A New Partnership

With cows in the pasture and the line of round hay bales running out, we start longing for grass around here long before most folks want to drag out their lawn mowers.  Grasss in the pasture means no more hauling hay and most of all, it reduces the likelihood of having to buy hay.  There are at least two signs of grass in the field.  One sign is seen and one is smelled.  The sign the eyes give is the vision of the greening of the pasture and hay bales that are being ignored.  The sign the nose gives is that a different smell begins to be caught in the wind and carried across the fence line to anyone who passes by.  The smell of manure from grass is certainly a richer smell than the one derived from cows eating hay.    

Most folks who take a drive into the country where cows might be part of the landscape seen out the closed car window never notice such a thing.  And while this is true, it also speaks to a larger issue of how we have separated ourselves so completely from the creation.  It is as if we have become spectators in the creation instead of paricipants in it.  If our ancestors lived on a farm and many of them did, they lived midst the creation in a kind of day to day partnership with the Creator.  Unfortunately, we have become such an urbanized culture that many people go from the womb to the grave without really knowing the creation as a great blessing.   

For most of my life I lived as one of those who lived in the creation, but still somehow managed to live apart from it.  Such becomes easy when life is lived confined inside an automobile, or lived in an air conditioned office where windows are not even made to raise for the benefit of fresh air, or in places where walking on the grass is forbidden by prohibitive warning signs.  I am grateful for these days when I end up bringing in the house some of that holy dirt on my clothes.  The farm has become a place of signs and wonders of the working, walking, and still creating Creator and for this new partnership I am deeply grateful.    

The Blessing of Chickens

There are some spiritual communities which offer a service called "The Blessing of the Animals."  People are invited to bring their pets for a blessing from the priest, or pastor.  Perhaps, it is something which came out of the Saint Francis tradition since he was one who seemed to have a unique relationship with the birds, and donkeys, and even wolves.  Animals are an important part of our lives and the blessing of them as a part of our faith tradition is not a bad thing.  It is a good thing to live with an attiude of blessing everything and everyone that touches our lives.    

Of course, it is also true that animals bless us.  There is no religious ritual they perform over us, but their presence is so often a blessing not really understood by people who want nothing to do with animals.  There is no dog around the farm these days, but there are chickens.  Chickens bless me every day.  When I go out to let them out of their pen, they clamor around the door and when it is open they follow me all over the yard until I can manage to get them interested in scratchinng and digging.  And when I go back just before dark to shut up the gate for their protection from noctural predators, they run toward me and stay underfoot so close I can hardly walk as I make my way back to the chicken pen.    They make me laugh as I watch them run, or waddle.  God made them with a funny walk.  And, as I stumble around trying not to step on one, I find myself talking to them as if they were children underfoot.  

Of course, there is also the benefit of finding freshly laid eggs in the chicken house for which I am grateful and so I always tell them.  Yes, these five hens do bless me.  They bring me pleasure and are as much a part of our life here on the farm as anything else that is around us.  God knew what He was doing when He made them.  They bless us with food for our stomach, laughter for our spirit, and a sense of belonging to them and them to us.  

The Anchor

Some preachers have no use for a physical pulpit because they think it anchors them to one place.  What they want to do is to move one waiy and then another without anything restricting that chancel area wandering.  Over the years of preaching it never seemed that the pulpit forced me to be stationary in preaching, but instead, it kept me anchored lest I wander too far.  There is no argument here about the pulpit being an anchor point, but sometimes we fail to see to what we are anchored.    

One of the first things I often did when arriving at a new preaching appointment was to get out whatever historical record might be available and read the list of preachers who had come to my new pulpit before me.  It helped me be serious about my preaching to realize upon whose shoulders I stood in that pulpit.  Another thing which I always did was keep an open Bible on the pulpit.  It is ok to have one to wave around in the air, but the open book of Scripture reminded me to keep my preaching anchored in the authoritative Word of God. Maybe some might find the past tradition and the Scripture to be outdated anchoring points, but they both are important for relevant preaching in the present.  

And finally, the pulpit anchored me to the "Thus saith the Lord"  tradition of the Word of God.  When the prophet's messages thundered across the landscape, it carried more clout than just a man's opinion.  Both the prophet and the people undestood that the Word being spoken was the voice of God being spoken through a human preacher.  Perhaps, this is the most frightening thing to today's preacher.  To speak in such a tradition requires not just a boldness in proclamation, but a strong conviction that preaching is not just a speech given at a civic club luncheon, but something unique and holy that is not spoken anywhere else in the world.  To this bold conviction faithful preachers are anchored and the pulpit as unique as it is in our world shouts a clear reminder of what is at stake.

The Loss of Power

A call to preach quite naturally would take the one called to the pulpit.   What is the  case nowdays is that many are called and go preach, but with some disdain for the pulpit.  The rationale is understandable.  For some the pulpit is a physical barrier that separates the preacher from the people.  Instead of preaching from behind a pulpit, many are choosing these days to attach the microphone around their ear and go out among the people and preach.  Being closer seems to be something which seems to be better to those who would walk away from the pulpit.    

I guess old habits are hard to break for this old worn out Methodist preacher who has found the pulpit to be an important place in preaching as well as in the silent message it proclaims about preaching the Word of God in the sanctuary.   As I reflect on years of preaching with a pulpit either in front of me, or near me as an anchoring point, I have come to see it as visible reminder that there is only one thing worth preaching about and that is the Word of God.  The pulpit is a visible sign of the "Thus saith the Lord..." tradition of the Old Testament.  To stray from this tradition is something which truly compromises the power and authority of preaching.   

Of course, in some circles preaching is no longer seen as the authoritative Word of God.  In many places when the Scripture is read, the preacher will say, "The Word of God for the people of God,"  and the people complete the ritual by saying, "Thanks be to God."   Not many who preach would be comfortable today leading the congregation in the same ritual at the conclusion of a sermon.  When the preacher is uncomfortable making such a bold assertion about preaching, it is no wonder that the sermon has gone from being the Word of God to one person's opinion.  And, it is no wonder that the pulpit has lost its power.   

Final Revival Thoughts

As great as it this outpouring of God's Holy Spirit at Asbury University and beyond, it is and will go largely unnoticed by the vast majoritiy of people.  It is not that it has not touched tens of thousauds of folks who were either present there, or became witnesses and believers through the sharing of social media, but that given the population in which God chose to work, only a minority know about it and were touched by it.  The majoritiy of the population of the country went about their business without ever knowing that something so life changing and powerful was stirrring just up the road from them.   

While we may have prayed that the fire of this Revival would spread to every campus, every church, and every community, God probably did not have this as a requirement for accomplishing what He wanted to accomplish through this divine moment.  He has always worked with a minority, a remnant to use a Biblical word, or a small group of people to do His work of changing the world.  A spiritual enterprise as big as "the ends of the earth"  was launched with twelve men, great moments of church reform and renewal have been set in motion by the vision of one man, and a few people praying in the unseen places of the world have been used to set in motion many revivals and seasons of renewal in the church.  

We pray for a crowd, God does not need a crowd.  He only needs one.  We pray for signs of this revival to spread into every corner of the world.  God only needs those who have been touched to faithfully go where He has planned for them to go.  What is true is this.  What God has set in motion has not eneded.  It is only beginning.  A great wave of newly spiritually transformed and energized people have been set loose upon the world and they will make a difference in the corners of the world where teachers are teaching, servants are serving, business people are working, and preachers are preaching.  The majority which has not heard is not beyond being touched by this great outpouring.  The Holy Spirit is on the way to them. 

A Revival Memory

I cannot tell you the spiritual impact that this outpouring of the Holy Spirit which started at Asbury Universtiy will have over the years.  I cannot tell you why God chose Asbury again to begin such a powerful spiritual movement.  And, I cannot tell you where the last rippling of the Holy Spirit will be felt in this current awakening.  There is much I cannot tell you or anyone else.  What I can say with certainty is that God is about something in these days and it will only be known as those who have been spiritually transformed and energized go forward.    

Fifty three years ago I was at Asbury College when a similar movement of the Holy Spirit took place.  As I reflect on that holy week in which the Holy Spirit did signs and wonders, I find that there is much about it that I do not know.  What I do know is that the moment I spent at the altar that Tuesday afternoon in 1970 has never been far from my memory and forever shaped my personal spiritual journey and the ministry God entrusted to me.  I never sought to make a shrine out of what happened, I did not talk about it until people were weary of hearing what had happened, and I never felt it was something which could be duplicated or programmed and shoved down the spiritual throat of the churches I was serving.   

What I do know is that the Revival of '70 gave me a hunger for God that has never been satisfied.  It made me thirsty.  It caused me to always want to make more of myself available to the work of the Holy Spirit.  What it did not make me was perfect, neither did it make me feel that I had arrived spirtually, and here toward the end of the journey with that memory still fresh I confess to knowing that there is so much I do not know about the way God works to make Himself known among us.  I am grateful for that day long ago.  It has been an anchor that has held me steadfast to the Cornerstone.  (I Peter 2:6)

The Rest of the Story

When we read the story of Pentecost in the early pages of the book of Acts we are able to continue reading the rest of the story.  We know immediately what happened when the wind and fire left the room it filled.  We know it went blowing and burning into the rest of the world to bring into being spiritual communities which continued to recreate themselves to this very day.  That first fire has been inextinguishable and that first wind has never ceased to blow.  We are all here today because of it.  That first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit has left its mark on the world and continues to do so to this very day.   

As we behold the great outpouring of God's Spirit at Asbury University and now in countless other places as well, we cannot see where it all is going.  We see the beginning of this chapter of the Kingdom story, but we cannot yet see the ending to it.  Actually, we cannot even see what is between the beginning and the end.  Some may say that like the Pentecost that day in Jerusalem this outbreak of the Spirit will have no end, but will continue to ripple across the world in an endless manner.  If such is true, may that holy ripple persist until every place is touched and every heart has been transformed!    

The Word speaks of the Spirit coming without any explanation.  The Wind of God comes and goes and blows where it will without any push from anyone of us.  This Holy Wind which we are seeing signs of in these days is of God.  It was pushed forth by Him for purposes which are still to be seen.  We know only that it is a mighty outpouring of the Spirit that is causing a great spiritual awakening in every place and in every heart it touches and for this we continue to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.