The Church. Pentecost!

Being as it's Pentecost and I've been thinking about the church, I thought I could tenuously link the two in this one.

I was sitting in a Baptist church and we were talking about Pentecost!! (Well, the guy waffling away at the front was anyway!) The other week he started a series of talks looking at Jesus' life through Easter, the great commission and onto today. I remember when he got to the great commission and the bit about going out and baptising people, he said, "That's what we are "Baptists!""

Well, today was Pentecost, it is such a shame he couldn't say, "We are also Pentecostals." Why not? Does Baptism belong only to one group and the Pentecost only belong to another? No.

This being a Sunday maybe it's fitting to have a three point sermon, my first point being we are all all of it!

My next, point slightly related is the issue of debate or division? Over the years groups of people who have the same belief have got together and formed something. In other areas of life people simply debate issues and then get along anyway. At a university they have debating groups. The same people who divide over, say the death penalty, won't necessarily divide over other issues. So, where as one minute you may be debating against someone the next you may be debating with them. In the church a divide happens. Say between Calvinists and Arinians. Then the Calvinists subdivide into hyper Calvinists and Calvinists. Those groups could sub divide and so on.

Jesus did warn us against this. He said the Kingdom of God is like a tree that grows from a tiny seed, and the birds of the air make their nests in it's branches. Is that a good thing? He also said that it was like flour into which a woman mixed some leaven and it rose through the whole dough. Again is that a good thing?

In the parable of the sower Jesus said that "birds of the air" were demons. Jesus was a teacher and we aren't told that the language has changed so let's assume they are the same. The church begins as a tiny seed and grows and divides and divides and divides. Demons come and make their homes in the branches of the church. Does that look like what has happened? Yes! Paul tells us that people will go after false teachers just because they like the entertainment, they like to hear what they are teaching. These are the teachings of demons that he talks about. Not teachings about demons, but teachings of demons, false teachings that lead the church astray and make them miss what God has for them.

In the other parable nearly every teacher on this I have heard says that yeast means sin and pride except here! But why, who says the meaning of the picture has changed, not Jesus or the writer! It is the same picture. These parables are addressing the disciples wanting to know whether Jesus would raise an army. What Jesus is saying is, "You think the kingdom is going to start now, faultless! But it is actually going to go into all kinds of error first!"

So, we can at least take comfort in that Jesus prophesied the church we have today. I am sure other's would argue, but that's the point, Paul points to debate rather than division. If we would keep the unity then we wouldn't let differences of opinion separate us. The only divisions would be geography and not theology. But that is probably unrealistic in a fallen world. Jesus knew it.

OK, now not so completely unrelated point 3!

In this mornings sermon, the Pastor mentioned the "God can do more than you can ask or imagine" verse in relation to Pentecost. He mentioned in passing the idea of films like "the never ending story" where the world relies on the imaginations of children. I have seen the same with Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, "Do you believe in fairies?" as Tinkerbell is fading. And all the kid's shout out, "Yes, we believe in fairies!!" and Tinkerbell comes back to life. The Pastor didn't do anything with his reference, but it gave me something to think about.

It is exactly the same with the Kingdom of God. God can do more than we can ask or imagine. But what happens if we stop asking of imagining? If you can't imagine God healing then you wont ask. If you don't ask, then God wont act. We are told by Jesus, "Ask and you shall receive." I think it was James who said, "You have not because you ask not!" Do we ask not in case God gives not? It certainly follows that if we stop imagining what God can do then for us the kingdom is dead! That is a very sad affair. This being Pentecost, it is the birth of the church. It is the day when even the deadest of us are reminded that God is embarrassingly intrusive in our planned and co-ordinated lives. This is the day when some try and fob it all of, while others are daring to claim all kinds of miracles.

Let's imagine, and ask and see if God can't do more than we can ask or imagine!