The substance of our beliefs is important. The responsibility of what we do is important. The style by which we live our faith in word and deed is equally important. With those things in mind, I invite you to join me on a journey through the coming year. Some of the interesting places I hope to include are Gros Morne in Newfoundland and Labrador, sites in India where your generosity has reached, and the community in which you live.
The goal of this journey is a re-acquaintance with an old friend, the Companion of the Christian and the Church. This friend is sent to help us live a balanced unity in what we believe, what we do, and the spirit in which we do both. The Old Friend is the One Jesus described as the Holy Spirit. Our Reformed heritage offers a particularly rich and informed appreciation for the life and ministry of the Spirit.
At the 139th General Assembly, our worship was focused on Jesus’ prayer, “I ask… that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
John’s gospel places this prayer directly following an introduction of our companion, the Advocate and Helper. The Holy Spirit is the person we are invited to come to know and celebrate in the company of the Father and the Son.
Earlier in the text, we are introduced to the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, confirming the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the event. In Chapter 3, in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, he is described as the agent of our new birth into the kingdom of God.
John tells us that in reference to the Holy Spirit Jesus said, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” Some have heard in these words a discouragement against ever seeking out the Spirit. I hear the reality that the Spirit is not to be controlled or manipulated any more than the Father or the Son.
There is plenty of encouragement throughout the scriptures to know better and seek out the Holy Spirit. One of my favourite lines is in Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the invitation to cultivate the “fruit of the Holy Spirit” in our relationships. Popular characteristics of the culture—”the desires of the flesh”—are contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit. Those of the Spirit build and enhance relationships. Those of the flesh erode them.
Our church stands in danger of being impoverished by our real estate. Our buildings have become our treasure. Too often, the congregation has become the servant of the building rather than the building being the servant of the congregation. Sadly, the real treasure of the church—relationships with God and with one another—is becoming second place. In our 21st-century culture of increasing isolation, what an opportunity we have to offer relationships of eternal quality!
In Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are invited to become part of the divine fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a fellowship defined by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To deliberately cultivate relationships of these qualities as lived by God is to encounter and celebrate the life and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
