Lenten Blog – Day 18 – Baptismal Covenant, Part 4

Celebrant	Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People	I believe in the Holy Spirit,     the holy catholic Church,     the communion of saints,     the forgiveness of sins,     the resurrection of the body,     and the life everlasting.

Every year there’s a Sunday where the priest has a sermon on the trinity and, every year, there’s a bit of what I would call “hedging our bets.”  Seemingly the concept of an all creating God is fine.  Jesus, his son, is historically accurate.  But then there’s this whole “Holy Spirit” thing and how does that all equate in this picture and how do you believe in THAT?

Some have even gone so far to say that even trying to preach about the Holy Spirit is, in itself, a bit blasphemous.  Trying to put into words that which can’t be worded.  Put into image that which can’t be imagined.  Conceptualizing that which can’t be concepted.  You get my point.

Miriam has used the concept of an apple.  The Core is God.  The Flesh is Jesus.  The Skin is the Holy Spirit.  It’s all an “apple.”  But, yeah, is it Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Granny Smith? I NEED TO KNOW!

I think the best description I’ve heard of the Holy Trinity was spoken by one of my friendly church goers.  He said that he looked at the Holy Trinity as water.  It can be a liquid, a solid and a gas – but it’s all still the same thing: H2O.

That concept is particularly good to lean on, in the sense that we, as a species cannot live without water.  That it is, the lifeblood for all creatures and it has been with us since the start of time constantly recycling.  I’m sure some scientist will disagree with this – as I’m certain some water escapes into the heavens – but no new water is being made.  The water I drink at work may very well be the same water that baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

Okay – now that we’ve narrowed down the Holy Spirit concept of this passage from the Baptismal Covenant – let’s move on to the rest of it.

“holy catholic Church.”  Note that it’s catholic with a little “c.”  Not the CATHOLIC (ie:  Pope, Vatican, Nuns, etc.) church but catholic as in universal.

Is the church holy?  There’s sure a helluva lot of evidence it’s not.  But like a person, there might be holiness in the struggle.  There might be a desire to be holy.  That may be the ultimate goal.  Is it there yet?

“communion of saints” – No brainer.  I believe other people came before me doing some amazing things (and not amazing things) in bringing the message of Jesus (love and forgiveness) to the masses.  Someday I would like to hang with them and talk to them and have a microbrew with them.

“forgiveness of sins” – That’s what this is all about, ain’t it?  Somehow taking the dirty messy parts of our existence and humanity and trying to make it clean.  Finding redemption, closure, and moving forward.

“the resurrection of the body” – a bit more tricky as I wasn’t there – but I’ll talk more about this in a later blog.  For now just look at this as a place-holder.

“life everlasting” – I like life.  There have been times where I’ve struggled and felt that the burden of life was too much.  That there is an easy way out and maybe I could do something to stop this whole life thing.  And, indeed, there is an everlasting life that I would like to have.  Surrounded by my family and friends and love and peace and my cat Motorboat.  I don’t know if this concept in this piece of the covenant is referring to that but, for now, I’ll take it.