June 6-12, 2011
Editorial
Editorial: Discerning the work of the Holy Spirit
Translated by Lydia Ma
According to John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, uncontainable, and gives life to all of creation, and is truly the Spirit of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s presence is not limited to special church services, but can be sensed in all of creation since the beginning of creation.
However, many Christians mistakenly think of the work of the Holy Spirit only as an intimate experience during a worship session, and fail to see the Holy Spirit also at work in the ecumenical world in the renewing of faith and justice movements. They also fail to sense the Holy Spirit’s call to them to take part in these movements.
The work of the Holy Spirit is intricately related to the will of God, as the Prophet Micah once said, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. “(Micah 6:8). From this passage, we see clearly that justice, mercy, and humility are all works of the Holy Spirit.
As Christians living in Taiwan, we must seriously ask ourselves whether we are narrowing the work of the Holy Spirit and whether we are becoming disinterested in justice and public issues. For example, we cannot avoid addressing climate justice when governments seek to become economic powerhouses at any cost to the environment. We’ve seen this happen many times in Taiwan – from plans to build Kuokuang Petrochemical Plant to the razing of rice paddies in Dapu, Miaoli, we simply cannot remain idle any longer and allow God’s creation – our beautiful Taiwan – be trampled and abused by human greed and ignorance.
Likewise, we cannot ignore issues such as “fair taxation”, “economic justice” and growing income disparity and unequal resource allocation in our country today. According to 2008 government records, the richest 5% in Taiwan had 66 times more wealth than the poorest 5%, and this figure rose to 75 times by 2009.
With these trends in mind, we must reflect on these issues during Pentecost to avoid compartmentalizing the work of the Holy Spirit and to discover the Holy Spirit’s work in advancing justice in this world. We pray that the Holy Spirit will renew us and open our eyes so that we may become more aware of justice issues. After all, having a growing awareness and sensitivity to justice issues around us is what Jesus meant when he taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”