Now Pentecost
This next part of the church calendar is one rarely considered in the world of my conservative upbringing. "We lost him, now we have him back," the disciples must have thought. Scripture records 40 days (is that right) between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension, and another ten unti Pentecost. In that 40 days, we have very little description of what the disciples (and the others he appeared to) might have been thinking. They must have wondered what the future was to be now that a resurrected Jesus was among them. Truly it must have seemed like being with a superhero, a man who could walk through walls and appear at will. I'm not suggesting Jesus became a man of magic, daily flaunting his transcendance, but for the disciples who experienced his various comings and goings for the next 40 days, it must have been equal parts comfort and confusion, not knowing what might be coming next.
And finally came his exit, and then Pentecost, which is where scripture records the real change happening.
Notions of the Holy Spirit's new invasion of the world (hadn't he always been around?) have yielded some pretty strange behaviors over the centuries and where power crosses the borders into charlatanism (is that a word?) is hard to discern. Our material, rational bent here in the West tends to view all unexplained phenomenon with skepticism, while those who throw the rational out the window in favor of intense experience may perhaps welcome darkness they didn't really intend to sign up for. We talk of spirituality, but want little to do with such spirituality if it means accepting the idea of forces outside ourselves acting on our world with good and evil intent.
The meaning of the Holy Spirit's coming into the world is, as Barbara Brown Taylor might put it, still an open question. I doubt if 50 days is enough time to think it through, but why not try?
Talk to Jesus for 40 days, watch him rise out of sight, then sit in Jerusalem for 10 more days.
Wonder what might happen?
7:51:36 AM
