Monday 25 May 2015

Planning Pentecost

God the Father and God the Son discuss sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
A sketch for Pentecost



Father: Welcome back to heaven, son! You’ve kept in touch well, but I’ve still missed you.

Jesus: Good to see you too. Mind you, my head’s still spinning from the Ascension. That was quite some ride you gave me.


Father: Indeed, your once-in-a-lifetime experience of heavenly teleporting… Anyway, I’ve got two things on the agenda: reviewing how things went for you on earth; and the next stage, sending the Holy Spirit.


Jesus: Ah, so many stories to share about earth with you. We’ve eternity for that! Sending the Holy Spirit, though: I suggest we crack straight on. I told my friends to wait, and humans don’t find waiting easy. To be honest, those years plugging away as a carpenter: great to have had a normal job - but the patience was a challenge. A thousand years aren’t like a day to them, you know! 


Father: That’s something the Spirit can help them with, then - patience - add it to his list. By the way, I suggest we keep referring to our Spirit as ‘he’. It’ll keep things simple - and it makes writing up the minutes easier.


Jesus: There’ll be other PR problems too. Such as the name. ‘Holy’ sounds remote, when we’ll be with them - and even in them! And ‘Spirit’ - it’s a tougher concept for them than ‘Father’ or ‘Son’. Rather ethereal, hard to grasp.


Father: It’s hard to pin him down for these family chats, too! A threesome we may be, but hardly the tidy nuclear family with the Spirit! He’s always on the go. We’ve only got to have thought of something and he’s off doing it.


Jesus: I’ve seen him from the other side of the fence now, too. When you’re in creation, you know it’s him holding the whole thing together, giving you all your food, your air - breathing all life, in fact.


Father: He’s due for another long-service thank-you medal, don’t you think? How long is it now since we created everything?? - I lose track… Anyway, we now need to focus on this new stage. So what was it like for you, being filled with the Spirit?


Jesus: How did I put it? ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.’ I was putting words to my experience…


Father: Mmmm, the ‘wind’ image - I like that. Let’s come back to it. But carry on.


Jesus: Each day, wrestling in prayer, knowing I was your Son, yet also being intensely human. And it is a very intense experience - as we meant it to be. There’s so much to see and feel, to enjoy and to suffer, so much that exalts the spirit, but so much too that is very hard to make sense of.


Father: Humbling for you - thank you. Tell you what, I could give you a medal for humility! No, perhaps that doesn't work…


Jesus: Anyway, through all that, each day the Spirit filled my capacity to love people - and, believe me, some of them aren’t that lovely! We could at least have chosen a period of history when personal cleanliness was more advanced…


Father: And what about healing people, how was that for you? 


Jesus: Quite extraordinary! I train as a carpenter, I work as a healer and teacher - how does that work?! The Spirit, he gifts you far beyond what you think you could do - and it’s as if it is you and it isn’t you at the same time.


Father: We will always be something of a mystery!


Jesus: Yes! But the wonderful part - and I say this with both my ‘God’ and ‘human’ hats on - is that all of this brought transformation to people. That’s the heart of the next stage too, of course - the Holy Spirit transforming people, through people. ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’. I was rather pleased with putting it that way.


Father: Blatant plagiarism of Isaiah, son!


Jesus: Of course, but I had to learn my Isaiah from scratch, don’t forget!


Father: And a job well done. Water’s a good image, in fact. I like it.


Jesus: And another one - sticking with Isaiah, describing his experience of us as being like fire. I felt that in me too - powerful, unquenchable. And what I was doing was like bringing fire.


Father: I sense another PR challenge.


Jesus: Too true! People see fire as destructive. The only thing we destroy is the bad, leaving the good purer and more beautiful. I saw the benefit in people when they were cleansed like this, it was deeply redemptive. So fire’s still a good image to work with.


Father: Excellent… I see a plan coming together.


Jesus: Well you’re the master!


Father: We’ve got these three images: water, wind, and fire. 


Jesus: Earth… wind… and fire… Very neat. Very elemental.


Father: But not all practical. Your friends, they’re gathered in a room, is that right?


Jesus: Yes - they’re expectant, but nervous.


Father: So, we do a launch event of the next stage, with them in the room. Wind - that’s the easy one. Fire, we’ll have to control for obvious health and safety reasons - we must give the Spirit strict boundaries! But water - no. We don’t want a flood. Bad associations - Noah and all that. Let’s keep it simple: wind and fire. Water will have its own moment, with baptism.


Jesus: Genius!


Father: Just good teamwork. And for timing - soon, you suggest? Pentecost is coming up. A festival, so lots of people will be there. And a great marketing hook for the birthday of the church too.


Jesus: I was very sad to leave my friends. But so exciting now we’re moving to the next stage.


Father: Which just leaves giving the instructions to the Holy Spirit. I’ll crack on and write up those minutes… Only kidding - I know he already knows! The only one for whom ‘being there in spirit’ actually means being there...


Jesus: The world awaits! Pentecost here we come.
 


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Alphaeus adds:
OK, so I'm not party to conversations in heaven. I've brought my imagination to the inner workings of God. Maybe we have to create him in our image a little to have any chance of penetrating his mysteries... 
The story of the subsequent pivotal events of Pentecost can be found in Acts 2.