Pentecost and Obedience

This year I have been surprised with how quickly Pentecost has come. 

. :  Resurrection  . . .  Ascension  . . .  Pentecost  : . 

It's come upon me quickly, but I've imagined that these few days must have felt very long to the disciples, huddled up, waiting. "Don't leave Jerusalem," Jesus had told them. 

And then, in their obedience, the Kingdom broke in. 

As "Holy Spirit Christians" obedience gets a bad rap. The thought goes: "We don't need the Law, we need the Spirit." The problem is that the Spirit guides us in keeping the Law (cf. Jer 33, Romans 8, etc.) Another more difficult problem is that the New Testament itself is chock-full of commands––many of these are directly connected to and quoted from the Old Testament Law (see 1 Cor 5-7). 

At Pentecost, we remember that the disciples obeyed Jesus' command. I'm convinced that obedience is the space of the Kingdom breaking into ordinary life. 

First we should clear something up. The disciples didn't obey in order to become part of the Kingdom. That doesn't work and never has––yes, never, not even in the Old Testament!  Rather we obey because our Lord, our master, our head tells us to do something. Sometimes it's, "Wait."  Sometimes it's, "build a fence around the roof of your houses (Deuteronomy 22:8)."   (We might need to think about this one before we go and buy fencing.) We don't obey to become God's children. We obey because we are God's children. 

When we obey, God does his work 

   in us, 

      among us, 

         through us. 

This becoming and being is something I'm learning from my three year old. He doesn't have to obey in order to become my son. He just is my son. No amount of obedience or disobedience changes that. But in his obedience, especially in his continued and ordinary obedience, he'll become the kind of person that Terese and I are forming him into. (And hopefully, we're obeying and being formed by our Father as we guide him.) 

But as my three year old is learning, obedience isn't hard to understand, it's hard to do. In Deuteronomy 30 Moses asks,

   Are these expectations too high or difficult for us?  

         No!  

   The commands are among us. 

      They're do-able. 

         They're livable.

One example is Deuteronomy's frequent refrain of caring for the widow, fatherless, and foreigner among us. This call to care for people among us is something we do as we live––like eating or sleeping or bathing. Caring for others is part of our everyday lives. We care for those we live with by preparing meals and sharing our table, changing diapers, laughing, talking about our day, or having difficult conversations. There may be times when we care for others in extraordinary ways or circumstances––like tragedies or opening our home indefinitely to someone who needs a safe place––but this extraordinary obedience flows from ordinary obedience. Pentecost proclamation follows post-ascension waiting. 

Obedience isn't difficult to understand, it's difficult to do. At Pentecost we celebrate the gift of empowerment: as the people of God we are now empowered to obey. Pentecost reminds us that ours is to faithfully obey. (Notice the importance of faith here: faithfully obey.) We empty ourselves so that we are in a position to do what's expected of us:  Love God. Love people.

The disciples provide us with a great example waiting in Jerusalem. Like them, when we obey the Kingdom breaks in among us.