“The wind blows as it wishes . . . so is everyone born of the Spirit.”  Jesus in John 3

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”

What do you believe about the Holy Spirit?  I don’t mean what do you believe about what you’ve been taught by parents, other Christians or the church you grew up in or are attending now, but rather what do you personally believe?  How have you witnessed or experienced the Holy Spirit’s work in your life?  Perhaps you are very open and receptive to the Holy Spirit and see the Spirit as the means by which God breathes life into us, vivifies us if you will, and provides comfort and counsel for us during our lives. Or perhaps you’re a bit uncertain about the Spirit.  Perhaps you’ve been taught, as I was, that the Holy Spirit is tethered to the words of the Bible and the Sacraments that are administered in and by the church.  And if you experience something that cannot be measured against those elements, then it is illegitimate and not part of genuine belief.  This is indeed unfortunate.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are two extremes that one can go to regarding the devil, one is to give him too much credence, and the other is to not give him enough.  Something similar could be said about the Spirit.  There have been, on the one hand, well-intentioned followers of Christ who have gotten off-track in their pursuit of the Spirit.  While serving in Papua New Guinea a man was treated at the hospital who had been severely beaten and hacked up with machetes by fellow villagers due to his misguided attempts to follow the Spirit.  He had taken a child to a hill to perform a sacrifice because, he claimed, the Spirit had told him to as Abraham had done with Isaac. Obviously he was following the prompting of a much different spirit.

On the other hand, the Spirit can be overlooked or even ignored.  Perhaps this is because the Spirit is so elusive, unpredictable and indefinable, as Jesus makes clear.   I love the imagery that the Iona Community in Scotland has for the Spirit.  They depict the Spirit as a wild goose.  Think of that concept.  How does a goose behave? Wildly unpredictable.  That is akin to the working of the Spirit, who will go wherever possible and use various means to bring the gifts of God to people.  One cannot bridle the Spirit, for it is the breath of God as Jesus makes clear.

The Holy Spirit, while so much more, is nothing less than a gift. A precious gift given to us by God.  Therefore we can and should embrace the gift of The Spirit.  Certainly Jesus did, receiving the Spirit Himself in His baptism, and then teaching quite extensively about the Spirit in this Gospel of John.  St. Paul did as well.  The above passage is one of my favorites in regard to the Spirit and the fruits or gifts that are given.

In the weeks to come I’m going to focus on each of these gifts.  As a bit of a teaser allow me to say just a few words about the first fruit, which is love.  The word for love here is agape, which is probably very familiar to you.  It refers to the love of God.  The purest form of love.  St. Paul describes this love in 1 Corinthians 13.

Consider for a moment a time, or times that you’ve received pure love.  The type of love that had no conditions or expectations.  What was that like for you?  From whom did your receive it?  Or, on the other hand, consider an occasion(s) when you shared that type of love.  What did it feel like?  What was the effect both on yourself and the person with whom you shared it?

It isn’t surprising that this is the first fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned, because it is what is spoken by the Father in the baptism of The Son.  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Note that the Father doesn’t talk about sin, repentance, or even forgiveness.  It’s all about love!  It’s who God is.  It’s what The Spirit brings to us. And because of it, it’s who we are as well!