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.”
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| 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?
