"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing then in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
I can give this blog, another for the I-don't-know-what-number's time, another go at regular posting and maybe, in the process, evangelising. So what does Evangelism in the present age we live in, look like? Do you need to be shouting on a corner (placard and megaphone optional), getting hectic and terrifying people with the exact temperature of the Lake of Fire as described in Revelations 20:10? Is it a case of hiding away from the world, because, wow, the scope and scale of the mess, misery and torment is too much for one individual to add their feeble voice to? Or do we 'do church', you know rock up each week, grab a 'prayer seasoned' brunch/drink/dinner with friends and family afterwards, and slip smugly back into our relatively comfortable lives, having not really done much?
Personally, I think there are some clues in that first Pentecost bible passage (see Acts 2:1-13 for the full story). However, in the spirit of brevity, as no one likes a verbose post I shall distill:
"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them" Acts 2:4
The key factor is plugging into the Holy Spirit, as it is the Spirit equipping you guiding you and as it explicitly says in the verse here 'enabling'. For swotty perfectionists like myself (and I am hazarding a guess others reading this might relate) it is not about slogging in your own strength. Just show up, with open and honest intent and God will do the rest.
"Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?" Acts 2:8
All of us want to be heard and understood, it's a basic human need. For the evangelists in this passage, the Holy Spirit gives them the gift of tongues, and literally, foreigners from across several countries could fully understand one another, courtesy of the Holy Spirit. However, let's also think of language more than words and utterances. Language can also be described as 'vibe', it's energetic: think about how much non-verbal communication we all do in one day, from wide eyed joy to side eye sarcasm, and so too it is with evangelism. The Spirit will equip us all to relate and vibe with others. This does not mean we should put on a cloak of piety unless of course one likes rolling with the sanctimonious. If we want to understand everyone's 'native language', here those messages within messages, even the ones left unsaid or said in a sigh, a slumped shoulder or crossed arms, then we need to care, have compassion. Do that and we will connect and apologies if this is getting a bit call-and-response-tastic, God will do the rest.
Finally be ready for the shade, mockery and the double eye rolls, from all sorts as you carry on doing you, with Jesus at your centre, and in your enthusiasm it gets interpreted for something else:
"Some however, made fun of them and said, 'They have had too much wine.'" Acts 2:13
We live in a world where judgement is a swipe or tick away: and thus it is easy to either chase the affirmation; whether it's via the filter, strategic placement of those limited edition Golden Goose trainers in frame or just going along with current norms and trends. It is equally hard to persevere in light of ambivalence and mockery. But let's be frank here, Jesus suffered far worse. Too much wine whether it is a glass extra of Château Léoville-Las Cases, or as indicated in the passage his supernatural power, is nothing to be ashamed of, keeping quiet or not wishing to rock the boat more-so.
So on this Pentecost Sunday I am very excited, not least because, God by the grace of keeping me alive and well on his wondrous earth, has given me yet another chance to do a spot of evangelism. If you are expecting prim and proper and posts that keep a lid on controversy and uncomfortable topics, this is not the space for you. If you think fashion and faith do not belong in the same sentence, or that random testimonies are precisely what people need to hear to see a living God on the move, this too is not the place for you. But if you are up for the adventure and an evangelist who is happy to admit to being neither a theologian or infallible, I welcome you to this new and invigorated blog.
Finally, all of the pictures today are my favourites depicting this seminal event: The Stained Glass window is in Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, and the paintings are in order of appearance Giotto's Pentecost, painted circa 1310, El Greco's Pentecost painted circa 1600 and finally Van Dyck's Pentecost painted in 1620.
