Two months ago six of us—representing all of you—were sitting around a table in the sanctuary of a little church in El Estor in Eastern Guatemala. With us at table were pastors and leaders of the various churches of Estoreno Presbytery. For two days we had been visiting their churches, talking with church members, staying in homes, eating fish fresh from the lake, praying, worshiping, and talking with these leaders about ways we could all be in partnership.
The idea came up to continue something we had made a stab at earlier in the year: to study the same Bible passage and share our learnings with one another. Because we knew Pentecost was coming up and because we here at CHPC consider this such a great festival, we suggested we read and study the second chapter of Acts—the story of Pentecost.
There were odd looks around the table. We could tell they were a little ambivalent about this idea. So, we started telling them a little about our service here and the story from Acts and how this is like the birthday of the Church.
The confused looks on their faces unclouded a bit and they became quite interested. Finally one of the pastors admitted they really weren’t familiar with that story—and that they had always just associated the word “Pentecost” with Pentecostal churches. . . not with something related to them as well.
Maybe our friends/partners in Guatemala weren’t familiar with the first part of the Acts 2 story—the whole wind and flames and inspired preaching thing. But, I’ve got to tell you: they are very familiar with the last part of that chapter, the “rest of the story” that I will read now.
Read Acts 2:41-47 (found in the May 6 blog entry "Scripture and questions").
These verses could very well describe what we’ve seen of their life together as the Church. Fellowship, learning, breaking bread, praying, sharing resources, eating together, praising God, adding to their number, and having the goodwill of the people—all in spite of different languages: even when we’re not there adding English to the mix, the folks speak and translate and hear in two languages.
Interesting, I thought, that even though they didn’t think they knew this story: they are living it. Surely that’s evidence of the Spirit at work. Because it is in all those seemingly ordinary acts that the Spirit is at work among them. Somehow the Spirit both inspires those activities—and uses them to form people into church. So, even though our new friends didn’t know the story, they certainly did know the Spirit’s leading.
It all made me wonder about us. What we know. . . Sure, we may be familiar with the story of the first Pentecost—and love hearing the different languages, imagining the wild fire and the powerful wind. Maybe even like thinking about the power and potential of the Wild, out-of-our-control Holy Spirit that we celebrate today.
But, there’s maybe also a part of most of us Presbyterian-types that is just a little relieved this is only one Sunday a year…and that this kind of drama doesn’t really get past our play-acting about it. After all, we decent and orderly Presbyterians haven’t really known this kind of wild, chaotic, unmanageable experience of the Spirit. Even though we read about it, move our worship outside, let in a few more languages than normal, we aren’t much more familiar with the first part of this story, at least experientially, than our Guatemala friends.
That’s why I’m thinking that the last part of this chapter is maybe the part we know best too. We claim the commitment to breaking down some of the barriers between people and know the value of sitting at table together. We know the importance of studying the Bible and learning together—which is why that practice starts with the youngest among us. We love fellowship opportunities. We make prayer and worship high priorities. We might not “sell our possessions and distribute the proceeds to all” or engage in that “all things in common” thing too well but we do share our resources—with one another and the community beyond us. We spend a good amount of time together here at church and often eat together. We’re even catching on to that evangelism thing and adding to our number. This is all just what we do. We know this part of the story. It is ours.
But do we see the connection of all this to the story of the Spirit’s presence among the Church? Do we connect what we do with the Spirit Herself?
Look around…think about the common, ordinary-to-us things we do together: sitting at table with people of all ages with different backgrounds—people we might not usually eat with at any time but who we find ourselves at table with here; sharing food and prayers with these people; learning together; being open to someone new coming into our midst.
What if the Spirit is behind all this, making it happen? And what if the Spirit is present in all this, working through it to change us?
Ponder for a minute just one of those activities and consider how the Spirit is at work in it—forming you personally, forming us as a church, into witnesses of Jesus Christ. How is the Spirit at work in all our learning, our eating, our fellowship? How is the Spirit using these sorts of practices to form us as the Body of Christ?
It’s really interesting, I think, that the Spirit of God chooses to work through relationships and practices that are so common, so ordinary. Maybe that’s because the Spirit is so very Present. The Spirit is not just something that showed up dramatically a couple thousand years ago, but is a burning Presence active and working—right here. Right now. Praise be to God!
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