Shade Tree Wisdom 9/20/07

It is just a bit cooler these mornings for the walk. Oh, not that cool yet, but noticeably cooler, so Fall is on its way. And I was enjoying it, so I was whistling a tune as I walked along. Suddenly a voice from between two cars called out, “That’s nice. I like to hear that”. It was a neighbor out with her dog for his morning run. Well.

But I do a lot of thinking during these walks. Sure, most of us can do both if we just try, I mean walk AND think. And my thoughts were on the beginning of the Church.

Acts is really interesting, and we often either take for granted we know it, or pay little attention to what really happened. Jesus rose. He was not dead. Great news. News to share. News to get excited about. And for days Jesus showed himself to this group. I find it interesting what he did not do. He did not organize them into teams to get the word out. He did not get them to hire large places for meetings. He did not do what we would do. When He left them in the ascension, he told them, ”wait here for the gift My Father promised.” And, ”you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. Acts l, 4.8.

So they waited in Jerusalem. And they prayed, and they wondered, and they were fearful for their lives, but Jesus had told them simply to wait till He would send the Holy Spirit. And It happened on Pentecost. The promised Holy Spirit came, and they preached with joy so that very day 3,000 were added to their number. And that number has grown, and grown, and grown, because the Holy Spirit is in His baptized people as He promised.

And where the Holy Spirit is, there comes change.

Paul speaks of this, 1 Corinthians 6,11 mentions this drastic change, "that’s what some of you were.” Ephesians 2,4.5. “God made us alive with Christ.” So Peter writes, 1 Peter 4,4, Your former friends “find it strange that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation” any longer.

And from the change comes this new man that you now are, and that is why the Church keeps on growing in the face of, and in spite of. the pressures of this world

So we can and do sing with fervor,

“And take they our life,
Goods, fame, child and wife,
Let all these be gone,
They yet have nothing won,
The Kingdom ours remaineth”.

That is the tune I was whistling this morning when I thought of God’s everlasting grace and mercy to us.

GPD 9/20/07