Introducing the Holy Spirit: Hovering
by Ken Wilson
Rewind to childhood understanding of God in 1950's as Father, Son, Holy Spirit: Father & Son I could grasp at conceptual level, but Holy Ghost (as he was then called)? Only referent: Casper, Friendly Ghost.
As a young adult reading Scripture in 1970's, evident the Spirit was an active player: present at creation, inspiring prophets, agent of Jesus' powerful works….and those strange words to his disciples: "It's better for you if I go, because unless I go, the Spirit will not come to you."
By 1970's Spirit making a comeback as Pentecost made it's way into the mainstream of Christianity thru the charismatic movement.
Over next three weeks, begin at ground zero--Introducing the Spirit.
Consider Spirit in 3 modes of activity: hovering…creating.…connecting
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen. 1:1-2)
Subtleties of Hebrew reflected in Alter translation: "When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God said, 'Let there be light.'" (Robert Alter)
Genesis doesn't begin with nothing followed by something. Begins with time already in motion, a still-forming earth and an ocean abyss--"watery, formless, chaotic, mobile but lifeless, undifferentiated stuff [Leon Kass]"…and God's breath (spirit/wind--same word in Hebrew) hovering over the waters.
Picture yourself out there, vast expanse of an ocean, the wind howling over it--for us land-based creatures a bleak, inhospitable and frightening scene.
With this one ray of hope before there was light: "and God's breath hovering over the waters." Within the blowing wind a localized
hovering: a peaceful stillness in motion.
Before there is light there is hope: God's breath hovering over the waters…this is our introduction to the Holy Spirit.
"Hovering" attached to the Spirit, "elsewhere describes an eagle fluttering over it's [vulnerable] young" (Robert Alter)
Between the darkness and the first light, in that chaotic-frightening medium that we also call time or the waiting space: Spirit is hovering
For us human beings who exist in time, this is important space we occupy: the waiting space. Right? At any given moment we're living-doing but at same time, anticipating, waiting.
Sometimes waiting space is filled with excitement, like Christmas eve waiting for Christmas morning. Often it's occupied by worry-fear [like we're waiting to see what happens to our auto industry-economy.]
This is our introduction to the Spirit: hovering in the waiting space between the darkness and the first light.
Perfect opening for the story of promise and fulfillment. Promise: God is coming! Rescue is coming! The Kingdom is at hand! Fulfillment: God is here! In between: wait.
In Genesis, the watery earth is the landing pad for the Holy Spirit.
This provides backdrop to introduction to Jesus in gospels.
Common starting point for Jesus in all four gospels is his baptism.
(Matt & Luke offer baby pics, John has prologue, but intro common to all four views is his baptism.)
Those who gathered first memoirs were speaking to and from a Jewish perspective. Any beginning always echoed the first beginning, Genesis 1: Spirit hovering over the waters.
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Mk. 1:9-11)
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3: 16-17)
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3: 21-22)
Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." (John 1: 32-34)
Gospel is not a repeat of Genesis, but a progression. In Genesis the water-earth is the landing pad for the Spirit. In the gospels, a man standing humbly in the waters on earth is the landing pad for the Spirit…with the Father's voicing revealing the man as Beloved Son.
And this Beloved Son is to give the Spirit to other human beings… baptize-immerse-dip others in Spirit.
We humans are to become the landing pad for the Spirit!
Jesus proceeds to show what it's like for a human being to have received the gift of the Spirit: such a human has new & unexpected insights into God, experiences God as a loving Father, is filled with compassion for people and their needs around him, reaches out and touches them with the love of God, which brings healing, hope, and food for the hungry, life for the dying and dead….
and this human gets into trouble with the powers that be, and suffers and dies, and rises to new life.
Still interested in the Spirit? There are thrills-chills with the Spirit--hope and a sense of belonging to God; power to live differently; but there's also going up against the powers that be, becoming unpopular with the in crowd, and suffering and dying before rising.
Truth in advertising: still interested?
So there were many who witnessed all this, who were not interested. Some were offended by Jesus. Preferred their own ideas-plans. Others, like the rich young man, were drawn to Jesus but not willing to pay the price to go where he was going….
But to those who were still interested, still thirsty, he said: "Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1: 4-5)
So this new creation begins where the old one began: with the Spirit hovering over the waters in the waiting space between the darkness and the first light of the new day.
Implications:
1. The first experience of the Spirit is not the Spirit alighting-landing-remaining, but the Spirit descending-hovering.
Personally, I think the Spirit is hovering over us from birth or even before. Something in humans is incurably religious. Something in us looks for something beyond us. I think that's a response to something: the Spirit hovering over us.
It's like in the movies, where the guy looks at the girl across the crowded room. And the girl feels him looking---she doesn't see him looking, but feels him looking--and then she looks up at him.
The Spirit hovers, and we just notice him at different times.
But it's the hovering that we're responding to.
The first experience of the Spirit is the awareness of the possibility of God being interested, paying attention, having you in his gaze.
+ We feel a kind of magnetic pull towards God.
+ A more acute awareness of our need for something-someone More.
+ We feel, perhaps. a warmth or a tingling in the hands or on face
+ My brother in law describes it as cat rubbing back of your legs so a
chill goes up your spine.
+ We tear up not knowing what's causing us to tear up.
+ It feels like our heart is starting to resonate with a new chord.
The Spirit is hovering over us….these feelings-impressions-responses are human response to the Spirit, not the Spirit himself.
Sometimes humans respond intensely to Spirit's hovering. Sobbing. It's happened to me. When Spirit hovers over pain, shaking-jerking…
Onlookers--especially if they enjoy this sort of thing--may glibly say,
"Look! It's the Holy Spirit!" or "See what the Spirit is doing!"
What's really going on is a very human being responding to Spirit.
Human response to God is not God. It's just human response.
(Pluck a E string on a guitar and A string also vibrates, but according to it's nature as an A string.)
When we confuse human response to Spirit with Spirit himself, we get weird. So desperate for God we may look for the response as though it were the Spirit. One time some people responded to presence of the Spirit by falling over. Fine. Next time people sense Spirit, think they ought to fall over. People who really want the Spirit may fall over just to say, "Hey God! I'm ready for you to be close!"
2. We wait for the Spirit in the space between the darkness and the first ray of light.
That's where the Spirit hovers over us….in that space between.
The waiting is often necessary. That’s what hovering implies: as the copter hovers, the landing pad waits.
The waiting space is often the space between the darkness-chaos-abyss and the first light.
That's why Genesis doesn't begin: "And God said, Let there be light and the was light!" Genesis begins "When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God said, 'Let there be light.'"
During the hovering, before the speaking, while it's still dark and scary, that's when the waiting occurs.
As people come to faith, they know something is happening before it actually happens. They get premonitions of believing, of belonging.
For everything there is a first time, including an awareness that the Spirit is hovering. But this is also something that recurs frequently in the life of the Spirit. Before the Spirit moves into new depths or new territory, you get this hovering….and we respond by waiting.
I've learned with sermon prep….I can tell when it's hovering time, still dark, not clear, don't have words, but it's coming. I know it's approaching. Important things happen in the waiting.
When it comes to Spirit, the waiting is as important as the receiving. It's actually part of the receiving, I think.
It's like the wind from the hovering chopter needs to clear the pad so there's room to land. (We grope with metaphors!)
Two different modes of waiting….at the doctors office, say.
If you didn't have an appointment, didn't know the doctor was in or might be helpful, you wouldn't bother to wait. All waiting is hopeful.
Even so, you can fight the waiting--get frustrated, impatient: why do I have to wait, isn't my time as valuable as his time, why do these doctors always get behind in their schedule….?
It's a humbling thing to wait for someone isn't it? It's not what you do in power position. Waiting is for those who are not in charge.
But waiting doesn't have to be frustrating. The best way to wait: say to yourself, I'm here in the doctors office--space is being carved out in my day to wait, might as well relax & enjoy it.
John Wimber, who was early leader in Vineyard, use to talk about dialing down to receive the Spirit. The Pentecostal culture of his day was the dial up, get intense, strain. Actually, goal of physical intensity is to calm us inwardly. Can also frighten devolve into hype.
Wimber, who was Quaker said, dial down, relax, let go….that's best way to receive. [Like a bird watcher: alert attentive, not passive…]
This Wednesday begins a 3 week class on Holy Spirit & Healing. No previous experience required. First session: flying blind, why spiritual experience feels weird or doesn't come easily or naturally to many of us in the modern world. Historical reasons for this. Early practices we will teach: how to dial down, in order to listen up.
3. We wade into the water to receive the Spirit. Baptism isn't some cute-optional Christian ritual. It's the place we go to begin--into the water. Because the Spirit hovers over the waters.
If you want the Spirit that Jesus offers, do what he tells you to do: wade into the water. This was the shared beginning of the early Jesus movement: "we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body."
I was sprinkled as an infant in Episcopal church, but it didn't take in my case. For some infants it does take. Especially when the child is immersed in a practiced vibrant faith.
But norm in NT is a sinner who knows he's a sinner, wading into the water to say, "I've been digging and drinking from my own wells long enough; I want to drink from a new well, be baptized in a new Spirit."
I was baptized at age 19, after 5 years of avowed atheism, sparked by reading Ayn Rand.
Alan Greenspan was a disciple of Ayn Rand. Greenspan said he was surprised that banks didn't make decisions in interest of their share-holders. Rand saw self-interest, not image of God, as the bottom line of being human….guiding light, leading to promised land!
That atheism of Ayn Rand took my soul--the part of me that connects with something beyond myself--and turned it into a dry sponge.
Because I was so dry, and hardened, when I was baptized, it moistened my sponge.
A sponge has to be gently moistened before it can really soak up the water. That's what happened when I was baptized. After I was baptized my soul softened enough to pray aloud with my wife. (First time. No accident it happened after I waded into the water.)
It wasn't until a year later that I was ready for a deeper soaking….