URC Daily Devotions 5th December

The catalyst for change is revealed in the promise of God to ‘pour out my spirit on all flesh’. A key passage in the Pentecost sermon this divine initiative is a startling indicator of a universal embrace.

The barriers of gender, age, slavery and freedom that were normative and almost impenetrable in the Jerusalem society of Joel are swept aside. We are no longer defined by the labels or limits others impose upon us. The gift of God is no longer restricted to the pious, or the religious, to priest or regular attender but even to those who only turn up once a year for the carol service. The Hebrew word ‘ruach’ is translated here as ‘spirit’ but elsewhere rendered as ‘wind’. We are to understand that what is promised is power, like a wind that can destroy or move the immovable. Now the truly radical insight of Joel and Pentecost is evident; power will no longer rest with the elite and the privileged but with the many and the ordinary. And isn’t that the lesson of incarnation? The storyline of Advent is the birth of a baby in whom rests the power to change the world and us with it. Given the power how will we use it?