Be Still My Love…

Pentecost is derived from the ancient Greek for ‘fifty’ and the festival of Pentecost got that name because, on the ancient Jewish calendar, it came on the fiftieth day after Passover. In Jewish religious life the festival commemorated Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God and the establishment of his covenant relationship with his people. It was on the very day of this particular festival that the Holy Spirit fell on the believers in Jerusalem and the whole world was turned upside down. The timing of the Holy Spirit arriving in power on Pentecost is stunning: God was initiating a new covenant with his people.

So… why bring it up now? Well… what I find fascinating about these events is the disciples. After Jesus was crucified they met in secret, afraid for their lives. Now, after having walked and talked with the resurrected Christ on a number of occasions - and having witnessed his ascension - they are no longer afraid. Cautious, perhaps, but yet they appear to be living openly as Christ followers in Jerusalem. They are doing exactly what Jesus asked them to do - they are waiting. It’s taken me many, many years of hearing, reading and thinking about this story before I grasped the significance of the obvious fact - for them, following Jesus meant waiting, waiting until the time was right, waiting for God to move, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come, waiting for whatever - and they certainly could not have known what ‘whatever’ was - came next. They were caught in an eddy in time, no longer a part of the world they once knew yet unable to enter into the world that was to come. So they waited. We know they prayed and ate together, and that they elected Matthias to replace the traitor Judas but, other than those scant few activities, we see no forward motion on the part of the disciples. None, that is, until the Holy Spirit falls and Peter steps boldly in to what God is doing and preaches the gospel on the streets of Jerusalem.

I’m bringing all this up because our community here at Third Space seems to be in much the same position. Something has changed, and is changing, and we’re negotiating a transition once more. Like the disciples in the opening pages of Acts, we can no longer be who we once were, and it’s not yet clear what God has in store for us next. So, like the disciples, we wait. Like the disciples, we pray, we take communion together, we worship the Lord together. And in those prayers we seek out our purpose. We, as a community of believers here, in Peterborough in 2010, are searching for a word from the Lord, asking for the Holy Spirit to fall, looking for the signs of what God is doing so that we can step into the power and the presence of God in our life as a community.

Today was communion here at Third Space. There wasn’t much in the way of a sermon - nothing more than what you’ve read here. But prior to communion set aside a time of silent prayer as we waited on the Lord and listened for his voice. There will soon - very soon be a time for us to move decisively, to speak boldly and to hold the truth like a torch. That time is ’soon’ but not ‘yet’. Right now we must be still and listen. Right now we must wait and pray.

Come, Holy Spirit… come.