“The single, simple, central thought I want to offer, this Whitsunday, this celebration of God’s Spirit’s gift, is that ’spirit’ is best thought of not as ‘not-matter’, but as ‘not-death’; not as ‘not-stomach’, but as celebration, feasting; not as a mist hanging ‘above a marshy land’, but as the marshes’ draining, the flowering and fruitfulness of things.”
Nicholas Lash, “Breathing Life”, in Seeing in the Dark: University Sermons (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2005), p. 155.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Allan R. Bevere 05.23.10 at 6:29 pm
Excellent! Nicholas Lash should be required reading!
PamBG 05.23.10 at 7:10 pm
“Not death” - Yes!
Kim 05.23.10 at 9:51 pm
Yes, he should, Allan
Jason Goroncy 05.24.10 at 1:58 am
Sounds not unlike the Church’s proclamation of the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life’. Great stuff.