May
11 is Pentecost and I would like to consider what it means for us in the church
today.
Pentecost,
also called “The Festival of Weeks,” was a time of Jewish worship prescribed
by God. In the Book of Deuteronomy it says: “Count off seven weeks from the
time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the
Festival of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in
proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before
the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name…”
(Deut. 16: 9-11)
The
place God had chosen was the Temple in Jerusalem; that is where God’s People
would come and worship the LORD. Gathered in the upstairs of a building in
Jerusalem, in the year 30AD, was a group of men and women who were the disciples
of Jesus of Nazareth. He had been crucified
several weeks earlier, but after being dead and in a tomb for three days
God resurrected him. This miracle was seen by his disciples as God’s
vindication of all that Jesus had done and said in his
ministry. This proved that he truly was the Messiah, the Son of Man, to
Whom God had given all
authority. (See the Old Testament book Daniel, chapter 7 verses 13
&14.)
In
one conversation that the Resurrected Jesus had with his disciples he told them,
"Do not leave
Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard
me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1: 4-5)
You
may be familiar with what happened but let me briefly retell the story. At about
9AM, while they were all together in that second floor room, they heard the wind
blowing and it rushed into the room they were in; and then over each of them
there appeared flames of fire; and then they started to speak in other
languages…not some strange words but languages that people from other nations
spoke. They were so amazed by what was happening they went out into the streets
of
Jerusalem and visitors from different countries heard these men and women
talking about Jesus the Messiah. People made fun of them, saying they were
drunk; but Peter, the fisherman from the backwater area of Galilee, stood up and
started to tell everyone about Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection. When he was done thousands of his fellow Jews also accepted
Jesus as the Messiah. (I would encourage you to read the full story in Acts
chapter 2.)
The events of that day have been seen as the beginning of the Christian Church. And it is important that we understand that what happened that day…not the wind, or the flames, or even the speaking in other languages…but the out pouring of God’s Spirit on “regular” men and women brought them into a new, deeper relationship with God not just as individuals, but each of them as part of a Community—the Body of Christ. This is something that I think most of us U. S. Americans find difficult; at least I have in the past and at times still do.
We
have a history in our culture, or at least an image, of the “rugged
individual,” who can pull him/her self up by their own bootstraps. But we find
in following Jesus something totally opposite. Our
salvation, our relationship with God, is not of our own doing; we are
told in the New Testament: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this is not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God…”
(Ephesians 2: 8) And when we accept God’s Grace we become part of God’s new
Community, the Church—the Body of Christ. A little later on in that
same later we are told, “There
is one body and one Spirit,
just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith,
one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in
all.” (Ephesians 4: 4-6) We cannot grow and become who God wants us to be,
unless we are in that one Body united by the One Spirit to God and one another.
As
my time to leave you as your Pastor draws closer I am becoming more aware of the
connectedness we have in the Spirit. I am not the same person I was four
years ago; I know that I have been worked on and reformed because of my time
with you my sisters and brothers in Christ. And I hope and pray that each of you
can say the same, not just because of me but because of each other. The seeds
you planted in my heart and soul will come to flower somewhere else, and you
will influence others in Christ just as you have been, and will be influenced by
others. I will carry a piece of you in my heart and be connected to you by the
Spirit.
The
mysterious hope, the great joy we look towards, is that some day we all will be
with one another as we rejoice in the sight of what we have faith in. We will
stand before Jesus in the New Heaven and New Earth knowing there will be no more
parting, no more good-byes. Until that day comes may we each grow stronger in
the Spirit to do the work we’ve been called to do, by encouraging and praying
for one another.
We
are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord, whether we are together or apart.
Pastor
Keith
http://www.theooze.com/main.cfm This is Spencer Burke’s website. His article “Swords into Plowshares,” had a major impact on the development of my doctoral thesis.
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm? This is the Sojourners community’s website; this is evangelical Christianity from a different angle than what you may have seen in the past.
http://www.the-next-wave.org A great site for/ from the postmodern, emerging Church.
http://www.sacredspace.ie This is a site to go to if you want sacred space, guide prayer, and time with God.