Feasts Without the Fullness

Last night, as I lay in bed, with Sunday coming, my spirit was contemplating how it must have felt when the followers of Jesus celebrated their second Passover after his ascension.

I can only imagine their thoughts as they broke bread, drank the cup, and reflected upon those most intimate moments just before the crucifixion. Peter, no doubt, is a new man!

But wait, maybe I have been institutionalized in my thinking, my mind overly focused on gathering versus scattering. Remember, their lives, customs, and world had been turned upside down by way of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit since their Upper Room moment.

Jesus was no longer among them, but by the Spirit, was now actually in them and moving through them. My guess is their communion moments were quite different than ours.

Perhaps there were moments of solemn humility, but likely not the sense of unworthiness we too often create in mass, nor even the focus on underlying doctrinal tenets such as substitutional atonement. They were free from themselves and the heaviness of the Law.

Silver and gold, not so much, but such as they had, they gave freely to include miracles, and their numbers were growing daily.

As to their celebration of a second Feast of Pentecost, likely not so much, as they lived out the Upper Room daily! That was their new message, no longer limited to John's Baptism, but enveloped in the fire that he had once preached! His immersion concept was only meant as symbolic of the real Baptism that his cousin would deliver!

Maybe the demise being experienced by the American church is in part due to our reduction of Sundays to weekly stories of when the Spirit moved, celebrating the feasts without the fulness?

Running on fumes from a fire long diminished, and worse yet, our communities now threatened by political and religious divisiveness akin to the days of the Pharisees and Sadducees!

I know how this sounds, but it's hard to stay positive when you know we were made for more!

We like the Early Church are in a transformational moment, yet change is difficult, especially when one's livelihood is at stake. Fortunately we have choices and as well, equal access to the Spirit as they!

Think about the possibilities!