A Mighty Rushing Wind

But a new time is coming. In fact, it is already here. True worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for. (John 4:23)

God is spirit. His worshipers must worship him in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

That friend is the Spirit of truth. The world can’t accept him. That’s because the world does not see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you. (John 14:17)

But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is still going to happen. (John 16:13)

Merriam-Webster lists 13 different uses of spirit, with a number of those carrying sub-meanings. A few that might possibly apply here are: “an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms;” “a supernatural being or essence: such as Holy Ghost;” “the activating or essential principle influencing a person;” and “enthusiastic loyalty [as in school spirit].”¹ Only in one, “i.e. a supernatural being,” does Merriam-Webster hint at the possibility of a person-like quality of spirit. 

Of course, dictionaries don’t govern a word’s usage; they just report it. And so what we as Christians mean when we speak of the third member of the Trinity might not be clear to the writers of Merriam-Webster. I’m sure we’d find general agreement that ghost—as folklore uses it—does not express what we mean when we refer to the Holy Ghost. Neither would a comparison to school spirit be adequate. 

But when an assessment of an event includes the words, “the Holy Spirit’s presence was felt by all those in attendance,” something quite particular had to have been observed by the speaker/writer. That that something would have to fit some understanding of Holy Spirit for those present and/or those reading/hearing the words is obvious.

 

Question is, was the Holy Spirit’s presence detected through the senses of those present? Seen, heard, felt, smelled or tasted? Was there “a mighty, rushing wind” as filled the room at Pentecost? Was that something detected—in the example I gave—the same thing that the gospel writers described as “a mighty rushing wind?”²

Biblical accounts are prone to use anthropomorphic representations of God (the God who speaks from a burning bush), elaborate metaphors (Jonah in the whale’s belly for three days and nights) and parabolic teaching (the parables of Jesus, the book of Job). I’d contend that we’ve intuitively known all along that the sign of the Holy Spirit needn’t be the “sound of a rushing, mighty wind from heaven,” but some of our sister denominations have so longed for the physical sign that speaking in tongues, falling down in a healing ceremony or even states of heightened communal emotion have been charged with that duty.

 

Spirit has only one dwelling place, and that’s in human consciousness. It makes no sense to speak of the Spirit in relation to the moon, or Pluto; there aren’t any spirit-containers there. Neither would a planet occupied only by animals ever conceive of spirit. Only human consciousness is capable of imagining spirit by any definition and that has to have been the ground in which the spirit concept was planted and grew. “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:21)”

But it’s a difficult concept, really, to imagine a force, an influence, a life-giving presence that doesn’t conform to our observable world, and that’s probably why spirit has been anthropomorphized; speaking of it as person made it imaginable for people and the stained glass windows, the icons, the statues, the relics and rituals made spirit detectable to the senses for those who couldn’t grasp it any other way.

The writer of John’s gospel (in conjunction with the translators, editors and theologians that followed and made it available to us as we have it today) struggles with the meaning of spirit. “He lives with you, and he will be in you.” How can the spirit be both with you and in you? Especially if it is a he, a male personage? What are the possibilities that such a description would end up in the sensibilities that have broken up—and continue to break up—the fellowship of Jesus' followers? How would it not be a temptation to say, “Lo here,” or “lo there is the spirit. He is in me, but not in you?”

The Apostle Paul probably hit on a better way of explaining for us the presence of the Holy Spirit through the recognition of its evidence: “But the fruit the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy and peace. It is being patient, kind and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself. There is no law against things of that kind. (Galatians 5: 22 & 23) Personifying, externalizing the Holy Spirit can result in imagining that there is a personage who will work magic in us that will produce the fruits that Paul lists, something the Galatians passage clearly suggests. More helpful is the imagery that begins with a determination to follow Jesus’ teaching: disciplining oneself to be loving, joyful, peacemaking, patient, kind, faithful and gentle. The action repeated will produce in us a holy spirit, a spirit that is contagious, that when shared with others in work and worship will be like the “sound of a mighty rushing wind.”

500 years ago—this year—Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral thereby initiating the most far-reaching split in the Church of Christ. It may be time again to consider the presence or absence of spirit in the worldwide fellowship of believers. From my vantage point, the presence of antagonism where love should persist, lamentation in place of joy, conflict where peacemaking is called for, impatience, unkindness, faithlessness, and abuse instead of gentleness exist in our faith as evidence that the Spirit Jesus personified may have left some of our buildings. 

Alas.

1https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spirit

2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:2, KJV)