It is very hard to escape from the constant reporting and commentary on the state of the nation and what’s happening to us state to state. I often find myself looking for the health report hoping to hear that we have had another zero count overnight and that our part of the state is still COVID free. Being constantly immersed in this season of disruption makes the soul weary yet strangely enough, hopeful.
Some commentary seems to consider this season as an interruption, a hiccup in life and economy, I hear talk of businesses being hibernated – that like an animal that hibernates in the winter they are going to come out of hibernation when the season change and enter back into life as normal. I her commentary about the all facets of society coming back to normal, including the church. If that is the case – what a waste!
Its interesting to me that our COVID season has overlapped key moments in the Christian calendar – EASTER and now PENTECOST. The common element between then all, is disruption. These events are not interruptions in the journey of humanity but are in fact major disruptions, that, depending on which way you view them, have triggered a whole new way of being. At least thats how I see it.
This whole train of thought was kicked-off, not by the return of the NRL and a Cowboys victory, but by the season of pentecost. It occurred to me that the points at which God intervenes in human history case major disruptions and the possibility of hopefulness like we have never had it before. Late into the night I had to look up the definition of ‘disruption’ and ‘interruption’ so I could go to sleep. Interruption is defined as as disturbance, intrusion, or interference. Something that happened on the way that caused a minor detour but then the journey continued on to its conclusion. Whereas ‘disruption’ defined is as disordering, drastically altering, even destroying the structure. It has its origins in the Latin – the meaning – broken apart.
The point of God’s disruptions, as far as I can tell in the human journey, is to break apart, to drastically disrupt the direction his human beings are going to offer and empower a new beginning. That is why we are called ‘new creations’ not ‘re-creations’. Easter and now Pentecost point hopefully at a new opportunity that we can grasp onto that will take us into an empowered new future that is orchestrated, guided, directed by His very presence and purposes.
Let’s be clear on something, I do not believe God is the author of this pandemic or any other disrupting world event like WWI or ‘The Great Depression’ or a cancer diagnosis. But God can use them to break apart the current order to bring about new possibilities.
Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out, is not just a commemoration day, a blip, or even an anomaly in faith but an ongoing season of reordering of establishing a new Kingdom, a new order after breaking apart the old. The Holy Spirit living in you and moving in your life is evidence of the new order, His order until His Kingdom comes in its fulness. We can live in this place or choose to live in rubble of the old broken order. It’s your choice!
As for me I choose Kingdom life.