Moses brought it back written on two blocks of stone. Mohammed, it is said, had it dictated to him by the Angel Gabriel. Joseph Smith, if you believe that sort of thing, chanced across it on some golden scrolls written in a language never before heard of (or after, for that matter!). There are even some people, it is said, who believe that its final, definitive form rolled off the royal presses in 1611, in the reign of King James VI (or I, depending whether you are Scottish or English).
If only we could limit God in this way! If only we could say, "Here is God's last word - all else is commentary!" If only we could pin God down and know the unknowable! If only we could fathom the depths of God's goodness!
By Jesus' time, the law and the prophets - our Old Testament - had become a way of keeping God at arm's length. But Jesus showed us the depths of God's goodness. He broke down barriers. Barriers which people had erected in case the heat of God's presence was too much for them. Barriers which set limits to correct behaviour. Barriers which defined a list of sins, rather than recognizing that there was only one sin - a failure to love, whether God, or one's neighbour, or one's self. Jesus was God's last word - made flesh and dwelling among us.
To make sure that the barriers stayed down, Jesus sent "another comforter" - someone to be with us, to be alongside us, to strengthen us. This was the Holy Spirit - "the Spirit of truth, who will guide you into all truth." (John 16:13)
"The spirit gives life," said Jesus (John 6:63, echoed by Paul in 2 Cor 3:6). We sometimes forget that the word translated as spirit means "breath" or "wind". You cannot pin wind down. You cannot set barriers to the wind.
It is hard to imagine the third person of the Trinity. "Third" suggests that the Spirit is a third-rate afterthought in Christian doctrine. Nothing could be more wrong. "When there were no depths, I was there," as Prov. 8:24 comments on the account of the Creation. The Spirit was there in the beginning, the bond uniting God's very self, and now the bond by which the Church shares in God's life.
Too often we cling to structures which shield us from the fiery breath of God's wind. Here at St Ursula's, are we sure that in our worship and in our ministry we are not keeping God at arm's length. Are we really allowing God through us to reach out to all the world? Are we sure that we do not leave it all to "someone else"? To the clergy perhaps, or to the more "spiritual" members of the church?
We have all received the Holy Spirit. Part of our chaplains' ministry is to remind us of this. The "ministry of the Gospel and of the Sacraments" which is their special gift does not mean that it is the job of the clergy to do all the visiting, plan all the worship, lead all the prayers, to be uniquely responsible for our growth in faith, for creating links between church and church, between church and world, for proclaiming the Gospel to the world outside.
We all have the power to transform the world - and ourselves - with God's help. God the Holy Spirit can work through us and strengthen us. But we must be open to the wind of change. The world around us has changed. May the Spirit's breath inflame us to catch up with it, to make contact with it, and set it ablaze!
HD