Politics of Pentecost

by John Watson.

Whoever prays for the Holy Spirit to come to us, into our hearts, into our community and to our earth does not want to flee to heaven or be removed to the great beyond. They have hope for their hearts, for their community and this earth. We do not pray ‘Let your kingdom come…’ we pray ‘Your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven. Magnificent unbroken affirmation of life lies behind this prayer for the divine Spirit to come to us fragile and earthly human beings.
Jurgen Moltmann ‘Pentecost and Theology of Life’

The wild ways of God
Pentecost refuses to let us remain bystanders – to observe the event or story from some critical and safe distance, we are caught up in the very real moving, live and dangerous drama of God in the world.

With the coming of the Spirit upon the gathered few, who met in safety and collected holiness – they are shed out into the streets. They begin to live a life hinted at by Christ – they begin to put flesh on the bones of his words. They live out a life that they have had limited preparation for. They commit themselves to a wildness and vulnerability that will cost them dearly: the contour of their lives will change; their reputation will be endangered; their possessions will transfer ownership and take on new meaning; their lives will become open to the pain and suffering of others as well as the hope of something so profound; they will suffer themselves and many will lose their life; they are on the cusp of something new.

This is their story and it is ours too. We are called to enter into the continuing drama of God’s new creation in the world. To enter into the realities of this world with all its hopes and greatness and all it suffering and disaster

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