JOURNEYING FROM EASTER TOWARD PENTECOST

My sister-in-law Awana spent her entire adult life in Government Foreign Service. She lived between Arlington, VA and whatever Embassy she and Ralph were attached to at the time. They served multiple tours of duty in Taiwan. In those early years of raising her family, Awana visited often in the home of Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek and she and Madame Chiang became lifelong friend.

One day Madame Chiang related this favorite story that described how a certain very ordinary farmer became an extraordinary hero. This particular farmer lived on a high plateau, high above the valley below. One day, he peered out across the valley toward the shoreline and realized an earthquake was causing the ocean to pile up. It would soon create a tsunami.

The observant farmer realized that a tidal wave would wash in over the lowlanders and flood his neighbors far down in the valley below. They would all perish unless he could immediately call them to the hilltop where he was. Quickly, he lit a torch and touched his torch to his dry rice barn. Then he rang the fire gong.

Far down in the valley, the people looked high up the mountainside and saw the rising smoke. They hurriedly scrambled up the hillside to help their neighbor fight the fire. Before they could reach his burning barn, the waves roared in behind them and flooded the fields they had just left. Almost in unison, they all recognized that their friend had just burned all of his possessions to save their lives. He was a hero!

When nineteenth century hymn writer-preacher Phillips Brooks died, his oldest brother confided to their mutual friend, Dr. McVicker: “Phillips might have saved himself, and so prolonged his life. Others do; but he was always giving himself to anyone who wanted him.”

Dr. McVicker replied, “Yes indeed! He might have saved himself, but in doing so, he would not have been Phillips Brooks. The glory of Phillips Brooks’ life was that he did not save himself.”

The journey of Easter was a special time of recalling and re-telling the stories of Jesus, especially those stories as told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Each reminds us that Jesus came first as the Son of Man, but he also came to seek and to save the lost (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10). Journeying beyond beyond Easter toward Pentecost makes our journey with Jesus a further time when we recall and renew ourselves in his caring love.

When we celebrate the glory beyond Easter toward Pentecost, we rejoice in the firm faith that Jesus chose to do the will of his Heavenly Father and that he committed himself to save others rather than to save himself.

          

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com; indeed: how blessed we are!_____