Pentecost

In his book Holy Spirit Michael Ramsay quotes the words of a leader in the Orthodox church.  They really made me think about what we celebrate tomorrow.

Without the Holy Spirit God is far away,
Christ stays in the past,
The Gospel is simply an organization,
authority a matter of propaganda,
the liturgy is no more than an evolution,
Christian loving a slave morality.

But in the Holy Spirit
the cosmos is resurrected and grows
with the birth pangs of the Kingdom,
the Risen Christ is there,
the Gospel is the power of life,
the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity,
Authority is a liberating science,
the liturgy is both renewal and anticipation,
mission is a Pentecost

The Keeper

Carol read Psalm 121 from the King James Version for today's church zoom prayers.  Only eight verses but there was one word in translation that I particularly wanted to highlight. Contrasting KJV with NIV you notice how the question at the beginning is missing: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  A question mark helps - are the hills places of danger, of cultic worship or (as I think the majority take it) the physical hills around Jerusalem which speak of the Lord's majesty and purpose?  I have always wondered whether for this psalmist who seems to have a deep need to know God and have a purpose and meaning to his life whether they dwarf him with their permanence and size in contrast with his little life.  Well, who knows.

But what matters is the personal affirmation that his help comes from the Lord who made the hills and everything else and who promises to be with him every step of the way, night and day, body mind and spirit 24/7.  And the KJV word is 'keeper' - the Lord is thy keeper v 5.  It has a ring of warmth and responsibility about it and, as we read on, we see how consistent is God's keeping.

I particularly paused at the theme that 'he that keepeth thee will not slumber (v3) Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep (v.4).  I remember as a child marvelling that God did not need to go to sleep...ever.  It was the Methodist minister Dr. Quayle who was working hard one night with no end in sight when this verse struck him and he seemed to hear God say: There's no need to both of us to stay up all night. I'm going to stay up anyway. You go to bed and get a good sleep'.

Yes. keeper is a good word.

Sit Down and Wait.

Of course we don't know for sure how disciples coped in this period of 50 days after Easter.  They had witnessed the world shaking event of the Resurrection. Emotions are shaken to the core. After the scary first encounters - the raw fear of Luke 24: 37 - there is so much they have to come to terms with. Their world is changing though they don't yet know the half.

It seems critical that twice Jesus tells them that they must wait. Luke 24: 49 Stay in the city literally means SIT DOWN.  In Acts 1.4 Jesus commands: Do not depart from Jerusalem but wait. Yes, Jesus is promising that the Father is sending a gift which they will miss if they leave the city.  But they also need a long waiting period.  Why? Because they have much growing up to do.  Their experience and understanding of Jesus needs deepening.  It's not some instant subjective experience that solves everything.  It's not as though they suddenly know how to live in the new normal as Easter people. What did it mean now to live in the Kingdom of God? (Acts 1:3)

Waiting gives time to grow deeper. Christian discipleship requires times of sitting down. It was the Quaker, John Southall who said: 'We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains; but we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord when we renew our strength and learn to mount up with wings and eagles.'

In our current time of enforced waiting  and wondering when the timetable might be relaxed for the lock down there may be a lesson here. Express trains are out for most of us! But if it is true that Christian discipleship is a matter of continuing to sit down with the Lord so that he can deal with us in the quiet, well, this is quite an opportunity.

John White in Flirting with the World  really let's rip: 'Jesus weeps over sheep fed on lollipops...,  Jesus weeps over poor deceived people who are falsely taught by enthusiastic preachers that an instant,subjective experience at a special conference will solve all their problems and give them zippy, automatic Christian joy for the rest of their lives. That's garbage'.  No, lollipops won't do. Sit down, Michael!

Ascension Day

So Ascension Day!  That concealing cloud also means that a new era is beginning.  Jesus is to be seen no more but something new is going to happen.  Jesus made it very clear as he said goodbye to his disciples that he would be replaced by a universal presence called the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit.  'I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you '(John 16:7 ).

In the divine economy Jesus' departure is to be followed by the coming of the Third Person of the Trinity.  Pentecost follows Ascension.  It's a kind of divine chain reaction. Jesus comes to show us the Father and the Holy Spirit comes to show us Jesus Christ. And more than that.  It is for your good.  When Jesus was on earth he could only deal with the few, a woman by the well, a blind man, ten lepers, 12 disciples. Among the 5000 fed how many hands was he able to touch?  He is flesh and blood.  He became tired.  He only travelled a few square miles when the whole world needed him.  But on the cross he accomplishes reconciliation for the world, for everyone, and when the Spirit comes he can go through the whole world carving a way of conviction, love, joy, forgiveness, assurance and power to live God's new way.

The cloud of glory that speaks of a new era also marks the ultimate victory, for there is consistent New Testament teaching that the Messiah of God will return on the clouds of heaven.  To the disciples looking up at the cloud comes the rebuke: 'Men of Galilee, why stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

The cloud marks how the God who has interrupted this world once, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem that people might see their God face to face, will interrupt this world again.  The clouds of glory with the returning King Messiah mean that history has purpose which is held in God's hands. History is not a haphazard collection of chance events leading nowhere.  Jesus is the Alpha and Omega - he will be there at the end.

A prayer helps me say it today (from Contemporary Prayers)

Ascended Lord Jesus, I adore you!
Once you lived a human life subject to the limitations of time:
now you are the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
Once you were limited to one particular place:
now you are present wherever people turn to you.
Once only those who met you face to face knew you;
now your divine love extends through all the world.
Jesus ascended Lord of time and space,
love as wide as life,
I adore you!

That cloud!

When Luke (the historian!) records that Jesus was taken up in a cloud this detail is not incidental. Indeed, it's crucial to understanding the wonder of the Ascension. Because cloud in Scripture means several things.

Particularly, GLORY.  Right through the Bible, cloud speaks of the glory of God.  The pillar of fire and cloud leading Israel from Egypt; thick cloud and lightning on Mr. Sinai; the cloud dwelling over the Tabernacle; and. especially, enveloping cloud on the Mt. of Transfiguration revealing the glory and presence of God breaking through in the ministry of Jesus.

At the Ascension, at the end of Jesus' resurrection appearances he is swathed again in cloud. In the splendour of God's presence he is accepted back into the glory which he left when the world's most amazing journey began as God's son was degraded to birth in a stable. Jesus is back where he belongs sharing the glory of God in three persons.  Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, back in control, sovereign.  And we can claim: He ascended into heaven that he might fill all things. That at the name of Jesus ever knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and things the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.'. (Phil 2:10,11).

Because of the cloud of glory we can call Jesus by his right name. Not mighty prophet, not good religious teacher, not remarkable human being but Son of God who lives and reigns with God the Father and God the Spirit before all time, now and for ever.

And there's more....

40 days since Easter

Some within the world church will know exactly what 40 days since Easter means. They will celebrate on Thursday!  Others of us may not!  In fact some us will be surprised how important this milestone is for many.  Yes, it's Ascension Day.  It's startling how important some Christians have regarded this event. St. Augustine reckoned that the Ascension of Jesus was the most important Christian Festival of them all - rated higher than Christmas and even Easter...

Without which the profitableness of every festival would have perished.  For unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven his Nativity would have come to nothing, and His Passion would have borne no fruit for us and his most holy Resurrection would have been useless.

That seems to go too far but the Ascension certainly is a vital piece of the story of Jesus - because it finishes the earthly journey with the mightiest of flourishes with the crowning moment of glory.  Miss the ascension and you miss the end of the story, the end of the journey, the triumph of the King.

Maybe some of us play this down because it's celebrated on a Thursday and our church doesn't meet. More likely there is lingering embarrassment that the ascension of Jesus suggests a world-view that heaven is just above the blue sky.  In this scientific age perhaps we feel uncomfortable to read 'he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight'.(Acts 1:9).  We shouldn't be embarrassed. Because this story is not about space travel and the location of heaven. It's not here to support pre-Copernican ideas.  The Ascension of Jesus is not about where heaven is but WHO JESUS IS when human eyes last saw him.  And it's the cloud that shows us so much about what the event means.

Before we reach Thursday I need to think some more.

Listen...just focus

A break from serious stuff!  This morning I have been on my hands and knees scrambling in awkward corners.  9 weeks ago, after protracted calls and online 'chats', a BT engineer replaced our old TV system. He said how useful it would be during lock down to have it all working well.  But two weeks ago it started to malfunction again with a tv/errors notice whenever I turned on.  Following online instructions to correct this also failed.  Another chatline adviser suggested new cables which, when fitted, led to no improvement either.

This morning I eventually got through to a live adviser.  Carefully I explained our problem.  He said he would talk me through fixing it.  First, I had to check the leads.  Disappointed I told him that I had done this several times!  'No, listen', he said, 'Just focus on what I am saying. What do your mini transmitters look like?  What lights are on?'  As I searched he reminded me to focus.  'Are they on extension cables?'  'Yes', I said, 'that's how the engineer set it all up.'  'That's wrong', he replied. 'They must be in the wall socket.  Put them into the wall socket'. Much more messing around in dark corners, disconnecting other items like the 'phones. Which meant suddenly I was cut off from him.  At least three times, with some irritation, he had told me to keep focus!

Cautiously I find that this advice appears to have worked. And this provides a  banal picture of how the Holy Spirit wants to keep me focused on essentials. Of course, he shows no irritation but has a similar task of guiding us when other things get in the way and confuse.  It's a good way of remembering in prayer...Listen..just focus.