‘Let me tell you a story’ - Weekly Reflection 8th June 2025

Once upon a time a beautiful lady was travelling in a magnificent carriage drawn by four horses. As they travelled along they came upon a young girl by the side of the road who was in some obvious distress. She was beaten, bloodied and bruised.  The beautiful lady stopped the carriage and had the coachman pick the girl up and carefully put inside the carriage. The beautiful lady cleaned her wounds and tidied her up as best she could and then gave her some warm soup from the hay box to drink. The young girl fell asleep wrapped in a warm blanket, and on they travelled. Eventually the young girl woke up and they began to talk. The beautiful lady asked how it had come to pass that the young girl found herself by the side of the road in such a state.  She said that her name was Truth and that she had been in the village near to where they found her. She had been in the village for a few days and was trying to get the people of the village to understand the importance of truth.  But they didn’t like what she was saying and the truth she was telling around the village. One day they said they had enough of her and all this telling the truth nonsense. They tied her onto the back of donkey and drove her out of the village throwing rocks and stones as she went. She had fallen off where they had found her. The beautiful lady listened very carefully.  And then said, well my name is Story, and from now on we will work together. And so it was, they travelled the world with Story carrying Truth.

And still today Truth is carried by Story.

We are a storied people, not just Christians, but as human beings. We all live by a story, or maybe several stories. These stories shape our lives and guide our decisions, what we do and what we will not do. Some of the stories we live by are very formalised and maybe part of our community. Others, maybe a wide range and mixture of stories that shape our beliefs and what we deem truth to be.

On this the Feast of Pentecost I have been reflecting once again on the story the Scriptures tell us. To borrow the strap line from the Bible Project, ‘The Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus.’

The story of Pentecost begins with the opening account of creation with God creating a ‘temple space’ introduced as the Garden in Eden. A temple space is a place where God and humans can interact, an earth and heaven reality, a liminal space. The first human couple are charged with the flourishing of this temple space to expand and extend it across all the earth.  Except the story goes on to tell us that the first human pair disobey and choose to follow their own path of self-determination. This leads to an increased separation between God’s space, heaven and our space, earth.  

The story continues with God seeking to create further temple spaces. Notably after Moses encounters God and enters the throne room of God on Mount Sinai. He is charged with making a mobile replica of God’s throne room that becomes the tabernacle.  The tabernacle is eventually replaced by the first temple. And here, linking in with our Pentecost celebration, we see the shekinah glory of God descend, so much so that the priest were unable to minister  because of the power of God’s glorious presence. (2 Chron 4.14)

But all was not well and despite having God’s presence with them in the Temple the Israelites fail to follow all the way of God and instead, like Adam and Eve chose their own path of self-determination.

In 586BC the Babylonians come and destroy that Temple and carry the Israelites off into exile.

In 516BC they return from exile and the building of the second temple begins. Some are delighted at this reinstating of the sacrificial system, of having their temple back. However, some are sad because it isn’t as glorious as the first temple.  Moreover, there is no mention of God’s presence falling upon this second temple and there is no Ark of the Covenant.

The question remains therefore, is God present, is this truly an earth heaven space, a place of interaction between God and humans?

In 20BC Herod the Great begins a massive rebuilding project that would take 46 years to complete. The second temple of Herod the Great was huge, the temple precinct the size of six football pitches and able to accommodate a million people.

Jesus’ disciples were certainly impressed, look master, they said one day, what a beautiful building and what marvellous stones.  Jesus’ response, “you see all of this, these stones and this building, there is coming a time when not one stone will be left standing up on another.”  (Matthew 24)

On another occasion Jesus made it clear that he considered himself to be the temple space, the earth heaven reality.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.’  (John 2.19)

It had long been prophesied and spoken about that God does not live in a temple made with human hands. Because human hands are steeped in sin and blood. (Cf.1 Chronicles 22.8) Jesus is the new temple not made with human hands.

And what do we see at Pentecost when Jews from many nations had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, a harvest festival, bringing offerings to God in the temple, 50 days after Jesus' death and resurection.

We see the disciple gathered and earnest in prayer.  And the presence of God falls, symbolised by fire, like Moses at the burning bush, like the presence of God leading the Israelites through the dessert, like the fire that fell upon the first temple when it was dedicated. And now, this Holy Fire falls upon the disciples who become marked out as mini mobile temples charged with the same commission as Adam and Eve, to be a nation of priest, to bring in God’s good order. This is an inaugurated eschatology. The beginning of the end and not yet the end. That end will come as spoken of in Revelation 21 when heaven comes down to earth and the faithful are raised to a new resurrected life.

The fire signifies God’s presence, signifies God’s power, residing in you and me and our becoming mini mobile temples.  

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…”  1 Corinthians 6.19

This is our story, the story that we live by and the story that informs our every waking moment as we seek to live out the reality of being God’s living presence upon earth. Our story that we invite others to embrace so that they may make it their own story and to see their lives transformed.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3.18

And this is a great story, because it transforms lives and brings hope into our confused world. 

Know The Story, live The Story and tell the Story because this Story carries The Truth!

 

And follow this link to learn more about the importance of Pentecost…

What Is Pentecost? And Why Is It Important?