there's an aspect of um patology the doctrine of the holy spirit that I have somewhat neglected up to this point um and that element is the very close relationship between pneumatology the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and christology the doctrine of Jesus Christ we could even ask if pneumatology is in fact properly christological or equally we could ask is christology properly numat olical um I hope this actually will make better sense at this point now that we have spent so much time on the Trinity the close relation ship between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is attested again and again throughout scripture and throughout the history of Christian writing the traditional expression found in the western version of the nyine Creed the Nino constantinopolitan Creed of 381 indicates that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the father and the son uh comes forth from the father and the son that's an expression of that close relationship between christology and patology when we consider the Holy Spirit the question I want to put in front of us is how closely do we need also to consider christology the doctrine about Jesus Christ there's there's really little doubt that the two of them do need to be considered closely in relationship with one another if not even the two doctrines held together in tandem there's a great deal of teaching um narrative and testimony especially in the second testament that makes it clear that Jesus is a someone whose life is intertwined with the spirit both in Earthly and eternal terms Elizabeth Johnson in her book she who is um works with this quite a bit if you wanted to return to her book as F Marti caran has caran has put it we see the mutual relationship between the Son and the spirit in that he says just as the sun came down to earth and accomplished his work through the spirit so also the Spirit came into the world sent by the Sun so there is that Mutual interplay between the two identities the Son and the spirit or the Christ and the spirit many believe that it is in and with the holy spirit that Jesus continues to be at work in the world so if we think about the work of Jesus today it is in and through the holy spirit that Jesus is at work for example the Augsburg confession of the 17th century notes that it is through the holy spirit that Jesus is active and in their terms active to sanctify purify strengthen and comfort now those are words we might associate with the Holy Spirit purify sanctify strengthen and comfort but Augsburg says it is Jesus Christ accomplishing these things through the holy spir spirit so there's no radical separation again at a certain point it's hard to avoid thinking about a kind of christological pneumatology or a pneumatological christology after all again we are talking about a Triune God one God not three Gods there is a common um misperception that Jesus became the Christ at his baptism or became the Son of God at that moment as if prior to the baptism Jesus was not yet the Christ or was not yet the holy was not yet the Son of God that is actually Contra contrary to the teaching of the Bible and especially contrary to the second testament in which there's a very strong conviction about uh what we call the pre-existence of the word um and the word again being the same as the Christ or the Son of God that the pre-existence of word the word is set forth in places like the first chapter of The Gospel according to John the word of God or the son or the Christ becomes incarnate takes on human flesh but Jesus did not become the word at the baptism did not become the Christ as uh St Augustine writes it would be the heart the height of absurdity to believe that he only received the Holy Spirit when he was already 30 years old when he was baptized John by John uh so this is Augustine it would be the height of absurdity to believe that he only received the Holy Spirit when he was already 30 years old when he was baptized by John well I raise this misperception to highlight the Christian teaching that the Oneness and co-eternal eternality of the Trinity always preceeds comes first before any Earthly or historical action indeed before creation Father Son and Holy Spirit are always already one there are many biblical instances in which the Son and the spirit are mentioned together uh mutually indwelling or mutually interacting an example of this would be Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2 exalted Peter says exalted to the right hand of God Christ has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out to you what you now see and hear in fact Peter's on his way to kind of developing a trinitarian understanding there but pointing out that what the Son and the spirit are all about are mutually interlined from the beginning basil of cesaria writes that Jesus quote uh Every Act of Jesus was performed in the presence of the spirit the spirit was inseparably present to him as he worked miracles the spirit is Not absent in in his resurrection so the spirit's life the spirit's identity uh the holy spirit's work is Thoroughly conformed thoroughly conformed to the life identity and work of Jesus Christ what we see in Jesus is the embodied will of the Holy Spirit what we see in the Holy Spirit is the freely flowing will of Jesus Through creation when Jesus is Led Into the Wilderness it is by the Holy Spirit when the church is led by the spirit it is toward the truth of Christ it's important to note then that the holy spirit is has a role in the Incarnation again this I think is sometimes overlooked because we are so focused on trying to figure out what we mean by the Incarnation when Jesus Christ is truly human truly Divine that the second person of the Trinity takes up a human existence that's all right and good but the holy spirit is also active in this moment Mary's body Mary's womb becomes the sight the location of the holy spirit's Divine activity as Ephraim the Syrian poetically or hynic puts it fire entered the womb isn't that a great expression uh in the sense of non non- painful or dangerous fire but the fire the power of the Holy Spirit entered the womb and from Mary's body the Divine Child Jesus is born the two Divine identities of spirit and son are active within Mary in harmony not in comp competition not as a team but already United and within Mary we find the faithfulness uh that enables the coming of the Messiah into the world to serve and to save one of the ancient Christian writers um Ambrose of Milan wrote that where the holy spirit is there also is Christ and where Christ is there too is the holy spirit this air of co-presence coexistence co-presence underscores that deep conviction about a a trinitarian understanding of the Holy Spirit much later we would find uh writers within for example of the United Church of Christ in the United States echoing that same notion they say Jesus remains deeply and intimately connected with us and our world and through the Holy Spirit empowers us and Comforts us at this level it would be incoherent to try to kind of pry apart the presence and work of the Son and the spirit they are one in action they are one in presence one in purpose we might attribute or or appropriate uh an action we see to one or the other um and there's again there's an advantage to doing that but there's also an important Unity here kind of a seamlessness in the unity of their action towards creation again the baptism of Jesus would be another example of this the baptism is attested in all four gospels and that moment that moment at the Jordan River reveals the presence of the Holy Spirit to Empower and to indwell Jesus Christ in his Earthly Ministry these very dramatic scenes they had a big impression on the the gospel writers these dramatic scenes convey the sense of a dynamic interplay they they tell us about the cooperation between spirit and Christ the stories are crucially placed if you're interested in kind of the the way the story is told they're they're crucial placed at the beginning near the heart sorry near the start of each gospel so that there can be little doubt that all that will follow in the life and work of Jesus is already invested with the holy spirit's presence and power as one who comes into this world in the flesh Jesus himself is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire so again there's this reciprocity and interplay and um intermingling of the work of the spirit and the sun this work uh I've been trying to do of stitching together uh the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ at least stitching together pneumatology and christology reveals to us again um this the singleness of the will of God the singleness of the purposes and mind of God there's no presence or action of the holy spirit that is not also saturated with the Christ identity because they are always one this becomes an essential uh essential Dynamic when we undertake to test the spirits you might remember that phrase from um the first Epistle of John that we be sure to test the spirits to discern what is truly from God the word work of of the spirit in other words will always have the aroma of Christ whatever we see at work in the world in which we might say this looks like the work of the Holy Spirit it will always be conformed to the intention the purpose the will also of Jesus Christ well that's it for today and I look forward to uh having some conversation with you in the online discussions take care