Pentecost Power for weak people

These troubled times have revealed both the best and the worst of human nature. Countless selfless acts of friendship, kindness, generosity, courage and good humour have brightened the bleakest of recent days.

Sadly, the hubris and self-deceit of the human heart has also been laid bare. We have deluded ourselves, for the past three hundred years since the enlightenment, that the progress of humankind is unstoppable, that in a new world determined by science and reason, horrors such as disease, famine, poverty, social and racial inequality and injustice will all be consigned to the history books. Well that has worked out well.

We have proven ourselves to be the same weak, fallible, self centred, emotionally fragile, effectively helpless people that we have always been. Maybe this pandemic, which has exposed the empty deceit and existential peril of all forms of self-interest, protectionism and discrimination is a timely reminder that, as Mother Theresa put it “we belong to each other”.

Maybe we will all be changed by the events of 2020. But the reality is that we remain, as the Apostle Paul says, frail, weak human beings who, in our own strength cannot be the people we know we want and need to be.

“If the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realise that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time”.

Romans 7:17-20 Message Version

So what’s all this got to do with Pentecost?

The Church came into being on the feast of Pentecost - not founded by a committee, after a proposal from chairman Peter, rubber stamped by a Synod, defined by a constitution or ruled by a hierarchy - but fired into life by the Holy Spirit.

A Holy Spirit empowered, racially and socially diverse community of excited, joyful, loving, outward-looking, generous caring people who prayed together, ate together, shared their possessions with anyone in need, talked about and to Jesus together.

So what happened - and why on the feast of Pentecost? Pentecost, simply meaning “fiftieth”, was an annual festival that marked the liberation of a people from slavery. Fifty days after God brought them out of Egypt the former slaves arrived at Mt. Sinai, where God, through Moses, established their new identity as his people - gave them the Law, the foundational principles of God’s kingdom, so that they might be a beacon to the rest of the world, a society where everyone is equally valued, no one is excluded or marginalised, a community without walls or barriers, with love for God and neighbour at its core. But fallen human nature being what it was - and still is - was incapable of living out such high ideals in its own strength.

. . . moving on 1500 or so years - to Acts 2 . . God’s people are gathering by their thousands in the Temple Courts in Jerusalem for the annual celebration of those foundational days in the wilderness of Sinai . . .

. . . and the disciples wait - as Jesus has told them to do - for the Holy Spirit and the power He will bring. They probably were literally holding their breath - the last couple of months had been a crazy, roller coaster ride - Jesus died on Passover, was raised on the Feast of First Fruits - what was God about to do at Pentecost?

God had promised his people through his Prophet Joel that one day the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all people, men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor - and on this Pentecost feast day his promise was about to be fulfilled.

The Holy Spirit is present in unmistakeable awesome power, and Jesus’ followers are transformed from within, no longer fearful, weak and vulnerable but bold, fearless, faith-filled vessels of God’s Spirit who would, over the next few years, turn the world upside down.

How much do we who call ourselves Christ followers need the Holy Spirit’s powerful indwelling presence right now?

I am daily reminded of the reality of my own weaknesses - not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, relationally - I need you, Holy Spirit, your church needs you, to do for us what you did for those first Christians on that Pentecost day - to fill us, consume us, empower us, weak people that we are, to share the love of Christ with a world that is crying out for good news.

You didn’t save me and fill me with your Spirit in order to remove me from the pain of this world; you saved me, filled me, will go on filling me so that I can partner with you in your Kingdom plan to transform this world.

What greater purpose can I focus on, during this time of enforced retreat, than to open myself up to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in my life?

Then maybe, just maybe, as the church comes out of lockdown into a different world we can model that counter-cultural alternative society that Jesus talked about throughout his time on earth.

Maybe, just maybe, we can then truly be at the forefront of a radical revolution in society, not just some of us, but all of us, and not just proclaiming truth behind closed doors on Sunday mornings, but living Holy Spirit empowered lives that challenge accepted prejudices and priorities, and model compassion and a commitment to justice and peace.

Only the Holy Spirit can make a Kingdom Community, fired up with a passion for God, for people, for his world.

The crises this world is facing on many fronts require that God’s church is not merely a spectator but a participant in change.

The Lord hasn’t called me - or maybe you - to take the Gospel to a far off country, but that doesn’t mean our calling is any less missional. The word simply means someone who is sent, and He is sending all of His church to be light in this dark world.

I need the Holy Spirit, because I am weak, and I am not alone in that. We can be a part of the church that is radical, off the wall, politically conscious and socially relevant, or fiercely traditional and dogmatically conservative, it makes no difference. Whatever we try to do in our own strength will fail.

Holy Spirit, fill your church, change us, from spectators to joyful, loving, truth-telling participants in your Kingdom.

“we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

2 Cor.4:7