The Lectionary edition of Mt. 28:19 reads: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit …”
Whereas the biblical edition of the same passage reads: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit …”
The difference is that in the Lectionary edition the word “Holy” is capitalized whereas in the biblical edition the word “holy” is lower case. If you don’t notice the difference, you cannot ask the question, what does the difference mean. It should be obvious as well that reading would not reveal that difference.
So what could this seemingly insignificant difference mean? It’s a very subtle bit of evidence that things change, even such a thing as the Holy Spirit; well not that the Holy Spirit has changed but our understanding has. We might think that the disciples were the first persons to receive the Holy Spirit. But they weren’t. Jesus himself received the Holy Spirit but it’s more than that …
Let’s push at this a bit. In the Nicene Creed that we recite at each liturgy we say of the Holy Spirit that he has spoke through the Prophets. Prophets lived hundreds of years before Jesus and his disciples. So what we have is an editor who changes the “holy” to “Holy” and our church in 325 saying that the Holy Spirit spoke through the Prophets who spoke more than a thousand years before they wrote the creed.
It’s just a fact that things exist long before we know that they exist and knowing that they exist may change us but not the thing. So here are a list of things that we are, even though we may not know it, hardly ever avert to, cannot even detect it.
- We are the People of God
- We are the adopted sons and daughters of the Father
- We are the body of Christ
- We are the Temples of the Holy Spirit.
Each of these realities is a relationship that we are with God and God with us, even if we don’t know it, hardly ever avert to it, etc. A Trinity rich in meaning, intimate in relationship.
But the larger question for us is who are the “we?” – Take a look at our one verse again, for a clue to the answer. Jesus intended that commission to go out to all the nations. He intends the “we” to be every one. His words make known what is present, his word gives us a meaning that we did not have before he spoke them, it is a meaning that you are invited to … Back to the Spirit – holy, Holy, before, during, and after …
The Spirit of God is alive in every single human person who every existed, who exists right now, who ever will exist. But knowing that simple fact, if taken seriously, changes everything. For example, we often say to account for human short comings, well we’re only human. But that is simply wrong. We’re human, for sure; but we are more – none of the four points above are only human, life is not only human, no human being is only human. And it was only over time that we came to know, to say in words, that we are God’s people, the Father’s adopted sons and daughters, Christ’s body, the Spirit’s Temple. You are blest to know who everyone is called to be and you are!!
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