Pentecost 2

Acts 2:1-21

A little context: In the first chapter of Acts, Luke (the presumed writer) says he is continuing the story beginning with the ascension of Jesus into heaven and final instructions to the disciples, including the instruction to wait in Jerusalem for the "promise" of God. So they waited, and while they waited, they chose one of those who had been following Jesus to replace Judas among the inner circle of 12 (Matthias)

Then, on the Jewish festival of Pentecost (started as a first fruits festival and, as Judaism became less agrarian, morphed into a festival celebrating the giving of the law on Sinai), at a time when lots of Jewish travelers from around the middle east (it's a little bit of an exaggeration in verse 5 to say that devout Jews were present from every nation, but perhaps every nation with a significant Jewish presence), the promise arrived. Note that this event is among Jews, both those born Jews and "proselytes" (that is, converts), so the deep diversity which would include Gentiles which would later characterize the Christian church is not yet in effect here.

But these Jews and proselytes did all speak different languages. Scholars have debated for years whether the miracle was in the hearing or in the speaking, in other words, did the folk "hear" in their own languages while the disciples spoke Aramaic or did the disciples actually speak the other languages. Quite frankly, does it matter? The miracle was that communication happened not by everyone being made to speak one language, but by the message being delivered in a way that people could hear it as they were.

These travelers didn't have to go to church and learn a new vocabulary to get the message, God ensured that the message would get to them in a way that they could receive it. HMMMM.

A couple of random things about this passage.
1. The Spirit is described as sounding like a "violent" wind. Violent. Not a gentle breeze. Implications for the character of the Spirit here? Also fire, not a neutral nor even always friendly force of nature. There is power here.

2. There is a healthy dose of perplexity in this passage. In verse 6 the crowd is "bewildered," in verse 7 "amazed and astonished," in verse 12 "amazed and perplexed." The questioning and wonderment of the crowd is an opening for the message that is important not to miss.

3. Don't miss the humor here (who says the Bible isn't funny?). Some folk thought the disciples were acting drunk! And Peter responds that they couldn't be drunk cause it's only 9 in the morning!

4. The Joel prophecy. These are powerful and deeply symbolic words which take the events of the life of Jesus beyond Jerusalem and even these cosmopolitan Jews and into the cosmic realm. It also again moves us into inclusive territory. The prophets are not going to be the official court or religious establishment folk, but children, and women (!), and slaves (!!). And everyone who seeks a relationship with God will find not only that relationship, but salvation (here undefined).

5. Our reading ends not even halfway into Peter's sermon, but that ends with the people being so compelled by what they have heard that they ask what they should do. So Peter tells them to repent, to be baptized, and to anticipate themselves receiving the Holy Spirit (this new religion would not have power reserved to the exclusive few, but the mystical power would be available to all, an absolutely radical concept among all religions of the region at that time).

Pentecost

Obviously we are going to be dealing with the Holy Spirit this week --

First, the passage from Romans. This passage is a wonderfully liberating promise. All of us led by the Spirit (i.e. all of us from every nation -- see Acts) are children of God.

So, we do not need to relate to God from a position of slavish obedience which results in fear. Slaves fear their masters, for their masters are in a position (and too often are disposed) to punish slaves at the least infraction of rules (see the rest of chapter 8 before these verses for more on this).

Instead of slaves, the Spirit calls us to relate to God just like Jesus did! We are children who do not call God "master" but "abba" (Daddy, the most intimate form of address). Our spirit is not slavery and fear, but adoption.

As an adoptive parent, I can tell you that adoptive children are loved with the same fierce passion as birth children. Adoptive children not only have the same legal rights as birth children, but also the same access to love, compassion, time and teaching.

The adoption metaphor can take us in all kinds of directions. Sometimes children who come to adoptive families have a problem attaching to the family (the child development folk call it "attachment disorder."). They often dwell in a household in a position of fear or anger, unable to receive the love offered for a variety of reasons, often because of a past experience of rejection or the experience of some orphanage children of never having been attached to anyone.

Paul says the Spirit can help us overcome this and enter fully into a complete and loving relationship with God that produces not fear, but joy, a relationship that empowers us to live fully into discipleship, as did Jesus. We are attached and grounded in God, and so having roots we also have wings.

Because those disciples in Jerusalem after the Ascension of Jesus had finally begun to understand their relationship to God in Jesus, they were ready for the Holy Spirit to lift them up and move them into empowered discipleship. They did not have to be afraid of a strong wind and flames and this compelling need to speak of God in languages they had never known or heard, even. In the Spirit they were both secure and surprised and that is exciting.

More ahead on Acts. Shelly

More on Paul in Philippi

Acts 16:16-34, Revelation 22:12-21, Matthew 28:16-20

Last week we met Lydia and took Paul to Europe to minister in Philippi in Macedonia. He gathered with new believers in Lydia's home and continued to take his ministry to the streets. In this reading, he and his companions get in trouble for placing a higher value on a young slave girl's spiritual and mental freedom than on the commerce she generated for the men who owned her.

The men who were marketing this girl's fortune telling abilities (which apparently came from a spirit that was possessing her) got angry at Paul who freed her from this spirit (apparently because the spirit so annoyed Paul, see verse 18). When they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, the crimes they accuse them of are interesting:

Disturbing our city: how is Paul's preaching disturbing the city? Does our preaching and proclamation of the gospel here in any way disturb our city?

Being Jews. Well, yes. Not actually illegal in Roman lands. But interesting that they are accused of being Jews and not Christians. Up to this period of time, the folk in Roman Europe had no experience of Christians!

Advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt. What does that mean? They are not practicing religion like Romans do? What exactly were they encouraging people to do that was illegal?

Notice in all these accusations, nowhere do they note the economic impact that Paul and Silas had on them. William Willimon's commentary has this note: "No, we do not come right out and say that our financial self-interest is threatened; we say that our nation is threatened....Nation, race, tradition all stepping into line behind the dollar." HMMMMM.

What follows cannot help but bring up pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Birmingham jail. Here are Paul and Silas in jail, singing hymns and praying and being listened to by all the folk already in jail for who knows what crimes. The presence and spirit of Paul and company clearly had a strong impact not only on those other prisoners, but on the jailer off sitting in the corner.

That jailer, like Paul himself, was given a strong jolt toward the faith, this time in the form of an earthquake. But God spoke here not so much in the earthquake as in Paul's willingness to remain in the jail in order to save the life of the jailer! Extraordinary! Would we do this if we were unjustly imprisoned? That witness prompts the jailer to want to find out what faith could result in such actions. Upon hearing the gospel, he treats the prisoners' wounds, is baptized, then feeds them at his own home.

Seeing a life witness, hearing the word of the gospel, practicing the service the faith teaches, baptism, holy supper. The whole cycle of coming to faith is here, condensed in a few hours. And I think that jailer must have gone through some considerable change in behavior/attitude, because it says his whole household rejoiced in his baptism!

May 13 part 2

On to the John reading for this week. John 14:15-29 (I've added a few verses to the lectionary segment because I think it's hard to break up this chapter of John intelligently)

This is part of the "Farewell Discourses" which are Jesus' last instructions to his disciples in John's gospel (following supper, footwashing and the dismissal of Judas to betray Jesus). In this chapter as in the previous one, Jesus focuses on his "new" command to "love one another as I have loved you" and the implications of that. He also focuses on his leave-taking and the implications of that.

He has already told them that he will go and prepare a place for them and then come and bring them to himself. But now he talks about how he will continue to be with and for them in this life! He promises the presence of the Holy Spirit ("I will not leave you orphaned") and indicates that the Spirit will enable them to remember and enact not only what he has taught, but that the Spirit will continue to reveal new things to them (God is still speaking!)

Having told them earlier he will prepare a place for them, now he tells them that if they keep his word, then "we" (God and God enfleshed) will come and make a home with them ("tabernacle" with them, sort of saying God will pitch a tent with us). God will come to US to dwell; we don't have to wait for heaven to be in God's presence!!

Finally a blessing of peace, such a peace as the world cannot know.

So as our church calendar indicates that this Sunday is the Festival of the Christian Home, I am wondering what it means for our homes to consider God dwelling there with us? What exactly does a "Christian Home" look like? What does it mean to keep Jesus' word, to love as he loves us?

God comes home

May 13, Revelation 22:1-5, Acts 16:9-15, John 14:15-29

Sorry for the long absence; time for blogging got interrupted by many things! Now I hope to be back weekly.

Sunday's texts are again so rich it is hard to know where to go. We'll begin with Lydia whom we meet in the book of Acts. The intro to this (most of which is not part of the lectionary segment) indicates that Paul had a clear plan for his mission, and it involved going to Asia. But Luke writes that both the Holy Spirit and Jesus blocked Paul from going to Asia. Then Paul has a dream in which he is called to Macedonia, so he goes.

Macedonia. In case your geographical knowledge can't call that one up, it is either a separate country north of Greece, or the northern part of Greece (there's actually a rather nasty modern conflict about that boundary and name). The critical piece for the spread of the gospel here is that this is the first time word about Jesus is coming to Europe. We're told that the city of Philippi is a Roman colony, a place established often for veterans of the Roman armies to dwell. The religious affiliation of the people would probably have included the Greco/Roman religious sects, but there may have been Jews there as well. At any rate, Lydia and her household are almost certainly Gentiles.

An interesting stylistic note on this passage, in verse 10 suddenly the narration shifts to "we" language. Apparently the writer of Acts (Luke?) now accompanies Paul on his journeys. I find this exciting because now the story seems less like old historical material and more intimate, more real, if you will.

Paul seeks a place to worship on the sabbath and finds a group of women gathered at the river. Was the river a usual place of prayer in society at that time? Interesting that in the Revelation passage, a river also is shown as an important focus for prayer and worship. Water imagery abounds in the readings today (and in the alternate gospel, John 5, the story of the pool of Bethesda). Baptism....new life.....all centered around the river.

It would have been both unusual and normal for Paul to speak with women who were strangers. Unusual because in his time this generally wasn't socially acceptable. Usual because from its inception the church included women in prominent positions. Paul gets a rather unfair rap as being sexist because he often worked with women in leadership in the churches (Priscilla and Lydia prominent among them).

Lydia. She was probably a gentile. She was probably unmarried because we are told she made independent decisions for her household which a wife would not have done in roman society. She was wealthy; purple cloth was the most expensive due to the dyes, and so reserved for the upper classes. She was also a seeker, we are told, looking for God in her life. So when she hears Paul, (and we assume we are told only a very condensed version of longer events here), she responds in faith and shows that faith by her hospitality, inviting Paul (and eventually the church in Philippi, to which Paul would later write a letter, Philippians) to her home. He goes and uses her home as a base for other forays into Macedonia.

More tomorrow on the John reading.