8 The Spirit Exalts the Son

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8. The Spirit Exalts the SonThe Spirit is worshipped and glorified

1. The Spirit raises the Son2. Ascent and Procession

3. The Holy Spirit4. Living Sacrifice5. True Worship6. Basil7. Persons in Communion

The Holy Spirit is the Lord. In the resurrection raises the Son of God and bringsmankind into communion with him. The Spirit has broken the bonds which we placedon Christ, raising him out of our power, and broken the power by which all othermasters held people in servitude. The resurrection demonstrates that nothing that iscreated can grasp or hold the Son; he holds all creation and every creature in it.

The Spirit unites Christ to his people, and bring the communion and worship of thedivine assembly to earth and so creates the Church. He brings us into thecommunion of saints, so that we belong to the whole company of patriarchs,prophets, and people of God who can acknowledge God, and no other, as God.

The Spirit makes the Church an invincible body, which cannot be divided orpenetrated by any other forces, and so is immune to death. All the gifts of the Spiritpreserve the unity of this community and keep it impregnable. The Holy Spirit bringsus into relationship and freedom.

1. The Spirit Raises the SonThe Spirit raised Jesus Christ from the dead(Romans 8.11). He rose again on thethird day in accordance with the Scriptures, that is, in fulfilment of the promise of Godof Israel.

Christ has acted for man by overcoming all who have held man down and withheldfrom him the truth of his identity. We were at war with one another, and withourselves, but our mutual enmity has been overcome and reconciliation and peacehave come.

Christ is the one whom we crucified, but whom God raised from the dead(Acts4.10). What we did, God rejected and reversed. The bonds and boundaries we

placed on him could not hold him. It was not Christ who was broken by death, butdeath that was broken by Christ. Though death may be a powerful god, Christ hasturned out to be more powerful. Death was the strong man, but Christ is stronger.

The Strong Man had placed bonds on us, on us, boasting:

I will ascend into heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will make

myself like the Most High(Isaiah 14.13).

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Now he has been overthrown, those who see him ask:

Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the

world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who would not let his prisoners go

home?(Isaiah 14.13-18)

Satan has been divided and his house has fallen.

The Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above, and the kings on the earth

below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon(Isaiah

24.21).

No one can enter a strong mans house and carry off his possessions unless he first

ties up the strong man (Mark 3.27)

Our previous masters wanted to prevent us from appealing over their heads to thetrue God. They set up blocks and obstacles, and tried to close the skies over our

heads. We were held down, and sealed in, obliged to give homage to masters whomwe could never satisfy in perpetual servitude. But the Son laid siege these tyrants,and has now broken through the barriers they erected to keep him out and us in.Now the whole way from us to the Father is open and clear, straight and well-ordered. We celebrate the end of the divisive power that has kept all humanity atenmity.

FreedomTo confess Christ is to give up all other masters. In our relationship with one anotherwe had usurped the place of God. By the resurrection we have been torn out ofSatans grasp. The Holy Spirit makes us free. He enables us to confess publicly thatthe masters we have served and been afraid of have no power over us now and that

we cannot be afraid on them them any longer. Our confession of Christ is the act bywhich God establishes this freedom in us.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2

Corinthians 3.17)

Now we may give all masters our respect, but not reverence, and they only haveauthority to serve us well.

The Holy Spirit distinguishes one thing from another. He distinguished Christ from usby taking him away from us and raising him from the dead. The Holy Spiritestablishes and safeguards the particularity of each thing so that it cannot beabsorbed or lost. The Spirit can tell the Son apart from the rest of us, and can telleach of us apart from all others. The resurrection of Christ is the promise of theresurrection of each from all.

2. The Ascent and Procession of the SonThe Holy Spirit anoints Christ

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Christ means anointed, by the Spirit. The Spirit plucks one members of Israel andmakes him king. The Spirit empowers the crowd to identify him, pluck him out ofobscurity, set him on their shoulders and makes him their leader. They identify him,lifts him up, raises him above us, and makes him their king. The Spirit chooses oneof us and give him to us as our protector and leader. The prophet anoints the king.All the characteristics and offices of Israel descend on him to make him king, and his

people are enabled to recognise him as their king.

The young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, Thus says the Lord the

God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Then

hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps; and

they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, Jehu is king(2 Kings 9.6-13).

The Spirit has chosen one of us, distinguished him from the rest of us, andenthroned him over us.

One of us has gone to God. God has found this man good. From all of us, he has

chosen this one. We did not accept God's choice of man. Of all men God picked theone we found least admirable, whom we disregarded and despised. All men havebeen trying to make this ascent. But now this one human being, who paradoxicallymade his descent into universal ignominy, has ascended and arrived in the presenceof God. God has selected this one for us to be the future of all mankind, ourrepresentative and champion.

We Cannot Grasp ChristThe Spirit has established the Son as our Lord. The Spirit is content to stand behindthe Son, and entirely gives himself to us and makes himself present to us in theperson of the Son. There is no way we can go round the Son to get to the Spirit. TheSpirit holds Christ out of our reach so that we are unable to grasp him or gain for

ourselves any knowledge of him. We do not see Jesus because we cannot makehim visible to us: we cannot command him to appear before us. Though we maywish to have Jesus stand before us, if we stood before him as we presently are, theresults would be the same as before. We would find him impossible and would layhands on him, seize him and hand him over. Once we laid our hands on him but hedid not use any power against us, did not raise his arms against us, but let us bindhim and put him to death. But the Holy Spirit shook off our grip and released himfrom us, and now makes him invincible, so he cannot be captured by any form ofperception available to us. Our powers of penetration, detection and control areinadequate and corrupted, must be purified and redeemed. It is his graciousness thathe is not visible to us as a single man we can identify and take on our own terms. Heis not exposed to us, but we are completely exposed to him.

Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father, and there, still dressed in ourflesh, he now sits with the Father. Their agreement is visible in this proximity. Oneinstalment of humanity and of human flesh has reached God, and now sits with God.One of us is with God already. He is our pioneer. The Son is with the Father. In theGod-man God has brought humanity to earth. What we did not possess and couldnot guess at a glorified humanity was brought to us from heaven by the Son. Hedemonstrated this humanity before us, using the fragments we had, and out of thesefragments he made one seamless whole. And he issued from heaven this

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Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king

comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey

(Zechariah 9.9)

Psalm 68 shows us the procession of the Lord returning after subduing the earth. Hehas made prisoners of those kings who held out against him.

O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the

wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of

God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

With mighty chariots, twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, the Lord came

from Sinai into the holy place. You ascended the high mountain, leading captives in

your train and receiving gifts from people, even from those who rebel against the

Lord God's abiding there.

Your solemn processions are seen, O God, the processions of my God, my King,

into the sanctuary, the singers in front, the musicians last, between them girls playing

tambourines: "Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are of

Israel's fountain!" (Psalm 68)

Those who were captives now lead to procession, whilst those kings who held themcaptive are themselves captives, brought up at the end of this procession. The lastare now first, and those who were first, and highest on the political cosmologicalhierarchy, are now last.

Their kings will be led in triumphal procession(Isaiah 60.11).

The whole Christian people now form a procession which goes through the world,making the body of Christ visible to each generation.

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and

through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him (2

Corinthians 2. 14).

The Apostle Paul situates himself at the rear of this procession, he says, because hewas a violent man, who once persecuted the Church of God:

he appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a

persecutor, and a man of violence.(1 Timothy 1.13)

The cross and resurrection have broken the power of death so that we are directlybefore God. Our violence has been broken, and revealed to be ineffectual and wehave been brought into peace.

3. The Spirit is Holy

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The Holy Spirit is the Lord, who raised Jesus from the dead.

There are other spirits. Spirits may be understood as natural forces, or as political orideological forces. Some of these authorities are the many institutions that governus; they are nations, their legal systems and governments, their markets andspheres of influence, their rulers and their figureheads. Where these authorities are

not themselves under authority, we can refer to them as gods, the gods of nationsother than Israel. When these step beyond the bounds set for them, we may also callthem idolatrous and even demonic. These spirits are not insubstantial and ethereal.Their impact on us is real. Only the Holy Spirit can either give them their proper role,or rid us of them.

God is holy. He is holy in himself, but he is also holy for us. Holiness goes out fromhim and makes us holy. It makes us God-compatible. The holiness of God isstronger than the unholiness of all other spirits, and he has overcome all otherspirits, forces and principalities. The knowledge of God is also holy: we cannot seizeit any organ of perception. The Spirit penetrates us and knows us but we cannotpenetrate him or gain knowledge of him.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep the things of Godno one knows the

thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2.10).

Invincible SpiritThe Spirit is life, without limit and therefore eternally. He is indivisible, intangible,indestructible, impregnable, inexhaustible life. He provides all definition of himself.He makes himself known only by making the Son known. He is glory of the Son,Christ and his people. He demonstrates the attributes of the unknowable God ofclassical theism, who is immutable, impassible, incomprehensible, except as hereveals himself entirely through Christ.

The Spirit is the guarantee of plurality for God is Sabbaoth, Lord of hosts. He hasmany forces behind him; indeed he has all forces, is all-powerful, almighty. Theseforces are the phenomena of his power, not the source of it. They are his creatures.But he does not leave them idle, but uses them in his work. The Lord of Hosts, theFear of the Lord scatters Israels enemies in panic. The forces of the Spirit aregreater than the forces of the Gentile powers, but they are not visible to them, so theignorance of the Gentiles leaves them exposed, and this will result in theirdestruction. The narrative of entering and taking possession of land we see in thebook of Joshua is replayed for real in the Book of Acts. The Spirit and host of theLord goes in to take what has been promised to him. The land promised to thepeople of Christ is the whole world of the Gentiles.

The Father sends the SpiritThe Father is a king, the Son is his commander, the Spirit is their assembly. Theirassembly is gathered by them and constitutes the forces that the king gives to hiscommander. The crowd throngs around the Father and the Son and escorts the Sonout from the Father into the world. The Father sends to detachments on active dutyto where the Son is as reinforcements. This force is infinitely divisible, yet remainsone single indivisible body. It cannot be disposed by anyone but the Father and theSon. This force or body escorts their commander. This company is brought back to

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the king by his commander. The Holy Spirit is one, and he constitutes the manycongregations and armies of the Lord of hosts.

The Holy Spirit is Lord over all other authorities. He makes them his witnesses, whoacknowledge what they receive from him. He is impenetrable and unknowable tothem. No other spirit can penetrate him nor other power summon him. He divides but

is not himself divisible. He can open, and pass through every thing, for everythingthat is not him himself is created, and is determined and known by him. But he isimpervious, so cannot be opened or entered. He can search and examine, but noone can examine him or oblige him to make himself known. The Spirit is the God ofgods, the ruler of our rulers. He will protect us from them, and from all theirunderlings and representatives.

The Holy Spirit is indivisible and impenetrable. Nothing may gain access to him orknow him. We cannot summon him, grasp him or in any way make him subject totheir apparatus of vision and control. The Spirit can penetrate and enter everywhere.Nothing is fine-meshed enough to keep him out. The Spirit searches all things, eventhe deep the things of God. He is solid, an immoveable rock that will shatter

whatever comes against it. He is fluid, and able to infiltrate, permeate and mutateanything, without that thing even being aware of it. The Spirit is limitlessly solid andunyielding, and he is limitlessly fluid and swift. Nothing can hold out against him, forhe is Lord.

The whole Spirit can make himself infinitely small, too small to be measured or tomeet any resistance, but particle of it made of uniquely powerful atomic forces.Imagine that each such particle contains the whole Spirit, who himself contains thewhole company of heaven and communion of saints. Each particle can enter us atany point, and having entered, it can call down more so that these particles allow usto grow into great freedom and thicker relationships. We are too crudely constructedto represent any kind of barrier or container to them. Every one of these particles

serves to bind us to the whole of the rest, so we can never be separated from them.And yet we can never know this Spirit, or be said to have him. We are hispossession, not he ours. Other than in the existence and life of the Church we canhave no knowledge of the Spirit working in the world.

The Gifts of the SpiritThe Spirit dispenses himself. He does so as gifts of the Spirit. We may call thesegifts offices, since we are given them in order to serve one another. Each Christianhas a particular package of gifts, an office, that he or she is given to exercise for thewhole Church. The Spirit dispenses Christ to us in the medium of all the particularChristians who serve us, and do so by exercising authority over us and discipliningus, and whom we must also serve.

Through the Holy Spirit comes all the good gifts that are in store for us, bypromise, through faith, seeing their reflection as though they were already present,we await the full enjoyment. The Holy Spirit dispenses distribution of the giftsaccording to each recipient's readiness.(Basil On the Holy Spirit)

The gifts of the Spirit may also be called charisms, or sacraments. A sacrament isan instalment of holiness that the Spirit drops into us. It calls in more resources.These resources become skills, amongst which are the skills of finding these

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resources in one another, and bringing them out of one another. The gifts of theSpirit represent a trickle-down of proficiency that integrates and equips the wholebody. The gifts of the Spirit all amount to Christ-like-ness. The Spirit makes usdisciples, who increasingly let go of all other forms of support and consolation.

The Spirit comforts us only enough to wean us off all other comfort. Our experience

of the Spirit is no tangible or direct experience. It is by faith, which is to say, inobedience to, and contentment with, the promise received. He cares for us by givingus leaders and teachers who provide us with the guidelines and discipline whichensure that we remain one undivided eucharistic community.

The Transfiguration of the SonChrist makes all creation obedient so that it is transparent to God. Christ can makecreation make him seen or not. He is always dressed in creation.

Jesus was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such

as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with

Moses, who were talking with Jesus (Mark 9.2-4).

This revelation of God comes to us first as the gentle episode of Exodus 3

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and

the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. God called to him out of the bush,

Moses, Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which

you are standing is holy ground (Exodus 3.2-5).

The presence of the Lord is far denser than the presence of any human or othercreature. The density of the presence of God is too much for us unless it is gentlymediated to by the Spirit, transfiguring materiality in order to be with us without

displacing us. In Emmaus his disciples recognised him because he broke bread he provided for his people as the king provides for his people.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave

it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him (Luke 24.30-31)

The Holy Spirit represents the whole process of the coming into being and thetransformation and redemption of all creatures. The Lord creates and sustains allcreation as his act of hospitality of God.

Holiness Made Visible through Fire and LightEarth is continually replenished by heaven. This is the purpose of the temple andsacrifices offered for the people of Israel, The column of fire and smoke that rosefrom the sacrifices made this connection visible to Israel, to the gentile world towhich Israel is God's witness.

The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out(Leviticus 6.12).

Each lamb offered, together with the grain offerings and incense, sustained thiscolumn. This column reached down from heaven to earth. It represented the ongoing

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creating and renewing of the earth. In the form of the fire and smoke of thesesacrifices, the Spirit made the Lord visible to Israel.

The smoke created the cloud that covered Israel and issued in the rain that kept theland fertile and Israel prosperous. The cloud covered the place where people ofIsrael were encamped.

The cloud covered it. From evening to morning the cloud looked like fire(Numbers

9.15-17).

This column leads the people of God through the wilderness.

As long as the cloud stayed over the camp they remained in camp. Whenever the

cloud lifted from above the tent the Israelites set out. Wherever the cloud settled, the

Israelites encamped(Numbers 9).

The Spirit is the fierce glory of God, visible as the fire of Sinai, now tongues of fire

that separated and came to rest on each of them(Acts 2). The economy andprovision of God for us appears in Scripture as fire and light. The holiness of Godappears as a fire that burns without fuel, and without ever burning up. Whatever isnot also filled with that light, will combust if it comes near. For us who are not yetfilled with this fire, the closeness of God is dangerous. Our God is a consuming fire(Hebrews 12.29). Because we are not yet holy, his holiness is dangerous to us andis gently mediated to us through the transfiguration of the created elements that formthe offering.

No man may see God and live (Exodus 33.20). When he sees the Lord seated injudgment, Isaiah exclaims that he is ruined:

For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my

eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty(Isaiah 6.5).

God let himself become in some small way visible to Israel at Sinai, but this visibilitywas terrifying.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10.31).

Knowledge of God is frightening. Sinai, the tabernacle and the temple on Zion wasthe image of himself God offered them. Although God cannot be grasped, controlled,or made an object, he made his holiness made visible in these forms. The glory ofGod that Moses saw was well-diluted, and so it faded and disappeared (2Corinthians 5). But the Church is not given an image or a dilution, but the real thing,

the ever-living God.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched. We have come to Mount

Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God (Hebrews 12.18).

No one has ever seen God, but the One and Only who is at the Fathers side has

made him known (John 1.18).

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The sacrifices offered by Israel are the acknowledgement of the sacrifices offered bythe Lord to Israel. It is Israels task to make the gifts of God to man visible in thisway.

The Lord did an amazing thing. Manoah realised it was the angel of the Lord. We

are going to die, he said. We have seen God. His wife answered If the Lord had

meant to kill us he would not have accepted a burnt offering from our hands, nor

shown us these things nor now told us this

The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put

them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord

reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the

unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the

unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon

perceived that it was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, Help me, Lord GOD!

For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face (Judges 6. 20-22)

God does not release what he has for us all at once, but gives us only what willsafely ready us for greater proximity with him, for the next instalment in that holiness.The glory is the knowledge and reputation of God, the knowledge of him which is forus.

The Spirit who is more unyielding than any created thing is also more fluid andpervading than any created thing. It is as though, in our baptism, the mountain hasentered us, and we are now part of it. That mountain is the Holy Spirit who spreadsand distributes the economy of God through those who have been baptised.

The pure flames and lights of the patriarchs and prophets of Israel burned with theflame of the God of Israel. Every Israelite and every Christian is this flame and so is

an appearance of this column of fire and smoke. This column, the Shekinah, is themeeting of man and God in which all creation participates.

The Holy Spirit orders the world into a single economy for our good. The Spiritsustains each body, and enables it to live. No flesh is a barrier to the Spirit. We areproofed by the Spirit, made inflammable we have been taken out of theenvironment in which we are exposed to decay and drenched in the medium who isimpervious to decay.

God clothed himself in creation in this form for our sake, and so Israel saw Godtogether with man. We do not see God without creation. The theophanies alwaysshow us God together with man, God making himself visible to us and thus God in

material form. These are all transfigurations, because when God clothes himself increation, creation is transformed and redeemed.

4. Living SacrificeThe Son is our Priest and ServantThe Spirit makes us holy. He is our permanent and full-time sanctifier. He alwayspasses on the life he has from the Father to us. He is our living sacrifice. He is theagent who makes us holy and always keeps us holy by supplying us with the life that

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we do not otherwise have. He gives us what is holy and takes away what is unholy.He is our living sacrifice because he is ever living. He is life itself. He does not needto source our life from somewhere else.

In the Letter to the Hebrews we learn that the Son enters the Fathers house. Heenters by virtue of his relationship with the Father, the first-born Son of this

household.

He entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood (Hebrews 9).

He is the Son of the family, and so his blood is royal. Other people may needpermission, but he does not, for this is his house. We have to be made presentableby being properly dressed and covered on the outside. We have to be madepresentable in order to gain access anywhere we don't belong. But the Son belongshere and is intrinsically acceptable. The company who guard access recognise amember of the family; blood recognises blood. God recognises the life in us as thelife of his Son.

In the temple the anointed high priest entered the most holy place. As heapproached the Lord, he took on the glorious appearance of God. He appeareddressed in the light and fire of Sinai because he glistened with blood of the sacrificialanimals. The priests were dressed in the life that God gave to Israel. The sacrificialanimals, which came from the land of Israel and were gifts of God to Israel, providedthis priestly dressing.

Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and

sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments

(Leviticus 8.30).

This anointing establishes peace:

When bothers agree in unity it is like precious oil poured on the head, running downAaron's beard(Psalm 133).

Hebrews tells us that the blood, by which it means the life, of Christ is our clothingand covering. The Lord covers us: without him, we have no protective relationshipand so are exposed and naked. When they opted out of the covenant Adam and Evefound that they were exposed. Their decision was that, rather than God, theythemselves should be their covering. Without being covered by whoever has theauthority we are exposed, vulnerable, and ashamed. We are one anothers coveringand without one another we are exposed. In the worst days of Israels punishmentby the Assyrians, Israel is without a husband and leader, and so as exposed andvulnerable, as if they had no covering or protective wall.

Seven women will take hold of one man and say Marry us, only let us be called by

your name and take away our disgrace (Isaiah 4.1).

The Son enters the tabernacle and comes into the presence of God effortlessly, forhe belongs there. How does he bring us in within him? The Son did not pay to get in.But he did pay, for us. He provided from his own substance, the means to purify usand take us in with him.

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The Son is of the family and he makes us consanguine with him.

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same

family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers(Hebrews 2.11).

God clothed Israel from outside. These many forms of covering can be seen in thebook of Exodus. The Lord is the pillar of cloud that rose from the sacrifices andcovered and protected Israel. But now the people of Christ have the Spirit of Christand so are internally covered and filled by him. They are not covered, partially orsymbolically, through the mediation of created things, such as fire and createdofferings. They have been entirely covered by the Lord, who is the reality to whichall such offerings point and gives them their unity. The perishable been clothed withimperishable(1 Corinthians 15.54). Christ is the covering which protects all hispeople. So we are told to Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus(Romans 13.14,Galatians 3.27).

We long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, for when we are clothed we willbe exposed no longer(2 Corinthians 5.2-4).

Christ brings us in by washing us, supplying our lacks and wants, binding ourwounds and making us pure. He dresses us and supplies us with the new covering.He renews our bodies with the new blood, tissue and fabric of the resources of hisown estate. As the Good Samaritan, so Christ for us:

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine (Luke 10.34).

Without that anointing, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is nosoundness, but only wounds and bruises and open sores, not cleansed or bandagedor soothed with oil (Isaiah 1.6).

All the good things of God's estate refresh us.

Wine gladdens the heart of man, oil makes his face shine and bread sustains his

heart(Psalm 104).

All these together are the new fabric which Christ provides and by which our bodiesare healed and renewed.

Together they represent the covering over Christ. Christ throws his robe over us, andwe are thereby included in him: he is our kinsman redeemer, who spreads thecorner of his garment over us (Ruth 3.9). There is no admission to the house of Godwithout this covering. The guest without this covering is not admitted (Matthew

22.11). The Son gives us the means by which we are made whole.

You have been brought near through the blood of Christ(Ephesians 2.13).

Blessed are those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation

22.14).

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It is not by the spilling of blood, that is by killing or murder that we are brought toGod. We are brought by the lineage of Christ, because he has put his Spirit over youand in you, by adoption. Blood embodies the resurrection and victory of Christ, andso the Holy Spirit who brought that victory. Blood does not mean the crucifixion, buthis resurrection and ascension, albeit that the crucifixion is the event by which ourresistance to this ascension is overcome.

The Service of ChristWe have a high priest(Hebrews 8.1-2). The great high priest is to act as ourservant, and to provide us with everything we need. He knows what that is more thanwe do. He does not supply it to us all at once, but supplies us with each particularprovision at the appropriate moment. He supplies us with blood, that is, with life. Hesupplies this life to us in terms of whatever it is we require at any moment, which issometimes material provision, sometimes instruction and encouragement orcorrection and rebuke. Since he is also on hand to supply us, we do not have to saveup or hoard anything that we receive from him.

Our high priest serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not

man(Hebrews 8.1-2). The true tabernacle is the world on its eschatologicaldefinition, united with heaven and ruled by it. We do not have to make provisions onour own account against the day when he will run out of life, or will for other reasonsstop supplying us. He will never cease to supply us. But we may ask for our breaddaily. We may gather more than we need but we may not hoard it, as with the mannain Exodus 16. He is in himself that life that we need and that he always shares withus. Inasmuch as we are tempted to store good things, we have not understood thathe is the one who will not run out.

Covered and ClothedThe Son provides all that is required for our entry. He provided what was neededand so paid the costs of our admission. The Son gave his life as a ransom for many

(Mark 10.45). He gave us this life, and with it all the material sustenance. Thesubstance of Christ was given to us as our anointing, , clothing and covering. Hegave us his own substance even at the cost of running out of life himself. He gaveout so much that his own life was ended and so we may say that Christ died for oursins (1 Corinthians 15.3). Christ is the whole estate which provides our wholesustenance. The lamb offered in sacrifice stands for this provider and for the wholeestate and ecosystem that he provides for us. All creation is the provision of Christfor us. In Christs hands, creation is his provision for us and the means by which wemay be present to each other, and lift one another up to God.

Christ makes us holy, because he always passes on the life he has from the Fatherto us. He is our living sacrifice and our permanent and full-time sanctifier.

We do have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the

Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by

the Lord, not man (Hebrews 8.1-2).

The Spirit, with the full power of God has become our servant. He is on call, ourParaclete. We have only to ask, that is, to pray, and this he now teaches us. He will

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not give us what we cannot cope with, no unmetered power is put into ourirresponsible hands, but he will always make us ask for more.

The Spirit is the Son and his army, united in one person. That army serves anddistinguishes the Son whom the Spirit has raised the Son, and sends its individualmembers to accompany us.

Led by Moses, Elijah, David, or any of Israels other leaders, the people of God hada temporary and partial life. Each leader could pass on only as much as he hadreceived. But now the Spirit has brought us under the direct ministry of the Son. Weare no longer under the ministry of one of his servants Abraham, or Moses butunder Christ who is himself the source of all their ministry and sent them to us. Allthe powers we identified individually with his men in the old testament, with Samuel,or Solomon, or Isaiah, are available to us in Christ, who has received the fullmeasure of God, and is fully able to pass on what he has received from the Father.Supplied by him, we will not run out of life, so that we are always renewed.

Lifted Out of IsolationBy the Spirit the Son wakes us and lifts us slowly from our isolation. Each of us is

confined within our own in-turned world as within a bubble. But this cut-off temporaryenvironment will not last. It will open, bringing us into immediate contact with thosearound us, brought together by the mediation of Christ. When our bubbles collideand open, we will be raised and joined to one another. The Spirit simply teaches usto see, to see what is straight in front of us. We start from extreme short-sightedness. But the range of our sight extends. He has erected a series of extractsor reductions of reality. Now he combines them to reveal a fuller and brighter view ofwhat has been in front of us all the time since the resurrection.

We are being built into a company. We are being marshalled together and drawn up,but presently we can see a small part of the total field, visibility is down to a fewyards. But when the fog lifts we will be able to see further and further, in both

directions ahead, which to us is future, and behind us, which we regard as past.There they will be however, present before our very eyes, and thus neither past andgone, nor future and unknown, but present to us.

The Spirit makes you distinct from me and me distinct from you. He will make eachof us different from all the others. We are being made persons. We are made socialand given our individuality. We who are presently curved in on ourselves, are beinguncurled, and allowed for the first time to stand upright and act as social and publicbeings.

5. The Company of the SonThe Spirit gives the Son a people

Around the Lord is the whole company of heaven. When heaven open to Micaiah theprophet, he saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standinground him on his right and on his left(1 Kings 22.19). Isaiah found the heavenlyassembly frightening and the noise of the crowd deafening:

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the

temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they

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covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And

one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth

is full of his glory." The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who

called, and the house filled with smoke.(Isaiah 6).

I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures andthe elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands

(Revelation 5.11)

Salvation is Incorporation in ChristWe are brought into a good company. Our inclusion in this company is our salvation.We are no longer isolated but reconciled and included. Our aggression and enmity isovercome and we are reconciled to God and to one another. We are beingredeemed: we are separated from the habits that made us incompatible. We will bemade perfect: we will become members of this communion. Salvation is being takenout of the people of death and being made members of the body of people of God

We are saved by being brought by the Lord to one another. Our peril was isolationand disintegration, which is what death is. Christ calls us all together around him.Equally, we are saved by being distinguished from one another. We were lumpedtogether, indistinguishable and absorbed into a single terrible organism or lump ofstuff. But God raised us from the lump, distinguished each one of us from all othersand gave us each of us our proper name and purpose. He can tell the differencebetween you and all the rest of the world, and he will ensure that the world takescare to respect that difference too.

The Spirit summons an army for the Son.

I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived,

and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bonesare the whole house of Israel (Ezekiel 37.10).

The Holy Spirit creates the Church. God has planted his Church, his community andcommunion, in the world as evidence of his truth. God has put his community therein the world before all rival rulers, as demonstration of Gods having overcome allattempts to divide and rule and prevent this community.

The Church is the inauguration of unity and of communion and of the distinctivenessand particularity of all persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the criterion bothof unity, and of otherness. Only these divine persons are really and truly other, thesource and guarantee that any other (created) persons are truly distinct (and free).

They guarantee that anything may be truly and finally distinct from anything else.The Holy Spirit safeguards the particularity of each thing so that it cannot beabsorbed and lost, and thus guarantees the continued existence of the world.

The Holy Spirit provides plurality. He distinguishes one thing from another. Hedistinguished Christ from us by taking him out of our hands, raising him from thedead and setting him over us. The body and presence of Jesus now present withGod the Father is the act of the Spirit. The Spirit makes the Son that particular one

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from Nazareth. The Spirit makes him different from us, and identifiable apart from us,and so identifiable also for us. The Holy Spirit makes the congregation, animatesmany witnesses and makes a vocal people.

Vindication of IsraelThe Holy Spirit is the God of Israel, and so God of the whole Scriptures. He

sanctifies the people of Israel as witnesses of the Son for us. The Son has acommunity and the Old and New Testaments are their record. This heavenlycommunity has sent the Son to us. he has come accompanied and preceded by thewhole company of patriarchs, prophets and people of righteous Israel. The Spiritsent by the Son now makes us members of this people.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord of hosts. Because he has many forces behind him, he ispowerful. He rules over the divine council. He has a lot of backers and is powerfulbecause of them. Indeed he has all forces, is all-powerful, almighty. These forces arethe phenomena of his power, but not the source of it. He does not rely on them, butthey on him. They are his creatures, but he does not leave them idle, but uses themin his work.

Faithful Israel was vindicated by the resurrection. The gentiles tried to overcomeIsrael, but Israel was not overcome. Gentile violence and the intention to assimilateIsrael was not strong enough to take Israel away from God. The reward of the peopleof Israel is the world and all its peoples.

Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem,

and to entreat the favour of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten

men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment

and saying, Let us come with you, for we have heard that God is with you

(Zechariah 8.22-23).

The Old Testament prophets planted and the New Testament Church is gathering in.The new children of God now appearing all over the world are the fruit of their work.They have died, but in battle, worn down by the onslaught of the opposition ofunrighteous powers. But these men will go before us, because since they havesuffered more and longer than us, they have received greater honour.

According to the Lords own word we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left

till the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep (1

Thessalonians 4.15).

They worked but have not yet seen their reward. They will go before us in the

procession and receive a higher place. We came later, have not borne the heat ofthe day, and will take a lower place. The people of Israel bear and bring up the Son.They were wiser than they knew, for they did select, and lift up, anoint and enthronethe right man. They identified him, even though it was for exclusion and death thatthey picked out him. Nonetheless God picked him for our integration, and made himthe criterion for all life, and for our united future. They thought that they were pickinghim out to remove him. But their action of raising him was the enthroning action ofGod, that their action to get rid of him was already completely absorbed into Godsaction to make him stay.

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WitnessesFor our benefit the Lord has sent many witnesses. The witnesses of the old and newtestaments form two choruses of prophets and saints that, standing across from oneanother, cheer us on. The road on which we now travel after the Son is lined bythem, shouting warning and advice. This crowd fills us and lifts us with its breath,

and wills us on, their whoops and roars, rousing us and driving us down the track, hisWord become their many words. They warn us when our navigation goes awry. Theyurge us not to give ourselves away to those who manipulate and prey on us, andthey tell us to pass their shouted warning and encouragement on. They areconveyors and amplifiers of prayers who make the requests we do not yet know howto make for ourselves.

We are directly before God, but that communion is gently mediated to us, by theSpirit who sets us before God gently and indirectly. As spiritual gifts, he gives thegentle mediation of the many apostles, teachers, and other Christians set before us.The Holy Spirit gives us the discipline of the prophets and apostles (Scripture) andsaints (tradition) who form two choruses that stand opposite one another, and cheer

us on from either side of the track which we now travel behind the Son. The track werun along is lined by prophets and saints who cheer us on and provide warning andadvice. The Son makes himself present to us in the initially unrecognisable form ofthe many Christians around us. We are not exposed directly to the intensity of God,but the history of God with his people, about to us in the form of the ScripturesScripture is a screen by which we can see God with his people. By it we can see theSon at work, while secured within his protection. This means Scripture does notallow us to see God at work now, in the events of our own history; indeed it is asafeguard precisely against that. It means that we can only see God at work then,in that time, a time now closed and removed from us. We can see these witnesses,but only in static form, so we can see them, but they cannot be touched by us. Theyare separated from us as by a mirrored window, so they are able to see us in real

time, but we only see them as static images, and receive their voices only in the formof the liturgy. They hand the deposit and rule of faith to us, and we must hand on thiswhole tradition without loss. God receives his witness and recognise and affirmswhat the prophets and apostles say about himself.

6. True WorshipThe heavenly assembly worships God. Their divine service spills over into creationto form the worship of the Church. The gifts of God come down to earth and theprayers of the saints rise up from earth to heaven.

The twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowlsfull of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5.8).

The liturgy is the speech of two parties, the Son and the Father, and the heavenlyassembly and the Church on earth are the product of their conversation. Everythingthat is, is because it is derived from this conversation, that creates first an assemblyand communion: there is nothing more basic or irreducible than the words spoken bythe Son and the Father.

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The Triune Confession of GodGod has come to us. In the one person of Jesus Christ, God is already with man,and man is already with God. The Son is true God, and true Man.

Only the Son knows the Father. The Son is the one who knows God. Only the Spiritincorporates us in him. The very confession that God is Lord, means that he is incontrol of knowledge of himself, and we have it only by leasehold, a lease revokedby any misuse.

"No man knows the Father save the Son," and "no man can say that Jesus is the

Lord but by the Holy Spirit." For it is not said through the Spirit, but by the Spirit, and

"God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," as

it is written "in thy light shall we see light," namely by the illumination of the Spirit,

"the true light which lights every man that cometh into the world." He shows in

Himself the glory of the Only begotten, and on true worshippers He in Himself

bestows the knowledge of God.

Saint Basil On the Holy Spirit

But the Son is one of us, who has been adopted by the Father and taken to the righthand of God, and who from there, now speaks with God, and speaks (prays andintercedes) for us there. The Son stands at the front, before the Father, and westand behind him and follow and participate in his prayers and their speech. TheFather speaks, and the Son hears and receives his speech. The Son utters the wordthat receives and acknowledges the word of God. The Son is the replying voice thatresponds with thanks to God, who by replying receives what is given. Out of all thecrowd of humanity, he is the one who replies Here I am. The Son is the thanks-giverand event of thanksgiving the Eucharist.

Baptism in the Name of Father, Son and Holy SpiritWe are baptised into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptism drivesout other spirits. Baptism consists of two acts. The first of these is baptism, in whichthe individual enters the water, being stripped of old powers. Baptism is an exorcism:all other spirits are expelled, the devil driven out. The second act is being anointedwith oil (chrismation), by which the Christian is being clothed with a new relationshipwith Christ and his body, and given his or her particular office in the congregation.The Son is fully present to the Father, embodied to him by the Spirit. The Spirit givesus a spiritual body or presence, that of Christ, so we may be stand before God, andhe gives us a material body so that we may stand before one another. Christ adoptsus as his sons, and like a good son presents us to his Father.

Christian theology teaches that being a person, a creature brought into being by theaddress of God, is what being is, and is what life is. Being is a person, this specificperson witnessed to by the Son and who extends personhood, that is, life with him,to us. There remains no unknown God who is not able or willing to know us, and beknown by us. The unknown God who has made himself known does not trap us in anone-way relationship in which he knows us but we don't know him. He not onlyknows us but is happy to be known by us, and so to be known by our senses: he hasmade himself an object to our senses. Though in the incarnation he has made

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himself an object for us. In being known to us, he is still free and is willing and weknow all this only because he has made it known to us. He has made himself anobject of our knowledge, and yet remains utterly the first Subject of this knowledgeand relationship, and lord, immanent yet transcendent. He is knowable and known,yet still uncomprehended. We have never got him defined and do not control him.We know him only within the medium of his impact on us, by which he knows us and

transforms us so we are his. The act of his knowing us is the event of his extendinghis personal being, the communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, here amongst us,as the communion of saints, the Church. The Church is the visibility of the Spiritworking in the world. Other than in the existence and life of the Church we can haveno knowledge of the Spirit working in the world. The Spirit makes the architecture ofthe world visible as the structure of the people of the Church, who look forward to thecoming of the Son, when the earth will be united to heaven, and man will be freelyand fully with God, happy to take from God all the otherness God gives.

WorshipThe Spirit makes us a company and gives us voices, so we can pick up and repeatthe words of the Son. As we are united to him, we can truly identify and worship

God. We must distinguish ourselves from him (which is what worship is) to say thathe is God and we are not God, but are his creatures.

The Spirit blows into us, lifting and animating us. He breathes and speaks the wordsof the Son into us so that we can speak well, and can encourage and instruct others.He invests us with reason, and the means rightly to recognise and value oneanother. The Spirit enacts our part for us ahead of us until we are able to perform itfor ourselves. The Lord lifts us up to himself, and powers us to lift one another up,and make one another present to the Lord.

7. Saint Basil and the Concept of the PersonBasil (330-379) was bishop of Caesarea. Along with the other Cappadocians, hisbrother Gregory of Nyssa (330-c.395) and Gregory Nazianzen (329-89) Basil led theChurchs defence against the second-generations Arians, represented by Eunomius.and set out the Christian doctrine of God. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and isknown only as the trinity. Resistance to the confession of the full divinity of the Soncontinued after the Council of Nicaea as fierce as before. Basil taught that the Son isof one substance with the Father, and that the Spirit is the only means by whichknow this. He insisted that the Spirit teaches us back the Son and the Father, and soabout God, because there is no other basis (no natural theology), by which we canknow about God, before God makes himself known. After Nicaea, the forces pullingback from confession of the divinity of the Son remained strong. Eunomius asserted

that ungenerateness defines the being of God. Gregory of Nyssa replied that there isno knowledge (natural theology), no basis by which we know God before he makeshimself known as the Father of the Son.

The Divinity of the Holy SpiritTo secure the divinity of the Son, and the achievement of Nicaea, we have to securethe divinity of the Spirit. The Spirit allows us to know and confess that that Jesus isthe Son of God, and the Son is God. The Son is the only one who knows God. TheSpirit incorporates us in the Son. It is the act of God in us that we know this. Our

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public confession of this is not first our own, but is the Spirits. The Spirit acts in ourplace, at the moment we cannot act, and this act of his makes it possible for us reallyto act. The Spirit frees us to worship no master but Christ.

Basil is asked why congregations sing different doxologies. Some sing: Glory to theFatherandthe Son andthe Holy Spirit. Others sing: Glory to the Fatherthrough the

Son bythe Holy Spirit. The first doxology Glory to the Fatherandthe Son andtheHoly Spirit shows that the Son and the Holy Spirit are of equal dignity with theFather. Basil insists that this is right, and that in order to say that Son is of the samebeing as the Father we have to know that Holy Spirit is of the very same dignity andbeing. The other doxology Glory to the Fatherthrough the Son bythe Holy Spiritreminds us that the Son is the only one who knows Father, and that the Spirit hasmade us members of the Son. In the Spirit we are able to follow the Son, who standsahead of us before the Father. Behind the Son, and in the power of the Spirit, we areable to say the words the Son says to the Father.

The economy and the theologyWe know the real God, God in himself, because he has made himself known in his

acts to us. The hidden God is the same God who has made himself known. God is inhimself (theologia) what he is in his dispensation (oikonomia) to us. The being ofGod in himself has made itself known in the works of God to us. The transcendenceof God (Trinity ad intra) is known from the immanence of God (Trinity ad extra). Thebeing of God (theologia) is known from the acts of God towards us (economia) in thepeople of Israel (through the Scriptures) and the Church (doctrine).

The Spirit orders the world for usThe Holy Spirit makes a world for us. This world is composed of things whichrepresent both the hospitality of God, and his invitation to participate in thathospitality by passing it on and exercising it for one another. The Spirit makes thingsphysical for us. As long as these are sourced from the Holy Spirit, and return to him

to be refreshed by him, they are good. When they are withheld from him, they decayand cease to be what he made them. He supplies us also with order and instruction,guides and guidelines, rules and institutions, forms of public order and worship. TheSpirit is not against the letter, or the institution, or tradition or ritual. He creates,sustains and renews them. He speaks, writes and builds them for us by giving us thededicated people who record and set out laws for us and establish institutions withinwhich we may be formed. The Spirit is not responsible only for the spontaneity, butalso for the continuity and reliability of all that is. We can talk about the Spirit only bytalking about the continuum of this world with heaven as the act, and the economy ofthe acts, of the hospitality of God. We talk about God by talking about the world asthe act of his hospitality, given and received for us, in the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

The worship of Spirit and Son takes back from us the respect and reverence weascribe to ourselves, and returns it to the Father who is its proper source and giver.They take it back from us: they make us return praise to God. They re-direct ourmisdirected veneration. The Spirit co-opts the sounds we make in order to put Sonspraise of the Father in our mouths, even before we know the Sons name. He speaksfor us and through us.

The Church as Communion and Love

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God is the communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is this love, fellowshipand society. This communion communicates itself, for God is vocal and articulate.God addresses us and waits until we respond. Since he is made in the image ofGod, this is true of Man too, for we are fundamentally social and interactive: weaddress one another and expect a response. We greet others and hope to enterrelationship with them. We speak and hope to persuade them of our way of seeing

the world. This suggests that a number of things are equally fundamental communion and speech, love and mutual knowledge.

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Summary

1. The Holy Spirit raised Jesus to the right hand of the Father. The Spirit madeChrist distinct from us, and so distinguished God from us.

2. The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. He frees and distinguishes the Son from us, byraising him from the dead. The Spirit frees the Son from us.

3. Once we grasped Christ, intending to keep him within our control, but we could nothang on to him. Now he has grasped us and holds on to us, so we are in his grasp,not he in ours.

4. The Spirit is the source of plurality. He brings the crowd of the whole company ofheaven into being. He makes himself known as the whole company of heaven andthus as the patriarchs, prophets and saints.

5. The Spirit enables faithful Israel to raise and accompany the Son. They lift him up

and distinguishes him from us (by the resurrection). They distinguish and lift each ofus from all others. We are taken out of one anothers grip.

6. By the Spirit we can distinguish ourselves from God: we confess that he is God.God is holy and utterly different from all else that is. He is the source of ourotherness, we are not this source.

7. Christ wins his Church. We are overpowered and held by God. By the Spirit Christholds us with him. We display his victory to the world. We have been made membersof the household of God.

8. The ascension has raised humanity to God in the person of Christ. He is the

shows that the Lord is free. God has not left us: the incarnation continues, by theHoly Spirit. Christ is now our servant and while being so is free, and is lord.

9. Man is enabled to hear and respond to the worship of God. He is called to take hisplace within the conversation that makes up the divine worship. The worship of Godenables the acknowledgement of all truth.

10. The Spirit enables the Christian people by spiritual gifts and the sacraments. TheSpirit manifests Christ with man through the worship. We may learn this worshipthrough the cosmology and worship of Israel: the column of fire connects and earthto heaven and supplies earth from heaven.

11. The Holy Spirit is indivisible, impenetrable, unknowable and almighty. The Spiritenables us to think, to wonder and to ask. We may distance ourselves from the worldthat represents itself to us; we may ask to be freed from the confines of what we findsimply given.

12. We become person in communion. The Church is this communion. The Spiritgives us life, and communion and freedom.

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Documents

8 The Spirit Exalts the Son