"if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you;"
Advocate, Counselor, Holy Spirit, Christ Within: these seem to me to be synonyms-- ways of describing the reality of God's presence in the post-Easter world . For us Quakers maybe even 'that of God' within all.
Jesus here was preparing the disciples for his departure; he knew the devastation it would cause and that their faith could survive only to the degree they could be aware of the 'post-Easter God (phrase from Marcus Borg).
The great miracle of Christianity is that it did survive; their faith rose to the occasion; they reached the point where they could walk in the Way (Light) without Jesus. Pentecost happened.
Is there a lesson here for us? Have we reached that point, or can we? The dependence upon the Jesus of history for our inspiration will not carry us beyond a certain point; at some point we must become one of the branches of the vine-- that is to say grow up into maturity as Christians. In my case it's about time.
6 comments:
When I think of the HS, I am reminded in the story where the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. That same spirit resides in us.
What ddi Christianity have to do to survive? How much of it was spiritual eveolution/formation and how much of it tragic compromise?
Maybe I'm in a bad mood today. But mircale seesm an overly hopeful word to describe the survival of the Jesus movement into the critter we see today.
I take your point, David.
" What did Christianity have to do to survive?"
The obvious answer is that it had to play ball with the Powers, particularly Constantine. A more truly historical answer is that Constantine preempted it for his worldly purposes.
Henceforth the real Church has been under the radar. Maybe the miracle lies in the fact that 'gnostic' groups have continued to come forth in the face of a "Church" dominated by the Powers. (As you probably know, I'm using 'gnostic' in the most extremely general sense: of someone determined to relate to God personally rather than second hand and still be guided by the 'spirit of truth' (if you will).
Hi Larry. You said ...
The dependence upon the Jesus of history for our inspiration will not carry us beyond a certain point;
... the questions that comes to my mind ares, is there a spiritual progression from Jesus to the holy spirit, do we have to bag Jesus in order to get the holy spirit?
I don't think so. The father begets the son, the father and the son breathe out the spirit ... it's all relational but the relationships are more discrete than the things related. We're part of the relationship - god is the father/mother of us, the lover/brother/teacher of us, the breath in us ... but the god we're ralating to is one - no part needs to be ditched for the next.
No, Crystal; to "bag Jesus" would be a serious mistake. We only have to take him at his word; he said HS would tell us more than he was able to tell us in physical life.
Larry,
Are you referring to ongoing revelation? This is what I think of when you remind us that the "HS would tell us more than (Jesus) was able to tell us in physical life."
Crystal makes an important point - that "the god we're ralating to is one..." So often we think in terms of dualities, that God is this but not that. Some mystic along the way coined the term 'isness' - that God is all that is, seen and unseen, within and without.
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