This is the day I have waited for. The Season of Easter is now officially over and the “new season” of Pentecost begins.
I love this day.
We needed the color change from white to the boldness of Red.
It is like fresh air…
Springtime freshness
Windows open…
Bedding on the line…
It is a good smell…
Clean and wholesome…
It’s one you “cannot match…or duplicate!”
It chases away the staleness…of being all closed up … and with it comes new life.
Soon, in a couple of weeks time – we will change to green…the color of growth and new life.
Things are a changing…The day of Pentecost has finally arrived!
Pentecost is sometimes referred to as being the season of life and living… a time for growth and a time for new learning. The season of the church…
A time for opening up… A time for being open…a time for renewal…
There are parallels between the Gospel of John and the book of Genesis.
Jesus is breathing new life into his tired, scared and distraught disciples.
He is bringing them his peace and new life. He is commissioning them with the self same mission he had. He is sending them out. He is renaming them officially “apostles” or those who are sent out. They are no more disciples or students.
Remember when God breathed into Adam? He brought him new life.
Now Jesus is breathing on to his disciples…
He is giving them new power…a spiritual power and a new kind of discernment…in a manner of days they will be totally transformed and changed.
They will no longer hide- away behind stuffy closed and locked doors…
They will have a new boldness.
They will speak with authority.
There will be a new spring in their step.
Their lives will take on new meaning and purpose.
They will witness to what they have seen with their own two eyes, they will witness to what they have been told with their own two ears.
They will not be afraid.
They will go to the known ends of the earth, if they have to…
They will share the good news with anyone willing to listen.
This is what God does. This is the power of God at work in our world.
He turned Moses who was a murderer into a leader.
He turned a young shepherd boy into a great and mighty King David.
He turned Nehemiah who was a cupbearer into a wall builder.
He turned the crybaby Jeremiah into a prophet.
He took a sinner like Mary Magdalene and made her into an apostle and the first witness of the resurrection…
And now he breathed onto a bunch of old tired scaredy cats and turned them into brazen men who would establish his church.
He breathed on them…
Very much like that famous section from the prophet Ezekiel…Ezekiel 37 to be exact…
We see that vision all over again…we see the dry bones of an old battlefield once scattered -come together – as skeletons (Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones) and then to them are added organs and tissue and skin, but they lay like corpses until verse 9. Then he said to me, “Prophecy to the wind, prophesy, son of man and say to the wind, “Thus says the Lord your God, “Come from the four winds, O breath and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and they lived and they stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
New life…
New spirit…
I tell you – things they are a changing…
For four young people – their lives will forever be changed as well, I pray.
One baptized becoming a Christian, three making their First Holy Communion tomorrow and becoming Communing members of the church…
God continues his work in and through our world…
And we are his witnesses…