© Showface
In the past two posts, we have been examining Pentecost and its invitation to “all who are thirsty” as well as the risk and reward it entails. But how does Pentecost impact us as we live out the Christian life today?
In the midst of the extraordinary changes that have happened in our world, for Christ-followers and our churches to take up the mantle of Pentecost requires the same level of risk the first followers of Christ had. It requires that same kind of daring, the willingness to really pour into the Scriptures and say, “OK, God, who are we now? What would you have us become? What is the need in our community, for the kind of gospel witness you would have us make? What is the unique gift that you want to do through us in a way that is, in fact, similar, but different from other churches?
But I cannot tell you strongly enough. If you don’t understand that somehow your responsibility is more than just to uphold a series of traditions that satisfy the people within your church but have no gospel impact on the community, you will die.
Empowerment for Service
You see, there was a missionary imperative to Pentecost, “You shall be My witnesses,” after this empowerment, “in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And so anyone with any prayerful sense at all in the midst of a community that is the inheritor of the Spirit would say, “OK, God, where’s our Jerusalem, where is our Judea? What’s the end of the earth look like for us? Where would you have us go? What kind of impact would you have us make on this community?”
That’s the essence of Pentecost. Because Pentecost is not about making me a better me. Pentecost is empowerment for service. And the extraordinary thing about service is that who are servants? People who perform service. They’re servants, right? And who are servants? People who take their cues from their master. They don’t do what they want to do; they do what their master wants them to do. That’s the nature of what it means to be a servant.
And so we’re here as servants to say, “We want this empowerment, God, so we can be your witnesses, so we can perform the service that you would have for us.”
The funny thing about being a servant is you don’t get to pick what your service is. Your master does. That’s why you’re a servant. It’s not a negotiated settlement, you’re not a co-equal with God, sort of deciding what you will or will not do—just the opposite. If we are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have acquiesced that authority for ourselves and have said yes to him. That’s what it means for Jesus to be Lord, not colleague.
Surrender and Sacrifice
When the Holy Spirit is at work in a church, there will be among the leadership this clear sense of, “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us that we do this.” And it may or may not look like what it’s been in the past. It could. God does plant a particular DNA inside a congregation, but the operative question is “What does the Holy Spirit want?” Not necessarily what I would like.
But the good news is that the sacrifice is, in fact, worth it. There’s a kind of completeness and a joy. There’s a lift inside your body that you feel when you know that somehow, God is carrying you along in the work he would have you do.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s actually quite difficult. It really does require risk: Doing things you’re not used to doing, stepping out. In fact, all God asks of us is the willingness to be obedient to what we are led, in fact, to do.
I want to share a poem by a wonderful poet from England whom I know and like, Malcom Guite. It’s about Pentecost, and the title of it is, “Our Mother Tongue is Love.”
Today, we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today, the hidden fountain flows and plays.
Today, the church draws breath at last and sings
As every flame becomes a tongue of praise.
This is the feast of fire, air, and water
Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth.
The earth itself awakens to her maker
And is translated out of death to new birth.
The right words come today in their right order
And every word spells freedom and release
Today the gospel crosses every border
All tongues are loosed by the Prince of Peace.
Today, the lost are found in His translation.
Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation.
That’s His invitation. Not to do anything but yield and say, “Come Holy Spirit,” and see what God does.
Do you see Pentecost reflected in your life? In that of your church? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.
(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on June 4, 2017, at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Daytona Beach, Florida.)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.