Ezekiel 11:17-20

What is the activity of the Spirit in the Ezekiel passage? How is the gathering of the people and the inner work of the Spirit related?

1 Corinthians 12:4-13

How does this passage speak of the same physical gathering and inner work of the Spirit? For whose "common good" is the Spirit manifest? Why is the commonness of the Spirit emphasized in this passage? What can happen with claims of the Spirit for the unity of a congreagation? How is the Spirit related to the Body of Christ and individuals as members of it?

John 14:8-17

What is the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Spirit in this passage? Are they the same or different [warning: trick question]. Does the Spirit compete with the individual and the group in this passage? With the Son and the Father?

Robert Barron in The Priority of Christ (Brazos Press, 2007) writes, "Just a moment before, Jesus had identified himself as the Truth and as, essentially, one with the Father. Thus we find in this first reference to 'the Advoctate,' the parakletos, a fairly clear prototrinitarian formula [an early means of naming the One God as Father, Son, and Spirit]. As Jesus reflects the Father's being, so this third seems to reflect the mutuality of Jesus and the Father, since both are involved in his sending. The parakletos's role is to animate the church, which Jesus, at least in the ordinary sense, is about to leave. More precisely, the parakletos will lead the followers of Jesus into the fullness of truth, maintaining a vibrant continuity with the Lord, and hence with the Father: 'The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you' [14:26]. Once more we notice the densely packed coinherence tht obtains among the three, a one-in-the-otherness into which the church itself is being invited" (pp. 242-3).

Given this passage with its insight into the mysterious Otherness that is the Triune God, how is the Spirit the form of the Son who does the will of the Father?
Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." If this is so, what does it mean for the Spirit to animate a concrete congregation and the individual members of it? Can one fully participate in the Holy Spirit outside of baptism and participation in concrete congregations?

Barron goes on to say, "In receiving the Spirit, the church, throughout the course of its history, will take on the identity of the Son, an identity rooted, in turn, in the Father. Every saint across the centuries represents a unique living out of this fundamental to-be of the Son, reflective of the Father and made possible by the indwelling of the parakletos. The work of the Spirit is the making present and visible, in an infinitely variegated way across space and time, the coinherent manner of being that characterizes the Father and the Son" (pp. 244-5).

How in your life have you found the form of the Son taking place through participation in the local body of Christ in this "infinitely variegated way across space and time"?

Have a wonderful evening!