Good Morning Friends,
Last year we watched a Pentecost Service online. But this year Pentecost marked a move to a more normal service with masks optional. Paraments were red and the one at the pulpit depicted a flaming dove. Many of the congregation were dressed in red as well. Clothed as it were in Christ. The service began with a welcome and three high school students reading scripture individually behind flame-colored lecterns and collectively dramatic and interactive to set the stage for worship. It prompted me to think about how the Trinity shares in the experience of our lives combining to mold worship behavior and how all the seemingly random acts of the Holy Spirit have molded our past and will form our future as well. Perhaps it is happening right now even though unseen for the most part. The problem is that the world is changing so fast that responding to change with a traditional script just does not work anymore. I do not even have the words for what needs to be said. The work requires a new way of communicating connected with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. Really it is not even about our unity or the lack of our unity. Though that is part of it. It is more about being powered up so that regardless of our pathetic ability to connect effectively, God can accomplish a miracle in ways we do not understand. And it may be an individual here or there that sparks the change that most assuredly is coming. But I am thinking of something that brings the walls of separation down and moves every knee to bow down and community wide worship. And I hope God is doing that for you right now spiritually in the power of Pentecost and the experience changes your history into His Story too. So, Are You Sharing Through Your Life The Communication Solution Of Christ’s Baptism Of Fire?
Scripture: But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 (NRSV)
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
Acts 1:12-14 (NRSV)
And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
John 19:25-34 (NRSV)
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 (NRSV)
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Psalm 96:1 (NRSV)
Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
Joel 2: 28-30 (NRSV)
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Exodus 3.1-5 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus spent His life teaching us to abandon our scripted behavior, our pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, our yearning for honor from others, for control over others. Jesus fulfilled Scripture so that we might be part of a new song…I think this happened to Moses at the burning bush as a way of worship. And as he risked seeing something amazing so too we need to be willing to risk enough to seek what is next in the yet uncharted territory of what is to come. Maybe we need it to be revealed. Maybe we need to wait patiently for God’s lead. But maybe Jesus understands that we have an innate ability to think differently when confronted with something new and is going to empower us through the Holy Spirit to do something amazing. For the Holy Spirit is empowering the very history in which we live. And what the events of the weekend taught me, is that the world is changing so fast that responding to it with old language and actions just will not cut it. Two generations ago things were different, and I am not saying we should go back. But I am saying we need the power of the Holy Spirit in ministry, to cloth people with a power to dream bigger dreams. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to be more flexible in our response, to ask questions, to encourage a change of mind and heart that would change collective behavior to honor and glorify God. Yes, we desire surprises, but we also like the security of the things we know. The reality is that Jesus gives us the greatest security we can ever attain, and I say this with a smile because he also gave us the most surprising story in history. Maybe just maybe God is going to surprise us again. And the beauty is that God offers us the opportunity to join in both, not just in the water and blood of a new birth but also in the Baptism of the Spirit and its transforming power that helps us to see new visions in the spreading flame of God’s Gospel. Who knows, maybe you will do something amazing.
And So, maybe it is not the best to limit our thinking about Pentecost to it being the birth of the church but consider it more as a demonstration of a prophecy fulfilled that we might in its retelling rekindle the fire of Christ’s faith in us. Each of us needs to look inside of ourselves beyond even who we are to find the Holy Spirit in us. After the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were hiding in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. They were experiencing the feeling as many are today, afraid for their lives and that their lives were empty dreams unable to be fulfilled. They were comfortable locked behind closed doors. They had no internal strength. Pentecost would change their world, their lives. And perhaps the memory of that might kindle a spark to flame of the Spirit to transform once again. So, as fires burn in communities nearby, and with a flaming Poinciana Tree in full bloom as a backdrop that is not consumed, I will meditate on the possibility of something new coming out of the ashes as the past is consumed making way for the future.
Pray we are all in for Christ and that our actions confirm it. Pray we are devoted to Trinitarian prayers as a solution to identifying proper action. Pray we are Holy Spirit led in our prayers so that they be so continuous that our response time is current and in the moment. Pray we think in new ways to respond to a new world. Pray the love of Christ stretch our thinking and emotional intelligence. Pray we are amazed at the dramatic effect of Christ fulfilling scripture in a way that frees us to write our own script. Pray we embrace random acts of kindness moved by the Spirit. Pray we embrace God’s Kingdom. Pray we really begin to think about where we are and what it is we have done. Pray we are truly ready to live a new song that makes it clear that respect and love for others is more important than our own pleasure. Pray the Ecclesia is filled with the Holy Spirit and with Fire that in relationship draw us in to share in the work that God is doing.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 