The gospel reading set for Sunday is Matthew’s version of Jesus’ last encounter with his disciples:
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”
Some doubted? After running into the resurrected Jesus for several weeks, some still weren’t sure? But it can be very hard to overcome our belief in the impossible, even when it’s staring us in the face. An empty tomb and forty days were not enough for some, and still aren’t.
A healthy faith grows like a tree, its roots reaching deep into the soil of God-Life, accessing nutrients and building a stable base. It has a strong trunk able to support its growth. It reaches out branches toward God and toward other people, as in an attitude of praise and offering, which allow for the formation of fruit and leaves and shade. You’ll notice, though, that no two trees grow alike. They develop according to their situation, the nutrients available, sunlight and shade – and the winds. Some trunks are sinewy and gnarled, made stronger because of adversity. Some branches extend in long arcs, others divide and reach toward the light, others break of their own weight and crash to earth.
Doubt can work like a strong wind on our trees of faith, its pressure causing us to grow stronger. Doubt is a natural part of a living faith. It’s how we respond to it that makes the difference. If we acknowledge doubt when it surfaces and bring it into our relationship with God, it can add texture and depth to our faith. If we allow doubts to inspire us lean harder on God, even to test, to say, “I don’t understand; show me,” they can actually deepen our faith.
But if we stay shielded from doubt by a black-and-white certainty, we can be like trees that grow tall and uniform – and easily toppled in a crisis. And if our doubts cause us to turn away from God, we miss out on the joys of seeing that relationship grow.
For instance, lately the human authorship of much of the Bible seems so glaring to me, I’m having trouble discerning the divine inspiration in some parts. So, my prayer is, “God, show me what you want your people to get out of this passage that makes you look vengeful and petty. Show me what’s under the words.” No matter how that prayer is answered, I’m wrestling within my relationship with God in prayer, and that can only strengthen my faith and my understanding. (Writing this every day helps too!)
How often do you engage doubts about God, about Jesus, about the power of God in the world or your life? What tends to trigger it? How do you tend to respond? Today, can you bring one of those trouble areas into prayer? See what you discern in response.
As followers of the Risen Christ, we do not sign on to a set of doctrines. We enter into relationship with the multi-faceted triune God. There is room in God for our faith, our doubts, our love, our fears, and a whole lot more. Our faith is strengthened as we allow God to water our roots every day, as we allow life to prune our branches, as we withstand the winds and rain – and as we nurture ourselves to bear abundant fruit.
So we will be “…like trees planted by streams of water; bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.” (Psalm 1:3)
6-9-14 - Trinity Sunday
Why three? Why not two, or four, or one – which would have been so much easier to explain. Of course, the Christian understanding of God is as One, yet also Three. Three persons within the One Godhead. But, why three?
The shortest answer I know is, because Jesus said so. He spoke of his Father in heaven, he spoke of himself as Son of God, and he referred in personal terms to the Holy Spirit, who would be given when he was no longer bodily present. And there were stories, like the voice heard at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. Early church preachers and thinkers, trying to interpret collected teachings and stories, had to wrestle with these references. When you think about it, seeing God as triune was pretty unavoidable, given how much Jesus refers to these three distinct persons as God.
Unavoidable doesn’t mean simple. It took centuries to sort out and articulate Christian doctrine about God, and some of the process was torturous. So is any time we try to talk about the Unity and the Trinity of God (read the Athanasian Creed sometime…) And on the one Sunday each year when we highlight not an event but a doctrine, preachers twist themselves into pretzels trying to clarify a spiritual mystery.
Sun, ray, beam… Orange, peel, juice… Mother, wife, sister… Water, ice, steam….
Or the one I stumbled onto in Water Daily a few weeks ago: sea, water-fall and spray. I rather like that one.
A good formula for the Trinity does not allocate different functions to Father, Son and Spirit, but affirms their sharing in the full life of God. It conveys distinction between persons and the unity of the whole – and so affirms the principles of differentiation and wholeness that are so important for human health and thriving. It communicates the core Christian belief that God is One and also more than One; that God is so big, as it were, God could not be contained as just One but exists in eternal relationship of persons.
This ongoing, active, relational life of God is what we are invited to join. So the Christian life is not just assenting to a belief, but actively joining a relationship already in full swirl, and somehow richer when you and I join in. Some liken it to a dance, in which we are swept up, folded in, made whole.
What difference does understanding God as Trinity make to us? It gives us different ways to connect with God. Some relate to God as Spirit, unseen but powerful and present. Some connect better to God the Father, holy and transcendent, unknowable and yet perfect love. And some find their connection to the Son who left his heavenly home to enter our world as a human being, so that God would be knowable to us.
Who do you find you most connect with in prayer? Have you ever consciously tried to address another Person of the Trinity just to see how you might experience God differently? You might try it today...
I will leave us with a great formulation written by my friend Willy Welch in a song for children:
God is One person, and he’s also Three.
God is a person, and He’s a family.
One, he is the Father; Two, he is the Son;
Three, he is the Spirit, and they’re never done.
The shortest answer I know is, because Jesus said so. He spoke of his Father in heaven, he spoke of himself as Son of God, and he referred in personal terms to the Holy Spirit, who would be given when he was no longer bodily present. And there were stories, like the voice heard at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. Early church preachers and thinkers, trying to interpret collected teachings and stories, had to wrestle with these references. When you think about it, seeing God as triune was pretty unavoidable, given how much Jesus refers to these three distinct persons as God.
Unavoidable doesn’t mean simple. It took centuries to sort out and articulate Christian doctrine about God, and some of the process was torturous. So is any time we try to talk about the Unity and the Trinity of God (read the Athanasian Creed sometime…) And on the one Sunday each year when we highlight not an event but a doctrine, preachers twist themselves into pretzels trying to clarify a spiritual mystery.
Sun, ray, beam… Orange, peel, juice… Mother, wife, sister… Water, ice, steam….
Or the one I stumbled onto in Water Daily a few weeks ago: sea, water-fall and spray. I rather like that one.
A good formula for the Trinity does not allocate different functions to Father, Son and Spirit, but affirms their sharing in the full life of God. It conveys distinction between persons and the unity of the whole – and so affirms the principles of differentiation and wholeness that are so important for human health and thriving. It communicates the core Christian belief that God is One and also more than One; that God is so big, as it were, God could not be contained as just One but exists in eternal relationship of persons.
This ongoing, active, relational life of God is what we are invited to join. So the Christian life is not just assenting to a belief, but actively joining a relationship already in full swirl, and somehow richer when you and I join in. Some liken it to a dance, in which we are swept up, folded in, made whole.
What difference does understanding God as Trinity make to us? It gives us different ways to connect with God. Some relate to God as Spirit, unseen but powerful and present. Some connect better to God the Father, holy and transcendent, unknowable and yet perfect love. And some find their connection to the Son who left his heavenly home to enter our world as a human being, so that God would be knowable to us.
Who do you find you most connect with in prayer? Have you ever consciously tried to address another Person of the Trinity just to see how you might experience God differently? You might try it today...
I will leave us with a great formulation written by my friend Willy Welch in a song for children:
God is One person, and he’s also Three.
God is a person, and He’s a family.
One, he is the Father; Two, he is the Son;
Three, he is the Spirit, and they’re never done.
6-6-14 - The River
There are many images associated with the Holy Spirit in the Bible… breath, wind, fire, dove, comforter, advocate, to name a few. And Jesus added one more: water. Earlier in his ministry, while at a festival in Jerusalem, he said (in John 7:37-39, the Gospel passage appointed for Sunday...),
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, `Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'”
John goes on to explain, “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
In this image, the Spirit comes from inside the believer’s heart, not from the outside in. And the way the Spirit emanates is like rivers. I love this way to envision the Spirit’s activity in us, as a river of living, cleansing water flowing around us and through us, bringing renewal to the stagnant places, healing to the wounded places, dislodging and carrying away the debris of sin and hurt in us. Jesus said his Living Water would well up within us like a spring… this is how the Spirit lives in us.
When we pray for something, we can ask God to release the River of Life that’s already within us, and let it flow to wherever it is most needed, whether that is within us or beyond us. When we confess our sins or stuck areas, we are removing debris that keeps the river from flowing at full strength. When we dredge up old hurts and resentments and let them go, we’re clearing the river bank.
Allowing that Holy Spirit river to flow in us with less and less impediment is the goal of the spiritual life. The spiritual practices that nourish us help keep it flowing – prayer, scripture, worship, giving, hospitality, healing. When it flows easily in us, the gifts of the Spirit are abundant in us, and so we become a source of peace and strength for others.
Can you imagine that river flowing in you?
What does it look like? Feel like? Sound like?
Where does it get dammed or slowed? What’s in the way? Can you dislodge the obstacles? Ask God to?
What debris might be gathering at the banks that need to be dislodged and borne away?
And when do you feel the River flowing with the most power and exhilarating life?
Someone asked me this week if the people in my church were thirsty for God, thirsty for Jesus, thirsty for the Spirit. That is a question for them. I am thirsty for more of God. And I know that Jesus invited us to bring our thirst to him, and he would give us the water of life. That offer still stands.
The river is in us. Let if flow! Happy Pentecost!
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, `Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'”
John goes on to explain, “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
In this image, the Spirit comes from inside the believer’s heart, not from the outside in. And the way the Spirit emanates is like rivers. I love this way to envision the Spirit’s activity in us, as a river of living, cleansing water flowing around us and through us, bringing renewal to the stagnant places, healing to the wounded places, dislodging and carrying away the debris of sin and hurt in us. Jesus said his Living Water would well up within us like a spring… this is how the Spirit lives in us.
When we pray for something, we can ask God to release the River of Life that’s already within us, and let it flow to wherever it is most needed, whether that is within us or beyond us. When we confess our sins or stuck areas, we are removing debris that keeps the river from flowing at full strength. When we dredge up old hurts and resentments and let them go, we’re clearing the river bank.
Allowing that Holy Spirit river to flow in us with less and less impediment is the goal of the spiritual life. The spiritual practices that nourish us help keep it flowing – prayer, scripture, worship, giving, hospitality, healing. When it flows easily in us, the gifts of the Spirit are abundant in us, and so we become a source of peace and strength for others.
Can you imagine that river flowing in you?
What does it look like? Feel like? Sound like?
Where does it get dammed or slowed? What’s in the way? Can you dislodge the obstacles? Ask God to?
What debris might be gathering at the banks that need to be dislodged and borne away?
And when do you feel the River flowing with the most power and exhilarating life?
Someone asked me this week if the people in my church were thirsty for God, thirsty for Jesus, thirsty for the Spirit. That is a question for them. I am thirsty for more of God. And I know that Jesus invited us to bring our thirst to him, and he would give us the water of life. That offer still stands.
The river is in us. Let if flow! Happy Pentecost!
6-5-14 - Upon All Flesh
“Flesh” is one of those words that mean one thing in churchy settings and another in the wider world. “Out there” it means bodily substance, plant or animal. In Bible World it refers to humanity. This is that Peter means when, trying to interpret the furor at Pentecost, he locates this event as the fulfillment of a prophecy: “This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.’”
The Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: hovering at creation, inspiring artisans, speaking through prophets. References increase in the New Testament, especially in Luke’s accounts: prophetic utterances, Jesus’ conception, baptism and subsequent ministry. Jesus is often said to be “full of the Spirit” when miracles are recounted. The Spirit was not limited to Jesus, but Jesus, the Son of God in flesh, was perhaps the first human with the capacity to hold and wield the Spirit’s power full-strength. That’s why he could do such works that we think of as miracles, because faith and Spirit were undiluted in him.
It came to me in musing upon these things that the chief goal of Jesus’ ministry with his followers was to help increase their capacity for holding and wielding the Spirit’s power, so that God’s life would be less diluted in them too. Far more than teaching them to “do,” He was equipping them to receive and live out the Life of God. If God wants this Life to be abundant in the world, God needs vessels with the breadth and depth to contain such love, such power.
What changes at Pentecost is that the presence of God is poured out to human containers, ready or not. Jesus demonstrated that humankind could carry such divine power. Now it was up to those who were willing to have their capacity increased. And that could be any kind of person:
“…I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
What a prophecy of radical equality Joel offers! So Paul can say with confidence some years after this event, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Anyone with the willingness to receive the life of God can be filled with the Spirit. Even people we’re not fond of. Even us.
Who are some people in whom you discern the Spirit of God? Anyone on that list surprise you?
What sort of people do you think would not be eligible? Do you feel worthy yourself?
Are you interested in being filled with more God-Life?
How might you allow your capacity for faith and filling to be expanded? What’s in the way?
If Jesus was truly more about increasing his followers’ receptivity to the Spirit than about “training them for ministry,” what does that suggest about where the church can best put its energies? How might we better increase our collective capacity for living in the Spirit, as the Spirit lives in us? I don't think there is a person created by God whose capacity for the Spirit cannot be expanded.
Pentecost was only the beginning. We can live the rest of the story every day.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: hovering at creation, inspiring artisans, speaking through prophets. References increase in the New Testament, especially in Luke’s accounts: prophetic utterances, Jesus’ conception, baptism and subsequent ministry. Jesus is often said to be “full of the Spirit” when miracles are recounted. The Spirit was not limited to Jesus, but Jesus, the Son of God in flesh, was perhaps the first human with the capacity to hold and wield the Spirit’s power full-strength. That’s why he could do such works that we think of as miracles, because faith and Spirit were undiluted in him.
It came to me in musing upon these things that the chief goal of Jesus’ ministry with his followers was to help increase their capacity for holding and wielding the Spirit’s power, so that God’s life would be less diluted in them too. Far more than teaching them to “do,” He was equipping them to receive and live out the Life of God. If God wants this Life to be abundant in the world, God needs vessels with the breadth and depth to contain such love, such power.
What changes at Pentecost is that the presence of God is poured out to human containers, ready or not. Jesus demonstrated that humankind could carry such divine power. Now it was up to those who were willing to have their capacity increased. And that could be any kind of person:
“…I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
What a prophecy of radical equality Joel offers! So Paul can say with confidence some years after this event, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Anyone with the willingness to receive the life of God can be filled with the Spirit. Even people we’re not fond of. Even us.
Who are some people in whom you discern the Spirit of God? Anyone on that list surprise you?
What sort of people do you think would not be eligible? Do you feel worthy yourself?
Are you interested in being filled with more God-Life?
How might you allow your capacity for faith and filling to be expanded? What’s in the way?
If Jesus was truly more about increasing his followers’ receptivity to the Spirit than about “training them for ministry,” what does that suggest about where the church can best put its energies? How might we better increase our collective capacity for living in the Spirit, as the Spirit lives in us? I don't think there is a person created by God whose capacity for the Spirit cannot be expanded.
Pentecost was only the beginning. We can live the rest of the story every day.
6-4-14 - Beaujolais Nouveau?
After the wind and the tongues as of fire (it doesn’t say they were actual flames…) and the speaking in other languages, everyone in Jerusalem knew something was up with these Jesus people:
“All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”
How right they were. The apostles may not have been high on spirits – as Peter says, “Please! It’s only 9 o’clock in the morning!” – but they were filled with the Spirit of God, whom Jesus had earlier likened to new wine. When asked why his disciples didn’t observe all the formal rituals, he said people don’t pour new wine into old wineskins, “If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt 9:17)
New wine is an apt metaphor for being filled with the Spirit. It tends to be more potent than wine that has aged longer and, being younger in the fermentation process, is more expansive; hence the risk of ruin to older, more brittle wine skins. It is less predictable, less controllable than older wines. I believe many churches’ discomfort with the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with their desire for control. Perhaps the wine of the Church has aged a little too long, become too smooth – good to the taste, and unlikely to trouble anyone.
We could use a dose of Holy Spirit fermentation. We could stand to have the Holy Spirit renewed in us, pushing what has become brittle in us and in our churches to expand and make room for the life of God. Otherwise we crack and break, the new wine goes running out, and we feel empty.
Every day we can ask for a deeper filling of the Holy Spirit. It can happen quite naturally as we say, “Come, Holy Spirit,” or “Come, Lord Jesus,” or as we pray in tongues or sing in praise or move our bodies in a posture of worship. And if there are certain spiritual gifts you crave – like healing, or faith, or more compassion, or boldness, ask for those gifts. The Spirit knows what gifts s/he wants us to have; it never hurts to ask for what we want to do the ministries we feel God is calling us to offer.
And if you feel the Spirit filling you to a degree that makes you uncomfortable, you can say so… I don’t think that happens often, though. Mostly we are filled to the capacity we have, until we are able to receive more.
We don’t have to worry about losing control, or beware the language of new birth. In reading an obituary of actress Ann B. Davis, who played the housekeeper on the The Brady Bunch, I was interested to learn that she was a charismatic Episcopalian:
For many years after “The Brady Bunch” wound up, Davis led a quiet religious life, affiliating herself with a group led by [retired Episcopal Bishop William] Frey. “I was born again,” she told the AP in 1993. “It happens to Episcopalians. Sometimes it doesn't hit you till you're 47 years old.”
It can "hit us" at any age, in any denomination, especially if we’re open to it. And it happens more as we invite the Spirit to make that dimension of God’s life real in us.
“All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”
How right they were. The apostles may not have been high on spirits – as Peter says, “Please! It’s only 9 o’clock in the morning!” – but they were filled with the Spirit of God, whom Jesus had earlier likened to new wine. When asked why his disciples didn’t observe all the formal rituals, he said people don’t pour new wine into old wineskins, “If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt 9:17)
New wine is an apt metaphor for being filled with the Spirit. It tends to be more potent than wine that has aged longer and, being younger in the fermentation process, is more expansive; hence the risk of ruin to older, more brittle wine skins. It is less predictable, less controllable than older wines. I believe many churches’ discomfort with the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with their desire for control. Perhaps the wine of the Church has aged a little too long, become too smooth – good to the taste, and unlikely to trouble anyone.
We could use a dose of Holy Spirit fermentation. We could stand to have the Holy Spirit renewed in us, pushing what has become brittle in us and in our churches to expand and make room for the life of God. Otherwise we crack and break, the new wine goes running out, and we feel empty.
Every day we can ask for a deeper filling of the Holy Spirit. It can happen quite naturally as we say, “Come, Holy Spirit,” or “Come, Lord Jesus,” or as we pray in tongues or sing in praise or move our bodies in a posture of worship. And if there are certain spiritual gifts you crave – like healing, or faith, or more compassion, or boldness, ask for those gifts. The Spirit knows what gifts s/he wants us to have; it never hurts to ask for what we want to do the ministries we feel God is calling us to offer.
And if you feel the Spirit filling you to a degree that makes you uncomfortable, you can say so… I don’t think that happens often, though. Mostly we are filled to the capacity we have, until we are able to receive more.
We don’t have to worry about losing control, or beware the language of new birth. In reading an obituary of actress Ann B. Davis, who played the housekeeper on the The Brady Bunch, I was interested to learn that she was a charismatic Episcopalian:
For many years after “The Brady Bunch” wound up, Davis led a quiet religious life, affiliating herself with a group led by [retired Episcopal Bishop William] Frey. “I was born again,” she told the AP in 1993. “It happens to Episcopalians. Sometimes it doesn't hit you till you're 47 years old.”
It can "hit us" at any age, in any denomination, especially if we’re open to it. And it happens more as we invite the Spirit to make that dimension of God’s life real in us.
6-3-14 - Phrygia and Pamphylia
It always amuses me that the reading from Acts about Pentecost – which details how a bunch of Galilean fisherman were suddenly able to speak languages they had never learned – sounds itself like another language, containing as it does a vast number of unpronounceable names:
"Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, 'Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.'"
We can almost understand what it must have been like to hear these words coming out of the mouths of Jesus’ followers. (I find Phrygia and Pamphylia the most sonorous... Hey, those would make good cat names!)
I wonder if the apostles were speaking those languages, or if the hearers were suddenly able to understand Aramaic as though it was their own tongue. Was the miracle in the speaking or the hearing? Who knows. The effect was the same. People heard the Good News about “God’s deeds of power” in their own language and could choose for themselves if they wanted to follow the Way of Jesus. Luke tells us that 3,000 were baptized that day. And we’re off!
In what language do the people around you need to hear the Good News articulated? Perhaps we first need to answer this: to whom do you feel called to share the Good News of God’s love? Friends and family are often the last ones we feel comfortable sharing our spiritual selves with. It might be acquaintances or clients or co-workers, or people hanging out in a park. It could be your kids’ friends who populate your kitchen, or that person at the dry cleaners who looks so sad all the time. It might even be someone at church who understands the rituals and maybe not the love they're meant to express.
Whoever it is we talk with about “God’s deeds of power” has a language in which they are most comfortable. I’m pretty sure that “church talk” and Christian jargon are an increasingly foreign tongue to many who lack context to comprehend even words like “hymn” and “scripture” and “gospel,” not to mention cultural idioms like “Good Samaritan” or “walking on water.” What universal terms convey love and grace and acceptance and healing from shame and addiction and dis-ease, mental and physical? What languages do you hear around you?
A spiritual exercise for today: Get settled and centered in God’s presence, however you best do that.
Ask, “Is there someone you want me to tell about your power and love?” Wait and see what names or faces come up. If one does, ask, “What language do I need to speak to reach that person?” It’ll come.
We may not have a miracle of Pentecostal proportions, but Jesus did promise that his followers would have the words they need to share the Good News. The words that are given to you will emerge from your own stories of how you have experienced God’s deeds of power and love.
If you don’t feel you have… there’s another prayer.
And if you know you have – don’t you know someone who would like to hear that story?
"Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, 'Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.'"
We can almost understand what it must have been like to hear these words coming out of the mouths of Jesus’ followers. (I find Phrygia and Pamphylia the most sonorous... Hey, those would make good cat names!)
I wonder if the apostles were speaking those languages, or if the hearers were suddenly able to understand Aramaic as though it was their own tongue. Was the miracle in the speaking or the hearing? Who knows. The effect was the same. People heard the Good News about “God’s deeds of power” in their own language and could choose for themselves if they wanted to follow the Way of Jesus. Luke tells us that 3,000 were baptized that day. And we’re off!
In what language do the people around you need to hear the Good News articulated? Perhaps we first need to answer this: to whom do you feel called to share the Good News of God’s love? Friends and family are often the last ones we feel comfortable sharing our spiritual selves with. It might be acquaintances or clients or co-workers, or people hanging out in a park. It could be your kids’ friends who populate your kitchen, or that person at the dry cleaners who looks so sad all the time. It might even be someone at church who understands the rituals and maybe not the love they're meant to express.
Whoever it is we talk with about “God’s deeds of power” has a language in which they are most comfortable. I’m pretty sure that “church talk” and Christian jargon are an increasingly foreign tongue to many who lack context to comprehend even words like “hymn” and “scripture” and “gospel,” not to mention cultural idioms like “Good Samaritan” or “walking on water.” What universal terms convey love and grace and acceptance and healing from shame and addiction and dis-ease, mental and physical? What languages do you hear around you?
A spiritual exercise for today: Get settled and centered in God’s presence, however you best do that.
Ask, “Is there someone you want me to tell about your power and love?” Wait and see what names or faces come up. If one does, ask, “What language do I need to speak to reach that person?” It’ll come.
We may not have a miracle of Pentecostal proportions, but Jesus did promise that his followers would have the words they need to share the Good News. The words that are given to you will emerge from your own stories of how you have experienced God’s deeds of power and love.
If you don’t feel you have… there’s another prayer.
And if you know you have – don’t you know someone who would like to hear that story?
6-2-14 - Earth, Wind and Fire
Normally, Water Daily reflects upon the Gospel reading appointed for the following Sunday. But the principal text for Pentecost - this week - is from Acts. So we will focus on that story, and address a Gospel passage on Friday.
Pentecost is one of the Big Three festivals of the Christian calendar, along with Christmas and Easter. Some call it the birthday of the Church, and some the only day in the year when we focus on the Holy Spirit. I call it the day the promised power, peace and presence of God came to dwell in God’s people, initiating the whole Christian project in which we continue today, participating in God’s mission.
Jesus’ followers stayed together during the forty days of his resurrection presence; they watched him ascend into heaven, and then returned to the city, where he told them to wait for gift promised by the Father, to be "clothed with power from on high." I doubt they knew what that meant, but they continued to wait and to worship, and to stay out of sight of the authorities. Pentecost was a major Jewish feast fifty days after Passover, and they were together in the upper room celebrating it when things got weird:
“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.”
It might be that this “big entrance” on the part of the Holy Spirit has caused some to expect strange manifestations when the Spirit shows up. And there can be phenomena like speaking in tongues, or prophesying, or weeping, or laughing hysterically, or feeling tremendous heat. We read about these in the New Testament and hear about them in churches even today. Often, though, the Spirit comes quietly, filling us, rendering us silent in awe and wonder and gratitude. Perhaps how the Spirit comes has a lot to do with what God’s purpose is in a given situation.
And it seems God had a big purpose for that festival day in Jerusalem. Did God want the disciples to wait for this outpouring of the Spirit until the holiday, when the city would be full of pilgrims from other lands? When their sudden, inexplicable ability to speak to visitors in their own languages would create the maximum stir? I guess that can go on our list of questions for God. The stir was caused. Jesus’ followers were released into a boldness and effectiveness they had never shown before. And a reform movement in the Jewish tradition, that might have been suppressed or died out of its own accord, became a phenomenon which forever changed the world.
Has it changed us? The Spirit is God’s promised gift to all who follow Christ. Our liturgies affirm that we receive the Spirit in baptism, in confirmation – indeed, at every celebration of the eucharist. Sometimes we need that gift to be released in us. If you would like to be more centered on Christ, more discerning of God’s leading, more effective in ministry, to name a few blessings, pray for the Spirit – already in you – to be released in you today. Sometimes that works better when someone else prays it for us. But let’s start where we start, or continue where we continue if this is a common for you.
It is the simplest prayer, and the most profound, and the only one we need: “Come, Holy Spirit.”
Then wait and notice. You might have sensations or images, or maybe you’ll feel nothing then and notice later. It’s God’s timing… and our willingness to receive. Come, Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is one of the Big Three festivals of the Christian calendar, along with Christmas and Easter. Some call it the birthday of the Church, and some the only day in the year when we focus on the Holy Spirit. I call it the day the promised power, peace and presence of God came to dwell in God’s people, initiating the whole Christian project in which we continue today, participating in God’s mission.
Jesus’ followers stayed together during the forty days of his resurrection presence; they watched him ascend into heaven, and then returned to the city, where he told them to wait for gift promised by the Father, to be "clothed with power from on high." I doubt they knew what that meant, but they continued to wait and to worship, and to stay out of sight of the authorities. Pentecost was a major Jewish feast fifty days after Passover, and they were together in the upper room celebrating it when things got weird:
“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.”
It might be that this “big entrance” on the part of the Holy Spirit has caused some to expect strange manifestations when the Spirit shows up. And there can be phenomena like speaking in tongues, or prophesying, or weeping, or laughing hysterically, or feeling tremendous heat. We read about these in the New Testament and hear about them in churches even today. Often, though, the Spirit comes quietly, filling us, rendering us silent in awe and wonder and gratitude. Perhaps how the Spirit comes has a lot to do with what God’s purpose is in a given situation.
And it seems God had a big purpose for that festival day in Jerusalem. Did God want the disciples to wait for this outpouring of the Spirit until the holiday, when the city would be full of pilgrims from other lands? When their sudden, inexplicable ability to speak to visitors in their own languages would create the maximum stir? I guess that can go on our list of questions for God. The stir was caused. Jesus’ followers were released into a boldness and effectiveness they had never shown before. And a reform movement in the Jewish tradition, that might have been suppressed or died out of its own accord, became a phenomenon which forever changed the world.
Has it changed us? The Spirit is God’s promised gift to all who follow Christ. Our liturgies affirm that we receive the Spirit in baptism, in confirmation – indeed, at every celebration of the eucharist. Sometimes we need that gift to be released in us. If you would like to be more centered on Christ, more discerning of God’s leading, more effective in ministry, to name a few blessings, pray for the Spirit – already in you – to be released in you today. Sometimes that works better when someone else prays it for us. But let’s start where we start, or continue where we continue if this is a common for you.
It is the simplest prayer, and the most profound, and the only one we need: “Come, Holy Spirit.”
Then wait and notice. You might have sensations or images, or maybe you’ll feel nothing then and notice later. It’s God’s timing… and our willingness to receive. Come, Holy Spirit.
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