We all arrive at a point
where we realize we will not be a star pitcher for the Yankees. We won’t be the President of the United States, and we aren’t going to cure cancer. oh, sure, SOME of us do, but that’s a bloody small number.
No, most of us are going to spend most of our lives affixing the left front quarter panel to GM cars, or making sure all the bars on rt 6 between Griffith and Lansing have enough beer each week, or wrangling a bunch of teenagers into flipping burgers and dropping fries.
We will lead normal lives. Oh, more than a few of us will write good books, more than a few will become well known for one thing or another, more than a few of us may even become famous, but we will all all be working class folks, within a range of incomes and a range of lifestyles. And that’s fine, that’s what we’re supposed to do. Humans have been doing that for years.
Probably the only thing that is really important is to do what you do, well. To make the best of the talents given you by the creator. That is the truly important thing.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. We are reminded that Jesus came into a locked room to endow the apostles with the Holy Spirit, and give them the gift of tongues- that is, being able to be understood in any language. They had a very special message to deliver, and delivering that message was important enough to the Christ that he “invented” the reverse babel fish, a couple thousand years before Douglas Adams.
The message was the important part, not the speaking in tongues. Jesus did not endow the apostles with tongues and the Holy Spirit so they could yammer like fools at home. And yammering like a fool pretending to be endowed with the gift of tongues and the holy spirit is just wishful thinking, and it’s the most self aggrandizing type of wishful thinking there is. Christ came to earth and walked among us; while he was here he chose men to carry the burden and carry on the work and sent them out into the world. No matter what you think, you are not an apostle, that age is long gone. You have your own part to play, and you should be aware of your need to do it well. If you don’t understand what it is, pray and ask the Creator for guidance. meanwhile try to do the things you do well, and a lot of the time, the rest will take care of itself.
12 comments Og | Uncategorized
I disagree, partially.
One may not be An Apostle, but one can be an apostle.
Encouragement to succeed, to assume, and exceed, the responsibilities bestowed upon us, to accept and demonstrate the obligations of God’s grace, is what we are all about.
There is no burden, there is only achievement.
“One may not be An Apostle, but one can be an apostle. ”
So you can travel back in time to be chosen for the mission by Jesus? What color is your time machine?
I think the word is “Disciple”, in the sense of learning from the Teacher and then teaching others but Alien appears to be using a standard definition.
The Wiktionary says apostle (Lower case) is “A missionary, or leader of a religious mission,” reserving the capitalized word Apostle for your definition: “One of the group of twelve disciples chosen by Jesus to preach and spread the Gospel”
D’oh! Hit it too soon – I started out to add props to your piece on speaking in tongues as being self-serving, self-aggrandizing behavior for some. Absolutely not the point, as glorifying self is never, ever the point.
Indeed, SG, the idea is the apostolic mission is one created by The Christ. Calling oneself an apostle is exactly the kind of cargo cultism as glossolalia. You can be a disciple, but there are eleven apostles.
Thank you for your many talents, of which one is making us reflect.
You don’t count Paul?
Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (KJV)
Paul is different altogether, being neither fish nor fowl. As, for that matter, is revelations. And I don’t read kjv.
Paul was not one of the twelve. He was one of the Jews that tried to end the church after Christ started it until he saw the light on the road to amaus.
We can be disciples of Christ and bear witness to his message. The twelve gave up there lives to do this. We can do no less.
I never understood the abulabhrhnadsug noise-making of modern day “speaking in tongues.” The Bible clearly states that the Apostles spoke, and the Jews who came from all over the (known) world for Passover understood them each in his native tongue. I’m not discounting that people who speak in tongues are necessarily wrong when they claim they were inspired. I’ve heard of people who are schooled in ancient languages who said this or that person was saying something quite awful in a recording of their “inspired” moment. Like playing with ouija, why open a door when you don’t know who’s on the other side? I don’t even want to be a room when someone is incanting, lest they put the whammy on me and turn me into a newt. I say it that way to break the tension with a little humor but no, I mean it.
Thanks for the reminder Og.