Pentecost / Sound and Fury
April 20, 2010
Yesterday was just really encouraging.
Maybe it’s because I grew up with one foot in the United Methodist Church and one foot in the charismatic/pentecostal church, but I don’t think any single chapter of the Bible has more theological snares in it than Acts 2. People are speaking in tongues, the first Christian sermon requires a degree in Old Testament studies, and the early church looks like a hippie commune.
I’ve seen people fight themselves into the dirt over this stuff, but we didn’t do that. The people at Ekklesia with me yesterday morning weren’t looking for things to fight over; they were looking for God’s power to change the world.
THAT is what Pentecost is about.
It’s about God moving in the world through willing human followers. Followers who not only proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God is near, but also give evidence of the Kingdom through the way they live. It’s about these followers – people like you and me – who don’t even really know what’s going on yet, but they trust God enough to open their mouths to speak and their hands to act.
I was reading N.T. Wright this week and since I’ll never do any better, I’m ending with a quote from him. He’s talking about how people get tied up in the theology of the story and miss the power of it.
“Of course, the first day Pentecost (and the experience of God’s spirit from that day to this) can no more be reduced to theological formulae and interesting Old Testament echoes than you can reduce a hurricane to a list of diagrams on a meteorologist’s chart. It’s important that someone somewhere is tracking the hurricane and telling us what It’s doing, but when it comes to Pentecost, it’s far more important that you’re out there in the wind, letting it sweep through your life, your heart, your imagination, your powers of speech and transform you from a listless or lifeless believer into someone whose heart is on fire with the love of God.”
Amen.
