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How To Do Anything You Want Galatians 5 July 1, 2001 |
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As some of you know, I grew up as a military brat and lived all over the world, in Italy, Germany, Japan, Hawaii and a number of domestic states, including Illinois. I went to a basketball game when I was nine between the University of Illinois and Indiana University. It wasn't just a basketball game, it was a war. Illinois won 100-98 in two overtimes and 42 years later they still talk about it. "Hoosier basketball," as portrayed in the film "Hoosiers," is something to behold. But for some of the troubling aspects of collegiate athletics, I did learn early on about the power of spirit in such gatherings. People animated by a common goal can be a remarkable phenomenon. The Holy Spirit has long been the Cinderella of the Trinity. But the rise of the charismatic movement has forced us to reexamine this largely neglected person of the Trinity. Perhaps to the consternation of Jehovah Witnesses, who disavow the doctrine of the Trinity, the term "Spirit" or "Holy Spirit" is mentioned nearly 300 times in the New Testament. Nonetheless, the early church neglected the doctrine of the Spirit, consumed as it was by trying to understand the doctrine of Christ the Son. The doctrine of God the Father occasioned a fair number of words. And so with the Son, given the question of the divinity of the Son. But people have hardly known what to do about the doctrine of the Spirit. God as Creator makes a lot of sense. Jesus as the Crucified and Risen one, well we have lots of images--so that one is not difficult to imagine. But the long-suffering Spirit has been largely ignored. |
Veni Creator Spiritus!
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As you can see in the last verse of the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, the "Holy Spirit" used to be called the “Holy Ghost.” And what on earth is a “paraclete” that we hear about? Is the Spirit also a creator? So even this most venerable of hymns can puzzle us regarding the Holy Spirit.
Consider the following comments from some distinguished writers.
"The Holy Spirit, object of faith, is also an object of prayer : we must not only pray that we receive the Holy Spirit. We must pray to the Spirit."
Karl Barth, The Faith Of the Church
"Every time we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit,' we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.
J B Phillips, Plain Christianity
"The work of the Spirit is the bringing to be of the vision of God....the capacitating of persons to 'see visions' and 'dream dreams.'"
Gabriel Fackre, A Christian Story
St. Augustine developed the idea of the intimacy of the Spirit in his On the Trinity. The Spirit is distinct, he said, nevertheless the Spirit is what is common to the Father and the Son. The Father is only Father of the Son and Son only son of the Father. The Spirit however is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.
Galatians 5
"For freedom Christ has set us free." This is the classic Pauline doctrine of freedom from the law, which is why Galatians has been called the "Magna Carta of Christian freedom." We are called to freedom but what kind of freedom?
What's significant here is the pairing of Christian freedom with life in the Spirit. Note:
"Live by the Spirit ... what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit" and vice versa.
"But if you are led by the Spirit you are not subject to the law."
"... the fruit of the Spirit is love."
"If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."
If we are in the Spirit, then we are free for St. Paul. The Spirit is about the intimacy of God in our lives, that is God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Our calling is to respond to that intimate approach. If we reject the Spirit, we are in the worst of all possible bondages, having to obey a law we cannot finally obey.
Saturday, I happened to go out with most of my family to a large motorcycle center. I was intrigued by what I saw. I used to ride bikes for a number of years until our children came along and it became apparent I should give them up for a time (the bikes, that is!). Not only were the bikes appealing at the center I went to, they were somewhat less expensive than I had anticipated. Before long, I wasn't just looking, I began hatching schemes about how I could acquire one. But for a number of reasons, now is not the time. My motorcycling lusts were competing with my good judgment, and I left the center much less happy than I had entered! My desires and judgment were in deep conflict. I was a case study in "how not to do what you want."
St. Paul's point about the Spirit is that if we live in the Spirit, then we are no longer under the Law. Why? Because the range of things that we want to do are in line with the things we ought to do. Perfect freedom exists where all the things I want to do are also the things I ought to do. Following St. Paul's counsel is how we get ourselves in the position to be able to do anything we want. The prescription is there in Galatians 5!
Veni Creator Spiritus
This hymn may go back as far as St. Ambrose in the late fourth century. Certainly in something like the current form by the late ninth century. It may be the most important hymn of the Western church, with its translation from Latin into English more than 60 times. At the time of the break of the Church of England from Roman jurisdiction, there was no question that this classic hymn would be retained in the traditions of the English church.
Notably, the "Creation of Adam" by Michaelangelo may have been inspired by Veni Creator Spiritus. Given the intimacy between Adam and God in the painting and that between humanity and God in the hymn, that there is a relationship should not be a surprise. The intimacy in the hymn is so inspiring, I should think it has inspired lots of artistic activity.
Only in 1990 did a physician realize that the right side of the image, with God reaching out of the cloud, was an anatomically correct rendering of the human brain. God is intimately active in our mind as well as spirit, according to Michaelangelo. In fact, it is this activity which brings us to life. Notice the enervated state of Adam as he reaches out to God.
Consider the first verse.
1) Great Paraclete! To Thee we cry,
O highest gift of God most high!
O font of life! O fire of love!
And sweet anointing from above.Font of life and fire of love--that's what has the capacity to create us into persons whose range of passions and desires matches up completely with what we ought to do. Utter and complete freedom, no longer in need of a Law which was designed for those still in the bondage of short-sighted selfishness and desire. Consider the chorus:
Come Creator Spirit blest!
In our souls take up thy rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid,
To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.One is reminded here of St. Augustine's prayer that "we are restless until we rest in thee." Perhaps he or his thinking found there way into this hymn. A human heart is made by God and it will be a tormented house of cards so long as it is at variance with the Spirit's subtle promptings. Last, look at the second verse.
2) Kindle our senses from above,
And make our hearts overflow with love;
With patience firm and virtue high
The weakness of our flesh supply.Remember our consideration of C.S. Lewis's talk of "transposition"? We have a limited range of senses to express a complex range of feelings. If you see a man crying, do you automatically conclude he is unhappy? You won't if you think about it. He may have received a check for a million dollars and is deliriously happy. Or he may have been peeling onions. We have a relatively small range of senses to express a much larger range of emotions and experiences. Hence, "kindle our senses from above." The Spirit kindles and we respond, so that our "hearts overflow with love." Such an overflowing heart is both at peace with itself and enjoys complete freedom. There may be tears of joy on our faces largely masking the subtle treasures the Spirit has created within. The "weakness of our flesh" is still there, St. Paul understood full well, but the those who live in the Spirit will increasingly leave that weakness to a distant past and will enjoy the profound joy of being in concert with the Creator Spirit.
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