Perspectives on Pentecost (1)

As Pentecost Sunday approaches, I have been pondering the radical change that occurred on that Day and the challenge we have of understanding just what happened and of how difficult it must have been for those first Christians to come to terms with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I have been guilty of not appreciating the scope of Pentecost (not that I claim to fully appreciate it now), and I have not adequately pondered the dynamics of what a first-century Jewish follower of Jesus must of wrestled with - oh yes I have pondered this in terms of the Law and seeking justification through it, and in relation to circumcision and its association with the Law - but I realize that there are other aspects of the human experience in response to the Divine indwelling that I have missed, or in any case not given thoughtful attention.

This is an example of what can happen when you “see” something and are so excited about it that you don’t step back to ask, “What else is there to see?” For years I have connected Jesus, Stephen, and Paul and their teaching on the physical temple in Jerusalem with the Temple of the Indwelling God - God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. Jesus was a grain of wheat who fell into the ground and died, as was Stephen, as was Paul. Jesus begat Stephen and Stephen (in Christ) begat Paul and Paul begat others in Christ. Paul heard Stephen’s proclamation that “God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands” and that became a core element of Paul’s apostolic perspective and preaching - for who has articulated the reality of the Indwelling God in the Church, the Body, the Temple, the Bride - as has our brother Paul?

All of the foregoing is well and good, but I have not asked myself about the struggle and transition that the Jewish believers must have experienced in moving from one way of living, from one way of orientation, to another.

While many, if not all, ancient cultures had a mindset that God, or the gods, lived in temples or on mountains or within graven images, the Jews were locked into a radical (vis-a-vis surrounding cultures) mindset of worship and religious life anchored in the Temple in Jerusalem. We know from Acts that after Pentecost that the Jewish Christians continued to have some form of relationship with the physical Temple, (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 21:26) - note that the span of time between 3:1 and 21:26 was significant. While this relationship probably had a missional element to it (sharing the Gospel with other Jews) the counsel to Paul from James and the elders (21:18) seems to indicate that there remained an element of religious observance.

Then there is the transition that Peter experienced from an orientation to a physical Temple to living in the reality of God’s people being God’s true and everlasting Temple (1 Peter 2:1-12). While the vision of Acts Chapter 10  and being a witness to the Holy Spirit indwelling the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius must have been a watershed for Peter, some years later he struggles to live in this reality in Antioch (Galatians 2:11 - 21).

Even with the power and influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the examples of James and Peter indicate that changing our thinking, our orientation, is anything but something that typically occurs in a day or two.

Perhaps it was necessary for Paul to distance himself from Jerusalem (Arabia, then to Tarsus) in order to achieve a break in orientation from the physical Temple to God’s everlasting Temple. Perhaps it was important that Paul’s early Jerusalem visits should be brief, lest he fall into his old center of gravity with the physical Temple as his orientation. Of course Jesus’ words to Paul (Acts 9), “Why do you persecute Me?” are themselves a revelation of the new reality of the union of Christ in His people - for to persecute the people of Christ is to persecute Christ, to touch a Christian is to touch Jesus Christ.

So we have a change of seasons, transitioning from one season (kairos) into another - while we can locate the Day of Pentecost on a timeline (chronos), the Day of Pentecost also ushers in a transition in kairos, in seasons - and this transition must have been a struggle in the hearts and minds of early Jewish Christians. While Gentiles may have had similar struggles, and to some extent we know they did because Christians were accused of being atheists - how could you worship a god if you didn’t have a temple or idols? - it is difficult to see any group of people struggling more with the idea that God’s People are God’s Temple and with a change of thinking, relating, and orientation than the Jews. (See also Paul in Athens - Acts 17).

Jesus’ words to the woman at the well (John 4) were difficult enough for her to absorb, how much more for those with Jewish pedigrees? Let’s remember, the Jews had fought to protect the Temple from desecration - when you are willing to die for something it is pretty well ingrained within you.

Well, just some ponderings on the Day of Pentecost.

Isaiah (9)

Once a Bride, Now a Prostitute

How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.
Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not defend the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them. Isaiah 1:21 - 23

The picture that God through Isaiah paints of Jerusalem should give us pause, if this could happen in the capital city of the Covenant People it can happen anywhere, with people with a lesser pedigree, with people of a lesser spiritual heritage. The people of Judah boasted of their heritage and deceived themselves into thinking that God would give them a pass on their idolatry and myriad sins - they were wrong. God calls them Sodom and Gomorrah - His judgment is coming if they do not repent.

Christopher Hall, author and theologian, has a concept he calls “corporate flesh”. I don’t know if he borrowed the term from others but it is helpful to me. What he argues is that while we all have our own individual “sinful flesh” to deal with in Christ, that when we come together as groups of people that a dynamic occurs in which we collectively constitute a “corporate flesh” in which the group manifests sinful flesh in a collective fashion.  He applies this concept to nations and regions. Corporate flesh looks different in North America than it does in Africa, it looks different in the US than it does in Canada (though due to cultural proximity there are similarities).

The challenge is, when we live in a nation or region in which we’ve grown up it is difficult for us to identify the elements of our corporate flesh because it often seems so good and natural. As I ponder this I can see how we can deify corporate flesh and use it as a criterion for patriotism and civic duty - it is difficult to resist.

Yet, the Church must ask, “Are the values of my country the values of the Kingdom of God?” Certainty “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are not the same as, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me…”

Being formed into the image of our society, our culture, our earthly heritage, is not the same as being formed into the image of Jesus Christ. God will not give our nation, whatever nation that might be, a pass on sin and on corporate sinful flesh anymore that He gave Israel and Judah a pass on their corporate flesh, sin, and rebellion. Let us not deceive ourselves or others - even if it means misunderstanding and ostracism.

Jerusalem became a harlot; she had intercourse with the idols of the surrounding peoples. She was once the bride of Yahweh, now she was a prostitute. What about us? What about our nation? What about the church? Are we seeking pleasure and unbridled gain no matter what the cost? Do the ends justify the means? Is the dollar the rationale for our decisions? Is fame and fortune our lustful desire?

Have we become a nation of murderers? Not simply murderers in the sense of guns or knives, but in our economy, our health system (and there are many possibilities here), our foreign policy (both acts of commission and omission) and policies regarding those fleeing violence from other countries? What about our churches? Do we close our eyes to the plight of others and buy into our national corporate sinful flesh? Do we build greater and grandeur facilities while those around us suffer need? What does the corporate sinful flesh of the church in the US look like? How much do we give to missions? How many of us serve the disenfranchised home and abroad? How are we protecting our children from elements of public education designed to destroy their morality, the image of God within them - not to mention the spiritual life?  

“Everyone loves a bribe and chases after rewards.” Does this not portray much of government - from the Federal to the local level? Doesn’t this portray much of corporate American? What about within the professing church? Workers say, “If the corporate executives are like that, if they are out for everything they can get, then what is wrong if I do the same on my own level?” Then there are elements of the professing church that teach that life is all about us, all about a bank account, a car, a big house, and bulging retirement plan. American Christianity seems to think that bigger is better - not realizing that we are building a bigger and better prison of self-indulgence to live in - we are our own jailers, can we not see the irony?

We are fools to think that if Jerusalem could not escape God’s judgment that we can; fools as a nation and fools as a church.

Prayer for Ministry

Holy Father,

I pray that my preaching may communicate sound teaching,

And I pray that my teaching may have the passion of preaching.

For if my preaching does not contain sound Biblical teaching,

And if my teaching has not Gospel passion and conviction;

Then I do not deserve to be heard,

And I have dishonored my calling in Jesus Christ.

Doulos

Isaiah (8)

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
“If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;
“But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword.”
Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:16 - 20).

While our actions cannot cleanse us from our sins (Titus 3:5), our actions can certainly demonstrate our repentance and obedience to the true and living God. Confession means nothing if not accompanied by repentance, and repentance means a change of direction, a turning from our ways to God’s ways, to His Way, the Lord Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist exhorted, we are to demonstrate the fruits of our repentance. Confession is cheap without repentance, and there can be no Biblical confession without Biblical repentance.

God wants to bring us to repentance, He does not desire that anyone perish (2 Peter 3:9; Romans 2:4) - however, the door to the Ark will not remain open indefinitely. In the midst of God’s word of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, He pleas for repentance, He pleas for a change of heart and ways, and He promises that blessing will follow repentance and obedience - but He also makes clear that if Judah refuses to repent and persists in its rebellion that it will be devoured by the sword.

Judah is to “remove the evil” of its deeds from God’s sight and it was to “cease” from doing evil and learn to do good. In a later chapter God will say that Judah has come to call good evil and evil good - is not that where we are today? We applaud and laugh at evil, at filth, at images and language and actions that not long ago we, as a society, would have been appalled at. Instead of being appalled we applaud. But it is not enough that society engages in evil without boundaries, for now much of the professing church has been captured by evil and no longer distinguishes between what is holy and what is profane.

Not only are we not learning to do good (we need to “learn it” because we have forgotten how to do it), but we often deride those who choose good over evil, we accuse them of being impractical, of being judgmental, of being narrow-minded - and at times we are ashamed to be associated with them.

God says that Judah is to seek justice, as are we. A people who do good and practice justice are a people who are good and just to the weakest and least powerful in its society - in Isaiah’s day that meant the orphan and the widow, it also meant that the ruthless were to be reproved. What are we to say about our own nation?

Money rules. Power is typically used for personal advancement. Lobbyists own the government. Drug companies often own the health-care system. This is not a question of political party, it is not a question of liberal or conservative - as much as some would have us think that - it is a question of righteousness and justice and equity and mercy and doing good and defending the defenseless and rebuking the ruthless.

How can a nation that has a Food Network television channel, and other similar entertainment productions, have children, the elderly, and families living in hunger? How can a nation that has entertainment television productions centered around finding a dream home have significant homeless people and a substantial portion of the population living in substandard and often dangerous housing - people who can only dream of a safe and secure home? How can a portion of the population profess to be “pro-life” when they do not speak out for the lives of those already born - willing to let our neighbors live without health care, live in danger of violence, live in dangerous housing, live without nutritional food, live without the benefit of sound and decent education?

If the “bottom-line” is all that matters, if that can be used to justify our narcissistic way of life, then let us not complain when God declares that we have failed to meet His “bottom-line” of righteousness and justice and equity and speaking out for the disenfranchised and failing to rebuke the ruthless.

We worship the powerful, God says we ought to identify with the poor. We worship the beautiful, God says that we ought to touch the untouchable. We idolize the talented, God says true talent is serving others with the gifts He has given us. Much of the church worships success, God calls us to the Cross.

God in Christ pleads with us to come to Him, to be washed and made pure in His Son Jesus - He loves us beyond words, He loves us so much that the Father gave His Son for us, and the Son freely gave Himself for us - He calls us to come home to Him, as His sons and daughters, to follow Him, to come into a relationship with Him by His grace and mercy - we are sick and we are dying of sin and rebellion….

But we are not coming...and then we wonder...why the sword is devouring our land...

Isaiah (7)

“Hear the word of the Lord,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the instruction of our God,
You people of Gomorrah.
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.
“When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
“Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
“I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
“So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood.”  (Isaiah 1:10 - 15).

I am picking Isaiah back up, the last post in this series was February 21, if you are new to the thread, or want a refresher, go to the “labels” list and click on “Isaiah”.

A friend was telling me about a book he has been reading purporting to give a secret code to understanding events in American, based on a series of kings in the Old Testament. We don’t need a secret code, we need Jesus. In fact, as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 and Colossians Chapter 2, Jesus Christ is our wisdom and understanding and in Him are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. If the Cross of Christ is not at the center of what we are seeking then we are seeking the wrong thing. If our eyes aren’t focused on Jesus we are focused on the wrong thing.

The Scriptures provide many examples of how God deals with nations and peoples. While God’s relationship with Israel and Judah, His Old Covenant people, is the main focus in the Old Testament of how God deals with a nation to which He has given extraordinary light and knowledge, there are many examples in the Old Testament of how He deals with other nations - we don’t need a hidden code, a special way of looking at something, we don’t need to “force” interpretations to make our points - God’s Word and ways are clearly written in the Bible for those who will read the Bible in the light of Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught that “to whom much is given, much is required.” I think it is fair to say that that not only applies to individuals and families, but also to nations, to any group of people - and I think the scope of Scripture bears this out. God holds people accountable, He holds nations accountable. If I may be excused to using a popular phrase, this is not rocket science.

In the above passage from Isaiah, God calls the rulers of Judah “rulers of Sodom,” and He calls the people of Judah “people of Gomorrah.”

These rulers and people were trusting in their religious exercises; their sacrifices, their holy days, their many prayers. They were acting as if Yahweh was a pagan god who could be placated by ritual, by outward ceremony, by putting on a show. God says, “I have had enough...I take no pleasure.” He calls their offerings “worthless”, their incense “an abomination”, He “hates” their festivals” and “feasts”, He says that when they pray that He will “hide my eyes from you” and that He “will not listen.” Lastly God says, “Your hands are covered with blood.”

Whether it is ancient Israel, or modern American, or any other people, singing “God Bless America” or its equivalent, while a nation’s hands are “covered with blood” makes God sick (speaking in human terms). When our hearts and souls engage in sin, when the “whole head is sick and the whole heart faint” with sin and rebellion, and yet a people deceive themselves with religious activities and words and prayers - God will judge that people, He will judge that nation; in fact, such a disconnect between the inner soul of a people and its outward self-deceiving words and behavior is a sign of the judgement of God, it is a sign that God is giving them up to their own ways, their own deceitful thoughts. This is not a time to end speeches with, “God bless us,” but rather, “God help us.”

A church that cares for the nation in which it lives, will care enough not to participate in self-deception, in a self-anointed righteousness that flies in the face of justice, equity, righteousness, and truth. Might does not make right. God cannot be bought with wealth and prosperity. The worship of the dollar, or the pound, or the Euro, or any other currency, must not be substituted for the Cross in the life of the Christian, in the life of the church. Success, whether personal or national or even in a church organization, may not mean the blessing of God; it can mean quite the opposite - it can mean that God has allowed a people to go their own way, allowing them to be drunk in their pursuit of pleasure. We are not called to emulate success, we are called to follow Jesus - and Jesus died on a Cross.

God through Isaiah is speaking to a religious people, a people with the Temple of Solomon in their midst, a people with a priesthood stretching back to the time of Moses and Aaron, a people who could rightly recall many times that God had intervened in their history, a people whose constitution was written and ordained by God - that is a pretty good pedigree. Yet, God calls the rulers of this people “rulers of Sodom”, and He calls the people “people of Gomorrah” - is there something we can learn from this?