Day 33, On The Road To Pentecost: THEN THEIR EYES WERE OPENED

Luke 24:13-32

The rumor of Jesus’ resurrection was spreading, but many were skeptical even though they were hoping it might be true.  If it were true then life would never be the same again, and the resurrection would forever stand at the center of everything for those who believed.

Two of those who had believed in Jesus made their way to the town of Emmaus, a little town about seven miles from Jerusalem.  As they walked, they talked.  They talked about Jesus, his death, and the rumor that he had come back from the dead. Jesus joined them on the walk, not letting them know who He was.  As the three talked about the activities of the past few days, they formed a bond.  They listened to what this stranger was saying about Jesus and the purposes of God.  When they reached their destination they invited the stranger to stay for supper.  As they ate together, the stranger took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.  In that moment a mysterious and wonderful thing took place.  Luke says, “…their eyes were opened and they recognized Him” (vs. 31).  Then they reflected upon their seven miles trek to Emmaus and said; “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (vs. 32).

The conversation between Jesus and these two people have often set me to thinking about how open my eyes are to the presence of Jesus.  Do I sense His presence in the ebb and flow of my own life?  Am I listening to the teaching, counseling, and guiding influence of His Word?  Have I quieted my busy life and been drawn into His presence so that my heart burned within me as He spoke to me?  The Psalmist gives us a prayer concerning this.  He writes, “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life” (Psalm 139:23-24, The Message).

John Henry Jowett says, “We are fashioned by our highest companionships.  We acquire the nature of those with whom we most constantly commune” (My Daily Meditation, June 27).  In this light, may our deepest companionship be with Jesus.  May we walk so close to Him that who He is will rub off on us.  May we live within the influence of His ongoing and amazing grace.  May our prayer be, 

Just as I am, without one plea,  

but that Thy blood was shed for me, 

And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,  

O Lamb of God, I come! I come! 

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,  

wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; 

Because Thy promise I believe,  

O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

                                  Charlotte Elliott, 1834

Day 32, On The Road To Pentecost: BUT PETER

Luke 23:50 - 24:12

Upon hearing the report of the women who had visited the tomb early Sunday morning, and of hearing about their encounter with two men who appeared to be angels, and about how the tomb was empty, and about how they were reminded of Jesus words telling them all that He would be crucified and then rise again on the Third day, “Peter got up and ran to the tomb” (vs. 12).  I suppose he just had to see for himself.  What was going on in his mind during those minutes we can only surmise, but I’m sure it had something to do with hope.  After all he had failed miserably on Thursday night and Friday, and he was in state of frustration, and most likely carried more guilt and grief than any of us can imagine.  Perhaps he ran to the tomb hoping against hope that maybe, in some strange and miraculous and mysterious way, Jesus really could be alive.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all tell the story of post resurrection events a bit differently but all of them hold to one certainty, that those who had loved Jesus in His life were stunned and in awe, and maybe even a little bit of bewilderment as they went through the process of sorting everything out. On the one hand, it was just impossible.  On the other hand, there was the empty tomb.  On the one hand, maybe someone had broken into the tomb and stole the body.  On the other hand, the people who were the first witnesses were credible people so why would they lie?   It would take Jesus revealing Himself to be alive over a fifty-day period before it would all sink it.  But when it did all sink in, wow – what a dramatic turn of events that set into motion a movement that is still picking up steam some two thousand years later.

One of the first spokesmen for the resurrected Lord was no one other than Peter.  Who would have thought it?  From failure to triumph, Peter rose up, under the power of the Holy Spirit, and became the man Jesus knew he could be.  And, it all began to come together for Peter as he stooped and looked inside the empty tomb and saw only “the linen wrappings” that had been placed around the dead body of Jesus. The body was gone and Luke says that Peter “went away to his home, marveling at what had happened” (vs. 12).

The resurrection of Jesus changed the course of Peter’s life.  After Pentecost we’ll see just how transformed Peter was.  Yet, that is his story.  What about us?  How has the resurrection impacted you and me?  In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul called the church to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  The life of Peter, and Paul, reveals to us that transformation really can happen in our world.  

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb; 

lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom; 

let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing, 

for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.   

Edmon L. Budry, 1884, Translate by Richard B. Hoyle, 1923)

Day 31, On The Road To Pentecost: GO... PREACH... BAPTIZE

Mark 16:14-20

There are many questions about Mark 16:9-20.  These verses don’t appear in the earliest versions of Mark’s Gospel, and this has led some scholars to dismiss these verses as being from Mark, and simply added by some scribe later on, perhaps to give Mark’s Gospel a smoother ending.  Whatever the case may be, Mark 16:14-20 is consistent with the story of Jesus as told by Mark, particularly with the last verse,

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it” (vs. 19-20a)

The heart of following Jesus is to tell His story, and to invite people into that story.  The commission is dependent, not on human wisdom and savvy but on the very presence of God in His people, through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus ascended back to the Father, He left a small group of people who would witness to the reality of Jesus and bear witness to what it means to have the God of all creation in charge of one’s life.  This responsibility and privilege has rested with each generation, and it falls to us in our generation.

In his book, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller says, 

“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.  

After that I liked jazz music. 

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

“Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.  It is as if they are showing you the way.” Perhaps Miller’s story is a parable of what it means to witness to the life transforming love of God.  The way we live, the words we speak, the commitments of our lives are lived so that others may see something in us that resonates in them, and in their watching us love Jesus, that can come to love Him, too.  There are no guarantees but maybe God is more caught that taught.  

Whatever the case may be, the early church took Jesus seriously, and shared the Good News wherever it went.  People came to believe in Jesus and kept the story going.  Today, two thousand years later and half a world away from where it all began, people are coming alive in the one who was raised up from the dead. Here’s to keeping the story alive in our towns at this time.   ~~ Jesus is Lord ~~ 

Day 30, On The Road To Pentecost: THEY REFUSED TO BELIEVE

Mark 16:9-13

On Sunday morning, upon encountering the empty tomb and a young man “wearing a white robe,” just inside the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene “went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping” (Mark 9:9).  Whoever those people were, they couldn’t believe what Mary was saying.  It was too over-the-top, stretching their thinking beyond an ability to believe, and “they refused to believe” (vs. 11).  It would take a little time to sink in.  I get that.  I’ve been to a lot of funerals in my life but I’ve never been to a resurrection.  Resurrection is a staggering thought to think and embrace.

Later that day, as two of Jesus followers were “walking along on their way to the country,” Jesus appeared to them.  Whatever they experienced on that walk energized them and “they went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe” (vs. 12-13).  

These encounters lead me to say that if you have friends who find it difficult that Jesus was raised from the dead, cut them a little slack.  Resurrection is a mind-blowing reality, and an easy believism is never called for.  It even took Jesus time to get the message across to His disciples that He really had risen from the dead.  When His resurrection is received and believed, all of life is changed in a most dramatic way.  

I read recently of a conversation between Michelangelo and a fellow artist.  Michelangelo asked the other artist, “Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the Cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped on Him with disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted…a few hours. But to the unending eternity, Christ is alive; the stone has been rolled away and He rules and reigns and triumphs” (ministry127.com).

It is interesting to me that in our story here in Mark, those impacted by the resurrection simply shared what they had experienced to others.  They were not responsible for what the others did with their testimony, but they sure did share it.  They lived it, too.  Outcomes were left to God.  The believers simply shared, the Holy Spirit then took their witness and one by one began to change, first those who followed Jesus in His life, and in time those who lived throughout the world, even “to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NASB).  

Let us live lives that reflect the fact that Jesus is alive, and then leave results to God. 

We’ve a message to give to the nations,  

that the Lord who reigns up above 

Has sent us His Son to save us,  

And show us that God is love.                  

                (H. Ernest Nichol, 1896)

Day 29, On The Road To Pentecost: WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE?

Mark 16:1-8

The Gospel of Mark begins the telling of the post resurrection event with “ Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome” (vs. 1), going to the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid.  They went there to complete the burial process began on Friday but that was cut short because of the beginning of Sabbath at sundown on Friday.  They had no idea as to what was about to rock their world.

The women knew their first challenge would be to get someone to roll away the large stone that was used to seal the entrance to the tomb.  Upon arriving they discovered that the stone had already been rolled away.  As they entered the open tomb they were shocked and amazed when “they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe (vs. 5).  The young man told them not to “be amazed” (vs. 6) and that he knew they were looking for Jesus but that Jesus wasn’t there.  His words were simply, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified.  He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him” (vs. 6).  Then, he sent them off to tell Jesus’ disciples, particularly Peter, to meet up with Him in Galilee.  “There,” he said, “you will see Him, just as He told you” (vs. 7).  And off they went “trembling” and in “astonishment” (vs. 8).  

Over the next fifty days of so, Jesus would reveal Himself to be alive, both to His disciples and to several hundred other people.  This revelation would set into motion a movement that would exist simply, and only, because Jesus had been raised from the dead.  They would serve a living Savior not a dead martyr.  “He is risen,” would be their rally cry. They would live, suffer, and face martyrdom because they knew that Jesus was alive.  They would not be denied.  The opponents would seek to shut the movement down only to see it spread more rapidly.  The old song says,

Low in the grave He lay 

Waiting the coming day. 

Vainly they watched His bed, 

Vainly they seal the dead.  

Death cannot keep his prey

 He tore the bars away.  

Up from the grave He arose,  

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.  

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,  

And He lives forever with His saints to reign

                                Robert Lowry, 1874

So it is we sing,

I serve a risen Savior; He’s in the world today. 

I know that He is living, whatever men may say. 

I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer; 

And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.                               

                                 Alfred H. Ackley, 1933

Day 28, On The Road To Pentecost: GO, AND MAKE DISCIPLES

Matthew 28:16-20

While others were orchestrating lies to pass along as truth, the eleven disciples gathered with Jesus on a mountain in Galilee.  As soon as they saw Him, “they worshiped Him” (vs. 17).  In that moment of worship Jesus gave closing words to the faithful.  He said something that has motivated His Church for two thousand years,

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

As followers of Jesus, when we are doing it right, our authority rests in Jesus Christ alone.  In 1779, Edward Perronet put this truth into a poem, which became a great hymn of the Church, when he wrote,

All hail the power of Jesus' name! 

Let angels prostrate fall. 

Bring forth the royal diadem 

,and crown him Lord of all. 

Bring forth the royal diadem, 

and crown him Lord of all! 

“All authority has been given to me,” said Jesus.  With this authority His church has encircled the globe with the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Wherever they have gone, His people have made disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (vs. 20), and “teaching them to observe all” that Jesus “commanded” them (vs. 20).

Because of Jesus’ all surpassing power, I still sing a song I grew up singing.  I guess I would say it is my testimony of faith.  The words are.

My hope is built on nothing less  

than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. 

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,  

but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. 

On Christ the solid Rock, I stand.   

                          (Edward Mote, 1834) 

Father, help us never underestimate the power of Jesus' authority.  Amen.

Amen.

Day 27, On The Road To Pentecost: THE RUMOR

Matthew 28:11-15

Some local leaders, who did not believe in Jesus, bribed the soldiers who guarded the tomb where the body of Jesus lay, so they could spread a rumor that “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep” (vs. 13).  They circulated the lie, but it never caught on.

Years ago, Charles Colson, of the Watergate debacle, said this about the lies of Watergate and the lies of the bribed soldiers.

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world, and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” (From an article by Marty Angelo entitled, “How Chuck Colson’s Legacy Of Hope Lives On (at https://www.prisonfellowship.org, April 16, 2018)

Colson makes an excellent point, doesn’t he?  Why would these men live and die for a lie?  It doesn’t make sense.  Nevertheless, I suppose, that each of us must decide what we shall do with the witness of the disciples.  One of the most entrenched Jewish men of his day, upon meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, could no longer deny the reality of the resurrection.  A few years after that encounter with Jesus he wrote,

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also (I Corinthians 15:3-8).

Back in 1914 John Henry Jowett wrote these powerful words in a volume called, My Daily Meditation.

Everything is transfigured in the Risen Christ. Everything is lit up when “the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings.” Life is lit up, and so is death, and so are sorrow and daily labor and human friendships! Everything catches the gleam and is changed. “We are no longer of the night, but of the day.” “Walk as children of light.” “Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee” (April 10 devotional reading).

Day 26, On The Road To Pentecost: I KNOW YOU ARE LOOKING FOR JESUS

Matthew 28:1-10

The dying and rising of gods is not of Christian Origins.  Stories like this appear all throughout mythologies in ancient times.  What makes the story of Jesus’ dying and rising is that it really happened.  No mythology here.  God was actually at work in this one person, who lived in this one time frame, in this one location.  He was real.  He really did die on a Friday and was really raised again on the following Sunday.  The faithful few didn’t realize this reality at first, and two of them, two women each by the name of Mary, went to the tomb on Sunday morning to morn, to grieve, and maybe even to pray.  They were stunned, however, when, one at the time, they came face to face with an angel who told them that Jesus wasn’t in the grave, that He had “risen, just as He said” (Matt. 28:6).  Upon hearing that the tomb was empty, they were instructed to “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead” (vs. 7).  As they made their way to the disciples, Jesus “met them and greeted them” (vs. 9).

The angel was right; the two women went to the grave looking for Jesus whom they supposed would be buried.  What they encountered at the grave shook them, stunned the disciples, and began a journey of God’s power and transformation that has reached us two thousand years later and half-a-world away.  They went looking for a dead man but came away with the living Christ, “who was declared the Son of God with power ^[by the resurrection from the dead…”(Romans 1:4).

What makes this event even more remarkable is that it starts in such a human way.  When death speaks we might not like it, but we bury our dead.  That’s the way the world works.  Then we encounter the living Jesus and know that something out of the ordinary has happened.  Dead men are supposed to stay dead.  However, Jesus is not just any man.  He is the God-Man.  He met the enemy of His creation on that enemy’s turf, and defeated that enemy, using His enemy’s own weapon against him – death.  

The realities of life are so serious that we don’t just need a hero who takes the death we deserve.  We need a Savior who can come down into the midst of our very real and broken lives, and establish there a stronghold of life.  Death in the world awaits us all, and to deny it is a very foolish thing to do.  However, our Savior is not buried away somewhere in an ancient graveyard.  He died, that’s for sure.  But, death could not hold Him.  Death gave way to His sovereign life and today He lives, and because He lives we are invited into His very life where the love and mercy and grace of God invigorate our lives with a fullness that is rooted and grounded in a compassion that is beyond our comprehension.  In His Life we live.  Even death does not have to be the final word about us.  After we die, there is one further word to be spoken and that word is LIFE.

John Newton had it right when he wrote in 1779 

“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound…” 

Day 25, On The Road To Pentecost: A REMNANT

Jeremiah 50:17-20

It seems that all throughout the Old Testament, the people of God could not remain faithful to the gracious call of God to be His people.  Yet, God never gave up on them.  His love for them was eternal, and even their disobedience could not drive God away from them.  There were times when it got so bad that God had to take His people into judgment but it was never for the purpose of judgment.  Always, God was seeking to do whatever it took to bring His people to Himself and to pour out His blessings on them.

I wonder if in many ways we are not just like them.  We want to be God’s people but we also want to have our way.  So, we’re all over the map spiritually.  We want God but we want our agenda, too.  Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy.  We want to blame Satan but, truthfully, it’s on us.  We disobeyed.  We drifted.  We lost focus.  We veered off course.  Our strong wills fell short of God’s design, we stopped growing. and lost the keen edge on spiritual things we once had.

Don’t you just love the word, “Pardon?”   When God could throw up His hands and give up on us, He draws near and keeps the door open for us to come home.  He keeps reaching out with arms of love, acceptance, forgiveness, and hope.  He keeps the light on the porch shining, and the welcome home sign polished.  Our God is a redeeming and saving and renewing God, and God is for us.

I grew up singing a song we don’t sing much anymore.  Its words, however, still strike a chord in my old heart.  Two of the verses of the song read,

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, 

Calling for you and for me. 

See, on the portals He's waiting and watching,  

Watching for you and for me  

O for the wonderful love He has promised, 

Promised for you and for me! 

Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon, 

Pardon for you and for me 

                          (Will L. Thompson, 1880)

This message is for us and for our world.  God doesn’t write people off.  God doesn’t say, “Get in our get out.”  God says, “Get in.  Get in.  There’s a place for you at my table.” 

A Prayer:  

"Your face, Lord, do I seek.”  -- Psalm 27:8, NRSV         

Day 24, On The Road To Pentecost: PRACTICE JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS

Ezekiel 45:1-9

The kingdom of God in the world is about truthfulness and justice.  Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  It can’t get much clearer than this, can it?  Ezekiel tells us in verse 9, “put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness.”  Apparently, God is looking for a people of integrity and clarity and veracity.  Truth matters.  Uprightness matters.  Why do we have some many laws throughout our world?  Because if left unchecked, violence and destruction and injustice and unrighteousness and untruthfulness would abound.  Even with the laws, every day we learn of some person or company or country who did not practice justice.  In Jeremiah 17:9 God says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Robert Kennedy gave a speech to the Cleveland City Club in which he said, “violence breeds violence; repression breeds retaliation; and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.”  Kennedy almost sounds like Ezekiel here, doesn’t he?  “Only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.”  Truthful words.  And, the truth is the cleansing must begin in our own souls first, and then expand outward, impacting our whole society.  We’re not there yet, are we?

In ancient Israel, the lack of justice and righteousness were so widespread and so entrenched, that the people were God’s people in name only.  They were God’s, mind you, but there was very little evidence of it throughout the culture, and God called them to a time of judgment and cleansing.  In essence God said, “Stop it.  Just stop it.”  Through all the prophets this was the message.  For Ezekiel the language was, “Put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness” (vs. 9).  The Message paraphrases this verse to read, 

I’ve put up with you long enough, princes of Israel! Quit bullying and taking advantage of my people. Do what’s just and right for a change. Use honest scales—honest weights and honest measures. Every pound must have sixteen ounces. Every gallon must measure four quarts. The ounce is the basic measure for both. And your coins must be honest—no wooden nickels!

The Church must listen to God’s heart and seek to be what God has called it to be.  We are a people of the One who is “Truth” (John 14:6).  God is calling us to a new way of being in the world.  We are “citizens of heaven” (Phil. 3:20).  We follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and we seek to be pliable in the hands of God so that we can be shaped and formed into the image of Jesus.

God is in our midst.  May this truth be seen in the way we live and move and have our being.

Day 23, On The Road To Pentecost: A COVENANT OF PEACE

Ezekiel 37:15-28

In spite of the brokenness of both the northern and southern kingdoms of ancient Israel, God had a plan to bring them back to Himself.  His plan was to unite them into one kingdom, His kingdom, over which a new king would reign.  Through the provision of this new king, God said He would “make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them.”  Of this “covenant of peace,” God says, “I will place [give, bless] them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever.  My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people” (Ezek. 37:26-27).

In Jesus, the Jewish Messiah and the Christian’s Christ, this promise is fulfilled.  In Jesus, God is establishing His kingdom on the earth.  In His life, Jesus modeled the kingdom.  In His suffering and death, Jesus came to say, just a moment before He died, “It is finished” (John 19:30).  On the following Sunday, He was raised up from the dead, defeating mankind’s worst enemy, death.  Several weeks later, Jesus ascended back to the Father, and poured out His Holy Spirt into His people.  That people, filled and empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit, did what commonsense said could not happened.  They set into motion a moment that is still expanding twenty-centuries later, and all over the world. 

God’s everlasting covenant of peace is being realized in the world.  God is blessing and multiplying His people.  His sanctuary is in the very midst of His people.  God is dwelling in the world through His people, establishing that God is present to be the God of all who will let His kingdom come into their lives.  God’s redeeming love is being witnessed to all around the world, and every day, God’s people are praying, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10)

Can we live today as if the sanctuary of God is in our midst, as if God’s dwelling place is within us?  This might be our challenged today.  It sure doesn’t look like the kingdom of God is here.  In fact, it looks just the opposite.  We ought not be deceived, however.  True, Jesus isn’t getting good press releases today, and the press releases we do read in media articles are usually negative.  

Regardless of what rumors abound in the world, the people of God can live as if the Sanctuary of God is in their midst because, the sanctuary of God is in their midst.  As a twentieth century hymn says,

Forth in the peace of Christ we go; 

Christ to the world with joy we bring; 

Christ in our minds, Christ on our lips, 

Christ in our hearts, the world's true king.

                                   James Quinn SJ, 1969

Day 22, On The Road To Pentecost: THE LORD HIMSELF IS GOD

Psalm 100:1-5

Sometimes, you’ve just got to express yourself.  You can’t sit still.  You can’t remain silent.  That’s what Psalm 100 is saying.  It is calling the people to act, to get up, to proclaim the reality of God in their midst.  “Shout joyfully to the Lord…Serve the Lord with gladness…Come before Him with joyful singing…Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise…Give thanks to Him…Bless His name” (vs. 1-4). All these actions are based upon a certain reality, a reality in which the people “know that the Lord Himself is God” (vs. 3).  There is a knowing and there is a doing.

In fact, in ancient Israel, to know was to do.  If one knew and didn’t do, there was a disconnect somewhere.  This makes me think of a wonderful prayer of A. W. Tozer:

O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want You; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Your glory, I pray, that so I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow You up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

When one has tasted the reality of the Living God and discovered that God “is good,” and that “His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness [is] to all generations,” it is hard to sit still (see vs. 5).   When people know that God has made them, and that they “are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (vs. 3), it is hard to be silent.  Sometimes you’ve just got to worship and praise and celebrate.  Sometimes you’ve just got to “shout joyfully to the Lord” and “serve the LORD with gladness” and “come before Him with joyful singing” (vs. 1-2).  Truthfully, maybe we ought to change “sometimes,” to “always.”  How can one remain inactive when one knows that God has reached into their lives, entered into their story, and filled them with an awareness that God is faithful?  Inaction is difficult to grasp in the life of one who has been redeemed into the very life of God.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound 

That saved a wretch like me! 

I once was lost but now 

am found, Was blind, but now I see.                            

                           John Newton, 1779

Life in the Holy Spirit is life in God’s amazing grace.  Life in God’s amazing grace is fulfilled-life in his moment.  Perhaps this is why Jesus called His followers to pray to God, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew. 6:10).  

Day 21, On The Road To Pentecost: WELCOME HOME

Ezekiel 28: 25-26

Did you know that God is a Gathering God?  God says through Ezekiel, “When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered…” (vs. 25).   God is a delivering God.  He brings people out of their exile into community.  God speaks His love into His people, brings them out of exile and into the fellowship that only God can provide.  God takes the lonely, the disenfranchised, the alienated and brings them home.  

God brought Israel out of exile, brought them home to Judah and their city, Jerusalem.  Once there, God manifested His holiness in them, and at the right moment brought, through them, the Messiah, Jesus, and in Jesus God says to anyone who will listen, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give your rest” (Matthew 11:28).

The God who spoke in ancient times, still speaks today.   God is still offering a place from us to call home, family, community.  We are not alone.  In the holy love of God, we are saved from exile and given a safe place to live our lives; a safe place, that is defined by God’s grace and mercy, His truth and justice, His love and compassion.  God doesn’t write us off.  God includes us.  In John 17, Jesus prays that the Father will work in such a way that the people will come together and “be one” (John 17:21).  In the next verse Jesus prays to the Father, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one” (vs. 22).

God is a gathering God.  We are not lone ranger Christians.   We are the community of Jesus, shaped and formed by the Spirit of God.  When the Church is doing it correctly it is a receiving, gathering, inviting, safe place for people to come, be loved, accepted, forgiven, and welcomed.  In His people Jesus opens up the heart of God and says to each one of us, “Welcome home.”

On the day of Pentecost, God broke into the lives of a few people, and through them set into motion a movement by which people are invited to turn around, come home, and be saved.  God’s community is a saved and saving community.  With open arms we invite our world to taste the goodness of God, and find nourishment, not only for today but for all eternity.  

Jesus said, “Come to Me.” Jesus’ Church says, “Welcome home.  There is a place here for you.  Live in exile no more.”  When this happens then we understand what it means for the LORD to be our God.  Then we understand what it means to stand in our world as ambassadors of Jesus and to extend to all who seek God the right hand of fellowship.  

“You will find rest for your souls.  

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” 

                                     -- Jesus in Matthew 11:30

Day 20, On The Road To Pentecost: YOU SHALL KNOW I AM THE LORD

Ezekiel 20:39-44

In the ways of God people are dealt with in the spirit of love and dignity and forgiveness and acceptance.  Human wisdom says that people should get what they deserve.  God says, there is a different and better way. When God speaks into the human situation it is out of a position of holiness and righteousness, as well as of grace and mercy.  So it is God says to His unfaithful people, “You will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds” (vs. 44).  

I, for one, am thrilled that God does not give me what I deserve.  If God gave me what I deserve, I would be desperately lost for all time and eternity.  Instead, God works in my life, and yours, from the holy character of His own name.  In the New Testament it is expressed this way, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  When God could have written us off, He included us.  God isn’t screaming, “Get in our get out.”  God is reaching out into our lives saying to us, “Get in. Get in.”

In ancient Israel, and for us today, God is proving Himself to be holy.  In the end, the nations will know that God is the LORD God of the universe. To that end God is doing what needs to be done in the world.  He will see to it that justice prevails.  Love will not be defeated.  Righteousness will win.  Evil, which is everywhere seen in the world, will come to an end.  Truth will win out.  Good news will emerge.

In many ways, it seems that the visions and dreams of God for His creation are nowhere to be seen.  Yet, in the midst of a hurting and broken world, God has a people, a people like king David of old, who would write, in the midst of great personal pain and suffering and evil and wrongdoing against him, “As for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, ‘You are my God.  My Times are in Your hand” (Psalm 31:14-15).

People of faith know to whom they belong.  They know their Savior.  This led Edward Mote to include these words in his song, “The Solid Rock,”

His oath, His covenant, His blood, 

Support me in the whelming flood; 

When all around my soul gives way, 

He then is all my hope and stay.  

                                   (ca. 1834) 

“When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”  When everything that can fall apart is falling apart, we followers of Jesus hold fast to this One who is our “Solid Rock.”  Rest assured, the enemy is at work, but the enemy is not God, and he is on a collision course with ultimate and entire defeat.  Until then, trust in the LORD.  Your times are in His hands.

Day 19, On The Road To Pentecost: I WILL PUT A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN THEM

Ezekiel 11:1-25

God is looking for a people who will be faithful to Him and His Word.  In this faithfulness God seeks to create that people to be participants in what God is doing in the world.  His kingdom is about truth and justice, about peace and joy, about life and thriving in the grace and mercy of God.  To that end, God will judge anything or anyone that stands in opposition to His will, because they are not about truth and justice, peace and joy, life and thriving in His grace and mercy.  They are about themselves.  They live by their ego and make decisions based on their greed.  They want power and they want money.  Collateral damage means nothing to them, as long as they get what they want when they want it.  

Ancient Judah, though saying they were the people of God, did not live as God’s people.  Injustice, lies, greed, evil penetrated their society.  In an effort to draw them back to Himself, God provided for them to be taken into exile in Babylon, where they would stay for about 400 years or so.  Yet, God would not leave them alone and without hope.  Through His prophet, God spoke of how He would take their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh (see vs. 19).  God’s promise was, “that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them.  Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God” (vs. 20).

There is a very insightful thought in Ezekiel 11:5 where God says, “I know your thoughts.”  God knows the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and will not be hoodwinked, duped, conned, fooled, or tricked.  He knows our thoughts.  He also knows how to work in the human situation, and is always seeking to soften our hearts, and make them pliable in His grace-filled hands.  So, it is, in the midst of thoughts about judging sin, God establishes again the reality of His amazing grace.

There are people and institutions and businesses all around us that do not have our best interests in their game plan.  God does have our best interest in His game plan, however.  The writer of Hebrews renews this ancient thought when he quotes Deuteronomy 31:6, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 15:5).  God is present in the midst of a world gone wrong.  Evil exists all around us, but in a world gone wrong, God is raising up a people who have tasted His goodness and grace, and know that their best life is in Him.  We are invited to be one of those people. Perhaps this is why Jesus called people to Himself when He said,

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)

Day 18, On The Road To Pentecost: I WILL DO AS YOU SAY

Luke 5:1-11

Sometimes, reason seems to go against the ways of faith.  It makes sense, really, because we live in a tangible, measurable, factual world.  Or, do we? Shakespeare had Hamlet say to Horatio, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet, Acts 1, Scene 5).  Even science is living and moving.  It is not static.  What was consider fact, years ago, in many instances, is now seen not to be fact at all.  So, maybe it is good to have an open mind, because our minds are, in fact, finite.  

On the way to Pentecost we are brought face to face with the ways of human thinking and the ways of God; and, the two do not always match.  Take Peter’s fishing experience.  He knew his trade, and he knew that sometimes the fishing is good and sometimes it isn’t. When it isn’t, you clean up your equipment, get a good night’s rest, and go back at it the next day.   Then Jesus turns your world up-side-down.  He says, “forget your conclusions, Peter, and trust me.”  Peter, knows Jesus is out of his element but believes in him enough to say, “We worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets” (vs. 5). The results?  Mindboggling.

Sometimes, Jesus tests our common sense, and we are left scratching our heads, thinking that what He says isn’t making sense.  Could it be, however, that there is such a power at work in the world under which, even common sense, is placed?  Faith will sometimes test common sense, and call us out of ourselves and into the power of God. That’s what Jesus seems to be doing with Simon Peter.

Peter did what Jesus suggested, and the results were so staggering to him he said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (vs. 8). Peter realized He was in the presence of someone who, in His actions, stretched his imagination to the limit and forced him to a new level of self-awareness.  “Amazement had seized” Peter, and stopped him dead in his tracks.  Then Peter heard life-transforming words from Jesus, “Do not fear, from now own you will be catching men” (vs. 10).  Peter and James and John (who were his partners) took Him seriously, and we read, “They left everything and followed Him” (vs. 11).

On the day of Pentecost, a movement will begin that will so impact countless numbers of people that for twenty centuries they will leave everything and follow Jesus.  These people will see through the ways and means of humankind, look into the face of God, by faith, and it will change their lives.  You may be one of those people.

C. S. Lewis said something that speaks to my heart.  He said, “Don’t shine so others can see you. Shine so that through you others can see Him.”  That’s what happened to Peter and his partners.  For the rest of their lives they sought to live so that through their lives people would see Jesus.  

Day 17, On The Road To Pentecost: I SAW A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN

Acts 26:1-18

Saul of Tarsus!  Who would have ever thought that this man would become a follower of Jesus Christ?  Yet, he met Jesus (vs. 13), and Jesus changed his life.  From the moment of the initial change until the day of his death, Saul lifted up Jesus Christ and proclaimed that He is the long-awaited Messiah.  Until the day he died in Rome, Saul, now called, Paul, sought to reach out to Jew and Gentile alike, obeying Jesus and seeking, as Jesus said, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

The broken world of Saul’s day and the broken world of our day has not changed much.  People still need a life-transforming relationship with God.  God’s grace is so marvelous that God doesn’t write off people; not even Saul of Tarsus.  God isn’t saying “Get in or get out.”  He is saying, “Get in.  Get in.  Get in.”  God still seeks entrance into our distracted, busy, and anxious lives.  He is still calling people to turn from the darkness to the light, and from the dominion of Satan to God.  God is still the God who receives and forgives and pours out His grace.  God is still the God who comes into our lives and saves us from our on selves, from our own pride and lust and greed.    

On the day of Pentecost God would pour out His Holy Spirit on His people and set into motion a force for God’s amazing love in the world.  The early church saw itself as a movement for Jesus in the world.  Wherever people of the church went, they lifted up Christ, and gave themselves to works God would have them do.  Two thousand years later the force is still awakening the lives of broken, hurting, and hungry people.

Edward Gibbon, in his work, The Decline And Fall Of the Roman Empire, describes the early decades of this force for God’s love by saying, 

A pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol.

That’s remarkable.  Many people thought the Jesus’ Movement would die after a brief period, and become one more religion that could not stand the test of time.  They were wrong.  The Holy Spirit filled those people with the power of God, and used them in ways that most likely stunned even them.  Today, the call of Jesus is still front and center, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

The story of Jesus is still being written and we are invited into it, with all the weight of the Holy Spirit behind us.