THE HOLY SPIRIT AS MOTHER IN THE TRINITY

Introduction and Scripture Reading

I must confess that for many years I had more or less seen Mother’s Day as a kind of sentimental holiday in which we honored the ladies. Sometimes it seemed to me that what I once regarded as a secular holiday interfered with the progression of Easter from resurrection to Ascension and finally Pentecost. But in recent years I must say that I have not regarded Mother’s Day in that way at all, but a ripe opportunity to expound the Scriptures regarding the divine image of the feminine, the human image of the divine Trinity as family, a plurality within unity, that is becoming increasingly confused in our individualistic and self-centered ure.

If I may play the ’s advocate for a moment, let us put ourselves in the position of the secular feminist advocate for a moment who sees Mother’s Day as a condescending celebration of a second-class position in society, assigned by gender: someone who stays home to be a housewife and mother and therefore dependent upon the labors of a man who is her husband. Is it not much better for a woman to be a doctor, a lawyer, a senator, an engineer, a business CEO, than to be relegated to such a second-class position of dependency? So we bring her flowers once a year and tell her she means a lot to us.

Now I want you to understand that when we look at things from a self-centered, individualistic point of view, the feminist is right. To the extent that we live in a world where each person first looks to his own well-being, her own ambition, her own security, his own pleasure, then we are fools to trust anyone else to look after us. In a fallen world, the feminists have no dearth of examples of mothers and housewives who have reared children and looked after a man who when the kids left and they turned fifty, having hidden his fortune is an off-shore account, runs off with a woman fifteen to twenty-years his junior.

But it shall not be so among you, brothers and sisters. That is what Jesus said about the worldly ambitious of his day. The second thing that has come out of the academy of the mainline church has been what I call “goddess” theology. How can a woman, they argue, who has been abused by her father, mistreated by her husband, ever come to relate to the Judeo-Christian God, who is called Father? No, let her understand that God is female, and she will discover the in herself. After all, the God of the Hebrews evolved out of a patriarchal ure. So we have whole translations of the Bible now that seek to be gender-neutral.

Again, if we look at God from an individualistic and self-centered point of view, God must be either male or female, and depending upon what we are, we had best construct God in our own image so as not to be taken advantage of. But what has struck me is that in most of the feminist diatribes what is so obvious in Scripture has been generally missed altogether. Both men and women are created in the image of God. In Genesis 1:26, God says, “Let us make man in our image.” You note the plural form of God – that is, God is not just a Father, but a Trinity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, a plurality of Person within one Godhead, one nature, one essence. Let us create humanity in our (plural) image. “So in the next verse (1:27) it reads, So God created man (speaking of humanity) in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Now if both the male and the female are created in the image of God, then clearly, the Godhead in whose image we are created has both male and female traits. One of the early names of God is El Shaddai. In Hebrew the word shad means breast so this translates as many breasted one.

Now scholars point out that God is spoken of as He – and in respect to humanity God is always male, and humanity as a whole (both male and females) are feminine. So Yahweh is Israel’s husband, and the church is the bride of Christ. This does not mean that God as Spirit in heaven has a male body – in fact, we do not know that Jesus in his resurrected and glorious body has the gender-specific parts he had on earth, for in the resurrection we know there is no giving and taking in marriage. But what we are saying is that the God possesses the traits of both male and female, for both are created in His image.

Secondly, because clearly the Trinitarian God is a plurality of Persons in one nature, it is clear that the complementation of traits that we find in the male and female of the image of God as found in the human family comes from the complementation of male and female traits in God. We see this, because clearly the title Father and Son are male, and the role of the Father as Creator, King, Sovereign, Provider, Judge, Lord of hosts, and so forth are all male roles, the role of the Holy Spirit is quite clearly different. With this in mind, let us read our text from the book of John, chapter 14, verses 15-27 after asking God for illumination. Let us bow our heads: God, show us the glory of the image of God in each one of us, and how it relates to our identity as families after the Trinity of God, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Hear God’s Word: >

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you will also live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me."

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” *This concludes the reading of Holy Scripture. May God add His blessing to the Word.

The Trinity Image of Family

Note the difference in traits and roles. Whereas the Father is transcendent and distant (in heaven), the Holy Spirit after Pentecost has come close and indwells believers. On Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave birth to the church, and even to this day regenerates believers and makes of them new creatures. Whereas the Father (and now the Son) rules from on high, the Holy Spirit dwells here in our midst as the Paraclete, the Comforter, the one who nurtures from the ground up. Like a mother, the Holy Spirit though unseen dwells in our midst and in our present. The Holy Spirit does the detail work of applying God’s salvation to each individual who is being saved – a multitude of tasks at once. She teaches us in so many ways, she teaches us how to pray, like a good mother, the Holy Spirit tells us when we witness what to say, and reminds us of what Jesus has said, and makes the Holy Scripture, called the sword of the Spirit, come alive to us. The Holy Spirit convicts us of both sin and truth, and leads us into all truth; bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and seals us unto the day of our redemption. The Holy Spirit also gives gifts to her children and works her fruit in them.

If you turn to passages that recite the virtues of godly womanhood, you find such things as humility, hospitality, modesty, kindness, a gentle and quiet spirit, teachers of what is good, lovers of their husbands and their children, a submissive partner, helping folks in trouble, serving (washing the feet of) the saints. We recognize these traits as both traits of Jesus while here on earth, but they are also traits of the Holy Spirit.

As we observe the text, yes, the pronoun he is always used of the Holy Spirit, because as I said God is always masculine in respect to the human race, who are, regardless of gender, feminine before God. God woos and loves; we return His love. Nonetheless, in relation to the Father, which Paul says gives every family in creation its name, the Holy Spirit is the mother. Moreover, what we see here is a Trinity of Persons at work, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which is here called “Paraclete” in the Greek, which is translated as “Helper, Advocate, Counselor, and Comforter” in different translations. Note while the divine three are distinct, persons, their work is mutually supportive. The Son asks the Father. I am in my Father and the Father is in me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father. The Father will send another Paraclete or Counselor to be with you forever. The Father will send him in My Name. We (Father and Son) will come and make our home in the believer. The Spirit will remind you of what I have said. Perfect collaboration exists in the Trinity. Though there are three Persons, there is one God at work.

One last detail which I think clinches it. On earth we clearly recognize that even bad men take humbrage over insults to their mother. They may despise their father, but their mother who loved them unconditionally they will not despise or curse. So here is the final parallel – Jesus told us that blasphemy against the Father will be forgiven, and blasphemy against the Son will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, an eternal sin, will not be forgiven in this world or in the world to come. That is why it is so important that we do not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit at work in us.

Application

If we are created in God’s image as Trinity, then our identity should not be first as an individual, but as a member of a family. The good of the family should be our good, and the well-being of the family should constitute our well-being. This was true at creation, and it is true in redemption.

The problem is of course the Fall. Both the male and the female, the man and the woman participated in the fall and in its guilt and shame. Their act of disobedience was first and foremost an act of distrust in God. They believed ’s lie: “You shall not die.” Right there individualism was born, with Adam pointing his finger at his wife, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and Eve pointing her finger at the serpent. Of course, there was more than enough blame to go all around. The very heart of sin is the self. I will decide what is good for me. Rather than obey God they chose to act as little gods. Rather than reflect God’s image, they would become gods, deciding what is good and evil from their own egocentric point of view.

The man, whom God made to reflect his own fatherhood, just and courageous, loving, faithful and merciful became brutish and lazy, lacking in accountability, greedy, and pleasure-seeking. On the other hand, the woman whom God had made modest and pure, gentle and patient became a seductress, full of jealousy and fits or rage, stingy, and inclined to sow seeds of strife.

Here is the clincher: in a fallen world, God cannot provide justice. In a world where each person is concerned more than anything else for their own needs, then by definition they are not going to look after the needs of anyone else, not even their own family. So God allows us to have our gender wars, if that is what we choose, but for selfish fallen individuals the only justice they can ever receive is damnation, the hell of ultimately getting your own way.

The way of redemption is the way of love – of acting on behalf of the family – and that includes the larger family – of your church, your community, your nation. We are members of one body. That is our identity; therefore, we serve others, we share joys and sorrows, we offer our time, our gifts, our substance, for the good of the whole. The truth is that we are not an end in ourselves, we are a part of something bigger.

I have not heard many other pastors or theologians talk about the Holy Spirit as mother or about the Trinity in man expressed as family, but that is clearly what is there. And fortunately, most of us know it instinctually. We know that family is based on marriage, and that it is sacred, because family is the image of God. Not man exclusively as the image, nor woman exclusively as the image, but father and mother and child or children as the replication of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When people try to deconstruct and redefine family in fallen human terms, they are playing with fire. During World War II, our scientists discovered how to split an atom, and the results were Hiroshima and Nagasaki clouds. Now suppose what happens when we split the atomic family, the basic building block of our society. Can you imagine the size of that cloud.

Many people have asked me, “Why do you care what s do, or whether they want to marry each other?” The answer is, “My only concern for s is that they will hurt themselves.” But more than that I care about what we call marriage, because that is wrapt up with the image of God in man – you won’t get a Trinity out of two men living together.

What happens in redemption is that our priorities change. We recall that we are created in the Triune image of God – as families, and we return to living for something greater than ourselves. If God were only one Person, it would be impossible for us to say that He is love in and of Himself. We might say that He loved, but not that He is in Himself love. Redemption is a return to love, that is, to living for each other and ultimately for the God who created us. It is risky in a fallen world? Absolutely! But it is the only game in town. As often as we choose the fallen path, justice becomes impossible, for every conflict consists of two people or two groups of people trying to get their own way. The tragedy in so much of the gender battles is two fold. First, these battles keep us focused on individual rights even in the family instead of recognizing family as God’s image of love in us. And second, the victims may include a spouse, but almost always includes children, who do not get the attention, discipline, love, and training they need to become a whole .

Let me close with something Jonna shared with me yesterday that she heard on the radio. She said a pastor gave an interpretation of what is said in I Timothy 2:15: “But women will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in the faith.” This is not popular today, but saved has many meanings. In this instance, the preacher said (I think correctly) and when a mother rears her children, that helps to turn her into a saint. Children exasperate us, but a mother’s love outweights all of her exasperation. While this is certainly not the only way a woman can be saved, it is a sure-fire method of learning patience and gentleness.

Therefore my hats off today to the women who know who they are – that they were created in the image of God; and who through the grace of Christ Jesus, choose to pursue a Godly path, whether they are blessed with a husband and children or not. And a special tribute to those who in faithfully rocking the cradle rule, or at least vastly influence our world for good. Amen.

This Sermon was published on 06/8/2009 and filed in Holy Spirit and