This week we celebrated The Day of Pentecost in the life of the Church. It was a great celebration as it should be. Pentecost marks the day that God sent God's Spirit to Christians. This gave life to the Christian Church (by the way, the church is the people of God). Miraculous things happened as people heard a message of grace, truth, and hope on that day. Many new people followed Jesus. Many people began to live differently by choosing simplicity, generosity, and community. They found the love of God to be real and transforming in their lives. Hungry people were fed, no one in their community was poor anymore, and everyone had all they needed because they began to share with each other. You can read about this in the book of Acts in the Bible.
In celebrating Pentecost this year I was reminded that these men and women, many of whom became legends and heroes to the church for many years to come, were in fact ordinary people like you and me. Sometimes as a pastor, I am given reverence by a title, such as, "Reverend" (by the way, I dislike the title except when it is used by my friends who know me well and who I know are not using it to "reverence" me). Sometimes to some I am almost considered a hero. But wait, like every one at Pentecost and like every hero you can think of, I along with everyone else is nothing more than an ordinary human being who at times accomplishes something extra-ordinary. How does that happen?
Superheroes like spiderman may give us the clue. It was a spider bite from a radio-active spider (sorry I am not a spiderman expert) that empowered the ordinary Peter Parker to do extraordinary and heroic things. That is what Pentecost is like. It was the Spirit of God that filled the ordinary men like Peter the disciple of Jesus and cause him to lead extraordinary things to happen.
I hope that all of us can experience the bite of God's Spirit in our lives to find the hero within. You may be ordinary, but God has extraordinary and heroic things planned for you. You too can be a super-hero.
Peace
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1 comment:
Hey Kerry, I never would have connected Peter Parker becoming Spiderman with people being filled with the Spirit. Great observation!! My favorite super-hero has always been Batman. As the story goes, when Bruce Wayne was a boy he fell into an old cave, which awoke hundreds of bats that surrounded him. He became petrified of bats. So later in life, because of the death of his parents, he decides to share his fear of bats with the criminals of Gotham City. That fear became the focal point of Bruce Wayne's (Batman) life. Imagine if instead of using fear, Christians would use love to penetrate the hearts of those who do not know Christ, and build up those who do know Him. The only things that would be missing would be the expensive gadgets and the cool car ;)
Great blog by the way - it's my first time checking it out. Keep it up.
- Scott M.
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