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.
The Same Mighty Power…
I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.
This is from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church, which I read as a benediction at the close of our Sunday mornings at Third Space. It takes my breath away every time I read it. “This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead…” Sometimes - okay, maybe most times - we miss the significance of what is happening in our community. We faithfully keep coming out, participating, meeting here with God and with our friends and, for the most part, we love it. Oh yes, it has it moments when things are not as we wished - everything in life does - but we’re here. We could be a million other places, but we’re here. After a while this seems perfectly normal - perfectly ordinary. As a result of all this ‘ordinariness’, though, we sometimes miss the fact that something extraordinary is happening.
Do we have any idea what this really means? I think a great deal of what happens in our community appears underwhelming. This morning we sat for a few minutes of silent prayer before beginning our discussion. To a casual observer this might seem odd, or perhaps it seems like nothing is happening. But in our frenzied, stress-filled world the opportunity to sit in silence is a rare and precious thing. If you were with us this morning you may have been uncomfortable with the long, still silence. Of course, the ‘long’ silence was just under four minutes. At the end of that prayer time there was an incredible spirit of peace and stillness in our room. And yes, I know God is always with us, but this morning, as I prepared to break the silence by reading Psalm 100, I could feel God’s presence. I treasure those moments.
We then talked a great deal about what Third Space means to us; about what our experience here has been like. As various people were sharing their thoughts I thought, “this is it - this is what real community looks like”. As the discussion went on I began to hear stories of God at work in people’s hearts, drawing us to himself in the midst of this community. It was so beautiful.
“This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead…” We have no idea what God can do, and can scarcely imagine what he will do in our community this year. We live in the ordinariness of knowing God, not fully realizing the astounding, awesome, mind-boggling power that God possesses. You see, it’s not just the power to speak the universe into existence, to shape reality, to stop time, to walk on water. It’s the power to speak into our hearts, to touch our deepest inner self with his incomparable love. The power to create planets? One day science may do just that. The power to whisper love into the depths of my deepest pain, to calm, with his gentle but powerful presence my greatest fears, the ability to change the very nature of who I am by nothing more than his presence? We have no idea the power that the Holy Spirit possesses, no idea what God can do. Sometimes I don’t know how we’re going to do this or that; sometimes I wonder where Third Space goes from here. In the end, maybe it’s not a lack of faith that makes me think that way. Maybe it’s taking this beautiful thing - God in the midst of our Third Space community - for granted.
I want to make you a promise, Third Space: I’m going to dream big dreams from now on. Go ahead, dream big dreams, too. Bring your dreams, bring your hopes, bring your talents and your gifts and your desires. Open your hearts and your lips and your voices and share in the wonder and the beauty that is God’s love in this community and in this city. If we do this, and even if we do only this, I’ll promise you one more thing: Heaven will break out on earth. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead…”