JOHN UPTON from the

President In Step with an Expressive Spirit

In Jamaica last year at the Annual Gathering of the BWA we participated in a theological discussion on the Spirit of God. I remember a meaningful conversation with some of the presenters. We all agreed that while Pentecost may be one of the happiest days in the life of the church it was also one of the most bizarre. As I read the story of the birth of the church I am struck all over again that this story is just strange. One hundred and twenty disciples, women and men, in one house waiting for something and all of a sudden they hear a roaring sound like a great wind and over each of their heads they see something like a flame of fire. And then, out of their mouths come all these different languages. They go outside and there is a huge crowd. The crowd has come for the great feast that is happening in Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world. The crowd is mostly foreigners and they hear these disciples speaking in their own native languages. The speakers are so exuberant that some in the group say these people must be drunk. Peter steps forward and says, no, nobody is drunk. This is the Holy Spirit and it is the fulfillment of prophesy that a day is coming when the Spirit will be poured out and everyone will prophesy. And he told the crowd about Jesus being raised from the dead as Christ and Lord. Three thousand of the crowd believed it and were baptized that very day. And that, wouldn’t you agree, is a very strange story? The church was born when the followers of Jesus, guided by

the Spirit’s power, communicated beyond their own walls to the people outside, to those all around them. At its very first breath the church is bearing witness. I fear we don’t particularly get that. Bearing witness in the world is not some second step that we learn to take; bearing witness is what constitutes us. I love those words from the theologian Emil Brunner, “the

church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning.” I will never forget being asked a question by an atheist. He asked why the church had lost its nerve. He said because the church has retreated into itself it has left a void in the world and the world is paying the price. It has left both a spiritual void and a values void in the world. Consequently, other groups are now filling that void making the world an increasingly dangerous place. Witness is not something added on. Witness is simply inherent

in Christian faith. So, here it is again at Pentecost, the birth of the church, this newborn baby. This baby comes out hollering, expressive, and the mother, the Holy Spirit, shows it proudly to all the neighbors. To everyone’s surprise the Holy Spirit sets it in the arms of all who are curious. It turns out they are actually interested in what this newborn expressively might have to say. I love the fact that the Apostles were not famously articulate

guys. They were famously fearful, famously uncertain, doubting, and famously anxious. I can hear their conversation in the upper

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room: “You know we really, probably ought to tell some folk about that resurrection thing. I mean, shouldn’t we tell people that the Kingdom of God is here? Shouldn’t we come up with ways to show that and to talk about it? Don’t we need to form a task force to suggest to us what our mission is? Do we need to talk it over and vote on it and recommend some strategies? Shouldn’t we recruit some people?”

I hope the apostles were like that, don’t you? I do think they were mostly clueless about how to proceed. I imagine they had some lousy ideas about how to advance the cause and I imagine most of them were feeling inadequate, unlikely candidates for the mission. I hope that they did since that is how we are. Jesus knew they would feel like this, which is why he did not lecture them or push them or scold or preach at them to go get busy. He simply said, “I will send you the Holy Spirit. Ask for it, pray for it, and the Spirit will come. You lack power. You will find it. Pray.” Our BWA call phrase for this Quinquennium

has been “In Step with the Spirit.” It is first a confession that we lack power. We seek the Holy Spirit to move among us with power to forge us into one, to make us newly expressive with God’s love. It is a plea to see our communities transformed. It is a phrase of gratitude that the Holy Spirit has been given to God’s children and that we have been granted marvelous gifts throughout the world. We wait for the Spirit. We pray for the Spirit. It will come. It will come again, like through an “Open Door” and we “shall come and go and find new pastures.”