Happy Pentecost; Burn, Spirit, Burn!

"Lord, here am I: your fire impart to this poor cold self-centered soul; touch but my lips, my hands, my heart, and make a world for Christ my goal." ~Timothy Dudley-Smith, 'How Shall They Hear, Who Have Not Heard,' Hymn 831, Lutheran Service Book

Burn Baby Burn

I've been insanely busy with the end of the school year, but I really wanted to share some Scripture and a few notes about the church holiday of Pentecost and the gift Jesus sent us on that day, His Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:1-13ff).

Joel 2:28-29 (New International Version)

29 ...I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Before Pentecost, in the Old Testament, you pretty much only see God's Spirit resting upon one or two people at a time, a prophet like Moses,  Elijah, a priest like Aaron or Samuel, or a king like David. One guy served as God's representative, His mouthpiece on Earth. 

But now, we all are called, gathered, and sustained by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ and we all are commissioned to serve as His prophets, priests, and kings (or pirates). He can speak though you. You can intercede for others with Him. And we can all lead by example and administer God's work.

John 16:12-15 (NRSV)

12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 "He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 "All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." 

Here's an awesome thing- the Spirit is there when you need Him. Mind you, He's gentle and you can grieve Him. Why would He want to live in you is you're full of anger and selfishness, lust and greed? And you have to give Him something to work with- sure, God's omnipotent and He can certainly work like magic if/when He wants, but the more time you spend reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, or in Christian fellowship, the more God's Word gets written on your heart so that the Spirit can help you tap into it whenever you're in a situation when you need Him. Big Lutheran perspective- the Holy Spirit never draws attention to Himself or to you, He always directs us to Jesus, His sacrifice and victory and His teachings and examples.

I love to remind people that if there were a proof that you're living a Spirit-filled, or Spirit-led life is not whether or not you can speak in tongues or perform miracles. The evidence is that your character is becoming more Christ-like. Jesus told us Himself that you'll know a tree by it's fruit:

Galatians 5:22-23 (New International Version) 

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Now, if you have God Himself living inside you, you have to know that God can use you. It's not about what you can or cannot do, it's about what He will do through you. What does He want to do through you? What did Jesus do in the New Testament? Tell about God's love, announce God's forgiveness, share mercy, accept and love those who others deemed undesirable, heal, feed, serve, sacrifice for others, love.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (New International Version)

6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

And with that He (Jesus) breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." ~ John 20:22

Happy Pentecost

Just a few words about one of the three most important holidays in the Church year. I feel guilty for this being almost a passing thought. Pentecost truly should be as celebrated as Christmas and Easter. We Lutherans especially, it seems tend to overlook the third person of the Trinity. Many mainline Christians seem to think of Him as an it, something God fills you with, as opposed to an equal godhead with the Father and the Son. What a shame, so much that we leave to "Pentecostals" and "Charismatics" who we write off as somehow "fringe" Christians. How much we forfeit that might have been ours.

It seems to me that it's fitting that Pentecost falls on Memorial Day weekend this year, because in my mind, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:1-21 is analogous to democracy. Just as the Age of Enlightenment and the American revolution made every citizen an active participant in their government, replacing the previous practice of "Divine rite of kings," so the coming of the Holy Spirit brought (See also Joel Chapter 2) about meant that rather than God's Spirit descending upon any one individual prophet (say Elija), Priest (say Aaron) or king (like David)- He lives in each and every Christian believer, anointing all of us for Divine service, as...

• Prophets- speaking Gods' Word
• Priests- interceding on behalf of others with God (say in prayer for instance)
• and as Kings- leading by example, letting God's Kingdom come in and through us as His servants

Personally, I read Martin Luther's "Babylonian Captivity of the Church" to say that the "office of public ministry" is really no more than just another vocation wherein we are all the King-of-King's ministers, but I suppose I'd better be careful with that one because I'll no doubt irk some Missouri Synod clergy as toying with heresy- but hey, when Luther postulated that Jesus built His Kingdom on the foundation of Peter's confession, rather than on Peter- blowing away the Roman Catholic dogma of the Divine right of priestly succession, Rome considered Luther a heretic.

But I digress, the point is, Pentecost, the birthday of the Church ushered in a sort of democratization of a relationship with God. No longer did people have to go to some temple on some mountain and have a priest intercede for them, but instead each of us can approach the throne of God with confidence because first Jesus removed our sins and then, because we were justified, the Holy Spirit could come in and God could not only live among us, but could live in us.

Mind you, it's just an analogy. German philosophers like Hagel tried to come up with some hair brained theory of the Holy Spirit as something called the "Zeitgeist" where through out history certain nations or nationalities were possessed by God, first the Egyptians then the Jews, then He experimented with one man in Jesus, then the Germans (thus the Nazi brand of holy nationalism- yikes!) So needless to say, we should be careful when we claim to speak with the authority of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps that's why mainstream denominations like Lutherans cower away from the Spirit, and cling to hierarchies and quasi-political structures and "offices" and orders- because we fear the cult of personality that has led many a televangelist astray.

At any rate, whatever danger may come, I pray:
Come Holy Spirit,
Come
Live in Your Church members
So that we might go forth and proclaim Jesus' victory
as Your servant prophets,
Your servant priesthood of all believers,
and as sons and daughters of the one true King!
In the name of the Father, the Son, and You, the Holy Spirit, three-in-one
Amen

50 Days

From Angela Gulartie 4/11/07
Shining Light Ministries

"From Passover To Pentecost"

Grace and peace to you this day!

My friend Carolyn asked me a question about this time period from Passover to Pentecost and so, you can thank her for the coming forth of this message!

Passover, or Pesach, as the festival is called in Hebrew, commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from more than two hundred years of slavery in Egypt, and their mass exodus as set forth in Exodus Ch. 1-15.

This event marked the birth of the Jews as a free people and so for us, symbolizes a deliverance from various bondages. Its dominant theme is freedom from slavery.

The name Hag ha-Pesach, meaning the "Festival of Passover", is one of the commonly-used names for this festival. "Pesach" is a reference to the Paschal offering brought on the eve of the festival, and commemorates God's promise in Exodus 12:13 "to pass over you, and there shall be no plague upon you to destroy you".

The Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost as we refer to it, also known as Shauvot, is the Biblical harvest festival celebrated 50 days after the Sunday which falls out during Passover. These fifty days are called,
The Counting of the Omer.

Shauvot is the second of three annual pilgrimage festivals in the Hebrew calendar. Many post-biblical people believe it to be the anniversary of the Revelation at Sinai, but there is no reference to this in the Old Testament. (Note the parallel between the Old and New Testaments, in the former, the Ten Commandments were given; in the latter, the gift from God was the descent of Holy Spirit).

Shauvot is the only holiday in the Old Testament (called, the Tanach), not given a fixed calendar date. The people are commanded to celebrate it at the end of a 50-day period know as "The Counting of the Omer", Shauvot being the 50th day.

The commencement of this 50 day period is marked by the bringing of the Omer offering in the Temple:

"And you shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day you bring the Omer (sheaf) of Waving; seven complete Sabbaths shall you count....until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath you will count 50 days....and you shall proclaim on this very day, it shall be a holy convocation for you." (Lev. 23:5-16, 21)

Joshua 5:11 tells us that after the Israelites entered into Canaan, "And they ate of the produce of the land in the morrow after the Pesach (sacrifice), Matzot and parched (barley) on this very day. And the manna ceased on the morrow when they ate of the produce of the land..."

The Israelites were also forbidden of the new crops until the day of the Omer offering, as set forth in Leviticus 23:14: "And bread and parched (barley) and Carmel you will not eat until the very day until you bring the sacrifice of your God; it shall be an eternal statute for your generations in all your habitations."

Joshua 5:11 is repeating that the first Omer offering in Israel was brought on the morrow after the Pesach, after which the Israelites were permitted to eat the produce of the land.

The purpose of the counting is to connect the festival of Pesach with the festival of Shauvot, to remind us that the release from physical bondage and the political freedom represented by Pesach is not complete freedom, unless it culminates in the spiritual lifestyle, disciplines, and observances represented by Shauvot, which celebrates God's revelation to Israel of the Ten Commandments.

In this connection we must look at Deuteronomy 29:13-14: "Neither with you only [do I make this Covenant] but with him that standeth here with us, and also with him that is not here with us this day."

So we learn that during this period, we are to be perservering in the strengthening of our spiritual disciplines. What began as God's mighty liberation out of bondage on Passover, must be followed through by 50 days of attentiveness to His Presence. Remember, in Exodus, the people had to keep their eyes on the pillar of fire and the cloud, and when the cloud moved, so did the people move.

Thus, this 50 day period is a time for great movement in our lives; as we follow God, He will be faithful to lead us to the land of milk and honey.

Remember as well, that 50 is a number of great spiritual significance.

The freedom that begins with Passover does not end there; it must find final fulfillment in the presence of Holy Spirit entering our lives in a new and profound way.

Blessings to you thisday,
Angela G.