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I Corinthians 12.13 reads: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (ESV). The Spirit, or Pneuma, marks the beginning of the Christian life through baptism, or “immersion.” Another image of this inception is drinking. We are immersed by and in the Spirit, we drink of the Spirit.
What do these images convey to us? Immersion implies a being enveloped within, surrounded by, placed within a particular environment; indeed, baptism is an image of returning to the womb and being born again, taking on the nature of the Parent, the Creating One. This is a powerful image. The image of drinking speaks of internalizing, being permeated by, indeed, becoming one with something. Scripture points to the mystery of being initiated into a whole new environment in which to live, as well as the profound truth of becoming pervaded by and organically one with Spirit.
N. Graham Standish, a Presbyterian pastor and author, in Becoming a Blessed Church, observes that the Holy Spirit is not stressed in mainline churches. The reason? He concludes that mainline Christians “don’t know what to do with the Holy Spirit.” We, he writes, are very comfortable with God the Father. And, we are somewhat comfortable with Jesus, even though we cannot always decide whether Jesus was God or just a great man. Standish clarifies, “the Holy Spirit seems nebulous, enigmatic, and unpredictable.” We cannot get clarity on who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does, nor what will happen to us if we are open to the Spirit.
Standish remarks that mainline Christians are “an orderly bunch.” This evidences in our wanting “our religion, our worship, and our experience of God to be organized, predictable, and calm…” Yet, through this tendency of organization, predictability, and calm, we have solidified patterns in contrast to how the Spirit often works.
The consequence of this lack of comfort with and openness to the Spirit means that communities of faith try to remain alive in a manner contradicting their inception into the Jesus movement. The Jesus movement is an organic movement, a bodily union with the Spirit of Christ, connecting us to the resurrected Christ. The birthing into Christ, imaged by immersion and drinking, sets the tone and agenda of living a spiritual life. The being conceived by Spirit and our imbibing Spirit is generated by a mysterious, unpredictable, and animating Love. To seek to remain alive in a manner contradicting the nature of the inception will lead to the demise of a faith community.
Through opening to the animating Principle, what we call Spirit or the Holy Spirit, means returning to the same wonderful, creative, and vivifying Grace that we experienced in initiation into the Christian life. Communities that make this return will always experience the freshness and challenge of the wildly free Wind, the Spirit.
The result of a return to the originating Principle is a renewal, a fresh vivification characterized by inspiration and aspiration. To drink in the Spirit means to receive inspiration, literally, a taking inward of the Spirit, or a being breathed into by the Spirit; i.e. in-spiration. That internalization leads to the externalization, what we call aspiration. Here, we are breathing outward the Spirit; i.e., a-spiration.
What applies on the community level, applies with each of us. To be true to our inception into the Christian life, the Jesus movement, we keep returning to the divine Operations that conceived us through new birth. We accept the mystery of this nebulous, enigmatic, and unpredictable Spirit. Initially, this can be frightening. Over time, we learn to trust this Spirit and its ways. Finally, we learn to enjoy the way of the Spirit. Here, our former way of life appears dull, boring, and overly predictable. What at first frightened us becomes the most wonderful, exciting, and adventurous way to live. Amazingly, the adventure increases over time, as we are prepared to welcome and receive more of the Divine Principle of Vivifying and Recreating Love.
Spiritual Exercise
1. How do you sense the Spirit is now working in your life?
2. Do you sense the Spirit working in your community of faith? Explain.
3. How might you be more open to the Holy Spirit?
4. How might your faith community be more open to the Holy Spirit?
5. If you become more open to the Spirit, how might that change your life?
6. If your community of faith becomes more open to the Spirit, what changes might that entail?
7. Have you ever been in a worship setting where persons claiming to be acting from the Spirit acted in a manner that made you uncomfortable or led you to question their sincerity or behavior?
8. Have you ever had a moment of being so “in the Spirit” that you acted opposite your normal ways of acting and such seemed natural and right?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, teach me to surrender to your movement in me and around me. Live into and through me. Keep returning me to my baptism, so I may live out of that mystery, daily. May that return to baptism be more than a memory, rather, may it be a living, repeated reenactment in my self of being born in and through your mysterious, animating Love. Give me the joy of discovering a life whereby daily I am surprised by you and renewed in your Love. Amen.
*Brian K. Wilcox
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
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