Winds of Change

I try to not be political but as Ontario’s election is tomorrow I couldn’t miss mentioning how important it is to vote. Even if you fear your vote won’t count, you will never know for sure and it might just make a difference. Making a difference in challenging political and religious waters is Peter’s story at Pentecost.

Last week I talked about how Judas’ replacement was chosen to bring the apostle count back up to twelve. I’m sure they were anxious waiting for the next thing to come in Jerusalem and what it would look like. They wanted to show their loyalty to Jesus but wondered what exactly was coming. When Pentecost arrived, the wind was wild and woolly, whipping around and yet not putting out the flames that were visible on each of their heads. And then they could talk in all sorts of languages they had never spoken before. Their message was understood by the crowds from all places coming from the temple knowing something was up.

And yet, even with this powerful display there were some who couldn’t engage with it but instead ‘sneered’ and said the apostles were drunk. Enter Peter with his sermon explaining exactly what was happening and why and just how powerful God was to bring about this change.

As we contemplate the election, perhaps holding hopes for change and a government caring more about protecting education, health and the environment, or hoping for change with our neighbours to the south in their response to gun reform and women’s rights, we can also feel the sneer of those who find us too liberal or conservative, speaking a language that sounds foreign to their sensibilities, threatened by challenges to the status quo which protect their interests.

After all, Pentecost represents a dramatic shift in power. Those wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus receive God’s Spirit that will allow them to heal, exorcise demons, speak passionately with authority about what is wrong with the current system of religion and government, and gather people in a self-sustaining community outside of those systems. Whether it just sounded crazy or was a massive threat to power brokers, these ideas needed snuffing out, and the easiest way was ridicule and dismissal.

Peter would have none of that. He wasn’t easily deterred. Instead his heart for all people sought to match the heart of Jesus, preaching to those accepting him and those who didn’t. He clung to what he knew and to what he believed Christ had called him, welcoming the Spirit’s power and conviction. His words spoken with confidence resulted in thousands of converts.

Remember, this is Peter who struggled, asked awkward questions and cut off the soldier’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane before denying Jesus three times. The Spirit’s work in him is alone a testimony to what God can do. And do we trust in God enough to follow suit with us? Do we allow and welcome the Spirit’s direction through us, making us more than we are alone? Do we stand ready to counter those who sneer at us as we share with compassion and love what we believe to be true and God honouring?

We are once again in difficult days that tire us, that force us to hurry up and slow down, that ask us to wait patiently for God’s power and plan to be revealed. We ask how long, and yet will we be ready when the Spirit empowers us with answers to the world’s biggest challenges and to counter the selfish, the self-centred, the arrogant and the morally corrupt?

May we all be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in these days. May we be ready to be vessels of grace and the heart of God. May we allow ourselves to be used in such a way that we bless all who will listen.