The gift of God's presence

This week in Waiting for Water we are exploring Acts 1 and 2, where God gives his presence to the disciples through the Holy Spirit. For those of us living in Westernized countries inculcated with scientific materialism, the Holy Spirit is a difficult aspect of God to embrace, even if we are believers.

As we go about our daily lives, it is easy to forget that we are not just a particular cluster of blood, brain, and bone called "human." What is a spirit, anyway? It cannot be detected by scientific instruments or medicated by the pharmaceutical industry, yet most of us feel nonetheless that we are more than just bodies. We are, as C.S. Lewis put it, immortal beings. And if we forget that, much of the Bible won't make any sense, and much of the world won't either.

I have been places, especially outside the Western world, where the presence of something beyond myself was palpable. I have danced with Ugandan women and felt a dam break inside, followed by torrents of joy. I have watched white and black pastors kneeling together, asking for and receiving forgiveness, on a coliseum floor and felt as if heaven was intersecting earth. My guess is you have experienced these things too, or something quite like them. But did you recognize them for what they were--gifts of God's presence, his Spirit reaching out to touch our own?

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Humans have spirits; we are spiritual beings. And if we pay attention, we can catch glimpses of the world that exists outside what we can see, taste, touch, hear, and smell. Like the disciples, we may find ourselves experiencing what we never before imagined: the rush and fire of God's presence.

Taking Root

On Easter Sunday, instead of the usual hellos, some followers of Jesus greet each other like this:

“He is risen!”

“He is risen indeed!”

I could use that reminder, not just on Easter but on all the days and weeks which come after. Like Jesus’ followers who walked miles by his side without recognizing him or hid in locked rooms, unable to believe he might have risen, my belief grows slowly. It wilts and then spurts upward at uneven intervals, but still—something has taken root.

With me, enjoy the following story taken from this week’s W4W Bible study. It is from a partner of Lifewater International working in a country where, for security reasons, names and details are withheld.

Image courtesy of Carleton Garden

“Easter is always significant in the life of believers, but it was particularly significant for me in 2010. About 6 months earlier, at the start of the project, we had hired a woman I will refer to as Sara. Sara has an 8th grade education, is of the ethnic group considered lowest on the totem pole here, and is very poor. She is 26 years old, has been married for 10 years and is the mother of 2 precious girls. She is also an incredibly gifted learner with a zeal for life and a vision for change in this country.

“Because of Sara’s struggles to survive in this place, she had a bit of a shell around her when she first joined us …. We began to build relationship slowly and, although she never seemed particularly comfortable with “religious” conversations, we felt Easter was going to be an open door for us to share more freely.

“As Easter approached, we introduced the idea of an Easter party for the women at our office. We prepared and prayed and hoped they would come. That morning, after celebrating with other expats in a sunrise service, we received Sara and her daughters as well as other female co-workers into our home for an Easter celebration. We talked about various traditions surrounding the holiday, played games with the children, ate good food and enjoyed each other’s company, but the best part came when we got to share the story of Easter. We first shared it in word and then I was able to sing them a song in their own language that tells the whole story. We prayed together in Jesus’ name.

“There was no immediate response to the story, and nobody has decided they want to follow Him yet. But it was a seed. As we work side by side, day by day, these women hear Truth. I listened to Sara and another of our hygiene trainers training another woman the other day. They described the first lesson they give the woman and explained, “We tell them how women are important and valued because God created them.” A piece of Truth they’ve heard and are now telling others in a country where there is otherwise little evidence of the worth of women. My prayer is that the seeds will take root, and I hang on to the promise that His Word does not return void.”

Why is it a Good Friday?

This week my children, six and three, have been formulating their strategies for securing the most candy at the Easter egg hunt. But they’ve also made time to interrogate me and each other about death, resurrection, heaven, and spaceships. A typical backseat conversation goes like this:

          
Three year old: “Where is heaven? Is it higher than outer space?”

Wise six year old: “I think so.”

Three year old: “If I can get a flying rocket ship house, I’m going to go there, and I’m going to see Jesus!” *Pause* “Is Jesus a real person?”

Wise older brother: “Yes, he is.”

Three year old: “How can he be alive if he’s also dead?” *Beginning to cry* “And why did Grandma Morling have to die and go to heaven?”

Ummm … Jump in any old time here, Mom.

“Sometimes it’s hard to know if it’s all true or not,” said my son, turning his gaze out the car window.

“Yes, it is,” I agreed.

On Tuesday we flew back from vacation. As we were getting ready to exit the packed aircraft, my three year old suddenly realized what death means. We hadn’t been talking about it, and the plane didn’t nearly fall out of the sky, but all the same: “Mommy, I don’t want you to die. Please don’t die,” she repeated, drawing looks from all the other passengers. “Will I die? I don’t want to die. Hug me!”

Just when I think I have it figured out, just when I think I understand what Jesus was doing here on Earth and what the message of Calvary and Easter is, my kids wallop me with these existential questions.

Are we more than our bodies? 

Do we continue to exist after death?

How can we exist without bodies?

Was Jesus’ death really enough to bail us all out of our guilt before God?

     How can Grandma Morling’s body be here in a grave while she is alive in heaven?

One time a Hindu friend asked me to explain the Easter story to her. I was driving through a mall parking lot at the time, and just before I went over a speed bump, she said, “Why do you call it Good Friday if Jesus died?”

Heavens to Betsy. How could I explain this cosmic plan to save the universe as I was cruising through a parking lot next to a cell phone store?

I told her the same thing I told my kids. I said Jesus’ death was a deliberate act, designed to un-pretzel us from all the ways we get twisted up and connect us again to our Maker. That it was followed by Easter morning, when he cheated death and promised this same power to all his followers—life after death, new bodies, second chances.  The gospel in a nutshell, the best way I understand it to date. And yep, I would say that’s pretty good.

“God’s personal visit”

In a scene from Leo Tolstoy’s sprawling novel, War and Peace, Napoleon’s army is sweeping through Russia and about to descend on a nobleman’s estate. The nobleman has just died, and his daughter, Princess Mary, offers free food and help in evacuating to the servants who work on the estate. But they refuse her offer. They even imprison her while Napoleon and his soldiers close in. Why? The servants didn’t see the bigger picture of what was happening in Russia at that time. They only wanted the security of staying at home.

In Luke 19:28-48, Jesus entered Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Passion Week. In the Message, Eugene Peterson calls this “God’s personal visit.” As always, the Pharisees missed the significance of this visit entirely, barking at Jesus, “Teacher, get your disciples under control!” (v. 39, The Message) When they saw him, many other people shouted hosannas and flung their coats into the road. How many, though, really looked with understanding at this tableau—God himself, riding a baby donkey down a dusty road into their midst?

Surrounded by people who misunderstood this moment, Jesus cried. Looking into the future, he saw the destruction of Jerusalem’s walls and the suffering of its inhabitants, “All this because you didn’t recognize and welcome God’s personal visit.” (v. 44) And again when he walked into the Temple, he found people busy setting up shops and crowding out worship.

This Passion Week, we have the opportunity to stop, to see God’s bigger story unfolding around us and welcome his personal visit. Like Princess Mary’s peasants and like the people around Jesus, though, I usually don’t grasp the significance of what’s in front of me. I’m too busy keeping order or conducting business or protecting my family’s security.

With David, let’s be alert to God’s presence and purpose in our midst this holy week:

“God’s love is meteoric,

    his loyalty astronomic,

His purpose titanic,

    his verdicts oceanic.

Yet in his largeness

    nothing gets lost;

Not a man, not a mouse,

    slips through the cracks. (Psalm 36:5-6)

P.S. Pastor Graham Baird of Highlands Church, one of our participating churches, has posted some great thoughts on Holy Week over on his personal blog; check it out!