Spirit of holiness

Today’s song from Sing Praise, as we are in the run-up to Pentecost, is “Spirit of holiness”.  I think I have sung the chorus before on its own, but the words and tune of the verses were unfamiliar. The author of the words is Christopher Idle and the tune is a traditional folk melody.

The chorus is worded very personally – “Spirit of God, bring your fulness to me!” that fulness is first explained as “holiness, wisdom and faithfulness”, each of them desirable attributes in the life of the Christian.

The words of the verses cover both theology and practical experience, starting with the first.  The Spirit “came to interpret and teach all that the Saviour has spoken and done; to glorify Jesus is all your activity, promise and gift of the Father and Son”. Jesus taught much about the need for him to die in order that we might fully live, like the grain of wheat that has to be planted so that the next year’s crop can grow, and so it is that without his death (and resurrection) the Spirit could not have come.

The second verse is about the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, offered in love.  There’s nothing automatic about these gifts, but like any other gift they are offered by the Spirit as a sign of God’s love. The fruits, though (love, joy, peace and the rest) are intended, so the hymn tells us, “for our growth to maturity”. There has to be a balance, with the fruits of mature faith allowing people to express the gifts responsibly.

The third verse looks beyond the Church to the “world” (presumably meaning humanity as a whole), where the Spirit’s role is said to be to warn a proud and futile world of dangers. At present the world seems to be more proud – in a dangerous sense- than it has been for a long time, with political empire-building and violence motivated by religious and racial hatred going on all around us. It is just at a time like this that we most need the Holy Spirit, whether as the dove of peace or the mighty wind that topples the proud.