Belmont University Advent GuideSample

At Advent, it is right and completely appropriate that we would be focused on and fascinated with Jesus—the one who is, plainly, the very center of Christian faith. It is easy, however, to overlook another Divine Actor who plays a critical role in the Christmas story: the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament scholar Gordon Fee refers to the Holy Spirit as “God’s empowering presence,” and we see that character of the Spirit reflected in each of the three passages we have read today. By the Holy Spirit, the God who is beyond us dwells with us and in us. The Spirit, Isaiah 59.21 says, rests upon God’s covenant people. The same Hebrew word for Spirit can be translated “breath” (this is also true of the Greek and Latin words for Spirit), and so it makes sense that Isaiah 59.21 would also suggest that the Spirit carries God’s word to us. As we speak to one another, word is carried by breath.

This is precisely what happens in the birth of Jesus. The Word of God—Jesus Christ—is carried to us by the Breath of God—the Holy Spirit. “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” the angel tells Joseph in Matthew 1, “for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” By the Holy Spirit, the Word of God takes flesh in the person of Jesus, who is, as the angel says, “God with us.”

The continuing work of the Holy Spirit means that this vital, lived experience of “God with us” is not limited to those who lived in Judea in the first century. It is not exclusive to those who met Jesus in person during his gospel ministry. In Galatians 4.6 Paul writes that “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” In other words, the same Spirit that dwelt in Jesus, now dwells in those who belong to God. By God’s Spirit we also can experience “God with us.” And the work the Holy Spirit longs to bring about in us is strikingly similar to the work the Holy Spirit accomplished in Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Spirit works in us so that Jesus Christ might grow and be formed in us, and through us, might be brought into the world.

Steve Guthrie
Associate Professor of Theology/Religion and the Arts