The Optimist’s Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
“They who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and the scripture in their hands, have all they need.” This quote is from Alexander Maclaran. I thought it was appropriate, since this next Sunday will be celebrated as Pentecost.
I’m sure we have all bought something at one time or another, and when we get home, we realize we are missing something we need to make it work, like the batteries!! Without that battery, there would be no power to make it work.
Perhaps this is the best way to understand what happened in Acts, chapter 2. We could say that until the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, the church was like a flashlight without batteries. Its function was to provide light. The bulb is there, the switch is on, and it’s pointed in the right direction. But there’s no light.
But when the Holy Spirit came, suddenly the church came to life. Now the light of the gospel was shining in the dark corners of the world. Now, suddenly, the disciples were transformed into apostles, who fearlessly spread the good news.The disciples of Jesus experienced this change in their lives, and now they have the power to tell the story of Jesus.
Just imagine that you are the disciples in the upper room. You were hiding there, not quite knowing what to expect. Jesus has told you to wait for the spirit to come. You wait and you wonder what it will be like. And then you hear it. A small wind that gets larger and larger. The door is locked, but the wind is there a wind that you have never experienced before, and it is the wind of God. Breath of God, which came over the land and created the Earth. It’s the same breath that was breathe into Adam’s lungs and gave him life. On the day of Pentecost, God brings life into the church by giving us the Holy Spirit .
The Spirit of God, the breath it comes from the Father and the on the Son, creates and makes all things new. It makes them all that God intended them to be. On this Sunday of Pentecost, we can celebrate that the breath of God came into our lives. This spirit came so that we might be safe from death and be given a new life. The day of Pentecost has been referred to as the birthday of the church. It is the day that the Holy Spirit of God, the breath of God, comes into the world, and the spirit gives us the power to spread the good news. It is a spirit which allows us an even encourages us to reach out to others.
This is what happened to the disciples that day in the upper room. At the moment that all the disciples of Jesus became capable of speaking all kinds of languages, and were willing to use those languages to contact people that they never would have thought about before.
On Monday, we will celebrate Memorial Day. This is the day when we pay tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives for our country. Let us pause on this day and thank God for those who have served and for the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to serve our Lord.
