{"id":4219,"date":"2017-06-01T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T00:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4219"},"modified":"2021-10-20T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T02:58:44","slug":"177-on-pentecost-from-the-upper-room-to-the-ends-of-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4219","title":{"rendered":"177. On Pentecost: From the Upper Room to the Ends of the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

45 <\/sup>Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,\u00a046 <\/sup>and he said to them, \u201cThus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,\u00a047 <\/sup>and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.\u00a048 <\/sup>You are witnesses of these things.\u00a049 <\/sup>And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high<\/span>.\u201d [Luke 24:45-49<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Pentecost<\/span><\/em>, by El Greco.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of his Gospel, Luke tells us that just before Jesus departs, he gives his rather deflated and shaky group of followers this instruction: \u201cReturn to the city and don\u2019t leave until you feel yourself clothed with power from on high!\u201d [Luke 24:49]<\/span><\/p>\n

In volume two of his great work, The Acts of the Apostles, Luke lets us in on how Jesus\u2019 followers interpreted that instruction. They met and waited in an \u201cupper room\u201d which Christians later identified as \u201cThe Upper Room\u201d (the Cenacle) in the Old Jerusalem where Jesus had his Last Supper, until they experienced the fire of the first Pentecost.<\/span><\/p>\n

They had shifted to living a life quite different from their earlier professions after having been called or drawn by Jesus of Nazareth to literary follow him. Now, for a second time in their lives, they would embark on a life of discipleship which would be nothing like what they could possibly imagine when they first \u201csigned up\u201d to follow Jesus. So radical is this second journey that, literary, it is a journey of no return \u2013 no turning back once their hands are on the plow (Luke 9:62), letting the dead to bury the dead (Luke 9:60), as they plow on with the urgent work of preaching the Good News of the Crucified and Risen Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the inspiration from that episode of the first Pentecost, one crucial lesson takes precedence before all else. That lesson emerges from a reflection on the pattern of the followers\u2019 journey. It was a journey of a return after a painful period of humiliation and purification. It was almost as if the followers had to be humbled<\/em>, before they were granted the door of return, for that return was nothing other than a return to the path of radical faith exemplified by Christ their Lord<\/strong>. That door of return was not available, except through the Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is deep insight right here that ought to detain us, for it captures and resonates the best of the human spirit \u2013 a spirit of service, instead of a spirit that manoeuvres towards titles and privileges. Where that spirit of service prevails, the people close by will see and believe\u00a0a genuine attempt on the part of the servant in evacuating worldly desires.<\/span><\/p>\n

The excruciating life journey of\u00a0the fourth son, named Hongli (\u5f18\u66c6), of Yongzheng Emperor, helps illustrate this genuine human attempt.<\/span><\/p>\n