• Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31

There is not another text in the whole Hebrew scriptures quite like chapter 8 in the Book of Proverbs, (see Walter Brueggemann’s further comments in the discussion, below).  Here the poet returns to the creation stories in Genesis, but with an innovation.  “The Lord created me [Wisdom] at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago.  Ages ago, I was set up, at the first, before the beginnings of the earth.”  “I was beside him, like a master worker….”

• Psalm 8

In a state of wonder at God’s creation, the psalmist cannot help but ask: What is humankind that You should regard us?  Yet, God has given humankind such a consequential role in creation!

• Romans 5: 1-5

Given Paul’s frequent legalistic and judgmental preoccupations, the occasions in his writings he acknowledges God’s grace are that much more outstanding.  In this excerpt from his letter to the church in Rome, Paul asserts that, “Since we are justified by faith” we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, this is a “peace” that endures through suffering.  And we have another gift from God that sustains us: “the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

• John 16: 12-15

In John’s narrative, Jesus concludes his lengthy farewell summary of  teachings/instructions to his followers with one final revelation that changes expectations about the future for good.  Jesus tells them that he will leave them before he has completed everything that could be said; he must leave “many things” unsaid for the future.  He could overwhelm them, he says, if he revealed everything now.  But that does not mean God’s revelations will stop, just the contrary!  Be assured, “when  the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth….”  In the future, the Spirit “will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Walter Brueggemann regards the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs as a “countertestimony.”  “He writes:

“Now Wisdom (personified as ‘she’) is a differentiated agent of force for life in the world, who bears the markings of Yahweh’s own intentionality.”  “Wisdom, according to this remarkable poem, occupies an intermediate place between God and the world of creation.  On the one hand, wisdom is a ‘creature’ who is ‘created’ by God.  On the other hand, wisdom, the capacity and agency for generating life-giving order, is prior to all creation and all (other) creatures….”  (Theology of the Old Testament,  p. 342 ff)

While this extraordinary poem did not influence other Hebrew scriptural texts, Brueggemann observes, it flowers abundantly in Christian writings, especially the Gospel of John and sapiential themes in Paul’s letters.  Brueggemann concludes that “Proverbs 8 imagines and articulates a way of God with the world that is not intrusive and occasional, but that is constant in its nurturing….”

In that monumental farewell address in John’s narrative, (chapters 13-17), Jesus delineates the Holy Spirit as a co-worker/co-creator with him and the Father.  Each brings “glory” to the other two and all share the same “glory.”  And, critically for the church, they all together guarantee that what Jesus initiated continues open-ended, unfinished, always evolving, always changing, dynamic and with the full participation of individual human beings!!

Jean-Luc Nancy homes in on what he regards as this distinctive trait of Christianity and asks:

“What of the opening of Christianity or of Christianity as opening: an opening of self, and of self as opening?”  “…Christianity brings progressively to light as its truth because it does not in fact come to pass all at once….” (Disenclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity, pp 145-146)

Jesus has quite explicitly told his followers that he did not tell them everything at once, because it would have “overwhelmed” them; the Holy Spirit will reveal many, many more things!  Yet, whatever new revelations there will be, because of the ongoing, nurturing work of the Holy Spirit, they will be consistent with the prior work of the Father and the Son.  They will have the exact same impact of even further revelation of the love of God through the gift of creation and the witness of the work and life of Jesus, the Christ.  Each brings “glory” to the others; all share the same “glory.”  This is the church’s authorization and mandate to be vigilant for the never-ending work of the Holy Spirit in the world so the church can name it, abet it, and honor it wherever and whenever it appears.  We can always recognize it because it will be some additional, surprising enlargement of God’s love; a further iteration of the love we have already experienced with the Father and with the Son.