Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It's time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! It seemed my sermon on Sunday about the theological “problem of suffering” resonated with many of you. I’m grateful for that. Since then, I’ve heard from some you offering feedback and one congregant asked a follow-up question. I figure I’d address that question publicly so that the rest of you might also benefit (hopefully).
In my sermon, while discussing the mystery of God described in Colossians, I said, “We are in Christ; indeed, everything is in Christ, and yet – somehow – Christ is also in us… Everything is surrounded by God, and yet God is also deep down inside everything as well.” (As a side note, I am a regular blog contributor for the Presbyterian Outlook, and I recently wrote an article for them on this topic. You can click here, if you’d like to read that article.) In response to the idea of Christ being in everything, one of you asked me: Does this mean Christ is even within non-Christians? Here is my short answer to that question: Yes.
Now I should clarify that I don’t mean to suggest something like universalism, but, rather, that God must be within everything in order for it to exist at all. Let me explain. First, notice that I am not saying that God is everything; I am saying that God is within everything. To say “God is everything” would be a heresy (specifically, the heresy called pantheism). To believe that God is within everything is rooted in two of God’s attributes: 1) God is the Creator, and 2) God is omnipresent (i.e., everywhere at all times). As the Creator, God is the sole source of life of everything in the universe. So, in this sense, even inanimate objects like rocks have “life” from God because they exist. Even more, scripture describes how living creatures like animals (Genesis 7:22) and humans (Genesis 2:7) are animated by the very breath of God.” There is no place in creation where God is not present (Psalm 137:7-12), and, in fact, we have a word to describe when God is absent – "death" (the opposite of life). It is because God is omnipresent that God is the source of life.
So then why do we talk about the Holy Spirit “coming” at Pentecost or a person “receiving” the Holy Spirit in baptism? Was the Holy Spirit not here before Pentecost? Did the person not have the Holy Spirit before baptism? If God is (as I said above) truly omnipresent and the source of all life, then the answer to those last two questions must be “no.”
So then what is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian as it relates to the Holy Spirit? Let’s use baptism as an example to answer that question. In baptism, what we are really doing is acknowledging a new awareness of God’s pre-existing presence. In other words, when we baptism a baby, that baby’s parents (and, indeed, the whole congregation) is saying, “God has claimed this child as his own, and it is our job to help this child learn that God’s Spirit is within her, within her parents, within the church, within creation itself, and within the scriptures.” However, just because God’s Spirit is within us all doesn’t mean all of us are aware of that fact or even care about that fact! The purpose of Christianity is for us to become aware of that fact and to care about it! The mystery of God is all around us. Are we paying attention?
Now, of course, there is SO MUCH more I could say about this, but, for now, I hope I have given you some meaningful answers to your questions. More importantly, I hope I have given you more questions. After all, how could I possibly explain a mystery?
Peace to you,
Pastor Aaron