The Disruptive Holy Spirit

Friends, 

 

I took a break from my Pentecost theme last week to honor Holmes Rolston III and Walter Brueggemann of blessed memory. Now, back to the theme. 

 

I want to talk about the discomfort and disruption that the Holy Spirit often brings in her wake. First, let me nerd out for a second about the term “Holy Spirit.” The Greek term for Spirit is πνεῦμα. As you may know, in Greek – as in many other languages – nouns are often identified as either masculine, feminine, or neuter, and πνεῦμα is neuter. So, if one wants to select a pronoun, one can go with “him,” “her,” or “it.” Translations rarely choose “it” when referring to the Holy Spirit, because Christian doctrine considers the Holy Spirit to be the “third person” of the trinity, and “it” is impersonal, usually referring a thing. I prefer to speak of the Holy Spirit with the pronouns she/her for a couple of reasons. First, I should confess, I like how it catches people off guard and makes them ask questions. But, more importantly, some of the related terms to πνεῦμα are specifically female nouns, such as πνοή, that mighty rushing wind/breath that entered the house on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2). In addition, the Holy Spirit is often described in ways that “Wisdom” is described in the Hebrew Bible, and the term in Hebrew, as well as its Greek counterpart “Sophia” are also feminine. Proverbs 8 has the most delightful description of Wisdom accompanying God during creation, which the Old Testament scholar Bill Brown says reads like “take your daughter to work day”: “then I was beside [God], like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” That is Wisdom speaking, a participant in God’s act of creation. 

 

In addition to the arguable femininity of the term, the word πνεῦμα has a wide array of meanings. It can mean “spirit” as in a human spirit or God’s spirit. It can also mean “breath” or “wind.” When translations speak of the sound of ‘a rushing mighty wind’ entering the room (Acts 2:2), then says they were all filled with the “Holy Spirit” (2:4), we are receiving their best interpretations. Verse 2 could read, “rushing mighty breath” or “rushing mighty spirit.” Verse 4 could read that they were all filled with “the holy breath,” which sounds like the creation story in Genesis 2, or “the holy wind” (although that sounds odd). And the capitalization of “Holy Spirit” instead of “holy spirit” is entirely a judgment call., as is the King James Bible’s phrase “Holy Ghost,” using “ghost” instead of “spirit” for πνεῦμα.

 

What is more important about the Holy Spirit is how disruptive she is. As we heard last weekend, religions are inherently enculturated. They are typically birthed in a particular culture, with particular views of the world, particular languages, and particular authoritative figureheads. And while they may grow and extend beyond the original culture, they tend to privilege certain aspect of their history. Think of how a religious book might describe a war, with God clearly on one side and not the other. Think of how some 21^st century Roman Catholics argue mightily for bringing back the “Latin Mass” that was ended with the Second Vatican Council, even if they don’t understand a word of it. Think about how a classical piece of music, even it is titled Etude in d minor is considered “sacred music,” while “What a Wonderful World” is considered “secular.” It’s not a criticism, but an observation that religions tend to take on a particular culture, sometimes declaring a language to be more sacred than others, and so on. 

 

With that in mind, look at the disruption the Holy Spirit causes on Pentecost! Suddenly every language becomes a medium for declaring the mighty works of God. Every language, hence, every culture. The language of friends; the language of enemies. The language of the educated; the language of barbarians (seriously, “Cretans” are mentioned in the story!) After the litany of cultural identities present, the story says, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” The Holy Spirit tramples on the unspoken rule of religion by bypassing the presumed privilege of culture and language by making God’s story accessible to everyone. Jesus once likened her to “the wind (pneuma) which blows where it will.” That Holy Spirit, she does what she does!

 

It seems that the church has been trying to shove the Holy Spirit back into proper cultural, linguistic, and theological boxes ever since the Day of Pentecost. Our faithfulness lies in setting her free and trying to keep up! 

 

Mark of St. Mark