Sunday was the Christian festival of Pentecost. This weekend we mark Trinity Sunday, contemplating the relationship of three persons at the heart of our understanding of the Christian God. These are fertile moments, offering both inspiration and grounding.
(Catch up on Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit would come in John’s gospel, Chapter 14 and verse 16 and in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 1 and verse 4.)
That initial giving of the Spirit was extraordinary. A supernatural, unforgettable experience for Jesus’ followers. Read about it in Acts 2:1-11.
Whirlow has a close association with this Holy Spirt: our chapel is named the Chapel of the Holy Spirit. The peace often felt when we wait there feels ‘supernatural’, as if influenced by God’s Spirit.
It is an uncluttered space. One exception is a large print of Rublev’s Holy Trinity icon, depicting the Holy Spirit as one person in community with the other persons of God. It inspires contemplation of the complex nature of the Divine.
In recent weeks, another reminder of this person of the Trinity has been fixed to the wall of our newly landscaped back garden: a sculpture of the Wild Goose.
On viewing the sculpture for the first time, some see it as a dove, the ancient Christian symbol of God’s Spirit. This is not wrong - both birds are there!
Celtic Christian tradition teaches that, in the middle ages, the wild goose symbolised the Holy Spirit. God cannot be bent to human wishes and desires. Like wild geese, their God could not be tamed or domesticated; here is something beyond our control.
“We are threatened by anything that we cannot control, that part of God “which blows where It will” (John 3:8) and which our theologies and churches can neither predict nor inhibit. The Holy Spirit has rightly been called the forgotten or denied Person of the Blessed Trinity. We cannot sense the Spirit, like we cannot see air, silence, and the space between everything. We look for God “out there” and the Spirit is always “in here” and “in between” everything.”
The account from Acts describes the Holy Spirit coming to Jesus’ followers with ‘a sound like the rush of a violent wind’ and visible manifestations like ‘tongues of fire’. These are wild things, not gentle or predictable. And the subsequent actions of the people who experienced them was like that, too!
Slowly read the passage, imagine the scene, take in the impact it had on this group of dispirited people. Remember, they were bereft at Jesus’ departure, uncertain about the future, fearful of possible repercussions from the authorities who had Jesus killed. And, suddenly, they are transformed and filled with a courage that enables them to tell their story to all who might listen or observe their changed lives.
Who is the Holy Spirit for you today?
What other aspects of God’s Spirit might there be for you to experience?
What might you ask of the Holy Spirit?
Going Deeper
There are numerous names and movements of the Spirit, that call to a corresponding presence within us. Use this litany by Richard Rohr in your contemplation of the unpredictable God who knows you better than you know yourself.
Is there a desire to invite the wild side of God into your life? Go ahead – be prepared for transformation!