The Spirit moves

One of the constants in life is a continuing sense of movement and change no matter what your stage of life is. For some, this constant movement becomes an issue in their lives others embrace this sense of change to find new things and obtain new life experiences. Once we stop our openness to change we become less hope filled and more institutionalised within our lives, for this is what keeps us going. It is familiar, it is comfortable and it is, for us, a means of keeping track of time. In a way this is precisely what the disciples of Christ were doing in the upper room that day when the Spirit descended (Acts 2.1-21). They were comfortable in their uncertainty as to what to do next as they huddled together in prayer and worship, perhaps inwardly asking "How can we change the synagogue to show the work of God?". The Spirit came and they were enjoined to move out into their neighbourhoods to proclaim Christ in their words and actions. It is at this moment that the movement of Christ begins.

The Spirit disrupts our lives as we are sent into the world. Artist: Pejac

I am certain that this disruption of the routines and comforts of life were uncomfortable for the disciples. We know that the disruption created challenges for the burgeoning church and the other religious institutions as it spread throughout the Mediterranean world of the time.  A discomforting and disrupting influence that lasted for at least a century before coming into a more settled style. The central theme for this period as can be seen in the scriptures and other literature of the time, was a constant centralisation of God in the lives of those who followed the way. This centrality is shown in John's Gospel as the author keeps repeating Christ's words 'I am the way', ' I am in the Father and the Father is in me' (John 14.6, 10). The Spirit constantly reminds us that if we are to lead lives of discipleship then those lives need to be centered on God, this is what the Spirit of truth reminds us of as it blows through our lives. The truth of Christ's presence in our lives is unacceptable to the world as soon as we proclaim the truth of Christ we are shunned from the public sphere of life. In order to escape the alienation we take on the ways of the world to hide the truth that is in our hearts. How else can we explain why some proclaimed Christian people receive more without complaint and yet do little or nothing to improve the less fortunate?

The movement of the Spirit in our lives is more than paying lip service to the tradition of sequestered buildings and ancient forms. It is a movement that encourages us out into the community to live and breathe the Christian ethos. It is what drives us to form new understandings of how God wishes to meet us in the wider world because it will not allow us to remain encapsulated within the shelter of our past. The Spirit moved the disciples from the room in which they hid into a hostile and dangerous world. It did not protect, except through the power of love, encouragement and discernment. Yet, the focus of the early pilgrims on the way was none other than God and God's presence in the form of the risen Christ centred in the love which they bore in their hearts. Nothing was too hard, nothing was too challenging, nothing was disabling for those who looked to God's presence and felt God's love. The Spirit moves us first of all out of ourselves into community and into the dangerous edge of relationship. It disrupts our lives but only when we commit ourselves into God's care and love. We are quite capable of ignoring God's call and continue our comfortable lives because it means that we can con ourselves into believing we are doing the good. It is only when we follow God's Spirit into newness and unease that we can truly fill the burning hole in our hearts that yearns for God's presence.