Pentecost: Discipleship

Here we are in the Season of Pentecost. It’s the longest season of the church year, lasting until Advent. Sometimes called ‘Ordinary time’, we settle into these weeks as summer starts and the pace of life changes. No more getting the kids off to school and finding heavy coats. Instead there are plans for vacation and looking forward to sitting in the sun after work and relaxing.

However, in nature, the Season of Pentecost is a time of growth and new life. Look at abundance in the flowers and fields all around. Nests have little chicks and all sorts of baby critters are starting to frolic in the wilderness. Farmers are hard at work cultivating their crops. Some early harvests have already happened. Over the next weeks and months more and more crops will ripen and be gathered in. Fresh produce will show up at Grower’s Markets.

What about us? Is Pentecost a time of growth and change for us? It could be, it should be.

Last time I offered the questions, “How will the Holy Spirit act in your life this Pentecost season? What is God whispering in your ear and calling you to do? Is there a change of heart, outlook, mission or something else the Holy Spirit is urging you toward?”

Laurie Brock, in the final post of the Easter series 50 Days, responds to these questions when she states, “We – all of us who claim the faith of Jesus – are called to preach, to live, and to embody this radical, merciful, and eternal love. Each day, not just on Sundays.”

During the next few weeks we’ll be looking at what that sort of discipleship might mean as we look at what the Spirit may do to our expectations, our comfort, our commitments, even our whole lives.

Brock continues, “Make no mistake, this love is rarely comfortable. Comfort keeps us locked in the rooms of our own expectations. The love of Jesus rocks the ships of our own schemes, running them aground and forcing us to enter new communities, to open ourselves and souls to new insights, and to act boldly to serve all in the name of Jesus. Walking, preaching, living, this love is work, and embodying this love will almost always cause us to run aground on the qualities the social culture values. Like Peter, Paul, and the early followers of Jesus, if we're loving right, we will find ourselves at odds with those who preach affluence at all cost, caring for the poor and needy only if they deserve it, and rhetoric that dehumanizes those people. Living Jesus' love requires commitment, courage, and work.”

Symbolism by Estella Canziani

On the first Pentecost, the disciples were assaulted by a ‘mighty wind’ and ‘tongues of fire’, as dramatically portrayed in the watercolor by Estella Canziani. As the Rev. Dan Webster noted in his Pentecost sermon, “if that happened here, today, most of us would run for the exits.” Yet, if we believe Jesus when he said, “I will send you an Advocate”, we should be expecting to have our worlds shaken, our perceptions transformed, and our lives changed.

If we seriously take to heart the commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength and your neighbor as yourself,” we will discover that we are going to become a different sort of person. We will find ourselves seeing Christ in the homeless pilgrim or the desperate drug addict or someone whose viewpoint we cannot understand as well as our good friend and those who think and look like we do. We may find our heart moved in new and strange ways to respond in new and strange ways.

Brock says this is “Work Jesus is convinced we can do.” She asks, “Will we make mistakes as we strive to live this love of Jesus? Yes, as did the disciples as we’ve read in Acts.” Further, “Will we all agree on exactly how we live this love of Jesus? No, and neither did the disciples, as we’ve read in Acts.” Finally, “Will being blown forward by the Spirit into this love lead us to new and extraordinary places, especially places far outside our personal comfort zones? Yes, as it did to the disciples, as we’ve read in Acts.”

Are you ready to be blown outside your comfort zone? Is the Spirit of the Living God burning inside you with a zeal for loving ministry in the Name of Christ?

Our discipleship is based in answering that call and responding to that wind. Who knows where that may take you or me? 

Pentecost: Change the World

Since Easter we’ve been looking at the various kinds of Change required by Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus changed the paradigm of the world, even though few noticed. Hearts and outlooks were renewed. The vision of mission was redefined. Last week we heard Jesus tell his followers to stay in Jerusalem until the coming of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost we celebrate that amazing event. The Holy Spirit didn’t just ‘happen’ at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has been active since the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)

Pentecost isn’t a celebration that is the creation of the Christian church. Like many of our feasts, it has its roots in Judaism. The Jewish feast of Pentecost/Shavuot came 50 days (pente means 50) after Passover. It celebrates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai; and is also linked to the agricultural heritage by celebrating the ‘first fruits’ of the fields. A Jewish explanation of Shavuot (Pentecost) notes that it is the GIVING of the Torah to Moses and the people that is celebrated. “giving of the Torah on Shavu'ot redeemed us spiritually from our bondage to idolatry and immorality…We are constantly in the process of receiving the Torah, that we receive it every day, but it was first given at this time. Thus it is the giving, not the receiving, that makes this holiday significant.”

In Acts 2 we learn, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

The Jewish celebration of Shavu’ot reminds the Jewish people that they are constantly receiving the Torah-the word of God. Pentecost, likewise reminds us that the Holy Spirit is continually being given to each of us. We are inspired and encouraged and empowered by the Spirit of the Living God. Jesus promised, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)

The Holy Spirit, as Paul later says, “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

The coming of the Holy Spirit was not a one-time, dramatic occurrence that only those in the Upper Room in Jerusalem experienced. The Holy Spirit is ongoing and always with us. We just have to be aware and willing to let the Spirit of God act.

How will the Holy Spirit act in your life this Pentecost season? What is God whispering in your ear and calling you to do? Is there a change of heart, outlook, mission or something else the Holy Spirit is urging you toward?

Change of Mission

Change has been our topic during the Season of Easter, which is the 50 days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. It is a time to think about the direction of our lives as individual Christians, and as a corporate body.

At the very beginning of the Book of Acts, the author summarizes Jesus’ appearances after the Resurrection. “After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” (Acts 1:3-5)

The disciples must have wondered about what being ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit’ might mean. As usual, they seem to have been confused, thinking that Jesus is going to do the work. They ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus sets them straight. “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)

Jesus tells his followers that they are the ones who will tell the story and change the world and even bring about the kingdom of God. Imagine the change of their definition of mission those words must have required. Instead of just following along as Jesus did things, the faithful men and women were now asked to act on behalf of God. Those who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry in Galilee and Judea were not ‘movers and shakers’ of the 1^st Century world. They were fishermen, shopkeepers, wives, husbands-just regular folks.

The hymn I Sing a Song of the Saints of God is one I learned in Sunday School. It was written by Lesbia Scott, a young mother who composed several children’s hymns. She published them in 1929 as Everyday Hymns for Little Children. Scott’s hymn says, “And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,/And one was a shepherdess on the green…And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,/And one was slain by a fierce wild beast…” She goes on to note, “You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,/In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,/For the saints of God are folk just like me,/And I mean to be one too.”

Like the first disciples, we are to be “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Like the first disciples we are ordinary women and men who are to live out a life different than the one outlined by the world in general.

In a letter from a Nazi concentration camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, stated “[it is] through the resurrection of Christ that a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world...If a few people really believed that and acted on it in their daily lives, a great deal would be changed. To live in the light of the resurrection — that is what Easter means.”

Scott sings, “They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,/And his love made them strong;/And they followed the right, for Jesus's sake,/The whole of their good lives long… They lived not only in ages past,/There are hundreds of thousands still/The world is bright with the joyous saints/Who love to do Jesus' will.”

How can we ‘live in the light of the resurrection’?

In what way can we live as if we believe God’s ‘love made them strong’?

Is there something you can do today or this week to be a ‘joyous saint’ who lives as if the ‘purifying wind’ of the resurrected Christ is actually blowing through the world? 

Change of Vision

Last time we noted that God sometimes doesn’t act like we expect. Sometimes, in fact, we may not even recognize that God is acting in a situation. It is only in hindsight that we begin to see that God was present and brought about a change of heart or mind.

As the disciples worked to come to terms with the dramatic changes in their lives, they spent a lot of time in prayer. The first chapter of the Book of Acts says that after Jesus ascended they were in the “upstairs room where they were staying…constantly in prayer.” (Acts 1:13-14) Before long, they were led to reevaluate their vision of their life and mission.

Peter “stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry… it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘May another take his place of leadership.’ Therefore, it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” (Acts 1:15-21)

Apparently, there was agreement because “they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.” (Acts 1:23-26)

The disciples felt that they needed to keep the continuity of ministry with someone who had ‘been with us the whole time’. This implies that beyond the listed 12 apostles there were many others who also followed Jesus around Galilee. Peter, on the one hand seems to be trying to keep the original number of select apostles, while being open to the possibility of a need for more workers in the vineyard, as Jesus had once promised. (Matthew 9:38)

While it may seem odd that gambling (casting lots) was used to determine which man would serve, it is an ancient tradition dating back to the time of the early Levitical priesthood. It was then that the Urim and Thummim were attached to the priest’s ephod (breastplate) and used to reveal the will of God. (Exodus 28:30 and 1 Samuel)

There is nothing in the Bible about what Matthias ultimately did. Greek tradition says he founded churches in Cappadocia (Turkey) and along the Caspian Sea. Other traditions say he preached in Judea and later in modern day Georgia (Russia, not USA). There is even a marker at Apsaros in Georgia claiming to be his burial site. Still another tradition has him going south to Ethiopia or was stoned and/or beheaded in Jerusalem. The point of the story in Acts is not what Matthias did, but that God guided the fledgling church to call new leadership.

How do we determine what our vision of service is going to be? Do we cast lots, or like Gideon throw down a fleece with a challenge to God? (Judges 6:36-40) Do we pray and consult others, like Peter and the disciples? Do we just sit around and wait for something to show us the way?

What is your current vision of what God wants you to do? Where are you called to lead? Who can help you discern the path?

Next time we’ll explore the church’s call to mission, and what change God might require in me and you to follow that call.