Tag: pentecost

Posted in Different Scriptures

Pentecost as Revival of Relationship

Posted on by Wick

            When have you wanted the Holy Spirit to do something powerful in your life? Perhaps you wanted the healing power of the Holy Spirit, or the miraculous ability to translate foreign tongues. Maybe you wanted the power of God for understanding the future, or a prophetic Word that would speak precisely what God’s heart desires for a given moment or season.
          All of this to say – I think we often approach the Holy Spirit, and even passages like Acts 2:1-21, considering all the Holy Spirit enables the people of God to do. But what if we chose to focus specifically on the person of the Holy Spirit, as we read some of these passages?
         We regularly state that we believe in a Triune God. This is a mysterious Truth from how God has revealed God’s self throughout scripture. In the Nicene creed, after mentioning God the Father, and God the Son, we confess “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”
         Jesus mentions in Acts 1:8 that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, to be His witnesses. Our world builds so much on power – on seeking it, keeping it, and protecting it. So often we hear about the power here, and become so focused on empowerment, we miss out on the person. Focusing only on the power of the Holy Spirit over the Person of the Trinity, causes us to seek a temporary tool instead of an eternal relationship. In scripture, the acts of power are always as a sign of a relationship now available.

            As we read passages like this, what if we held in mind – not “empowerment” as if these followers are all “leveling up” in some cosmic video game – gaining new abilities…but what if we listened to the description as God’s people are entering into relationship with the Holy Spirit as a person, one person of the fullness of God?
In these moments, God is revealing what has changed as we are brought to New Life by the arrival and indwelling of the person of the Holy Spirit.
             In John 14:16-18, Jesus says “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion (comforter/advocate), who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.”

        Our God wants us to know Him intimately, as He already knows us intimately. Here are some things I believe we learn about the person of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-21:

  1. The Holy Spirit comes from heaven.   Verse 2 – “from heaven there came a sound..” Heaven is where God is, and here is the source of what arrives. Luke 24:49 tells us the Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and promised by the Father.
    Are we being attentive for God to respond from His presence, or are we waiting for His help and response to arrive from the sources/systems of this world?
  2. The Holy Spirit is revealed as uncontrollable wind and yet also purposeful fire. 
    The wind arrives, and fills the entire place. The Spirit is all-encompassing, arriving in ways that fill every corner of our being and our space.  The fire arrives, but doesn’t fill the entire place. Instead, it divided so that it rested on each of them. The purifying Spirit of God is purposeful and personal.  How are you in need of the Holy Spirit to arrive in your life today?
  3. The Holy Spirit enables living according to His reality. The breath of God always brings New Life. This IS Holiness: abiding in the Love of and living in the ways of God. In the presence of God, all are united as one. Language is not a barrier. This was obviously unexpected by those observing what was happening, as Luke describes them as being bewildered, amazed, and astonished.
    Filled and being used by God for His purposes – they are being made Holy. This is His desire for our lives as well – that we would experience being so filled with His Love and Spirit, that our purposes and hearts are refined to fully reflect His own.  In what ways could the realities of God arrive as unexpected in your life?
  4. The Holy Spirit makes right what humanity has made wrong.
    There’s confusion and bewilderment here, as languages unexpectedly come together. The same confusion happened in Genesis 11:7 in the opposite direction, when God scattered the people into different languages due to their prideful ways at Babel.  In order to humble them enough that they might reach out to God (remain in relationship), God had scattered them.  Here, as relationship is restored – there is a safe place for global healing.
  5. The Holy Spirit brings glory to God – not the individual.
    They were used to prophets, priests, and kings – individuals who represented God’s Reign and Rule. Even when Jesus was with them, there were arguments about which of them would be recognized as closest to Him.
    Here they were all speaking about the mighty acts of God.
    Now the promise of Jeremiah was being fulfilled: “..this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
  6. The Holy Spirit brings fulfillment of God’s promises.
    Peter quotes the prophet Joel, reminding them of the words they were now seeing fulfilled.  In Joel chapter 2, he calls on a people who are experiencing the judgment of God to repent. To humble themselves, turning away from their own desires and toward God. He prophecies that God will respond with rescue and redemption, and then these words that His Spirit will be poured out on all people – yes even people precisely like YOU – in ways that ripple out to impact all of creation.  Scripture proclaims no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3b).  John Wesley wrote, “Every true Christian now “receives the Holy Ghost,” as the Paraclete or Comforter promised by our Lord.” (Wesley, “A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”)  We understand that we are included in those Joel talks about as able to receive the Spirit of God. We include all those we would normally overlook as those with potential to be those who speak for God…even the self we see in the mirror.

To what end? The final verse – Acts 2:21 reveals to us the most important way that we “expect the unexpected”.  Who might experience salvation?

The expectations of our world says things like:
Everyone who is born into the right circumstances..
Everyone who makes good decisions..
Everyone who achieves enough in Jesus’ name..
Everyone who lives a really really good life..
Everyone who _______ (other reasons we think God will accept us)..

Instead – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is an invitation into relationship…the one in need of salvation knowing and being known by the one saving. There are no requirements of proving any sort of ability in order to come and receive.

Do you desire the Holy Spirit – who is our living invitation into the power of relationship here and now with the Triune God? This IS Salvation. Come and receive. Come and be received by the power of the Holy Spirit, into right relationship with God.

Posted in Different Scriptures

An Eastertide Reminder…(you already know this)

Posted on by Wick

Don’t put away your Easter Tree just yet!

Oh, you don’t have an Easter tree? That’s fine. Whatever your Easter décor or traditions, don’t shove them into storage at this point. We’ve only just begun our celebrations of Easter. It’s ok if your candy has run out, as we can now pursue much more celebrative ways to announce “He is Risen!”.

“Eastertide” on the church calendar is traditionally the 50 days between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. There are many traditions and connections to this season, but notice this: 50 days is just about 1/7th of a year. So in a sense, Eastertide is like the “Great Sunday” of the year! During this season, we are invited to contemplate the Resurrection of Jesus, what that means for the ways Resurrection Life unfolds & is available to us here and now, and to anticipate the future Resurrection when God brings all things to completion.

There are so many reasons for us to spend more time than we do, talking about and celebrating resurrection life. It’s literally one of the foundations of who we are as Christians. Early believers thought it was so important, they even moved their weekly gathering of worship to Sunday – believing the resurrection to be a sort of “8th Day of Creation”, or “First Day of New Creation”. It has transformed reality as we know it!

One of the keys (I think) to embracing the resurrection as something to truly celebrate, is to become increasingly aware of the difference between “coming back to life” and “resurrection”. Many people in scripture come “back to life“, meaning they return to the way of existing before they died. But this is not what happened to Jesus. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.“

Paul clarifies it even stronger in Colossians 1:18, “ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.” The “coming back to life” of anyone else was something to be celebrated for that person. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed everything. Here we see in the person of Jesus Christ, the coming together of Heaven (where God exists fully) and earth (where humanity dwells). He was given his “resurrection body” that is able to exist both where God is fully and where humanity dwells – a way of existing never before experienced by mankind. This is a reminder to us as believers that we are not ultimately looking forward to Heaven, even though it will be great to be with God fully. Even scripture reminds us that, “..in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” (2 Peter 3:13) We all – those of us still here on earth, and our loved ones who currently wait in the presence of God – are waiting on the coming New Creation where Heaven & Earth are united as never before.

The exciting thing is: We are not waiting passively! We join today as we are literally brought to new life from the Life of the Age that is to come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The good news isn’t that if we accept Jesus into our hearts, we will eventually join him in Heaven. The good news is that for ALL people, when we abide in the Life of Christ (who IS the beginning of the coming New Creation) NOW, we become places and people through whom the coming New Creation is bursting forth TODAY, being proclaimed and revealed in ways that announce what it will be like fully some day!

Whew. Okay. I need to take a breath and calm down. But you can see why it would be a really big shame if we spent all that time building up toward Easter throughout Lent, celebrated with a big breakfast, pretty pictures and some candy, then went about our year as usual the next day, right? We can see why an entire “Eastertide” season is needed, and why every Sunday throughout the year becomes a miniature celebration of the resurrection. We are resurrection people.

The question then: If celebrating the resurrection means revealing/embodying the ways of Jesus and His coming New Creation – how will you celebrate this week?

Posted in Spoken Word

Pentecost (a poem)

Posted on by Wick

Dry.

Coughing as I breathe in, chest wheezing, this dusty cloud kicks up when I walk.

When I talk, words fall to the ground without sound.

Cracks invading the pavement, waiting for someone tall to step wrong and fall. Someone saw rain in the distance, just one instance, but that was years ago.

For now, nothing grows. And so, nothing sows. The last leaves turned to ash.  Out of resource, out of cash.  It happened so fast, before we realized we were empty.  The wind blows over another dried up, used to be, has been but isn’t now.

For a split second, seems to bow on purpose, then falls.

Smashing into a million pieces in these parched halls.  The air so dry it’s impossible to sweat – impossible to shed a tear, for fear of losing the last drops of moisture we assume are somewhere deep inside.  We’ve tried to hide.  We’ve lied to hide.  Cause when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Or so we’ve heard.  Not another word.  After all, we’ll get by.  We just need to try.  Try harder.  To really mean it this time.

Sunlight breaks, the cushion shakes and reveals the dust we’ve been breathing.  Our lungs as thirsty as our throats, debris forming coats.  A trembling unsettles our dust.  Frightened, but we must, respond.

The room is shaking, the ground quaking, the clouds fill the sky and darken brightly.

Not a drip.   Not a trickle or a stream. But all in one moment it happens.

Dams break, waves overtake, water makes and snakes its’ way, soaking the day, washing away any traces of ash and dust.  Respond we must, gasping for air and at the same time sinking without a care.

The pipes have burst, rushing like floods from somewhere unseen.  More like a geyser, like the spring from which all springs are sprung – filling our lungs and drowning out all remnants of thirst.

To a land that was cursed – healing and life, New Life. A Spirit poured out, and all creation shouts “Great is the Lamb that was slain!”  “Great is His Name!” The Spirit that came, as God promised it would.

See His blood on the wood…

We receive and are never the same.

Isaiah 44:3