Happy Birthday Church

THE Christian church is not mad enough. That is one obvious ‘take away’ from the story of Pentecost.

It’s a tale of a day of madness and mayhem; it also, though, points forward to what was destined to become a story of betrayal. So, fasten your seat belts for what will be a rollercoaster of gigantic proportions.

Like so many good stories, it begins with a birth. Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. It is the time when an exclusive little Jewish sect was transformed into an inclusive international movement of the spirit. It is therefore one of the greatest days in the Christian calendar.

That first Pentecost was, by all accounts, a strange, bewildering, experience – tongues of fire, speaking in strange languages and all the rest: so much so that bystanders said the disciples of Jesus were drunk. It was all very confusing. We don’t really know exactly what happened; but we do know that it was interpreted within the framework of a famous prophecy from the book of Joel:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my spirit in those days.

Three features stand out for me: (1) right at the beginning of the Christian church, dreams and visions are regarded as important – (2)The Christian church is meant to be a community of men and women in equality: (3) The Christian church is to be a community of young and old: Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.

The birthday of the Christian church represents a very liberating vision. So where did it all go wrong?

Somewhere along the line the Church has surrendered what Paul calls “the glorious liberty of the children of God” surrendered its birthright for a mess of respectability and conformity and rectitude. What happened to the beautiful Pentecostal vision of the equality of men and women? Well, the men took over – the celibates, the priests, the ministers and the bishops. It was the old men who laid down the law. And how did a religion of radical undeserved grace morph into a community gripped by a profoundly heretical, antigospel workaholism?

There needs to be a rebirthing of our dreams. There’s something very radical and dangerous about Pentecost.

There needs to be a rebirthing of our dreams. There’s something very radical and dangerous about Pentecost. That great dreamer of last century, Martin Luther King, who not long before he was assassinated expressed his dream of a nation of equality, men and women, black and white, old and young: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight – and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. The promise of the renewal of the church of Jesus Christ lies right back in that glorious madness, in that wonder-full mayhem.

Happy Birthday, church!