I have said
these things to you
while still
with you;
but the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the
Father will send in my name,
will teach
you everything
and remind
you of all that I have said to you.’
John 14:26
Getting out of our comfort zones isn’t
easy. The disciples in the upper room had become anxious. They had no idea what
would happen next, what to expect. They hear the sound of a great wind and
above their heads appears – something that looks like a flame – and the
anxiety, the puzzlement, the loss they have suffered dissipates as a new
confidence, a power, a strength at first seeps through, emerging into the
bustling, energetic gift of tongues. This gift drives them to the streets to
proclaim the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The people of Jerusalem who
come from every corner of the known world are shocked and surprised, for from
the mouths of these uneducated, uncouth Galileans, they can hear them preach
the Good News in their own languages.
So disarming is this event that some
believe that they are drunk. Peter reminds them it is still too early in the
morning!
The gift they have been given is the Holy
Spirit, the Advocate, the Paraclete. The disciples have never experienced
anything like this before. They too are taken aback by what has now overcome
them. Many of those who hear them come to believe and are baptised.
This event which we call Pentecost (because
it occurred during the Jewish feast of Pentecost) might appear to be ‘organised
chaos’, and yet this is the event for
which the disciples have been thoroughly prepared for by Jesus himself. For if
there is a purpose to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, Pentecost is merely
the first moment of revelation - the
uncertainty, the lack of confidence are dismissed. In Jerusalem that day, the
momentum built up by Jesus over three years bursts into life.
The writer of the Acts of the Apostles is,
of course, not writing history (as we know it), nor is he viewing these events
with his own eyes. They are eyes of faith, the eyes of a community of faith. It
may well be that the radical experience the disciples went through on
Pentecost, was in fact, an event which took place over quite an extended period
of time, and this experience was a gentle transformation from fear and anxiety,
to confidence and action. The retelling of this experience in Acts gives an
edge and an excitement to the event that is both compelling and inviting. The lived experience may easily be mirrored
in our own Pentecosts.
Our Pentecost experience is rolled out
every day – as today’s disciples we continue to uncover the mission that we
have been given. We might not be asked to proclaim the Gospel on street
corners, but we are undoubtedly invited to share and be good news to one
another.
Happy birthday, Church!
Peter Douglas
HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH
Stories from the
bottom: One of the few subversive texts in history, believe it or not, is the
Bible!
By Richard Rohr
Most of political and church history has
been controlled and written by people who have the access, the power, and the
education to write books and get them published. One of the few subversive
texts in history, believe it or not, is the Bible!
The Bible is most extraordinary because it
repeatedly and invariably legitimizes the people on the bottom, and not the
people on the top. The rejected son, the barren woman, the sinner, the leper,
or the outsider is always the one chosen by God. Please do not take my word on
this, but check it out for yourself.
It is rather obvious, but for some reason
the obvious needs to be pointed out to us. In every case, we are presented with
some form of powerlessness--and from that situation God creates a new kind of
power. This is the constant pattern which is hidden in plain sight.
Many barren women are mentioned in the
Hebrew Scriptures, and we repeatedly see God showing them favor. Sarah,
Abraham's wife, was barren and past childbearing years when God blessed her
with baby Isaac (Genesis 17:15-19). Rachel, Jacob's wife, was barren until God
"opened her womb" and she bore Joseph (Genesis 30:22-24). Barren
Hannah poured out her soul before the Lord, and God gave her Samuel (1 Samuel
1).
Even before Moses, God chose a
"nobody," Abraham, and made him a somebody. God chose Jacob over
Esau, even though Esau was the elder, more earnest son and Jacob was a shifty,
deceitful character. Election has nothing to do with worthiness but only divine
usability, and in the Bible, usability normally comes from having walked
through one's own wrongness or "littleness." We see this especially
in Mary, a "humble servant" (Luke 1:48).
God chose Israel's first king, Saul, out
of the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest and weakest tribe. The pattern always
seems to be that "the last will be first, and the first will be last"
(Matthew 20:16). This is so consistently the pattern that we no longer
recognize its subversive character. They became merely sweet rags to riches
stories.
One of the more dramatic biblical stories
in this regard is the story of David. God chose him, the youngest and least
experienced son of Jesse, to be king over the nation. His father, who had many
sons, did not even mention David as a possibility, but left him out in the
fields (1 Samuel 16). David was thus the forgotten son who then became the
beloved son of Yahweh, the archetypal whole man of Israel, laying the
foundation for the son of David, Jesus.
In case after case, the victim becomes the
real victor, leading Rene Girard to speak of "the privileged position of
the victim" as the absolutely unique and revolutionary perspective of the
Bible. Without it, we are hardly prepared to understand the "folly of the
cross" of Jesus. Without this bias from the bottom, religion ends up
defending propriety instead of human pain, the status quo instead of the
suffering masses, triumphalism instead of truth, clerical privilege instead of
charity and compassion. And this, from
the Christianity that was once "turning the whole world upside down"
(Acts 17:6).
Richard Rohr OFM (Center of Action and
Contemplation, Daily Meditations)
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