William Blake, Ancient of Days (1793)
Exodus relates the story of the manna, the bread from heaven, that the Israelites gathered each day in the desert; except on the Sabbath they ate what was kept over from the day before. And they saved some for a long time, to remind them of that time in the desert and God's providence for them.
God's providence for his children is revealed again in the Scripture passage from the Gospel of John, where Jesus comforts his followers with the assurance that while he must depart they will receive an Advocate - the holy Breath, the spirit that moved across the face of the waters at Creation.
And so it is that how we experience God now is through that holy Breath, that same Spirit that was in the beginning, that works through his people, from then until now.
We experience the Father, sure, through our experience of reality as Creation. We experience Jesus through our experience of existence as in need of and in receipt of redemption, sanctification, salvation - something to make it holy, to make it not our own sordid playground but a thing of God.
But it is in the Spirit that we know him, and through the Spirit that God makes himself known to us.
But it is in the Breath that we know her, and through the Breath that God makes herself known to us.
The Spirit in fact may be conceived of as the conceptual efficacy within the Godhead. While the creator is called Father and Jesus is the obedient Son (or Child) it is by the Spirit that he is conceived. This theological doctrine is a bit of a mystery, but it helps us understand how God while often painted as a white-bearded old man, is beyond gender but somehow it is within, comprehended, by God.
Daily Office readings for Friday in the Second Week of Easter:
Exod. 16:23-36; 1 Pet. 3:13-4:6; John 16:1-15
AM Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 134, 135
No comments:
Post a Comment