Especially in the southern states of the USA, people like to encourage one another to "keep on keepin' on." It doesn't take a regional folk saying to know you won't accomplish much of anything unless you persevere with your dreams, your ideals, your plans, your vision of a future.
This week on my scripture blog I'll be reflecting on a passage from the Acts of the Apostles. As Luke's Volume II opens, Jesus is concluding his post-resurrection ministry. He tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem because there they will receive God's promised Holy Spirit to such a degree they'll be baptized (immersed) in the life of the Spirit.
Possibly still awaiting and hoping for a military or a royal savior, they ask Jesus if now he will restore "the kingdom" to Israel. Jesus replies the question is wrong because they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit so then they will witness in word and deed "to the ends of the earth" and help establish the reign of heaven on earth that Jesus began. Because the Spirit will indwell them, they'll be able to persevere and accomplish everything God (in the HS, of course) calls them to.
Born of Spirit, Water, and Word, the nascent church made sure everyone had enough, no one lacked essentials. We hear about members constantly being added as a result of dynamic, inviting preaching and caring community, yet the earliest members had followed an itinerant rabbi whose teaching and very existence got him crucified by the occupying Roman imperial government.
Their leader was dead, yet they met Jesus of Nazareth as the very alive Christ of God three days after Rome killed him; the disciples continued to interact with him until his ascension to sovereignty and power "at God's right hand," as the ecumenical creeds proclaim. The disciples kept on keeping on persevering; they kept on persevering on order for God's dreams, plans, ideals, God's visions of a free, just, compassionate, and inclusive future for planet earth would happen.
An Acts scholar could tell us how much elapsed time the book chronicles, but we're continuing to persevere and write the Acts of the contemporary people of God in Jesus Christ. We're keeping on as we persevere in our families, our schools, our neighborhoods, our churches. Some of us have been or still serve in an elected or appointed role in local, county, provincial, or state government. We must persevere in order to resist and overcome those forces that push against God's call to justice, righteousness, and overall well-being.
Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are able to persevere and accomplish what God calls us to. We persevere together in order to help enact God's common wealth of well being and shalom for all creation. And sometimes we even journal about it or blog about it!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Everyday I am grateful that I can lean on the Holy Spirit to persevere, and don't have to do it in my own strength.
ReplyDeleteThe book of Acts has lots of great examples of persevering in ministry, even in the midst of opposition.
ReplyDelete"Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are able to persevere and accomplish what God calls us to"--Amen!
ReplyDeleteI've heard it said that Acts doesn't end with Amen, because the Acts of the believers are continuing to this day!
ReplyDeleteGood word! ❤️ G
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to keep on keeping on
ReplyDeletethrough every single tiring day.
Some mornings will and hope are gone
and I have to find a way
to justify, 'least to myself,
exactly why I should begin,
leaving labour on the shelf
and just go phone it in.
But that would really nag at me,
if not today, for sure tomorrow,
and in the mirror I would see
a face hard-lined in sorrow
for the chances passed and lost
to save a piddling little cost.