocacy, quite the opposite of a threat or a fearsome foe. It is this Advocate, this “Spirit of truth,” whom Jesus promises will abide in his Church to the end of time.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,” Jesus promises later in John’s gospel (16:13). And undoubtedly the Spirit does that. But the mechanism by which this happens is open to debate. “I have as much authority as the pope,” comedian George Carlin has written. “I just don’t have as many people who believe it.” And it’s difficult indeed for most Anglicans to see the Spirit abiding more fully in one person than in any other. Is the Spirit’s guidance perceived then through headcounts? Sometimes, perhaps, but many popular theological notions have throughout history led whole pieces of the Church into what was later identified as heresy.
To the extent that the promised “Spirit of truth” is indeed an advocate and not a frightening power, one might suspect that he seldom speaks arbitrarily through a particular individual. One might also suspect, however, that the Spirit’s leading isn’t always known definitively through the machinations of confrontational politics. The promised Spirit’s method of guiding us “into all the truth” is probably far more subtle than either. However it is that truth is ultimately revealed, we can be assured that, given sufficient time, the Spirit always leads God’s people to consensus.
Look It Up
What role does the Spirit of truth play in the freedom mentioned in John 8:31-37?
Think About It
What are some of the issues on which the Spirit had led God’s people to consensus over the course of history?
Next Sunday
The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A), May 4, 2008
BCP: Acts 1:(1-7)8-14 or Ezek. 39:21-29; Psalm 68:1-20 or 47; 1 Pet. 4:12-19 or Acts 1:(1-7)8-14; John 17:1-11
RCL: Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Pet. 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
