Wow I thought, this must be really important for God to give me such a clear and obvious sign.
I stared at the scripture reference on the back of the truck as I followed it for the next 20 minutes before I conceded I would probably forget it and so secretly took out my phone to snap a quick photo.
It wasn’t till I got home that evening that I had a chance to whip out my bible. My heart was racing a little, that God had, I thought not left this message to my fallible and dubious intellect to work out, a first. I thumbed through to the back of the book and to the very last pages to discover…Rev 21….Rev 22… “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all” ..THE END. Whaaat ? There was no 23 never mind chapter 30. I half chuckled half tutted at myself and I think to the Lord for my folly.
However today’s readings have brought this back to me in a sharp focus. As we celebrate Pentecost today it would be easy to take this as another liturgical event that’s purpose is to recall “what God did”. But that wasn’t the end of the story.
Pentecost for the Jewish people is partially celebrating a harvest and a feast recalling how God came down to meet Moses on Mount Sinai with the Laws. Rules to live by, setting out how to Love God and love each other.
“Would that all the Lords people might be prophets when the Lord would put His Spirit upon them” said a weary Moses later, thinking how much easier his life would be if everyone was on board
But this wasn’t the end of the story either.
Moses wouldn’t have known that nearly 2000 years later all Gods people would be given the Holy Spirit. That God would come down not just to the top of a mountain but to earth as a tiny baby to lead his descendants again out of slavery but this time for good. Nimrod wouldn’t have began to know how many hundreds of years later the language confusion would be reversed. That there never was a need to build a tower to reach heaven, because Heaven was coming to earth. They didn’t know because it wasn’t yet the end of the story.
The acts of the apostles finishes without us hearing what happened to Paul or Peter. The story continues beyond the pages of scripture.
I have spent the last ten weeks with an abundance of time to reflect and read and receive. What I don’t know is what it is for, or how it will be used because those pages in my book are yet to be written. This Pentecost particularly is a time for an openness for new beginnings. We have spent many a week holed up in our little upper rooms,not knowing what’s next but being prepared for something. Probably not martyrdom but who knows. The same Spirit that turned fishermen fearless, harlots into heroines and cowards into conquerors, can do the same transformation in you. No matter what your back story, God has a script written for you, for your life from this day on. This time He doesn’t wish to write on stone, not even parchment or papyrus, no this time He wishes this story to be written deeply on the fleshy underside of your will.
This Sunday is the start of not just one new chapter, but a new book because your story, our story is still being written. Perhaps Revelation 30 will one day be a saintly account of what you did in response to the Holy Spirit this Pentecost, post lockdown, 2020. A tale of not what God did but more of what He is doing.