OBLIVIOUS (Part 2) – Pentecostal Power

The Sunday after the Ascension Feast is Pentecost Sunday– which was last Sunday. Again, I thought perhaps half the evangelical Christian world was oblivious of that. Pentecost is always a great day to highlight the universality of the church– how the little group of Christ followers of mostly Jewish background in Jerusalem grew to thousands in one day, a symbolic opening of salvation’s door to all people. All through the two services I was thinking, “We could have showcased First Baptist’s different international representation on this day of Pentecost!” Each Sunday at First Baptist I see Ethiopians, Eritreans, Filipinos, Chinese, French, Hispanics, an Egyptian, Koreans, ethnic Ukrainians and Poles and other races mingled with Canadians.

Last Sunday, following services at First Baptist Lloyd, I decided to watch Saddleback Church’s live webcast online. What made me smile was that Saddleback Church’s theme for the weekend was Pentecost and Rick Warren’s sermon titled Real Christianity was based on Acts 2! I’m sure it was intentional than coincidental. Rick mentioned having 63 different ethnic groups represented at Saddleback and to showcase that he asked twenty of their members to declare “Jesus can change your life” in twenty different languages! It was moving! Some wouldn’t think Saddleback is a kind of church that would follow or observe the high holidays/feasts found in the traditional liturgical calendar! Yet it does, in a subtle way. At GCF, we observed major liturgical feasts that way. We had multilingual scripture readings and prayer for Pentecost, we always display the cross with white cloth for forty days after Easter with the Paschal Candle lit beside it, we light Advent candles, etc.

But what are “feasts” good for if they would not be venues to deepen our spirituality?
In a Worship Conference I attended years ago, Don Moen said, “Tradition is good as long as it is Biblical and helps us grow in our faith walk.” God Himself ordered Moses that things be done to remember His mighty acts, which is no different from the Lord’s Supper– a tradition in memory of Christ. So, feast observance should help edify us. More than just a Harvest Feast, Pentecost to the Hebrews was a time to commemorate the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the entire Israelite nation assembled at Mount Sinai. In Acts 2, it became the birthday of the Church– God sends the Spirit to write His laws in man’s heart, and opening the kingdom to all people.

What does Pentecost teach us?

One of the take-aways we glean from our understanding of Pentecost is that Holy Spirit, or the Advocate, or Spirit of truth, as Jesus described Him, is that everywhere is pregnant with spiritual potential because the Spirit is uninhibited in pervasive power. Every location, every circumstance, even the boring, routine moments of going through the motions of our jobs and relationships are not outside the Spirit’s bounds. For that matter, no person falls outside. Pentecost is in part a celebration of the fact that no one is excluded from God’s gracious kingdom. All fall within the perimeter. It seems that one of the benchmarks of God’s kingdom is that no one is meant to be left out of God’s economy of love and justice. I suppose this is an obvious thing to say.

Then again, as you know, I like to talk about obvious-seeming things that can easily slip away from our awareness. And what more so than the idea that God is intimately present in every moment everywhere for everyone? And that no race is meant to be excluded from God’s gracious kingdom come to earth? I know these are very basic concepts of the Christian tradition and spirituality, but honestly, do we really live our lives as though they were true? As you well know, even Christians have a thousand and one reasons for slicing and dicing the human family into those that are in and those that are out. And half the time we’re not certain we ourselves either have been included or even want to be included.

1 SBauman CCNYC52310

2 Rick Warren, Real Christianity 52310

OBLIVIOUS?

It’s been 41 days since Easter. Which, smartly enough, I figured (lol) that yesterday was the 40th day after Easter which means, it was Ascension Sunday. Yesterday at First Baptist Church Lloydminster, people I would say were perhaps generally oblivious of what was going on throughout Christendom- the celebration of a great feast– which I call, the feast of the GREAT COMMISSION!

Just a day short of a week after Easter, I entered the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver hoping to attend the Saturday morning Communion Service. Realizing I had come half an hour early, I decided to take a tour of the magnificent structure and the treasury of art work it contained. Drawing closer to the high altar my eyes gravitated toward the east window above it. I went closer to admire the fine stained glass art– it’s amazing how some sanctuaries are ministries in themselves and stir people’s heart to bow to the Creator for Whose worship and glory they were built. That’s exactly what the Cathedral did to me.

Looking closer, the east window composed of five panels depicting highlights in the life of Christ. The very center is the Ascension window (see below).

The barest facts: Jesus, the powerful, charismatic teacher and healer, God-man; he was crucified as an enemy of the state and of organized religion; his presence was experienced by many beyond the grave; his promise of spiritual empowerment and salvation was kept and secured in his finished work, the church was born and the eternal message concerning love of God and neighbor caught hold everywhere it was shared.

As the story unfolds then, the Ascension is the transition from the specifics concerning Jesus, to the specifics concerning the birth of the church and the spreading of the message of God’s kingdom come to earth-the conjunction. So long as Jesus was around, the message couldn’t be larger than his circle of friends. His leave-taking catalyzed the invitation for humanity to assume its proper role, to become co-workers with God, to become actors on the stage rather than spectators in the audience.[1]

In the Ascension we have the exaltation of all that Jesus taught and lived, the triumph of love over death, resident with God, means that we are  included within the same victory. It’s for this reason that person after person, year after year, generation after generation has found his or her life transformed and empowered when introduced to the living God in Jesus Christ.

Consider the testimony of the great Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy: “Five years ago I came to believe in Christ’s teaching, and my life suddenly changed. I ceased to desire what I had previously desired, and began to desire what I formerly did not want. …It happened to me as it happens to a man who goes out on some business and on the way suddenly decides that the business is unnecessary and returns home…his former wish to get as far as possible from home has changed into a wish to be as near as possible to it…suddenly I heard the words of Christ and understood them…and I experienced the joy of life undisturbed by death.”[2]

So, the Great Commission continues.

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[1] S Bauman, CCNYC15610

[2] Leo Tolstoy, “What I Believe,” trans. Aylmer Maude, in Calvin Miller’s The Book of Jesus, 1996, Simon and Schuster.