Pentecost 2021
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Let’s pray. ‘Come Holy Spirit. Just as you filled the disciples at the first Pentecost, fill us with power and love, that we may live out who we are, and who we are meant to be in Christ. Amen.
We’re going to look at what the disciples experienced moving from Good Friday to Pentecost. I believe there is a God pattern here that is true for us as well, and I believe it is a pattern of how God works in those who aren’t Christian as well, because they are just as much in God’s love as we are. Check it out and see if it works for you.
Good Friday – Something or someone dies or comes to an end.
Think of the experience of Good Friday for the disciples. At the beginning of the week they thought Jesus was amazing, untouchable. He was coming into Jerusalem to take control and make everything good again for them and their nation. Then it all went horribly wrong, and they are shattered. We all know that experience, multiple times and in multiple ways. Something goes wrong, someone or something actually dies, there is some big change that we didn’t see coming and we didn’t want. A relationship comes to an end. There’s an injury or change to our health. There are restructures, and we lose a job. A deal or investment goes bad. We do something wrong, and there are repercussions. I remember how devastated I was when my first serious girlfriend broke it off. Of course it was never going to work, of course there were ways I had to grow in order to be able to have a healthy relationship. But the experience back them was just desperation, confusion and hurt.
And we desperately want to go back to the way things were. Resuscitation is the right R word for first aid, and for when someone is literally dying. But we can never go back to the way things were. If a relationship has gone bad, it has to be worked through and things have to be done differently, in a better way if it is going to have a healthy, on-going future. If there are health issues, then there may need to be surgery, treatment or lifestyle changes. It’s never simply back to ’same old’.
Easter Sunday – the new life has already started before we are aware.
The Biblical R word is not resuscitation. It is resurrection.
We have a God who delights in bringing new life out of what is dead. New life. The utterly fascinating thing in the pattern I am proposing to you is that the disciples had no idea that it was coming, even though Jesus had tried to tell them and it started way before they were even aware of it.
That is the gift and power of God. We are in a mess, we are in all sorts of pain, but God already has new life working away in us and for us, but we are not ready, or have no current ability to work with it. That does not stop it. As you look back, can you see how God had good plans for you. “I would never have chosen or planned this, but God used it to…..’ The promise of hope is always that God brings good out of bad.
So the risen Jesus appears to his disciples, and there are all sorts of confusion, fear, inability to accept that it really is him, and not just some apparition. Remember Mark’s gospel originally ending with the women running away from the empty tomb and the announcement that Jesus is risen. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Sometimes a lot of work has to happen inside us, for us to be ready to recognise the new life that is already working in us and around us. For the disciples, Jesus had to rewire their brains, by giving them a new understanding of the whole message of scripture. The Messiah had to suffer and die, so that forgiveness and new life could come to all people and all creation. That’s why we keep reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, because they help us to trust and believe in new life, and they help us create this new life in us, and they help us to know and trust it.
Ascension – letting go is vital.
40 days after Easter, the Risen Lord ascended into heaven. The disciples had to let go of the idea that he would just be with them physically and bodily for the rest of their lives. They had to trust that the Easter Jesus was with them always even though they could not see him.
As we learn to see and trust that there is new life already working in and around us, there are probably lots of things we have to work through and let go of. Perhaps we need new mindsets or understandings, so that we are not stuck in the past, or on things that won’t change. Perhaps we have to let go of ideas about who we are, or what we can do because they are limiting us, or stopping us seeing what is waiting for us. Perhaps there are attitudes in us that are not healthy or helpful. There are senses of entitlement we have to let go of, so that we can start to see others and their needs and aspirations.
The invitation is to let go, and let God hold at least some of what we are carrying, or what is working around inside us. The disciples waited joyfully for the good thing, the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised would happen to them.
Holy Spirit power to live the new life that has already started in and around you.
They had been mentored by Jesus. They had seen him at work. They had been given practice runs at sharing the message. They were starting to understand what Easter meant. Now, with the coming of the Holy Spirit they received power to live out who they were called to be. They were changed. They still had lots to learn – just read through the Book of Acts, but they were willing, teachable and available. The message of Jesus spread throughout the known world in ways no one could have predicted.
Now the Holy Spirit is working in you. Given to you in your baptism, always working faith and trust in you. Grounding you in Jesus, in forgiveness. Giving you a holy dissatisfaction with just the same old, same old.
The fascinating thing is that the Holy Spirt is not one design, or one size has to fit all shapes sizes and experiences. The Holy Spirit is custom made for you to live your life in Christ. Someone who has had very difficult life experiences has different needs from someone who has had little go wrong. We all have different vulnerabilities, different passions, different needs, different temperaments, different stuff that God has worked us through. The Holy Spirit works in each one of us in different ways, and that is part of the richness of being together. The Holy Spirit connects each one of us to Christ, and empowers us to work together with our different gifts.
I believe this is an ongoing pattern. Something comes to an end, and it causes us great distress. Our Heavenly Father has something new starting for us, but we aren’t ready or able to see it. We have to work through issues, comes to terms with things, let some things go to God. Then we are ready to be guided by the Holy Spirit into the new life that God has for us. Think of a spiral. We will keep touching on the same things at different times in our lives, because we all have our inbuilt vulnerabilities and places where we carry hurts. Something comes to an end, God already has the new life beginning in or around us, but we aren’t ready for it. We have to do some processing, have some changes made, let some things go before we ready to live in that new life. We do the hard work, things come good, then something else touches on that, and all those feelings rush back. The good news is, we’ve done it once, or twice, or many times before. We can do it again, without being down for so long. It might be a long time since we looked like a young bride or groom, but spiritually there is a newness and freshness inside each one of us. No matter what the outside looks like.
Trust the process. Keep asking for the Holy Spirit to lead you into the new life you already have in Christ. Trust that new life is always there for you, even when you can’t sense it.