Acts 19:1-7 lets us listen in on one of countless moments in the earliest days of Christianity when the very best of the believers were still trying to figure things out. Paul arrives in Ephesus, one of the grandest cities of the ancient world, and “finds” a few disciples. How? A city of a quarter million?

Paul asks if they’d “received the Holy Spirit.” I love their reply: “We have never even heard of the Holy Spirit.” Then there’s a mix-up about what kind of baptism they’d had.

Let’s linger over the Holy Spirit. What is this exactly? Is it God’s Spirit? We read in the Old Testament about the Spirit of God doing this or that. In our day and age, those who nod and say “Absolutely we’ve heard of the Holy Spirit!” often associate that Spirit with a deeply emotional experience. The Holy Spirit can do this in you and others.

But the Holy Spirit is in and around you when you aren’t feeling anything in particular, even if you’re in a funk. And the Holy Spirit is all over the place. Everywhere. All the time.

Today’s not the day to get into it, but Christians who’ve read their Bibles careful have discerned that, yes, there is just one God. But that one God somehow seems to be three, not three Gods, but three persons together being that one God, in relationship with one another, loving one another. God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit was a relationship before God made anything. I love the Rublev icon, imagining God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit sitting around a table. This is the heart of God – and you notice the open space, a gentle and alluring invitation to me, to you, to the world to join in the love.

God the Father? The one that created, gave laws, spoke through prophets – the Father Jesus prayed to. Jesus? God come down in the flesh, to be with us, to lift us up to God. The Holy Spirit? A theologian I know called the Holy Spirit “the shy member of the Trinity,” the one preferring to lurk in the background, like a back stage lighting person casting the spotlight on the other two. On Jesus’ last night, he spoke of the promised presence of this Spirit, to comfort, teach, convict, inspire. We could say the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between Father and Son. St. Bernard of Clairvaux enticingly called the Holy Spirit “the kiss of God.”

The encounter in Ephesus links the Holy Spirit to Baptism. The Church has always been intrigued by that dove that descended on Jesus when he was baptized in the Jordan. We think of God’s Spirit coming down on us, sealing us, blessing us, like a whirlwind ushering us into the Body of Christ, a gentle breeze wafting God’s mercy and grace onto us.

I’m mostly encouraged though by Paul and this handful of Christians he “found” in Ephesus. A tiny minority, probably being a bit secretive, unsure of themselves, trying out this idea then that one, learning, curious, humble – but being moved along the way by what they could not see or hear: the Holy Spirit, lurking in the shadows, wooing them and us toward something nobler and higher.

Acts 19:1-7 lets us listen in on one of countless moments in the earliest days of Christianity when the very best of the believers were still trying to figure things out. Paul arrives in Ephesus, one of the grandest cities of the ancient world, and “finds” a few disciples. How? A city of a quarter million?

Paul asks if they’d “received the Holy Spirit.” I love their reply: “We have never even heard of the Holy Spirit.” Then there’s a mix-up about what kind of baptism they’d had.

Let’s linger over the Holy Spirit. What is this exactly? Is it God’s Spirit? We read in the Old Testament about the Spirit of God doing this or that. In our day and age, those who nod and say “Absolutely we’ve heard of the Holy Spirit!” often associate that Spirit with a deeply emotional experience. The Holy Spirit can do this in you and others.

But the Holy Spirit is in and around you when you aren’t feeling anything in particular, even if you’re in a funk. And the Holy Spirit is all over the place. Everywhere. All the time.

Today’s not the day to get into it, but Christians who’ve read their Bibles careful have discerned that, yes, there is just one God. But that one God somehow seems to be three, not three Gods, but three persons together being that one God, in relationship with one another, loving one another. God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit was a relationship before God made anything. I love the Rublev icon, imagining God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit sitting around a table. This is the heart of God – and you notice the open space, a gentle and alluring invitation to me, to you, to the world to join in the love.

God the Father? The one that created, gave laws, spoke through prophets – the Father Jesus prayed to. Jesus? God come down in the flesh, to be with us, to lift us up to God. The Holy Spirit? A theologian I know called the Holy Spirit “the shy member of the Trinity,” the one preferring to lurk in the background, like a back stage lighting person casting the spotlight on the other two. On Jesus’ last night, he spoke of the promised presence of this Spirit, to comfort, teach, convict, inspire. We could say the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between Father and Son. St. Bernard of Clairvaux enticingly called the Holy Spirit “the kiss of God.”

The encounter in Ephesus links the Holy Spirit to Baptism. The Church has always been intrigued by that dove that descended on Jesus when he was baptized in the Jordan. We think of God’s Spirit coming down on us, sealing us, blessing us, like a whirlwind ushering us into the Body of Christ, a gentle breeze wafting God’s mercy and grace onto us.

I’m mostly encouraged though by Paul and this handful of Christians he “found” in Ephesus. A tiny minority, probably being a bit secretive, unsure of themselves, trying out this idea then that one, learning, curious, humble – but being moved along the way by what they could not see or hear: the Holy Spirit, lurking in the shadows, wooing them and us toward something nobler and higher.