Spirit Movement
Commentary
Pentecost accents the belief that the Christian church is a Spirit movement, not another world institution. Imagine a pastor who is on the denomination committee for examining pastoral candidates that are on various points along their journey toward ordination either before, during or just after completion of seminary/Bible college training. All the pastoral candidates are excited about their future of making a positive change and impression on the churches they serve. These candidates have all had empowering, insightful experiences in their denomination, which inspired them to consider the calling into pastoral ministry. Some have had memorable church camp experiences both as campers and camp staff. Others have experienced the church through retreat centers where they got in touch in personal spiritual formation despite any difficult past experiences. Others have had a great campus ministry experience while in college, while others came from a new mission plant congregation in a thriving metropolitan area. Still others went to the denomination’s national youth events. They even spent a week at a church mission site along the national borders to care for immigrants or spent time on a native American reservation. All these experiences might be the equivalent of the Acts 2 powerful Holy Spirit narrative in our lessons. Possibly, they have seen how Jesus intended the Spirit to work in a life-giving way as he said he would give the disciples the Spirit in John’s Gospel.
The pastor who is on the denomination’s candidacy committee must return home to the congregation they serve, which is another story. The graying hair in the pews shows younger people really do not want to attend this traditional church, despite any experiments in power point or praise music efforts. There are powerful people within the congregation who are unafraid to use their money to broker certain favors, building contracts and who simply mean to outsiders who visit the church. Countless hours of meetings are spent on tight finance and property issues. Both implicitly and explicating the pastor may be used as the scape goat for the problems of the church. The denomination makes its pitch for more financial giving. School sports compete with any efforts to carry on youth ministry in the church.
The pastor thinks back about they were in the candidacy process of pastoral ministry preparation. This was not the church they had envisioned while they were studying to become a pastor. Today’s texts serve as a reminder that the early church was intended to be a movement, rather than a finely oiled institution. Pentecost Sunday marks the beginning of the church’s calling to do ministry into the community. Today’s text might be an invitation to become a Spirit movement.
Acts 2:1-21
This text is an inauguration event which ushers in a Spirit movement which has grown thirty-fold in people from many backgrounds, many from non-traditional Jewish backgrounds. How might a movement work today? A certain pastor accepts a church which has had a high turnover of clergy for several years. This pastor in a medium sized traditional Gothic church volunteers at the local high school as a substitute teacher and coach for sports that are not highly sought after. During these activities, the pastor discovers students and families who are hungry for the mentoring, listening skills, and willingness to empathize which this pastor offers to the community school students and their families. The administrators see this and offer the pastor a part time job and encourage the pastor to continue working among students and families a positive influence which helps shape lives to further the community.
However, the pastor receives push back or resistance from both the church council leadership, who called in the judicatory. Both remind the pastor that clergy are to keep stringent office hours, visit hospital patients and shut-in members and try to get the in-actives to come back to church on Sundays. The pastor responds with many new interested families attending their church. An expansion of a media worship service is well received. There is a movement of the Spirit going on here! Both the judicatory and some church council leaders view this the pastor not doing the traditional pastor’s job! In Luke’s theology, the Spirit pushes the church to go to places where they have not gone to before to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This is precisely what this pastor is doing, and now applying to be bi-vocational with the church and local public school system. It creates discomfort of the status quo. (Craddock, 291-292)
Acts 2:1-21ff is a text which creates similar discomfort with the status quo. One division of this chapter might be: 1) Coming of Holy Spirit to a gathering community (vss. 1-4); 2) Gathering crowds from every nation under heaven (vss. 5-130; 3) Peter’s sermon (vss. 14-36); 4) Crowd’s response (vss. 37-410 5) Profile of first believing community (vss. 42-47, Holladay, 89).
The first sign of this spiritual inauguration occurred in Luke 4:16-30, during Jesus’ announcement and rejection by his home crowd in the temple in Nazareth. Now in Acts 2, the risen Christ has dispensed this same Spirit. Isaiah 42:1, 44:3 begins this echoing event of God’s Spirit as far back as Israel’s descendants. Ezekiel 11:19 points to a similar hope with a spirit of one heart. One possible preaching path might be to ask where a “new spirit” is in the community where the church is located? The pastor in the above illustration found the new spirit in the hallways and athletic fields of the local public school. Yet, there have been opportunities to be part of local coffee groups, book clubs and assorted community at the park public gatherings to discover where a new spirit might be emerging? Another example is a church who decided to do outdoor worship occasionally also piques the curiosity of the neighbors who are observing them from their homes.
Originally, Pentecost is rooted in the tradition of the fiftieth day after the wheat harvest. Later Rabbinic traditions came to associate it with the giving of the law at Sinai. Luke’s suggestion here is that possibly the Spirit can supplement, maybe even replace some areas of the Torah (Holladay, 91). Yet, the heavenly thunder event resulting in tongues speaking, still resembles the Sinai law giving with Moses. All languages of the people were understood in the various tongues. There is a contested view which argues that only koine Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic were the known languages of that time.
Another familiar path to preach is this event is the reversal of the Genesis 11 event of the Tower of Babel, where the languages were mixed or confused. Pentecost is about bringing various people’s [back] together under the language of the Spirit—with the traditions dating as far back as Isaiah and Ezekiel. What language creates divisions and which language brings people closer together as a community of faith? Most scholars agree this event is not ecstatic tongues which are unintelligible unless it is an unknown Aramaic dialect.
This event is a movement! It finds roots in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel 2:29-32). Practically such a movement resists harnessing by official institutional rules and red tape bureaucracy. The pastor who decides to push beyond the church walls discovers this every day. Still, the judicatory and certain church council leaders wish to restrict his/her presence to the church office and members on the congregational rolls only. Is the modern Christian church open to becoming a movement again? Possibly they are trying to restore a past “golden era” of the church when much of society was pretty much mirroring Christendom since Emperor Constantine? [(Craddock, Fred B., Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Luke, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990, 291-292). Holladay, Carl R., The New Testament Library: Acts, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016)].
Romans 8:22-27
There are two sections of this text. The first addresses all of creation groaning together. This means humans and non-humans alike. One response to the question of the righteous suffering and wicked prospering (theodicy) as Ecclesiastes 8:14 is that creation is still forming without regard for who is righteous or wicked. The bottom line is believers are still fearing God and keeping his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Paul joins into this conversation in affirming that God is not finished with creation yet. A modern preaching path might be to ask how humans are being co-creators or stewards of God’s creation as first fruits of the Spirit in this Pentecost season? How are we to interpret erratic weather conditions in various parts of the globe? Creation is groaning for sure! What does it mean to have first fruits of the Spirit in this creative endeavor? Praying is one path to pursue.
In this text being part of God’s elect does have roots with the Davidic Psalm 89:27-28, in reference to keeping steadfast love for God. God’s intention has been for a Spirit driven creation. It is not merely personal privilege to be elect, but Christians are to be living witnesses to this pre-existence of the creation of God.
A two-point sermon on this portion of the text might be 1) gift of salvation 2) groan for completion of creation. That is, how does the Spirit intercede for believers in the changing world of creation?
A second section of this text points to worshipping God through prayer. It is contested as to whether Paul intends to suggest that not all prayers are heard by God unless done in a proper manner. The assurance of this text is that Spirit does intercede for those who pray to God with a sincere heart.
I was at a church retreat as a younger college student. The practice was to go around the circle and offer a spoken prayer. I was not the extroverted praying type, and shy then. Though there were sincere Christians who did long prayers for their families, friends, community, and the rest of the world, I could not pray like this. I was a basic one to two sentence prayer and that was often a chore. According to this text, the Spirit interceded for me to God as much as the Spirit intercedes for the person who does longer prayers. In my liturgical church tradition, I teach my catechism students how to make the sign of the cross in lieu or alongside any short prayer.
One modern challenge observed in the news is after a violent act, there is a call for prayers. For some frantic victims and their families, prayer seems like passive inaction in compared to seeking reform to curb violence. Possibly the Lord’s prayer and its contents could be a supplement to any prayer, as is frequently practiced in churches who close their church petitions with the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Possibly a movement to talk about prayer petitions and suggestions as to how to follow up on such words spoken to God could be considered. It might relate to how Christians are the first fruits of a new creation earlier in this lesson. [Sources: Hultgren, Arland J., Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. 2011); Witherington, Ben, Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Socio Rhetorical Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2004)].
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit reflects the teachings and actions of Jesus himself. Immediate interpretative contexts would include Jesus depicted in John’s Gospel and the teachings in the epistles of 1, 2, 3 John. Referring to other gospels might be appropriate if the text is cited. For example, the Holy Spirit arrival event occurs in Acts 2 while Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples shortly after this resurrection (John 20:22).
John’s accent is that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father (God) and is the Spirit of truth who bears witness the Jesus who speaks the truth (John 14:6). The Greek word for “truth” is “alatheia.” Specifically, it means: reality, to be sure, with the right motives, or to be honest (Newman, 7). One purpose of the Holy Spirit being sent from God is to prevent disciples from falling away from God.
A minor Christological point to be made is the Holy Spirit comes from directly from God, not Jesus (Thompson, 335). Yet the disciples are to bear witness through the power of this Holy Spirit. The Greek word for witness here is rooted in “mar-tu-eh-oh” where the word “martyr” finds origins. This implies a possibly violent outcome to Christian witness.
Practically, what movements related to one’s faith are people willing to risk their lives? As applied in the opening story, a seminary student volunteers at an immigrant shelter. They have witnessed examples of desperate immigrants attempting to cross onto American soil along a southern state border, who are willing their risk their lives and that of their families for the privilege of reside in the United States. Is there any such risk taking within the area local churches which elicits such efforts and passion (in which the denomination examiners may ask the seminary graduate to do ministry in)? Also, are there causes within the faith community today which risk crossing lines of civil or state legal authorities?
Another hot topic this text raises is that hostility between the Christian and Jewish community. This has been a sensitive, unfortunate antisemitism issue for decades if not centuries, especially as suggested in John’s Gospel. Specific Jewish executions of Christians are cited only two places in the New Testament. First, there is the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7-8 and second, the execution of James in Acts 12. Also, it is to be noted that Phineas who yoked himself to Baal was killed Israelites. Many more believers were executed under the Romans in the mid-60s CE under Nero and later Domitian. However, there are few prejudices against Italians who live in Rome today.
Other take aways from this text related to the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is the Spirit exposes the world regarding sin and later judgement. Also, the Holy Spirit helps understand what truth from God looks like, as taught by Jesus the Messiah. There is more yet to be revealed by the Spirit, according to the text.
As this might apply today, what new revelations will A.I., or Artificial Intelligence reap? For example, entry level jobs at companies, which used to teach and test out new employees might be replaced by robots. How does a college graduate or new hireling climb the ladder of any organization in learning and gaining experience? Is this the Holy Spirit? Before one quickly answers that sort of question, who wants to go back to the days of no self-service gas stations? Who wants to give up their cell phone or television remote control? Technology and A.I. can be both a friend and foe in any given time era.
For John, Jesus was in the beginning or co-creator of life (John 1). Who interprets what acceptable “life” looks like? Jesus did follow the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible as guidelines from God the Creator. Other texts in John might be helpful.
A metaphor unique to John is that of the vineyard in John 15. All branches are connected to one another, and affect the entire vineyard (or community). One test of the Spirit’s life-giving power might be how do the decisions of one area of the vineyard affect in a positive or negative way in another area of the vineyard. For example, fires in one nation could result in smoke and smog drifting into another country. Hence, the need for careful fire prevention might be viewed as a vineyard wide concern! (Beutler, 411)
Finally, how does one know for sure, if a particular movement is of the Spirit of God? First there is the witness of the Scriptures or Old Testament. Second, John the Baptist is credible prophetic witness. Third, the words of Jesus himself, particularly in John’s Gospel. Fourth, what sort of judgement are people willing to show accountability for in the afterlife (Beutler, 409)? [Beutler, Johannes, A Commentary on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Erdman’s, 2013) Newman Barclay, Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, (London, UK: United Bible Societies 1971); Thompson Marianne M., The New Testament Library: John, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015)]
Application
Where does life giving power come from for any movement today? Are faith communities driven by a particular self-interest agenda from the political right or left wing of parties? Does scripture point to purer motives which may or may not be respected by any given political group? For instance, not stealing is the seventh commandment in Exodus 20:15. Does the ends justify the means for “our group” take dark money or hide funds as long as the ends justifies the means for our cause?
Also, what happens if one group’s respect for the other group’s feelings telling the truth (eighth) command, not bearing false witness) are interpreted as naivete, as their good intentions are weaponized against them by opposing groups? When does truth telling according to the truth according to Scripture make one vulnerable to their enemies (who also might claim to be religious in some manner) become a life risking liability?
One modern example might be a night shift supervisor at a business who suspects the day supervisor is skimming money from the cash income receipts for the day. The suspicious supervisor purposefully places a $100.00 extra into the company bank at beginning of the next shift count. The next counting time results in the supervisor observing a balanced account with no extra money. Is it stealing to take the extra money? What if the person who is taking the money is needy? Should the night supervisor “set up” such a test? These are tricky and difficult situations where one must discover the “Spirit” of the organization.
Alternative Application
Do people really believe that a day of judgement will arrive when their deepest darkest sins or indiscretions will be exposed? Do people believe they will be held accountable to a higher power? Possibly many people believe that any purposeful, unrepentant wrongdoings will be ignored and all of creation is covered under blanket pardon or universalist belief that all receive a positive reward in the afterlife. John seems to suggest that there is a “truth, way and life” through Jesus who is the way (John 14:6). Has this simply become a superstitious fable taught by elders whose words are taken less seriously these days?
The pastor who is on the denomination’s candidacy committee must return home to the congregation they serve, which is another story. The graying hair in the pews shows younger people really do not want to attend this traditional church, despite any experiments in power point or praise music efforts. There are powerful people within the congregation who are unafraid to use their money to broker certain favors, building contracts and who simply mean to outsiders who visit the church. Countless hours of meetings are spent on tight finance and property issues. Both implicitly and explicating the pastor may be used as the scape goat for the problems of the church. The denomination makes its pitch for more financial giving. School sports compete with any efforts to carry on youth ministry in the church.
The pastor thinks back about they were in the candidacy process of pastoral ministry preparation. This was not the church they had envisioned while they were studying to become a pastor. Today’s texts serve as a reminder that the early church was intended to be a movement, rather than a finely oiled institution. Pentecost Sunday marks the beginning of the church’s calling to do ministry into the community. Today’s text might be an invitation to become a Spirit movement.
Acts 2:1-21
This text is an inauguration event which ushers in a Spirit movement which has grown thirty-fold in people from many backgrounds, many from non-traditional Jewish backgrounds. How might a movement work today? A certain pastor accepts a church which has had a high turnover of clergy for several years. This pastor in a medium sized traditional Gothic church volunteers at the local high school as a substitute teacher and coach for sports that are not highly sought after. During these activities, the pastor discovers students and families who are hungry for the mentoring, listening skills, and willingness to empathize which this pastor offers to the community school students and their families. The administrators see this and offer the pastor a part time job and encourage the pastor to continue working among students and families a positive influence which helps shape lives to further the community.
However, the pastor receives push back or resistance from both the church council leadership, who called in the judicatory. Both remind the pastor that clergy are to keep stringent office hours, visit hospital patients and shut-in members and try to get the in-actives to come back to church on Sundays. The pastor responds with many new interested families attending their church. An expansion of a media worship service is well received. There is a movement of the Spirit going on here! Both the judicatory and some church council leaders view this the pastor not doing the traditional pastor’s job! In Luke’s theology, the Spirit pushes the church to go to places where they have not gone to before to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This is precisely what this pastor is doing, and now applying to be bi-vocational with the church and local public school system. It creates discomfort of the status quo. (Craddock, 291-292)
Acts 2:1-21ff is a text which creates similar discomfort with the status quo. One division of this chapter might be: 1) Coming of Holy Spirit to a gathering community (vss. 1-4); 2) Gathering crowds from every nation under heaven (vss. 5-130; 3) Peter’s sermon (vss. 14-36); 4) Crowd’s response (vss. 37-410 5) Profile of first believing community (vss. 42-47, Holladay, 89).
The first sign of this spiritual inauguration occurred in Luke 4:16-30, during Jesus’ announcement and rejection by his home crowd in the temple in Nazareth. Now in Acts 2, the risen Christ has dispensed this same Spirit. Isaiah 42:1, 44:3 begins this echoing event of God’s Spirit as far back as Israel’s descendants. Ezekiel 11:19 points to a similar hope with a spirit of one heart. One possible preaching path might be to ask where a “new spirit” is in the community where the church is located? The pastor in the above illustration found the new spirit in the hallways and athletic fields of the local public school. Yet, there have been opportunities to be part of local coffee groups, book clubs and assorted community at the park public gatherings to discover where a new spirit might be emerging? Another example is a church who decided to do outdoor worship occasionally also piques the curiosity of the neighbors who are observing them from their homes.
Originally, Pentecost is rooted in the tradition of the fiftieth day after the wheat harvest. Later Rabbinic traditions came to associate it with the giving of the law at Sinai. Luke’s suggestion here is that possibly the Spirit can supplement, maybe even replace some areas of the Torah (Holladay, 91). Yet, the heavenly thunder event resulting in tongues speaking, still resembles the Sinai law giving with Moses. All languages of the people were understood in the various tongues. There is a contested view which argues that only koine Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic were the known languages of that time.
Another familiar path to preach is this event is the reversal of the Genesis 11 event of the Tower of Babel, where the languages were mixed or confused. Pentecost is about bringing various people’s [back] together under the language of the Spirit—with the traditions dating as far back as Isaiah and Ezekiel. What language creates divisions and which language brings people closer together as a community of faith? Most scholars agree this event is not ecstatic tongues which are unintelligible unless it is an unknown Aramaic dialect.
This event is a movement! It finds roots in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel 2:29-32). Practically such a movement resists harnessing by official institutional rules and red tape bureaucracy. The pastor who decides to push beyond the church walls discovers this every day. Still, the judicatory and certain church council leaders wish to restrict his/her presence to the church office and members on the congregational rolls only. Is the modern Christian church open to becoming a movement again? Possibly they are trying to restore a past “golden era” of the church when much of society was pretty much mirroring Christendom since Emperor Constantine? [(Craddock, Fred B., Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Luke, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990, 291-292). Holladay, Carl R., The New Testament Library: Acts, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016)].
Romans 8:22-27
There are two sections of this text. The first addresses all of creation groaning together. This means humans and non-humans alike. One response to the question of the righteous suffering and wicked prospering (theodicy) as Ecclesiastes 8:14 is that creation is still forming without regard for who is righteous or wicked. The bottom line is believers are still fearing God and keeping his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Paul joins into this conversation in affirming that God is not finished with creation yet. A modern preaching path might be to ask how humans are being co-creators or stewards of God’s creation as first fruits of the Spirit in this Pentecost season? How are we to interpret erratic weather conditions in various parts of the globe? Creation is groaning for sure! What does it mean to have first fruits of the Spirit in this creative endeavor? Praying is one path to pursue.
In this text being part of God’s elect does have roots with the Davidic Psalm 89:27-28, in reference to keeping steadfast love for God. God’s intention has been for a Spirit driven creation. It is not merely personal privilege to be elect, but Christians are to be living witnesses to this pre-existence of the creation of God.
A two-point sermon on this portion of the text might be 1) gift of salvation 2) groan for completion of creation. That is, how does the Spirit intercede for believers in the changing world of creation?
A second section of this text points to worshipping God through prayer. It is contested as to whether Paul intends to suggest that not all prayers are heard by God unless done in a proper manner. The assurance of this text is that Spirit does intercede for those who pray to God with a sincere heart.
I was at a church retreat as a younger college student. The practice was to go around the circle and offer a spoken prayer. I was not the extroverted praying type, and shy then. Though there were sincere Christians who did long prayers for their families, friends, community, and the rest of the world, I could not pray like this. I was a basic one to two sentence prayer and that was often a chore. According to this text, the Spirit interceded for me to God as much as the Spirit intercedes for the person who does longer prayers. In my liturgical church tradition, I teach my catechism students how to make the sign of the cross in lieu or alongside any short prayer.
One modern challenge observed in the news is after a violent act, there is a call for prayers. For some frantic victims and their families, prayer seems like passive inaction in compared to seeking reform to curb violence. Possibly the Lord’s prayer and its contents could be a supplement to any prayer, as is frequently practiced in churches who close their church petitions with the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Possibly a movement to talk about prayer petitions and suggestions as to how to follow up on such words spoken to God could be considered. It might relate to how Christians are the first fruits of a new creation earlier in this lesson. [Sources: Hultgren, Arland J., Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. 2011); Witherington, Ben, Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Socio Rhetorical Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2004)].
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit reflects the teachings and actions of Jesus himself. Immediate interpretative contexts would include Jesus depicted in John’s Gospel and the teachings in the epistles of 1, 2, 3 John. Referring to other gospels might be appropriate if the text is cited. For example, the Holy Spirit arrival event occurs in Acts 2 while Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples shortly after this resurrection (John 20:22).
John’s accent is that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father (God) and is the Spirit of truth who bears witness the Jesus who speaks the truth (John 14:6). The Greek word for “truth” is “alatheia.” Specifically, it means: reality, to be sure, with the right motives, or to be honest (Newman, 7). One purpose of the Holy Spirit being sent from God is to prevent disciples from falling away from God.
A minor Christological point to be made is the Holy Spirit comes from directly from God, not Jesus (Thompson, 335). Yet the disciples are to bear witness through the power of this Holy Spirit. The Greek word for witness here is rooted in “mar-tu-eh-oh” where the word “martyr” finds origins. This implies a possibly violent outcome to Christian witness.
Practically, what movements related to one’s faith are people willing to risk their lives? As applied in the opening story, a seminary student volunteers at an immigrant shelter. They have witnessed examples of desperate immigrants attempting to cross onto American soil along a southern state border, who are willing their risk their lives and that of their families for the privilege of reside in the United States. Is there any such risk taking within the area local churches which elicits such efforts and passion (in which the denomination examiners may ask the seminary graduate to do ministry in)? Also, are there causes within the faith community today which risk crossing lines of civil or state legal authorities?
Another hot topic this text raises is that hostility between the Christian and Jewish community. This has been a sensitive, unfortunate antisemitism issue for decades if not centuries, especially as suggested in John’s Gospel. Specific Jewish executions of Christians are cited only two places in the New Testament. First, there is the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7-8 and second, the execution of James in Acts 12. Also, it is to be noted that Phineas who yoked himself to Baal was killed Israelites. Many more believers were executed under the Romans in the mid-60s CE under Nero and later Domitian. However, there are few prejudices against Italians who live in Rome today.
Other take aways from this text related to the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is the Spirit exposes the world regarding sin and later judgement. Also, the Holy Spirit helps understand what truth from God looks like, as taught by Jesus the Messiah. There is more yet to be revealed by the Spirit, according to the text.
As this might apply today, what new revelations will A.I., or Artificial Intelligence reap? For example, entry level jobs at companies, which used to teach and test out new employees might be replaced by robots. How does a college graduate or new hireling climb the ladder of any organization in learning and gaining experience? Is this the Holy Spirit? Before one quickly answers that sort of question, who wants to go back to the days of no self-service gas stations? Who wants to give up their cell phone or television remote control? Technology and A.I. can be both a friend and foe in any given time era.
For John, Jesus was in the beginning or co-creator of life (John 1). Who interprets what acceptable “life” looks like? Jesus did follow the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible as guidelines from God the Creator. Other texts in John might be helpful.
A metaphor unique to John is that of the vineyard in John 15. All branches are connected to one another, and affect the entire vineyard (or community). One test of the Spirit’s life-giving power might be how do the decisions of one area of the vineyard affect in a positive or negative way in another area of the vineyard. For example, fires in one nation could result in smoke and smog drifting into another country. Hence, the need for careful fire prevention might be viewed as a vineyard wide concern! (Beutler, 411)
Finally, how does one know for sure, if a particular movement is of the Spirit of God? First there is the witness of the Scriptures or Old Testament. Second, John the Baptist is credible prophetic witness. Third, the words of Jesus himself, particularly in John’s Gospel. Fourth, what sort of judgement are people willing to show accountability for in the afterlife (Beutler, 409)? [Beutler, Johannes, A Commentary on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Erdman’s, 2013) Newman Barclay, Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, (London, UK: United Bible Societies 1971); Thompson Marianne M., The New Testament Library: John, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015)]
Application
Where does life giving power come from for any movement today? Are faith communities driven by a particular self-interest agenda from the political right or left wing of parties? Does scripture point to purer motives which may or may not be respected by any given political group? For instance, not stealing is the seventh commandment in Exodus 20:15. Does the ends justify the means for “our group” take dark money or hide funds as long as the ends justifies the means for our cause?
Also, what happens if one group’s respect for the other group’s feelings telling the truth (eighth) command, not bearing false witness) are interpreted as naivete, as their good intentions are weaponized against them by opposing groups? When does truth telling according to the truth according to Scripture make one vulnerable to their enemies (who also might claim to be religious in some manner) become a life risking liability?
One modern example might be a night shift supervisor at a business who suspects the day supervisor is skimming money from the cash income receipts for the day. The suspicious supervisor purposefully places a $100.00 extra into the company bank at beginning of the next shift count. The next counting time results in the supervisor observing a balanced account with no extra money. Is it stealing to take the extra money? What if the person who is taking the money is needy? Should the night supervisor “set up” such a test? These are tricky and difficult situations where one must discover the “Spirit” of the organization.
Alternative Application
Do people really believe that a day of judgement will arrive when their deepest darkest sins or indiscretions will be exposed? Do people believe they will be held accountable to a higher power? Possibly many people believe that any purposeful, unrepentant wrongdoings will be ignored and all of creation is covered under blanket pardon or universalist belief that all receive a positive reward in the afterlife. John seems to suggest that there is a “truth, way and life” through Jesus who is the way (John 14:6). Has this simply become a superstitious fable taught by elders whose words are taken less seriously these days?
