This isn't a text to absolutize. You can't (or at least shouldn't) attempt to build a theology of the trinity around this...This is Paul invoking the fullness of God in prayer over a community (koinonia) in Corinth that had it's issues.
I think it's helpful in this regard to not separate the Resurrection of Jesus and Coming of the Holy Spirit as two wholly separate and different things. They are two different things, but they have lots of overlap - and they are in a fuller sense two actions of the one-and-the-same sweeping act of God: God reconciling all things to Himself, God making all things new.
The Grand Story of God is the beautiful story of a God who not only created us out of the dust of the ground, made us in His holy image, and breathed his life into us - but it's also the story of a God who has pursued us to the ends of the earth from the beginning.
Jesus promises to prepare a place in His Father's house for us. And that's where this passage strikes me in the gut: In God's House, where His Name is worshiped, and where He dwells...I have a place. A spot. I am invited in. You're invited in. We're invited in.
This little allegory that Jesus gives in the opening verses of the tenth chapter of John is actually an account of the meaning of the Incarnation: Jesus enters the world to lead us out.
What does being “born again” mean? How does it work? Being born a first time seems like enough of a miracle – how can a second time be any better? And, if being born again is absolutely necessary, do you get to have another baby shower when it happens? Or, maybe another belly button? Jesus tells Nicodemus, a curious Pharisee who comes to Jesus during the night, that “no one can see the kingdom of […]
Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of […]
I don't have all the answers, I don't know if I'm on God's side or not, I'm just trying to muddle my way through - but all the while seeking truth and mercy.
The story of God and humanity is a covenant-story. And the story tells us, and shows us, over and over again, that God always seeks to be in relationship with us. And, admittedly, the story also shows how we always try to wriggle out of the deal. And, yet, God never stops the pursuit.
And here, in the 17th chapter of Luke, Jesus takes his disciples to a place that is in-between. They aren't in the land of the Samaritans. And they aren't home either. Where are they? They're nowhere. They're everywhere. As much as liminal periods are opportunities for danger, they are also opportunities for growth. Liminal periods are places where we can grow, where we can 'find ourselves,' and where we can orient our lives to shape what the next room we'll inhabit will look like. Where are we going? Where is God taking our lives? When we're beneath the limnus we can take the opportunity to find out. To ask God. To make it happen.