On the Way to Wonder

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)”  “Devote” is a serious word.  It implies love, loyalty, faithfulness, and enthusiasm.  Those early believers were not immersed in a culture that called itself Christian, nor were they the majority.  They were a group of people whose lives had been transformed by the reality of Jesus in life and now resurrected.  In the face of opposition they were loyal and faithful to what they had experienced.  Teaching, fellowship, communion and prayer were core to their corporate experience.  That’s intense.

         I cannot help but think how life today has been so impacted by the pandemic and the attempts to get us to change our social behavior as it impacts others.  Today it is not a movement coming from ordinary people, fishermen like Peter, James and John but rather we listen to “officials” representing medicine and statistics.  Today we are isolating the sick and hearing testimonies about people who have died “too soon.”  Life has been stolen.  Then people fellowshipped together and shared testimonies of transformation, life enhanced.  Things seem so different and yet today and then culture was and is going through a transformation.

         So what am I devoted to?  For many, family would be high on their list.  Gangs expect loyalty.  Faithfulness is a word we might be as apt to apply in talking about our pet rather than a friend.  Devotion is a hard word when we are trying to maintain control of our lives.  Devotion implies submission to another and willingness to follow their leadership.  The early believers studied together, met together, ate together and prayed together.          Spend a few minutes now asking yourself who or what you are devoted to and how that is expressed in your life.  Perhaps you could challenge yourself to live out your devotion in a specific way today – read an extra piece of Scripture, show love to someone by doing something unexpected, or pray to renew your loyalty.  Devotion is not just a feeling in our heart but a way we live our lives, focus our minds, and spend our time.  The devotion of the disciples changed their world for the better and we would like to do the same!

Yesterday we looked at the gift of language.  Language allows us to communicate with others and with God but what do we want to tell others today?  At Pentecost a violent wind filled the room, a fire that divided into flames above each person’s head appeared, and people were enabled to speak in other languages to communicate with the audience that gathered.  Some bystanders thought the disciples drunk but it was only 9 a.m.  Possible but not probable.  Then an ordinary fisherman, Peter, stepped forward and shared his experience, the amazing events that had taken place in his life since he met Jesus.  He shared about the crucifixion and what it meant in the lives of the audience.  Many people’s hearts were touched and they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

         I ponder today how we use the gift of language.  It seems so easy these days to point out the errors of others – the person who cuts us off in traffic or is too slow to respond to a change in traffic light, or perhaps the words that ring out demanding our rights and lamenting the wrongs of our world, or perhaps just passing on the choice piece of gossip about someone.  Language has the power to bless and to curse. The Beatles sang, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”  What does the world need to hear now, do you think? Peter shared that there was forgiveness for the evils done at that time.  What might we want to hear today if Peter were to speak to us?  What might we want to share about our experience with God if we had the opportunity?  Not everyone will believe us. But we have a story worth telling.

     Take a few minutes and ponder how you might summarize your experience with God in a sentence or two.  Is there someone who might need to hear your story?  Or, turn that statement of faith into a prayer of thanksgiving to God.  We can never be told  “thank you” enough, right!

As a young adult I was dating a guy who had plans to spend six weeks in the summer at the University of Washington in Seattle studying Bible translation.  I was fascinated and went to the Wycliffe Bible Translators office in Los Angeles to talk to them.  I met a gentleman who had returned from 30 years in the field, leaving a translation, a church, and an educational system.  I asked myself what I would be leaving after thirty more years of teaching junior high mathematics.  And so began a friendship that now has lasted 45 years and a love for languages.  Pentecost was accompanied by the sound of a violent wind, a fire that separated and came to rest on each person but did not burn, and they “began to speak in other languages” so that all people heard the story of God with his people in their own language! (Acts 2:4, 11)

         The ability to read and hear in our own language is the ability to think and decide for ourselves what we believe.  I do not have to wait until someone thinks to share with someone they consider less smart.  I do not have to struggle to understand idioms in a foreign language or ask my husband to translate when I get home.  I can read and think for myself.  I thought it was a wonderful gift.  The men in the tribe we worked with were caring for flocks and herds far away or they went to the capitol to be night watchmen.  Communications within families and friends was a challenge.  This was before cell phones and of course there was no electricity for email.  Being able to hear the words of God in your own language is wonderful.

         As Christians we believe God speaks all languages and desires all to know of his love and salvation.  The language is not holy but the God who speaks it is holy.  So while the various translations and expressions of the Bible may seem confusing and often we fall into the trap of arguing about words but the important point is not the word used but that the God who speaks, speaks to us and desires to be in relationship with us.  We do not need to climb to him by trying to lead perfect lives or by giving sacrifices that would feed our family but in Pentecost, God speaks to us in our language.

         If you could hear one word today from God, what would it be?  I love you?  You are forgiven?  Be at peace?  You are valuable?  God reaches out to us in his Word, the Scriptures to communicate with us and let us know we matter.  Thank you, Lord! 

Did you feel the change of the wind?  No, it is not that Mary Poppins is arriving on an umbrella.  It is not even the wind that tells of a change of weather.  Some “get wind of” gossip floating about from one person to another.  We politely talk about passing wind.  It is none of these.  Yesterday was Pentecost.  “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1,2)” The Holy Spirit was present.

         In Genesis, the wind hovered over the void and creation began.  God formed people and blew life into them.  “God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided” in the flood. Wind indicates the presence of God and of change. 

         My heart is touched by several aspects of the Pentecost story.  God’s breath, God’s wind, made God’s communication became understandable in each person’s language.  There is no language barrier between me and God.  I do not have to learn a language or qualify to earn the right to communicate with the God of the universe.  I don’t have to wait in line to speak to God or go to a professional religious leader but can talk with him any time and any place.  Secondly there is a change of focus.  The wind brought communication, not because a miracle was needed for a healing as when people came to Jesus with their sick, but now God was speaking to people in their own language about their lives.  The wind brings relationship with God.  Wind touches me and my friends all at the same time.  I do not have to worry if Jesus is busy healing someone else like the woman with the flow of blood who secretly touched Jesus as he went to the home of Jairus whose daughter was sick.  The wind of Pentecost blew in change.

         Pentecost brought a major change in the understanding of God and our ability to communicate with him and be empowered by him.  The sacrificial system changed.  I no longer bring a burnt offering but a broken and contrite heart.  Before we jump into the Pentecost season, let us spend a couple days thanking God for changes that blew into our lives on Pentecost.  No language barrier, no distance barrier, no subject barrier, and no need to buy a goat.  We can stand in the wind today and say “thank you” to God for his breath working in our lives and all over our world.  And the people of God said, “Amen!”

We have reached the end of the Easter season.  We have looked at the testimonies of those who saw the risen Christ.  With Mary, we exclaimed “Rabi, Teacher” when she met him at the empty tomb.  We joined Apostle Thomas who cried, “My Lord and my God,” when Jesus appeared behind closed doors and invited Thomas to put his hands in the wounds of Jesus’ hands and side.  We too long to see Jesus!  The two on the road to Emmaus felt their hearts burning in them as the scriptures were opened and they met the risen Lord in the breaking of bread.  John concludes, “Jesus did many other things as well if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world could not have room for the books that would be written.”  We stood with the followers and watched Jesus ascend to heaven and waited with them in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

         I chose as a hymn, a putting to music of Scripture, Isaiah 40:25-31.  “Those that wait on the Lord will rise up on wings like eagles.”  Please enjoy.

We have come to the end of the Easter season.  Sunday we will celebrate Pentecost.  Between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost the disciples pondered what the future would look like, they stayed together in community, they prayed, they chose Matthais to return their number to the familiar twelve that we associate with the apostles but they did one more thing.  Luke shares in Luke 24: 53, “And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”  It is so easy in in-between times to give way to fear about the future but it seems that the followers clung to Jesus’ yet to be fulfilled promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

         In those uncertain times, what do you cling to?  What keeps you going?  Fear of the future drives some to immerse themselves in videos about happy endings, crimes solved, bad guys defeated.  Others hide in alcohol, drugs or sex. Busyness so that we live in exhaustion is common.  We have many ways that we can avoid the anxiety of waiting for yet unseen promises.  I’m sure the followers had no real idea what the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit meant.  We debate today if that means speaking in tongues or some other esthetic experience and search our lives looking for signs of which gift of the Spirit we have been blessed with.

         Waiting is hard. The followers waited in the Temple worshipping what they already knew and praising.  Praise focuses our attention from the anxiety and problem to the character of the God who will help us walk through the in-between times.  I suspect they might have focused on Isaiah 9:6,7,

“For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ His authority shall grow continually,
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Choose one of the titles describing Jesus that brings you comfort during anxious times.  Counselor? God? Father? Prince of Peace?  Each is powerful and comforting.  Spend a few minutes focusing and praising God for these.  This God cares about you!  Thank you, Lord.

During in-between times it is sometimes helpful to revert to the familiar.  As the followers of Jesus, men and women, tried to get their minds around what the future would look like, as they gathered in community and as they prayed, Peter took the lead with about 120 people present (Acts 1:15).  He suggested that since there had originally been 12 disciples but Judas had hung himself after his betrayal that the next step was to choose someone to take his place from among the people who had followed Jesus from the beginning.  Mathias was chosen.  Staying with familiar patterns while we wait for the next phase provides stability and predictability.

         One morning as my oldest son was leaving for school while we were in the States, he asked, “Why don’t you cook any more, Mom?”  I was surprised for I fixed three meals a day.  His response was that I no longer made the coffee cake I always made on Sunday morning when the children were home on school breaks.  We have certain “traditions” that provide rhythm to our family.  We say a family prayer we know at meals.  We do evening devotions and “pray around the world”, or at least around the room on Sunday evenings.  A simple “thank you” for one thing during the week was sufficient.  There are traditional foods for holidays, perhaps a personal stocking for Christmas, and also certain songs I associate with singing the kids to sleep as infants.  Traditions provide a backbone during times of change.  A basketball team with only four players just isn’t right so if one is out, a sub is sent in.  I love Tevy’s comment at the beginning of Fiddler on the Roof.  “What keeps the fiddler from falling off the roof? he asks.  Traditions.  Traditions tell us who we are and what God expects of us!

         What traditions give structure to your life?  When our five children, twins at the end, were young, I was overwhelmed and had no time for spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible.  Just keeping up with diapers and meals in the “bush” was full time work.  We started the habit of my husband reading a passage of scripture to me while I nursed the twins.  Then it became while I worked on knitting.  Now we start the day with reading and he still reads to me.  Spiritual disciples are those habits that provide a predictable rhythm to our lives and provide a foundation for our souls.  I would suggest you take a moment to reflect on the disciplines you have.  Perhaps there are ones that you may have become sloppy about, or ask yourself if there is a discipline you would like to add.  Life just was not right for the disciples without that twelfth person.  Traditions help us keep a steady course into the future God is about to reveal.  Blessings!

“They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. (Acts 1: 14)”  “They”, the eleven original disciples and the women turned to prayer in that in-between time.  We all experience in-between times when God feels so distant and we can’t see him or touch him and are not sure what to do next.  I often joke and say, “I wish God would send a fax!  It would be so much easier and clearer.”  But that is not how God works.  Often there is a lull, “a calm before the storm.”  During those times we imagine and wonder what life is going to be like after….  We lean on community.  But we also have the gift of prayer.

         Prayer can be like writing a list for Santa Clause but as we grow, prayer becomes a form of communication.  Have you ever found that as you are trying to explain something to someone, that if they are quiet, the tendency is to keep talking and explaining.  Sometimes we call that the gift of presence.  Just sitting with someone as they sort through their thoughts and feelings and quietly listening, without judging, is a great gift.  My friend is a “listener.”  She will be allowed back into the prisons this week to be an official listener.  She sits with women and gives them the gift of listening and letting them tell their story.  I sometimes fear that in our hurry, scurry world today that we do not have time to just sit with friends.  God has time and the disciples needed to spend time in prayer, sorting through their experiences in community and in prayer, conversation with God.

         I took a class on meditation as a young adult.  20 minutes a day of just sitting calmly and meditating on a “mantra” or on Scripture, and slowing your breathing, lowers the blood pressure and adds health to your life.  Some people like to form a picture in their mind that helps them focus on a truth about God.  Perhaps it is of the Good Shepherd.  Perhaps it is of Jesus welcoming the children.  I love the picture of Jesus standing with a youth at the helm of his boat on a stormy sea and Jesus has his hand on the person’s shoulder directing.  Prayer helps us focus on eternal truth.  Our lives are in the hands of God and he is present with us and he cares.

         Prayer can help me stop focusing on my problems as I think about all the other people I would like to talk to God about.  We call that intercession, when we pray for the world and for others we are concerned about.  As my thinking broadens to others, my problems shrink from their enlarged size and become more manageable.

         I don’t know what you are facing and what in-between zone you are in right now, but I do know that as you think about what the future will be like, as you join together in community, and as you pray, God will be present and listening. As you allow him help you carry your load, hope begins to bubble up in your soul.  A brief story.  A driver picked up a hitch hiker who had a large backpack.  The driver told the person to put his pack on the floor but the person felt he had to carry it.  The rider insisted on carrying a load that the car would have carried so the rider could rest.  Prayer is allowing God to help us carry our load.  Blessings as you journey.

The followers of Jesus stayed together in community between the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.  Acts 1:12 tells us “Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.  When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.”  Isolation, quarantine is our modern day solution to “viruses” that we do not understand and that seem to threaten our health. While working in East Africa, I often visited hospitals and visited the sick and usually there were four to a hospital bed with the relatives who brought food sleeping under the bed on the floor.  Grief and changed were handled in community.  We see that with the apostles as they attempt to sort out how life was changing for them.  Community is one way to handle those in-between times.

         As the person deals with the emotions of the transition, others join together to do the work of the transition like preparing and feeding the guests and well-wishers.  We say many hands make light work.

         Similarly, I find as an “idea” person, I function best when I have “detail” people helping me as I tend to not think about important details.  I’m sure there was “group think” as they sat around and shared what each noticed and as they put their heads together to understand.  Every witness at an accident will remember it slightly differently and will remember details slightly differently.  Sharing helps to see the big picture.

         Community confirms the report from our senses.  Perhaps you have seen the classroom experiment where volunteers are blind folded and then given food.  The volunteer may have difficulty telling an apple from a potato because the texture is the same and without the eyes to see, it can be confusing.  Community expands the perception of the experience but it also confirms the experience.

         Have you heard the saying, “Count to ten before you respond”?  Withdrawing into community provides a buffer time for healing from grief,  sorting out experiences, and affirmation before the next task is undertaken.

         So perhaps the question to reflect on today is to ask, “Where is my community?”  Who has my back?  Who helps me sort through life when I am confused?  Church worship functions in some ways like this, like community.  Church is a place where we can retreat on Sunday and recenter our thinking, be challenged with the pastor’s perspective on a scripture that reminds us of a bigger picture involving a God who loves us and a Savior who travels with us.  Before Covid there was often a coffee hour and fellowship.  Community is important and valuable.  The apostles withdrew to community.  We still need community today.  Blessings.