The Word and the Spirit

Will Urban Design be Word-emphasized or Spirit-emphasized?

That, of course, is not the correct question.

If the aim is to balance Word and Spirit, gifting will ultimately set the agenda. We all tend towards the one or the other. It will be a matter of time for tendency to load the dice. However, there is a higher order of things.

Tucked away in John's gospel lie two glorious truths. Quite literally, glorious. That is to say, these two truths are concerned with Jesus' glory. The first reads as follows:

John 7:39 'Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.'

It is a simple truth that the Holy Spirit is given when Jesus is glorified. When Jesus is glorified the Holy Spirit is poured out as a matter of course.

And the second is like it:

John 12:16 'Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about Him'.

Similarly, once Jesus is glorified revelation of the written Word arrives. As the lawyers say, Jesus' glorification is a condition precedent for the power of the written Word of God to effect. The one one can happen because the other has happened.

We shall not aim at striking a negotiated balance between the Word and the Spirit at Urban Design. We shall aim at glorifying Jesus. It is then that the Holy Spirit will be poured out. It is then that the written Word of God will come alive with divine 3D animation. The Word and the Spirit are not counter-balances. No, they are the other two corners of the Isoceles triangle that has Jesus' glorification as its point.