Description

Jesus spoke of the promised Spirit (John 7.37-39) in terms of ‘rivers of living water’. This evokes scriptural promises (Ezekiel, Zechariah) of covenant renewal after failure and exile, with the new Temple established as the source of life-giving water for the whole world. This translates into the gift of the Spirit for mission in John 20.19-23: Jesus’ death cleanses his followers so that, following his resurrection they can be new-Temple people, animated by his own Spirit, for the sake of the world. This is worked out in Acts as heaven and earth are joined in Jesus himself (Acts 1) and the Spirit (Acts 2) so that the ‘new-Temple people’, as cleansed healers (with ethics seen as part of the missional vocation), confront the temples of the world, from Jerusalem to Athens and beyond, with the new healing, living reality of the One God.

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