June 11, 2019
Acts 2:1
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
CONSIDER THIS
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”
A massive assumption dwells just under the surface of this first verse of the second chapter of the book.
We can capture the assumption in two words: Common Calendar. These earliest followers kept time not with a clock but with a calendar and their calendar was not characterized with a grid of boxes with numbers. Their common calendar came from their common text. Sure, they lived in a larger social context filled with the imperial holidays of Rome with its months named after Roman gods (and later Caesars—i.e. July-Julius, August-Augustus, etc.). However, the way these early Apostles and their community kept time came straight out of the scrolls that held them together. Time was not a never ending cycle of months and days. Time for Israel was the storied reality of chapter and page.
Note the text today doesn’t begin by saying, “It was June 9th.” Instead, it says, “When the day of Pentecost came.” Later Rabbinic tradition made a strong connection between the Day of Pentecost and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that the Holy Spirit would be sent on the Day of Pentecost. (Remember, the law was given so that the Spirit might be desired and the Spirit was given so that the law might be fulfilled.)
So why am I telling you all this? Because a people of one book are necessarily a people of one calendar. We keep time not by months and days, but by chapter and page. Time, for us, comes straight off the pages of Scripture. Sure, it’s June 11 today . . . A.D. “Anno Domini,” . . . in the Year of our Lord. (But the politically correct architects of secularism aspire even to neuter our calendar by replacing A.D. with C.E. [or Common Era])
Like everyone else who ever lived, we find ourselves in an age of competing and often conflicting calendars. The question for us: which calendar governs. The governing calendar reveals the governing story. Show me your calendar and I will tell you your story.
So here’s the challenge today. Take a look at June 9 on this year’s calendar. Does it happen to say, “The Day of Pentecost?” Now, as an act of re-alignment with your story, turn in your calendar to June 11, 2019, and write there, “The Day of Pentecost.”
When the Day of Pentecost came . . .
Who knew these six words held so much?
We will get to the “Fire-Works” tomorrow.
THE PRAYER
COME HOLY SPIRIT!
THE QUESTIONS
Has the Day of Pentecost been important to you in your past? Why or why not? Do you see how a Common Text must lead to a Common Calendar; how One Book must lead to One Calendar?
For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
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