00:00:00:00 - 00:00:37:18
Welcome to Perspectives, a podcast where the clergy women at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego share their musings on scripture, theology, and what it has to do with us. Welcome to Perspectives. We are starting a brand new series in these weeks after Easter. We'll be looking at the early church as it is recorded in the Book of Acts, and we're asking ourselves whether or not we can learn anything in that from that book to see how we can be better human beings.

00:00:37:20 - 00:01:22:00
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is meant to improve everything. And so, how might this story improve us? And so, we're going to start right at the very beginning of the Book of Acts, chapter one. It starts according to the common English Bible translation with these words: "Theophilus, the first scroll I wrote concerned everything Jesus did and taught from the very beginning, right up to the day when He was taken up into heaven, before He was taken up working in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus instructed the Apostles He had chosen." I mean, to stop there, just to point out that the first phrase, "Theophilus, the first scroll." The first scroll, it

00:01:22:00 - 00:01:47:17
says the first scroll. That first scroll is known as the Gospel according to Luke. Yeah, it's the gospel. The first scroll is the gospel. This is the second scroll. And it's actually, we call it Acts for shorthand, but it's really called the Acts of the Apostles. So the Gospel, according to Luke is the first part of this two-volume series.

00:01:47:19 - 00:02:14:18
And, the Gospel of Luke is the longest of all of the gospels. It is written for a Gentile audience and a Greek audience, most scholars say. And, the Gospel of Luke covers a lot of what is also covered in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. And yet, Luke has some very special material that's unique to just Luke and the very special perspective.

00:02:14:20 - 00:02:48:01
And this perspective of the Gospel of Luke. And in the Gospel, excuse me, the Acts of the Apostles, really is all about the Holy Spirit. Consider this The Gospel of Matthew has seven references to the Holy Spirit. Mark has four. John three, and the Gospel of Luke has 13 references, already impressively more than the others. But then the Acts of the Apostles has 41 references to the Holy Spirit.

00:02:48:03 - 00:03:20:03
So you might want to say that for this author, the Holy Spirit really is the main character here, right? And I love the way he starts his writing to Theophilus, which literally means friend of God, right? So, you know, I don't know. There might have been somebody roaming around the ancient world named Theophilus, but it also simply raises the idea that this is really written to anyone who would call themselves a friend of God.

00:03:20:05 - 00:03:44:11
And I'm really glad because this has so much power for all of us, both the Gospel of Luke and Acts according to the Apostles. So that's, in the first three words, we get from this book, right? So the Scripture continues. It says after some effort, excuse me, after Jesus's suffering, he showed them that he was alive with many convincing proofs.

00:03:44:11 - 00:04:05:01
He appeared to them over a period of 40 days, speaking to them about God's kingdom while they were eating together. He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. He said, This is what you heard from me, John baptized with water. But in only a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

00:04:05:01 - 00:04:35:05
There it is, our main character. As a result, Scripture goes on. "Those who gathered together asked Jesus, Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? And Jesus replied, It isn't for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has said by his own authority. Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

00:04:35:07 - 00:04:59:22
So, there's a lot packed in there. And I know we could talk about a lot of things, but I want to point out just a couple of things. I think, you know, this is a pivotal moment in the Jesus story. This is really as the foundation of the church is being laid. And not surprisingly, at least to me, it doesn't surprise me that it begins with, as it says Jesus speaking to the apostles about the Kingdom of God.

00:05:00:00 - 00:05:19:09
He first came announcing the Kingdom of God has come near. So he's talking about the kingdom of God. But one of the things that surprises me in these first few verses is that Jesus was saying, "You'll be baptized by the Holy Spirit" and then the Apostles immediately make a quick shift to say, "Well, are you going to restore the Kingdom of Israel now?"

00:05:19:11 - 00:05:45:06
Right? It's like, whoa, pay attention, come on. Well, watch me right? Love the apostles, because my goodness, how many times are we that way? Right? And so the Kingdom of God now, Jesus comes talking about that and the people who were waiting for the Messiah, they were really waiting for a messiah to restore the kingdom of Israel, right.

00:05:45:08 - 00:06:23:14
And so we perhaps on the surface of this part of the scripture, we see that tension that, you know, like I just said, God love those apostles, right? They got it wrong again. Right? So there's a little bit of that. But I think there's more going on here. And I think it's important to note this. I think that that likely that kind of difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Israel is a reinforcement of the argument those early followers of Jesus were making to the people who were within Judaism, who did not quite understand Jesus in the same way they did right.

00:06:23:16 - 00:06:52:02
The early disciples for Jesus were Jewish, excuse me, following Jesus were Jewish. The early church was primarily Jewish. So the nascent church, really in this time when the Gospels were being written, needed to establish both that there was a continuity between what God did in Judaism with what Jesus was now doing now, as well as making the distinction between how that continuity was there, but also it was very different.

00:06:52:04 - 00:07:16:17
So the early followers of Jesus, they needed to hold on to the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, even though he came not to overthrow the Roman Empire, not to reestablish Israel as a kingdom, but he is still the Messiah, that's the argument. So you have the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Israel, but they aren't one and the same for the early Christians.

00:07:16:19 - 00:07:40:11
And in the end, that becoming a church rather than a synagogue or part of Christianity rather than Judaism, it seems as though there's a major shift away from a location, away from the central city of the lands and away from the people of the land, to a shift towards the ends of the earth, as we heard in this passage.

00:07:40:11 - 00:08:01:22
And it's the Gentile and it's the Greek to whom Luke is writing. So that's just a, you know, little bit of history underneath what's lying there. And I have to say that much of the content of this kind of distinguishment ... is that the word? I don't know. Just go with it. It's another word – distinguishing – that's the word. The distinction!

00:08:01:22 - 00:08:27:14
That's the word, distinction. That's right. Neither one of us forget it. But I like it. That's there it is. But much of the polemic to make that distinction has been incredibly damaging to the Jewish people. Bringing a justification for torture and death. Right. So while it's skimming over the top, we don't have to notice it.

00:08:27:16 - 00:08:50:22
I think it's really important that we dig down and notice it and to recognize it because it gives us a chance to denounce it now. Right. Right. It was probably helpful for the early church, but we have to denounce it now. And I do think that's a little bit of the part of what it means to be a better human being is to recognize some of that stuff.

00:08:51:00 - 00:09:15:05
I, you were going to say something. Please. I was just going to say, I agree. That's literally what I was going to say. I'm on a roll. So I just want to share one thing. And then it's all you, girl. Not all me, but yeah. So I'm on a roll. I just, around that idea of, of the centrality of land within Judaism.

00:09:15:05 - 00:09:44:13
I remember a conversation I had with a rabbi in Denver and I had to admit, I just don't get it. I just don't get why the land is so important. And he shared this simple thought. He says the land is to Israel as the cross is to Christians. And he said it would break your heart if you were told to get over the cross, to get over the land.

00:09:44:15 - 00:10:14:02
Right. For him. That was a helpful analogy for me to at least understand a little bit about that importance. But in this story, Jesus sidestepped that whole question about the restoration of Israel. Rather, he says, "Don't worry about that." Rather, you know, watch for the Holy Spirit is coming. And the other thing that really sticks out in this scripture passage is that very beginning.

00:10:14:02 - 00:10:37:23
It says that Jesus showed them that he was alive with many convincing proofs. Girl, I got to love that phrase, "convincing proofs." What do you make of that? Trudy, Reverend Robinson, I've been sitting with this, "convincing proofs," like, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus just show them the nail prints, you know, the holes in his hands?

00:10:38:01 - 00:11:03:07
Did Jesus, you know, what did Jesus do? How did Jesus convince them that he was Jesus, that this was the man, the Messiah who had come to talk to him or to talk to them? Many convincing proofs. So what is what would be convincing? Right? And then I thought about myself in my own encounters with people, in my thoughts.

00:11:03:07 - 00:11:23:14
And how do I know that this is the theology that I can get behind? How do I know that this is the type of Christianity that I want to be a part of? How do I know that this is the real Jesus that I know? And I think in my humble opinion that the Holy Spirit is the way that that truth is revealed.

00:11:23:16 - 00:11:49:02
Right. That the Holy Spirit comes with Jesus. Right. Well, before the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles and Acts 2, right. The Holy Spirit, comes to Mary in the Book of Luke, right. And the Holy Spirit overcomes her and she's pregnant. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. I think that the reason that the apostles were convinced that it was Jesus is because the Holy Spirit was right there with them.

00:11:49:04 - 00:12:09:02
And Jesus says, you know, in the Gospel of Matthew four, where there are two or more gathered together in my name, I am in their midst also, right. And so, I think that there was something about them gathering together and having that conversation, right, to be with one another in the presence of Jesus is there. The Holy Spirit meets them there.

00:12:09:04 - 00:12:33:16
So rather than necessarily Jesus showing them the holes in his hands or showing them the hole in his side, right, this resurrected Christ, I really think that it's the Holy Spirit's present with Jesus that convinces the disciples that, yeah, that's that guy. That's Him, that guy, that's the guy that we know. Yeah. And then I was also thinking about Jesus and this encounter with the Holy Spirit.

00:12:33:18 - 00:12:57:22
And what does that even mean? Like, what is the Holy Spirit? Right? Like, how do we see that, right? Like, what does it even mean? And so I looked it up in the Bible, right? In the Hebrew Bible, and it's mentioned approximately 93 times. The Holy Spirit is, right. It's mentioned 93 times in the Hebrew Word. It's not Holy Spirit necessarily.

00:12:57:22 - 00:13:32:17
The Hebrew word is "ruah", right, which means breath. And so, I then thought about Genesis, which is my favorite. I know so, so random. That the first chapter of Genesis, first verse, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the Earth was it was in complete chaos and darkness covered the face of the deep while a wind from God, a wind from God swept over the face of the waters, right. The breath of God. And then when you think about the word for Holy Spirit, right, in the Greek, it's "pneuma", right.

00:13:32:18 - 00:13:55:02
Which also means breath, and in religious context. And it also means that it's connected to this Holy Spirit, the spirit in the soul. Right. And so then that makes us think if, at least makes me think, that the Holy Spirit is God's breath that we can't live without, it's what keeps us alive, right? The Holy Spirit is the breath of God.

00:13:55:02 - 00:14:19:12
It's God's divine influence over us and over the universe. Right. And I think that sometimes as Christians, at least I, say the Holy Spirit very casually. But I think that there are many ways that the Holy Spirit shows up in other people's lives, but they might not say at the Holy Spirit right? For instance, Jiminy Cricket, let your conscience be your guide.

00:14:19:18 - 00:14:48:04
Right? I think in many ways that our intuition, our conscience, those things that prompt us, are really God's spirit moving us forward. Right? And I think that more than convincing proofs, I think that when I think of the Holy Spirit, I think of convicting proofs that I can't, you know, when the Holy Spirit is in my presence, or I feel the presence of God, it's that I'm convicted to do better.

00:14:48:06 - 00:15:09:02
I can't turn away from the ways in which I've ignored my stranger, the stranger on the street. You know, I can't ignore the ways in which my life hasn't lived out the Good News for other people. And so even more than convincing proofs, I think that the Holy Spirit is a convicting proof. That's beautiful. Yeah. For at least for me.

00:15:09:07 - 00:15:31:22
And then the Holy Spirit in the New Testament appears 90 times. Right? So over and over 180 times the breath of God, the spirit of God, the ruah, right, which means that the Holy Spirit plays a huge role in our human life and our human interactions and how we interact with one another and how we find our own meaning.

00:15:32:00 - 00:15:55:15
So that sudden clarity that we get, you know, that feels very Holy Spirit driven. You know, I love when I think of the Holy Spirit. I think of the fact that I'm a minister because that's not what I planned, right? Not what I had in store for myself. Right? And that's the convincing proof right there. Hello. Hello.

00:15:55:15 - 00:16:18:04
Convicting, convincing, and all of the other things, right? Yeah. But when I think of that, it was this sudden clarity that I had in these distinct moments that kind of led me on that path. Moving to Des Moines, Iowa. Right? Not on my bucket list for sure. No shade, Iowa. Or is it? You know me, You know me. Hey, can we cut that? [laughter]

00:16:18:04 - 00:16:41:04
Can we cut that. You're right. No, just kidding. But I felt very convicted to do those things because I felt that God was calling me in that direction. Right? Yeah. I felt like God was calling me to do those things. And it was very clear instead in this clarity. But my friends were like, "You're moving to Iowa?" And I was like, "Yeah, I am, because I feel like God is calling me there."

00:16:41:06 - 00:17:08:05
And so, it's something to me about this clarity that we have, this inner working, this inner knowing, this wrestling that we have. That to me is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And I also think that one thing that Jesus says, He says, for the disciples to wait for what the Father had promised. Yeah, right. Yeah. And when I think of what the Father had promised, promise sounds like a gift, right?

00:17:08:11 - 00:17:28:14
You know, like this anticipation. And to me, the Holy Spirit is God's gift to us. This breath of life, to move us forward in the direction that God might be calling us to build God's kingdom here. Yeah, Yeah. I love the way you've described all of that because it's also Holy Spirit focused. Right?

00:17:28:16 - 00:17:51:18
And, you know, I love the way the Scripture says convincing proofs. You know, it could have said we who are part of the scientific revolution. Right. And know fact from your scientific discovery, all of that kind of stuff. We expected to say, he showed them proof. Like the hands and all of that kind of stuff.

00:17:51:23 - 00:18:13:20
But there's there was some convincing that needed to happen or convicting, as you said it. And I love what you shared about just the whole history of the Holy Spirit throughout scriptures. I know many who think that the Holy Spirit really didn't come on the scene until Pentecost. Yeah, not true, but not true.

00:18:13:21 - 00:18:41:02
Not true. In fact, it's here even in that convincing proof of the resurrection. And yeah, so. So whatever made that different. Pentecost different. We'll tackle and another one of these podcasts. We sure will. Wait on for that. But the Holy Spirit is active and alive. You know, as I think about the Holy Spirit in my life, and yeah, we both answered the call to ministry, not what we expected.

00:18:41:02 - 00:19:02:01
In fact, I think I actually said, "No, thank you." I did too, girl. A couple of times. Right. And in the way, I can understand the Holy Spirit is what happens when I have to preach or when I'm writing a sermon. Right? Right. Every week, every seven days, that sermon comes, right? So it's one of the things we do.

00:19:02:03 - 00:19:28:14
And we love it and we hate it. Am I right? Tell the truth. Yeah, but I know that there are times I'm sitting down in my chair that I write my sermons at, and I can tell when I am just pushing something, they get done, you know, and I'm in my own way, you know. And I may have started with a kernel of an idea that I feel felt God convicting me about whatever.

00:19:28:18 - 00:19:51:03
But then it just went away. And I'm just like, you know, wrestling with that angel, like Jacob, right, and it's horrible. Yeah, but then, you know, sometimes I have to walk away and just do something completely different and I won't even be thinking about it. And then an idea will pop into my head and I'll say, "that's it!" Right?

00:19:51:05 - 00:20:22:19
Yeah. So you know, I think that's the best way for me to try and understand you know, you name that, that sudden clarity that happens within when the Holy Spirit really comes and visits. But I mean, there have been, I'm quite sure, many sermons I have delivered when I did not wait for that clarity. Okay. And I just pushed something through and it was like, you know, a big old rock that just right came out of the pulpit that one Sunday.

00:20:23:11 - 00:20:45:13
Definitely been there. Right? So not everybody receives the Holy Spirit. We do have a choice, which is going back again to that convincing proof. We don't have to buy it. We don't have to be convinced. We don't have to recognize that the Holy Spirit is moving. We don't have to be looking for it.

00:20:45:15 - 00:21:14:11
We don't have to follow it. We don't have to have it enter into our hearts or do anything. We don't have to do any of it. Sure, don't. Right? A lot of people didn't. A lot of people don't. But the apostles did. They did. They did. And when I think about those with over those early days, really were like, you know, that took a great deal of of courage.

00:21:14:13 - 00:21:45:06
Chutzpah. Yeah. Yeah. They had to you know, they followed this rabbi. Many people were following a lot of different people, but they followed this one who made it to the cross. And they watched him die or heard about him dying. They weren't actually there, but they ended up being convinced, convicted that he still lives. Wow. That takes courage.

00:21:45:06 - 00:22:28:05
Yeah, that takes courage. They had to be vulnerable. They had to take the risk because the forces that killed Jesus were still very much at play. Hello? Hello. And they really had to be receptive to looking at things very differently. Can I just interject? Yes, please. In my humble opinion, yeah. Our churches are in the state that they're in now because we have not accepted the gift of the Holy Spirit. That we are so in our heads and we're so prescriptive about what needs to be done that when the Spirit of God is calling us to do something different, we don't accept that gift because we haven't been convicted yet.

00:22:28:07 - 00:22:50:06
We haven't been convinced. And in my opinion, when we get to talking about the Trinity, I love the Trinity. You can't separate it. But for me, what I resonate with most is the Holy Spirit, because if it were not for God's spirit moving me in any direction, I would not be half of the person that I am. And we all have our own growing to do.

00:22:50:12 - 00:23:14:12
But there's something about the Holy Spirit that calls us and moves us and goes with us to those new places, that goes with us beyond Jerusalem, that goes with us into Samaria, right? That goes with us into Greece, that goes with us into these new areas that God is calling us to the ends of the earth. It is the Holy Spirit.

00:23:14:18 - 00:23:47:20
Yeah. And so without that, with without us accepting and embracing and asking and calling on the Holy Spirit, our Churches as the big C, will continue to see the decline that we're seeing, because we've not yet breathed in the breath of God. Now, wait a second. You are meddling here. Sorry. Reverend Britney. Sorry. [laughter] No, because, I was just thinking about all of this in both our stories about being convicted by the Holy Spirit.

00:23:48:00 - 00:24:11:12
We did something we did not want to do. We said "No, thank you, very much. No, no." Right. And that's part of it. So, do you, is it your experience, that any time you feel convicted by the Holy Spirit, that it really pushes you out of your comfort zone? It's like wrestling like Jacob did with the angel, right?

00:24:11:16 - 00:24:33:16
It's like Jonah going to Nineveh, right. Didn't want to go, right. But God calls us there. So, yeah. And I also think that sometimes we think that the Holy Spirit is going to make us feel good. And in fact, that's not always the case, though, sometimes. Listen, I don't mean to get up on your preaching, that sometimes we come to the church expecting to feel good.

00:24:33:20 - 00:24:52:16
Yeah, right. To feel good. And maybe, just maybe, the feeling that God is calling us to wrestle and to think and to be moved by the Spirit. And then maybe it feels good to be convicted. Thank you. Because I didn't want to go into ministry. I would have been a top-tier lawyer. I make that very clear.

00:24:52:18 - 00:25:20:01
I would have been a wonderful litigator. However, my life is so full. Yeah. And I can't imagine. Yeah. What it would look like if I didn't move when the Holy Spirit said go, even though I was not interested Highly. No, thank you. Yeah, Yeah. there's. This is good stuff. The Holy Spirit. You cannot predict. And it takes a lot of courage.

00:25:20:01 - 00:25:44:15
And the apostles' openness and part of, I think the openness, is just to simply wonder or maybe imagine something differently. It's in a different realm than just our brains. So it's more than just thinking differently, and it's just to wonder and just to be so open. That is, I think that will make us a better human being.

00:25:44:17 - 00:26:04:17
I think so. I believe it's made me one. I know it used to make me one. I, you know, I have often thought in my career as a minister that, you know, I thought I went into this to, you know, to serve the church and to serve God through the church and to make the church, you know, better, perhaps.

00:26:04:19 - 00:26:39:01
I think it was all about making me better. I guess I was a better person because I've had to be convicted and reliant truly upon the Holy Spirit. It's not that I'm perfect. It's not that I do it all the time. But I do think there's something about relying on something bigger than you that has been promised or at least evidence throughout time for being powerful.

00:26:42:00 - 00:26:57:05
I think that. Great. I mean, I see it show up, you know, in you with the way that you show grace, right? That's not everyone. The Holy Spirit, in my opinion, shows up in people very differently. And the way that you were able to give grace has made me think about things differently. When I'm like, "No."

00:26:57:05 - 00:27:20:02
And you're like, "Well, maybe you should think about it this way." Okay. So I think that the Holy Spirit is always moving in us. And when we accept, right, the gift of the Holy Spirit, then we become the apostles, right? The Bible book is called The Acts of the Apostles. The apostles are those who are sent out by the Holy Spirit as ambassadors for God.

00:27:20:02 - 00:27:38:02
Right? When we accept the gift of the Holy Spirit, then we can be Christ's apostles. Then we can be God's ambassadors in the world. Then we can be a reflection, then we can do the work. But we have to be willing to accept the gift of the Holy Spirit and to accept the convictions that come from that, right?

00:27:38:02 - 00:28:18:13
That's right. Yeah. This good stuff. I thank you, Reverand Brittany. That has been our perspective. We invite you to consider what your perspective is on all of this. And these are some questions that we invite you to consider. When was a time when you recognized the presence of the Holy Spirit? What gets in the way of you following the Holy Spirit's nudges? What is the Holy Spirit calling us to do you to do with Its power?

00:28:20:23 - 00:28:39:20
Hmmm, come on! Holy Spirit! Power! There it is. If you want to talk with others about that, we have Convergence, which is an opportunity to either meet in person or on Zoom, look on our website, and you can find out more about that, or reach out to the church, or Reverend Brittany or I. We are glad that you listened to us today, and we'll see you next time.

00:28:39:22 - 00:29:10:23
Bye! This is a production of First United Methodist Church of San Diego. To learn more about our events and ministries and to access additional learning resources, visit FUMCSD.org