1. SCRIPTURE – KEY TO THE FUTURE

Chapter 5: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church

I am not buying into the charismatic-type theology when I say that the church is Spirit-centred. In saying this, though, I am drawing a definite contrast to those who would say the church is Bible-centred. When, in liturgy, lections other than the Gospel at the Eucharist are read, the reading is followed by the exhortation, "Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church." The assembly responds, "Thanks be to God!" Encapsulated in this liturgical formula is what the scriptures are and mean to the Christian community. It is and has consistently been our experience that in listening to the scriptures we are addressed by the Spirit. What this is saying is that, though the outward medium is the scripture, what we are listening to, listening for, is the Spirit.

The mediun is, indeed, both the scripture and something other and beyond the scripture. For the first few centuries of the Church's life it did not have scripture as we understand it. Although the Apostolic Testament writings emerged over the first century and a half, it took several centuries to resolve the choice of this particular selection of writings from many possibilities while for the first generations there was no writing at all, so far as we know.

Yes, the first churches did indeed have the Hebrew Testament. But even the Hebrew community only gradually came by its canon of writing. What all this is saying is that written scripture is not in itself essential to the life of the community of faith.

We can take this one step further. We know we face in this century the potentiality for a cataclysmic collapse of global human society. It is not beyond reason to envisage the collapse as being so extreme that the art of reading and writing could disappear. Does that mean that the Spirit no longer speak to the church? To quote Paul, "Out of the question! ". Is the church is so dependent on scripture that it could not exist without it? Again, "Out of the question!"

So the medium through which the Spirit addresses the church is in fact something other than the written text of Scripture. It is the historical memory that is the key medium, in memory of crisis met, experienced and overcome by a mighty act of grace that recreated the community with a transformed faith. This memory is enshrined in scripture but not only in scripture. It is also found enshrined in the liturgy of the church both in its words and in its structure. Scripture and liturgy are inseparable and the one divorced from the other makes each meaningless. The entire point of the canon of writings, both the Hebrew and Apostolic canons, is that these, and only these, writings were authorised for reading in liturgy. Without the liturgical assembly, synagogue or church, there would be no reason at all for such a canon, while the canon constitutes the testimony that gives the liturgical assembly its reason for being.

Hear What the Spirit is saying to the Church. The Spirit’s word is addressed to us as we live in this 21st century and as we live in this time of crisis. What the Spirit is saying is encapsulated by another liturgical formula: "As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be for ever." We recite the formula constantly, perhaps giving it little thought yet here is contained everything. This is the point of the testimony given by the Hebrews and the apostolic church, a testimony to the power of transformation by the action of grace, the power of the Spirit, and the word of the Spirit spoken from that testimony is consistently this: that the same power of grace that transformed the Hebrew and apostolic communities is at work in the 21st century community of faith.

So the key work of the Spirit in our midst is always focused on memory, and the key role of the church in all ages to the present and all ages into the future, is to keep alive and constantly in the forefront of our minds this corporate memory of what the Spirit has done in the past. That memory has its anchor in the Hebrew and Apostolic Testaments which is why their reading is so central to the liturgical life of the community, accompanied by interpretive preaching. The memory does not stop there, however, and we truciate the life and memory of the community if we apply some kind of cut-off to that memory at the end of the apostolic period and its canonical writings. The importance of maintaining the celebrative memory of the 'saints' down through all the centuries is a vital component to the memory of the community and unless we give this part of the memory due weight and attention we risk a profound dissociation between the issues of our time and the apostolic era. In remembering of the saints, great and insignificant, ultimately the whole company of the faithful down through the centuries, we are constantly reminded of the Spirit’ transforming power in every age -- and therefore in our own.

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