Pentecost, the Spirit and the Church
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:24AM This Sunday, May 31, is Pentecost. Along with Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of the church. Of course, Pentecost marks the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church as recorded in Acts 2.
We try in our congregation to make a big deal of Pentecost in our worship, with all sorts of extra flourishes. Just as the Holy Spirit is the low-profile member of the Trinity, so Pentecost has seemed pretty minor compared to Christmas and Easter. Several years ago in Sunday School, a young boy, after hearing the story of Pentecost, responded, “How come I’ve never heard that story before?”
Talk of Pentecost always raises questions about the role and work of the Holy Spirit today. In the past few decades, the influence of Charismatic-Pentecostal Christians upon all Christian churches, including the RCA, has been huge. A few weeks ago, Church Herald blogger Dave Cheadle wrote about the importance of the “signs and wonders” as evidence of the power of Holy Spirit in the church. http://heraldblog.squarespace.com/dave-cheadle/2009/5/12/full-gospel-preaching-words-signs-and-wonders.html
I am largely sympathetic and supportive of these charismatic impulses in the church. I accept and believe in most of the more “far-fetched,” extraordinary gifts and outpourings of the Holy Spirit.
No doubt Pentecost and the Holy Spirit may have been ignored and undervalued for centuries, but I am beginning to feel that we are to a point of overcompensating for those centuries of under-appreciation.
In my pastorate, I have found that the church of Jesus Christ is really a lot more like the fragile, all-too-human, yet wondrous, grace-filled churches we encounter in Paul’s letters than the church as it is portrayed in Acts. I have grown weary of being beaten up and guilted and made to feel inferior because our churches today don’t meet the inflated standards portrayed in Acts. (My growing aversion to Acts is especially odd given my fondness for its companion volume, Luke).
I have grown cynical about “Spirit-filled” Christians lecturing quiet, faithful believers about their lack of joy and evidence of the Spirit. In my experience, if you look ten years later, that “Spirit-filled” Christian is now burned-out, says it was all “just a phase” while the quiet, faithful Christian is still plugging away. Increasingly I see churches that ten years ago shouted about “doing church a new way” now in crisis, looking for counsel, assistance and still more money from what they once called “dead-churches”. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church seems to indicate that over-fascination with the Holy Spirit has always led to an inherently unstable, divisive, and prone-to-arrogance kind of faith.
Sunday we will celebrate Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a big way. I am increasingly convinced that the most important signs and wonders from the Spirit are gifts like long-term faithfulness, quiet compassion, unseen service, perseverance, sensing the presence of God in ancient traditions, and the Spirit-given ability to live and love together for the long haul. Blessed Pentecost.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Steve,
THANK YOU for your gentle and insightful comments.
I'm glad that you've added to the dialog. What you've added needs to be heard over and over!
I've appreciated things that you've written in the past, and I'm sure that I'll continue to enjoy your observations and insights on many topics in the future.
For what it's worth, as a preacher and student of the Bible, I see God often using His prophets and writers "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." (Although this quote itself probably only dates back to a 19th century journalist.)
Yes, I have an agenda, as will continue to be clear in my blogs... including another one that I just posted re: Pentecost.
Yes, I know the dangers of preachers and writers who have "agendas." (But I also know the dangers of those who don't.)
My "charismatic" agenda is NOT to condemn or to self-promote. It is to merely keep alive the balance that I find in the N.T. and that I did not find in growing up RCA, nor do I find in some RCA churches today.
As you know, Jesus "mixed it up" by raising questions in ways that drove everyone crazy at times. But he did make EVERYONE around him think, and I believe he wants us all to continue to think all the time. For me, that's the stuff of moving from milk to meat. It's what sanctification is all about.
For those with "Charismatic" backgrounds, this could mean becoming more "Reformed." For those with "Reformed" backgrounds, this could mean becoming more charismatic.
I need to hear what our Lord wants me to hear through what He puts on your heart. Others need to hear what the Lord wants to say to them through me. Like you, I actually believe that God does this, speaking to each of us through each other, as well as through scripture directly, if not privately.
So far, it seems like I am stuck being the "charismatic" blogger, trying to keep that voice in the mix, because it is so profoundly in the mix found in the New Testament. If and when a more mature and articulate spokesperson provides a better "voice" for the charismatic insights needed to help maintain balance, then I will gladly step aside.
Until then, this venue is apparently stuck with me.
Oh, well....
And thanks again for the balance that you provide in holding the "charismatic" voice to the high standards of love, temperance, humility, and all the godliness that is outlined in Gal. 5:22-26.
May God continue to bless you deeply in your faithfulness to His Word and leading!
--- Under the Mercy, Dave Cheadle
Dave,
Thanks for your wise and gentle response. I certainly hope my post did not come off as any sort of rebuttal or even response to your post about signs and wonders. I was simply referencing you as someone who has also blogged on the topic of the Holy Spirit. Don't apologize for having a point of view--everyone has one. It is what makes a blog interesting--that people have agendas and points of view. Nothing wrong with you being the "charismatic blogger"!
I was trying to say that my own personal experiences with gifts of the Spirit have been positive and that I am open to them. My experience with churches that are based on the more unusual outpourings of the Spirit has been less positive. I don't believe that "signs and wonders" are a good basis or primary emphasis for a church.
When I read the RCA "Standards (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession and Canons of Dort) I am always struck that the primary emphases upon the role and work of the Spirit are on instilling faith in us and forming the church. These things sound so modest, unspectacular, even small compared to tongues, healings or exorcisms. Yet increasingly I am convinced that instilling and maintaining faith is really an incredible, miraculous gift of the Spirit. A focus on the more wild and spectacular expressions of the Spirit often seems to lose sight of this first and basic gift of the Holy Spirit.
BTW--we had a festive, colorful Pentecost Sunday, yet few would describe our congregation as "Pentecostal." Similarly, I am saddened when I hear friends whose congregations did not even recognize this important Sunday. Go figure.
Hi Steve,
Wonderfully said!
Thank you for your sound words, and for your willingness to live into this "messy" area of church life that is so often fraught with misunderstanding and tension.
Under the Mercy,
... and living with the Holy Spirit until Our Lord Himself returns!
----- Dave Cheadle