8 November 2013 - the holy spirit and fire

8 November 2013 - the holy spirit and fire

John the Baptist cries out to prepare, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths."  There is an urgency to his plea.  He wants to shake up the comfortable and the complacent before the day when the wheat and the chaff are separated.  It isn't enough to that we are "told to flee from the coming wrath".  We need to be changed.  The path of least resistance is the path of the chaff.  It isn't enough to come and see a prophet because the message is trendy.  He offers "water, for repentance", and there is plenty of which we need to repent.  But this feeling of conviction is a mere feeling unless it gives way to true conversion. More than the baptism of water he offers, John the Baptist points to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This is the baptism which genuinely transforms us. 

Jesus is the one on whom the "spirit of the LORD shall rest".  It is he one who pours out this same Spirit on us.  This Spirit is:

a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
This is the Spirit which teaches us right judgment so that was are just and do not decide by appearance or hearsay.  To the degree that we make room for him we will see justice "flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever." 

It is this peace that makes God's dwelling so glorious that the Gentiles can't help but seek it out.  We long for the king of peace to establish his "rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the end of the earth."  This is the world in which there is "no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain".
The Spirit changes everything.  It is the "knowledge of the LORD" which he imparts that brings true peace. 

In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.

It is the Spirit that enables us "with one accord" to "glorify the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ."  Paul, too, acknowledges that this "harmony with one another" which is the source of peace in the world comes only from the "God of endurance and encouragement".

The Holy Spirit is the source, not only of our strength for endurance, but of our encouragement as well.  Let us ask him to unleash these gifts in us more and more.  We have received them in baptism in none of us are they fully realized.  Scripture too contains the endurance and encouragement of God.  If we need to unlock our baptism this is a good place to establish our expectations for what is possible so that "we might have hope."

May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.