“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate…” John 14:15-21

The Lectionary text for this past week was from Jesus’ last, long conversation with his disciples, as recorded in John. If you’re reading along in a red-letter version, John nearly runs out of red ink in Chapters 14-17, where we have the longest speech of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.

The emphasis on the Paraclete, translated as Advocate in the New Revised Standard Version that I prefer, brought me back to my confirmation class days. I was raised in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, but moved to a Baptist church when I married. It’s interesting to me how the two traditions differ in their approach to the Trinity.

In my formative years spent among the Lutherans, we made more of an emphasis on the concept of the Trinity. This is not to say that the Baptists ignore the idea, but the Lutherans felt compelled to articulate the distinctions between the Persons of the Trinity, and identify the work that each of the parts of the Godhead performed or performs.

To help us articulate the idea of the Trinity, we frequently used either the Apostles’ Creed, or the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed in particular spent more of its time clearly defining what roles each of the parts of the Godhead served. There was also a vague reference to the Athanasian Creed, but I don’t ever remember really using it during worship, or even reading it privately. The Athanasian Creed doesn’t get much press these days, as it’s worded like a cross between a legal document and a philosophical proof. For example, here’s a representative quote from the Athansian Creed:

"The Father is God, The Son is God, The Holy Spirit is God; God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit; The Father is not the Son, The Son is not the Father, The Father is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Father, The Son is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Son."

You can see why that’s not sitting at the top of the Billboard Creed Charts. It’s not helpful to most of us, and certainly doesn’t help distinguish the parts of the Godhead; it only focuses on the relationships within the Trinity.

So, yesterday, we had more of a Baptist discussion of the Trinity, and the role of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t something that we would typically do in our church. The Holy Spirit is like the Silent Partner of the Trinity in most moderate or progressive Baptist churches. (Yes, there are moderate or progressive Baptist churches, and I attend one of them.)

As is often the case, my friend Steve brought sense to the discussion. He spent several years working overseas in Islamic parts of the world, and has had many conversations with Muslims on the complexity and puzzle of the Trinity. “A Muslim would think that we are making this whole thing too complicated,” he said. No doubt we are. All we know of God is the work of the Spirit, simultaneously the most active, and the most overlooked part of the Trinity.