Uncategorized

Sometimes I feel like I’m a bit slow.

One of those slow moments hit me yesterday.

How do you plant churches in a lockdown?  Certainly not the traditional way of person-to-person interaction.  Perhaps not even through interaction over the internet? 

Which then begs the question – what is a church?  Certainly not the building.  Perhaps not even online membership?

Which then begs the question – what does God want from us?  A big “US” in the question.  What is corporality in a lockdown?

And there is the question of the day.

A question asked recently – Is the Holy Spirit of God male?

The question in part arises from a discussion of gender pronouns, the perception of the “gender role” of spiritual gifts and even the question of the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

In my days in theological institutions there were some basic principles laid out.  The Holy Spirit can be grieved – that denotes an emotional/personal being.  The Holy Spirit is fully discovered as Jesus leaves and the Comforter comes.  The Holy Spirit appears in both Old Testament and New Testament.

The Greek words used for the Holy Spirit can be seen as gender neutral (pneuma) or masculine (paracletos).  Of course, I have spent some time trying to write a grammar, and to interpret how grammarians see various words.  The assignment of gender in a word may also be disregarded in following eons – as far as “gender” goes – while still maintaining the endings related to the gender of the word.

If you understand what I have just said, let me add this.  A word study can help but isn’t always enough to prove a hypothesis.

Often context is as important.  Read, read, read!  Wrap the word with other words until there is a sense of what the present looks like (the play on tenses is fully intentional).

So, what have I said?  Just a lot of words?

Simply put, I’m open to saying the Holy Spirit is feminine (and there is lots of historical references).  But, I would rather say the Holy Spirit is gender neutral – in fact the term “gender” is not really applicable to a Spirit.

“This is the first day of the rest of your life.”  In a time of uncertainty, this gives me hope. 

At the same time, I read “Take no thought for the morrow, stick with today.”  That encourages me to dismiss worse case scenarios and live for the moment.

But, what about living in the middle?  What has gone before us and what is to come all encourage me. 

Before:  God has set up a plan to erase the bad and reward the good. 

Now:  God has given abundant life that is accessible every day. 

Future:  With God, in the end there is no end of joy.

I’m reading through (a more formal way of saying I’m auditing) a course on Western Christianity.  Some great reminders of faith and faltering.

Right now I’m into St. Antony who was a desert monk – 251-356.  Here are some thoughts from his biography (some would call it hagiography – read it and you can judge for yourself).  He is responding to the thought of living a life that is able to live above earthly matters and concerns.

“Why not rather get those things which we can take away with us — to wit, prudence, justice, temperance, courage, understanding, love, kindness to the poor, faith in Christ, freedom from wrath, hospitality?”