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  20^th May 2024

MondayReflection

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Hugh Whelchel offers

Pentecost's Power to Transform the World through Work

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This Monday is "Whit Monday," traditionally the day after the Christian holy day of Pentecost.

Interestingly, "Whit Monday" is still an official government holiday in many Western European countries, whereas evangelical Christians in the U.S. don't have a holiday to help remind them of the important events this day represents.

During the Exodus in the Old Testament, God tells Moses to initiate seven "Feasts" during the Exodus.
These seven feasts were to serve as cultural touchstones, reminders to the Israelite people of God's bountiful blessings and his help in their lives - in the past, present, and future.

These feasts included Passover and Pentecost.
Most of us are familiar with Passover because of the role it plays in the Easter story.
We remember that Jesus and his disciples gathered together on the Thursday night before the Passover meal and Jesus' death on Good Friday.

Pentecost, originally called the "Feast of Weeks," was celebrated fifty days after Passover.
The feast eventually became known as Pentecost, from the Greek word pentekoste, which means "the fiftieth day."

Freedom is not enough. Liberty without law leads to chaos, immorality, and violence.
The ancient Jews understood the law is not a social construct devised by man, but a gift from God.

Yet, the giving of the law at Sinai is only a shadow of what Christians celebrate at Pentecost.
Before his ascension into heaven, Jesus had instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

The day the Jews are assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the law on Sinai, God pours out his Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers gathered in the upper room.
This is, in part, the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise in Jeremiah 31 empowering us to live virtuous lives reflecting our creator's very nature.

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people".

Now, in us, the power of God's word works from the inside out.
Not only do we become like Adam before the fall, having the law of God written on our hearts, but we are empowered to live out our lives in a way that impacts those around us.

This is how a small group huddled in an upper room in Jerusalem could transform the world around them - in effect, overcoming the mighty Roman Empire in a little over 300 years.

It is the same power that the disciples received that enables us to impact those around us.
Yet the church today seems to have forgotten this critical point.

Our goal in this life is not to build a utopia or a new government based on Old Testament law, but to positively influence those around us while we work to fill the world with God's redeemed images and to make the world an incredible place for human beings to flourish.

That is God's design for his creation.
We do this work based on God's desire for us to live lives in accord with his statutes, which are even now being written on our hearts.

As N. T. Wright explains in his book, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense:
Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple.
They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.

As scary as it may seem, we are the ones God has called to give those around us a glimpse of "the way things should be" - as we work in our jobs, our families, our communities, and our churches.

And because of Pentecost, we have received the power of the Holy Spirit to do just that.

This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request

HUGH WHELCHEL
Hugh Whelchel was the founder of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics and author of How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work.
Hugh earned a Master of Arts in Religion and had over 30 years of diverse business experience.
He passed away on Good Friday in 2024, four years after being diagnosed with ALS.

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