The Spirit: Our Everything
We should get to know the Holy Spirit. I have an idea. Sometimes the Hymnal provides a tool for deepening our connection to God. In this week after Pentecost, I look in the Holy Spirit section of the Hymnal. Hymn numbers 500 through 516 are noted songs about the Spirit. Many of them are not familiar to us, but just examining their texts is a source of inspiration for us. Consider the lesser-known hymn #501. It is the work of a hymn-writer of the early church, Rabanus Maurus, who died in the year 856 AD. It was translated into English in the modern era by John Webster Grant. Let’s see how it helps to boost us in our faith.
O Holy Spirit by whose breath life rises vibrant out of death;
come to create, renew, inspire; come, kindle in our hearts your fire.
This first verse makes us think of the life breathed into the Adam, formed out of the clay of the earth: a wonder in the Creation narrative in Genesis. The breath of the Creator brought him to life. We saw it again in Ezekiel’s fantastical prophecy in the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37). In this picture of God’s purpose, Israel was as dead as piles of bones. Ezekiel was asked to prophesy to the breath to come from the four winds and breathe into the bones; they were brought to life, covered with flesh, and lived. Finally, we recall the disciples in the upper room, seeing the Risen Lord come into their midst. He breaths on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit. You can find it in the Gospel of John, chapter 20. Now on to the hymn’s next stanza.
You are the seeker’s sure resource, of burning love the living source,
protector in the midst of strife, the giver and the Lord of life.
In the second verse, we remember that love, life, and protection all come to us by the Holy Spirit. We turn to God and by the Spirit, we are compassionately met. Our very being and life come by the Holy Spirit’s effective generosity.
In you God’s energy is shown, to us your varied gifts made known.
Teach us to speak, teach us to hear; yours is the tongue and yours the ear.
When we think of the Spirit, we should think of the Church, the Body of Christ. In the third stanza, we glory in the Spirit for how we are divinely gifted and empowered. The Holy Spirit gives us the words we need, gives us the receptivity to hear the Good News, provides every element of our role in ministry to each other and the world.
Flood our dull senses with your light; in mutual love our hearts unite.
Your power the whole creation fills; confirm our weak, uncertain wills.
Here in the fourth stanza, we find the Spirit to be our divine awakening, allowing us to be alert, illuminated with the light of Christ. This vivifying presence of God enables us to love each other, uniting us, even filling the entire creation. The Spirit aids us in our decisions, pointing us to holy ways. Let us take verses five and six together below.
From inner strife grant us release; turn nations to the ways of peace.
To fuller life your people bring that as one body we may sing:
Praise to the Father, Christ his Word, and to the Spirit—God the Lord,
to whom all honor, glory be both now and for eternity.
These stanzas remind us that the Holy Spirit can lead us into peace which we need so desperately in this torn and complicated world of ours. The Spirit leads us into a deeper more expanded experience of life, especially through worship. Because the Spirit is active in us and fills us, we have the capacity to worship, praise God, and pray in all the ways that we do. Grace—the energy of God—comes through the Holy Spirit. The possibility of connection and our Life in God begin and come to completeness because we yield to the Holy Spirit’s aid. Let us, now, say “yes” to the amazing grace: the amazing work of the Spirit.