Prison is no defence against the Holy Spirit and ethics codes are no substitute for Baptism in the Spirit.

This week's news

Scientists have discovered that some cases of chronic lower back pain traditionally treated with surgery are, in fact, caused by infection and could be treated much more effectively and cheaply with antibiotics.

 

Three women, abducted around ten years ago, have been found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, very close to the places from which they disappeared.

 

Reflection

Once we are set on a particular course, it is all too easy to pursue it without considering the alternatives. But this can be costly. That back surgery might often be avoided is great news, but it is a shame that evidence pointing to this was overlooked for so long. The joy at finding three imprisoned women is only overshadowed by the fact that search had gone cold so quickly. Searchers were not looking in the right place.

 

It is not difficult to adopt the wrong course. To listen to many Christians you would think that the Bible is primarily an ethical textbook whereas it is actually overwhelmingly concerned with our obligation to love and worship God. In this context, the Acts of the Apostles is frequently characterised as the story of the Holy Spirit in the Church. In this week’s reading the chapter heading might be ‘The story of the Holy Spirit with particular reference to baptism’: not a snappy title but accurate.

 

It might be a play in three acts. We begin with the apostles being sent out at the end of the great discourse in John (13-17) and we are promised that those whom the apostles claim for Jesus will be encompassed in God's glory. In Acts we then see their mission played out in strange and hostile territory and the tables spectacularly turned in a contest between earthly and heavenly powers: the imprisoners become the healers and the imprisoned become the liberators through baptism. And we finally see, in the last verses of Revelation and, therefore, the Bible, the fruits of baptism in the Spirit in our homecoming.

 

And everywhere you look there's water: in the washing of feet at the beginning of the discourse in John which ends with the sending out; in the treatment of the wounds inflicted on the released prisoners; and in the water of life, a properly paradoxical motif for ancient people who had an acute love-hate relationship with water which we, with our ever-present supplies of potable water, swimming pools and motorised shipping, find hard to appreciate.

 

On more than one occasion, in Acts, prison is no defence against the Holy Spirit. This should shed some light on the way we consider physical and ethical restraint. Much media comment demonstrates an obsession with putting people in prison. The financial crisis has brought about a new fad is for constructing massive ethical codes to mitigate the excesses of capitalism. Personally, to parody Groucho Marx, I wouldn't join an organisation that needs an ethical code. But the point is that listening to the Spirit is a much better guide to ethics than any kind of code.

 

And to say this is not to claim Christian exceptionalism. The reference to the angel who appeared to the Seven Churches at the beginning of the Book of Revelation is instructive. It focusses on the primacy of worship.  However, we all too easily shift from a focus on God and become obsessed with ethical warfare, focussing on other people.  When Paul and Silas were imprisoned, they worshipped God and when they were released, they baptised. That's the point. If we worship the Alpha and Omega and listen to the Spirit, ethics will fall into their proper place, necessary but marginal.

 

The current fixation on ethical warfare is destroying the Church by diverting us from our mission of baptism, inclusion in the body of the faithful, and on worship. A little less opinion and a little more listening would be helpful. And like water, all essentials are two-edged.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the gift of baptism
in which we become part of the community of your Church
in the power of the Spirit.
May we, so empowered,
spread the good news of Jesus Christ our Saviour,
and strengthen ourselves for mission through worship and silence.
Amen.

 

Action

Compare the punishments meted out to bankers and social security cheats.
Review recent Church pronouncements for your denomination (and more widely) and see how many concern worship and how many concern ethics.
Count how many times in a day you make an ethical pronouncement.

 

Questions

• What is the purpose of ethical codes?
• Does prison work?

 

Young people

Calculate how much water you use in a day.

 

Kevin Carey is a Church of England Reader who maintains a web site of Christian resources and writes theological fiction, Biblical commentary and religious poetry. He is Chair of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and runs an IT consultancy.

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