Happy Birthday Dear Church

After his resurrection, Jesus spent time with his first disciples, preparing them to continue the mission of sharing God's love with a searching world. One of the most important things he instructed them to do was to 'wait until the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you.' He made it quite clear that without the power of the spirit they could do nothing! Hmm!

May 11th is Pentecost Sunday, the day when we say the church was born because on this day the Holy Spirit filled their hearts and they were ready to roll for Jesus! (It is also mother's day, so I pray for a special blessing on all mothers). But what is this power? And is it true that we can do nothing (of God's mission) without it, but empowered by the spirit, nothing is impossible? This is pretty powerful stuff!

It seems to me that we (the church) have not really come to grips with this. In the church today I see the Holy Spirit being neglected/ignored/avoided or directed and controlled to meet our own agendas!

The Spirit is from God, it is the power behind creation, it is the power that enabled a virgin to become pregnant, it is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. The power of the spirit is the power of God's love! God's very essence is love, and his deepest desire is that we might live to the full the gift of life we have been given. For this to occur requires a powerful force that can overcome our shortcomings (aka sin!), that power is the spirit of God's love. And as we learned at Pentecost, that power is poured out as promised on all who open their hearts to receive it in order to fulfill the mission of proclaiming the Good News throughout the world.

That's awesome, and more than a little intimidating! It is not a power to be used for our own selfish reasons, like Jim Carey initially in 'Bruce Almighty'; rather it is the power that enables us to love others as Jesus does. The Beatles were right when they crooned 'All You Need is Love!' It is true, we do, and praise God, we have it when we open our hearts to receive it (perhaps then we wouldn't need songs like 'All My Ex's Live in Texas!'). That's Pentecost power, and on this Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church, go to a church near you and "more power to ya!"

Shalom

Pastor Greg