Barth Journal Entry #7: Christians Are Invisible

I realize my title may be a bit misleading, so here's what I mean.  It is good that Barth is finally talking about the Holy Spirit because I can finally address a problem I see with Christians today, and with most discussions of the Holy Spirit in general.  We talk about it too much.  Now I know that as Western Protestants, we don't talk about it much in our liturgy.  But I'm talking about popularly, not in the ecclesia.  We talk about the Holy Spirit all the time.  And not in a good way!  "I'm filled with the Holy Spirit so I'm better than you", "The Holy Spirit has told me that everyone that disagrees with me is not a Christian", "My public display of overzealous prayer is approved, because I was led by the Holy Spirit", "I can attack people with my belief system, because I was led by the Holy Spirit", etc. Whatever happened to go to an inner room and pray?  Or "love your neighbor as yourself"?  Or "humbly submit to your God"?  When did we get so full of ourselves, that we call our sin of pride our greatest virtue?  Maybe we should start actually listening to where the Spirit leads.
Let's hear what Barth has to say, on page 727:

That which makes it, as one people, this incomparable people; that wherein it is totally from within, and therefore invisible, i.e. not visible to all eyes, is, however, the fact that it is the community of Jesus Christ and therefore as such the people of God in world-occurrence.  It may be granted that without His election and calling, without His will and work and Word, it would exist not even visibly, ad extra, in worldly form and to that extent in likeness with the various elements and factors of the world.  It exists at all, and therefore in this sense, only in the power of the divine decision, act and revelation accomplished and effective in Jesus Christ.  Yet in this power, and therefore as the community of Jesus Christ, it also exists from within, uniquely and therefore invisibly, i.e. in a way which is visible to some, though not all.  At this point we are brought up against the same limit as in our answering the first question concerning the new reality of world history created and revealed in Jesus Christ, namely, who can see, accept and affirm what the Christian community is on the basis of its election and calling, as the work of the divine decision, act and revelation, except by knowledge of this divine work, of the Lord who elects and calls His community, and therefore of Jesus Christ.  It is eyes are open for Him and by Him which see what His community is as grounded in Him.

We are one invisible people, because the Holy Spirit is in us, because we are grounded in Jesus Christ.  We are not special because of anything we have done, but because of Jesus.  Even the world would not exist without him.  The community of Jesus Christ exists within us because of him.  We can't say what the Christian community is without seeing God's work through Jesus.  When we are open to him then we can see the community.  This is important to ministry because it will keep us from getting too self-important, and the more open to new experiences with the world, and people seeking to find new faith.