Trinity X

Collect. Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epistle. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
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Our own Canon H___ has spoken at length recently about the deficiencies in the pneumatology -the doctrine of the Spirit- of our time. In today's epistle, St. Paul sets out a pragmatic doctrine of the Spirit. It is not his primary concern to discuss the Spirit in his person, but in his work.

The reader should notice that he is speaking to the initiated, those who were not actively resisting the Spirit. He drew a contrast between this new attitude and the old state of his audience: devoted to mute idols, led in no direction at all – for, as the OT authors ask over and over, how can an idol which does nothing and says nothing really lead anyone anywhere? Some were even saying the demonic confession that Jesus is accursed (which exorcists say is one of the most common taunts that a demon will use to attempt to shake the faith of those involved in the proceedings).

But he told them the mark of a truly Spirit-filled person is to be able to say with conviction that Jesus is Lord. The ancient Fathers recognized and taught that God is working in each man's life whether he wishes it or not. The very creative act which brought him into being is as much the activity of God as of the biological parents. God the Father gives him the breath of life. God the Son gives him the reason to make him a man rather than a brute beast. This is the argument of Origen of Alexandria. But Origen limited the activity of the Holy Spirit to the regenerate – to the saints in a broad application of the term.

Maximus Confessor took a similar position, arguing that there are three levels of activity of the Spirit in the life of man. The first is life-sustaining in a physical manner. The second is thought-sustaining, leading to culture and preparing the man to cultivate virtue. And here is where the Greek philosophers leave off; what more can there be than to live virtuously? The last is that working of the Spirit which regenerates the soul and culminates in the divinization of the man.

Yet, the Spirit does not work independently of the Father and the Son. Citing Origen again, “there is no difference in the Trinity, but that which is called the gift of the Spirit is made known through the Son, and operated by God the Father.” This making known through the Son is developed most fully by St. John, when he writes of Jesus the incarnate Word “He has declared God” (John 1:18). Many readers have also chosen to interpret the various places where wisdom is personified in the OT literature as allusions to the Lord Jesus. One of the most explicit such passages is found in Baruch 3:36-38:

This is our God; no other shall be compared to Him. He found the whole way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards, He was seen upon the earth and lived among men.

Yet Jesus himself said that everything he taught was received from the Father.

This is all a reflection on the way St. Paul has chosen to relate the Trinity to us in the Epistle:

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

The Spirit is the point of access to the Son and the Father. To quote Basil of Caesarea: “[St. Paul] begins from our point of view, since when we receive gifts, we first encounter the one who distributes them, then we consider the one who sent them, and then we turn our minds to the source and cause of them.” St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8). This is corroborative of Basil's hierarchy of relationship.

Moreover, we can read of both the Spirit and the Son being called 'advocates' for the saints in the Scriptures, but only the Son is referred to as a Mediator. And without his mediation, we cannot hope to approach the throne of God. Citing Basil again, “He will use the eye that has been cleansed to show you in himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed vision of the image you will see the unspeakable beauty of the archetype.”

All of this has been in reference to the activity of God and to how we relate to God. This has little to do with how God relates within the trinity and nothing to do with the substance or essence of the divinity of God. This is the distinction that is not understood in all of the churches that have chosen to divorce themselves from the traditions of church history and the creeds and councils. They lose the ability to understand the philosophical underpinnings supporting our NT texts.

Instead, they come to read the texts through lenses of their own creation: American, African, Hispanic, Revivalist, Restorationist – it doesn't matter. They do not understand the distinction between the essence and energies of God and they do not know how to do partitive exegesis -separating what is said of the humanity and what is said of the divinity- when they read of our Lord. Their understanding of the Spirit is thus also confused. Some come to conclude that his activity has been superceded by the completion of the Bible. Others come to conclude that 'it' is an impersonal force. Still others elevate the Spirit over the Son –if their practice is any indication- in the way they think about their salvation.

I dare say for most people, Arianism and Modalism are alive and well. I cannot count the times I have heard a statement like, “Jesus is not God because he is the Lord.” And the Modalist view, basically that God is a great actor playing three parts in the same play, seems like a tidy way to make sense of all that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit stuff. But, it doesn't fit very well with the narrative. There are too many times that God would be playing three roles simultaneously.

When I was in the Church of Christ, no one really talked about the Spirit because no one could make sense of the Trinity and no one could make a coherent doctrine of the Spirit through feeble attempts at systematic theology (comparing all of the passages on a given topic) because they didn't have the key: distinguishing between passages that spoke of the person and the energies of the Spirit. Thus, the manner of how the Holy Spirit indwelt the believer was a point of great controversy. I will not go down the plethora of rabbit holes and dead ends that were commonly offered as conclusions in that fellowship; I will merely tell you the answer. The Holy Spirit indwells the Christian by his energies.

This does not at all mean that every Christian is going to manifest sign gifts or that everyone is equally affected at any given moment by the energy of the Spirit. We are warned in the Bible against resisting the Spirit and quenching the Spirit. And I have already discussed that, to some degree, the Spirit is at work in the unregenerate as well as the saints.

The problem with so many people's approach to the Holy Spirit is that they view the gifts with the eyes of Simon Magus. You may recall he wished to buy the apostolate and was sharply rebuked for his hubris. Too many have purely selfish motives for seeking the sign gifts. We shouldn't be surprised: American Evangelicalism is an inherently selfish religion which has chosen to focus on 'me and God' (which always seems to devolve into just 'me'). The Spirit's energies are active for a purpose. Oh, it's fairly easy to conjure up a gift: get the right music, a charismatic speaker, maybe some mood lighting, and let the power of the 'self' take over. The true gift is always benevolent in its expression.

But we shouldn't be too critical either, relationships are great mysteries. And they are hard. Joining a church can be terrifying. And accepting into the church the other, the person who is not just like you and your friend Jane and her lovely husband, can be equally terrifying. But, we have seen that the Trinity exists and functions in relationship. I submit to you that this is a model for us as well. We too are called to live in relationship and for it to be healthy and right, it must be predicated on love.

This is summarized in our Collect today: Be open to the prayers of thy humble servants. . . make them to ask such things as shall please thee. Humility contrasts with hubris. Thee contrasts with me. May we search our hearts and examine our thoughts, words, and deeds each day as we seek to live in relationship – any relationship.

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