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Pentecost: A Day for Diversity
Pentecost is sometimes called “the birthday of the church.” Pentecost was God’s Spirit poured out on all flesh, for the whole world. The “miracle” was that diverse peoples gathered from throughout the earth heard speech in their native languages from others. This was the Spirit, opening the message of Jesus Christ to all persons.
Pentecost means the Christian church is for all people. And within the church, “it takes all kinds.” Jesus emphasized this when he quoted the “first” commandment. He said it was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
The force of this is to say we are to love God with all that is within us. Our commitments to God should be total. I bring the love of my heart, the devotion of my soul, the best of my intellect, and all my actions to serving God fully, entirely, in my whole life. All Christians hear this command.
But Jesus was also opening the doors to make room for all kinds of people in the church. If all believers loved God with all that is within us, we’d have a rich diversity of experience and expressions of it! In the church we need the one who feels with the heart, the one whose faith is expressed in the devotion of the soul, the one who brings critical reflection to bear, and the “doers of the word” who work for the Lord, tirelessly.
Pentecost shows me that I need not reject those whose religious experience or emphases are not like my own. The Spirit of God loves diversity! The Peace Corps used to say: “It takes all kinds to make a world; and the Peace Corps takes all kinds.” So with the church. It takes all kinds to make a church; and the church takes all kinds!
Dr. Donald K. McKim is Editor, Academic and Reference with Westminster John Knox Press and an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is the author of "Kerygma: The Bible and Theology."
By Donald McKim |
May 27, 2007; 2:22 PM ET
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Posted by: txwvy pshv | July 11, 2007 1:11 AM
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Posted by: ooqykc | June 30, 2007 6:03 PM
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Posted by: ooqykc | June 30, 2007 6:02 PM
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Concerned Christian Now liberated;
You are not liberated, in fact you are now nothing but a brainwashed maroon who has listened an hour or two too long to the zionist, so-called Jews who come up with all the Jesus Bashing articles and write ups found throughout the western world.
You have been smoked and mirrored. First by your orthodox christian church that is nothing but a mockery and bad imitation of the true teachings of Christ and second by the pathetic Pharisee's who you call scientists and scribes.
Nothing but crpto-Jews and Jews feeding you their leaven, I feel real sorry for you.
Posted by: Peacetroll | May 30, 2007 9:25 AM
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But did Pentecost even happen? Not according to many contemporary NT scholars. The diety of Jesus and holy ghosts are basically "shot down" at http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/018_Revealed_to_Disciples
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | May 27, 2007 11:48 PM
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Sorry, Anonymous, I forgot:
Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
Posted by: Joseph K | May 27, 2007 6:24 PM
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I forgot:
Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
Posted by: Joseph K. | May 27, 2007 6:21 PM
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Anonymous,
Afraid to show your name in public?
Here are some more members of the diverse Church:
Vlad the Impaler
Philip the Fair (Philip IV)
Thomas Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Ted Bundy
Father James Porter
Heinrich Himmler
George Bush, Jr.
Donald Rumsfeld
Vidkun Quisling
Heinrich Kramer
Jacob Sprenger
Dick Cheney
Pat Robertson
Innocent III
Posted by: Joseph K | May 27, 2007 6:12 PM
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The Hitchens wannabe posts:
AD NAUSEAM
Posted by: Anonymous | May 27, 2007 5:04 PM
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"So with the church. It takes all kinds to make a church; and the church takes all kinds!"
And the church has some real beauts - some really nasty pieces of work:
Torquemada
Cardinal Law
Arnaud-Amaury [Papal Legate] ["Kill them all - God will know his own!]
Jerry Falwell
Cardinal Stepinac
Father Brendan Smyth
John Calvin
Clement VIII
Pierre Laval, Knight of the Papal Court
AD INFINITUM
Posted by: Joseph K | May 27, 2007 4:24 PM
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