Calvin Synod Herald, 1973 (73. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1973-05-01 / 5. szám

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

3

^At AHot tiers AKncc

I have worshipped in churches and chapels,

I’ve prayed in the busy street,

I have sought my God and have found Him Where the waves of the ocean beat.

I have knelt in the silent forest,

In the shade of some ancient tree,

But the dearest of all my altars Was raised at my mother’s knee.

I have listened to God in His temple,

I have caught His voice in the crowd,

I have heard Him speak when the breakers Were booming long and loud;

Where the winds play soft in the tree tops My Father has talked to me,

But I never have heard Him clearer Than I did at my mother’s knee.

God make me the man of her vision And purge me of selfishness!

God keep me true to her standards And help me to live to bless!

God hallow the holy impress Of the days that used to be,

And keep me a pilgrim forever

To the shrine at my mother’s knee.

— Author unknown -------------------------------------PENTECOST 1973

Text: Acts 2:38

Didn’t it ever occur to you, that suddenly, like an onrushing wind some great Truth got enlightened in your mind, and a different, a new understanding came to you? It wasn’t just a mere coincidence, when Jesus trying to explain the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus referred to the wind: “The wind bloweth, where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell, whence it cometh and wither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

This is what happened to the disciples on the first Pentecost in Jerusalem, and the three thousand, who were baptized on the same day, — they were, just like we are today: convinced and conceited, that human reason is the ultimate and greatest thing in this world — and note in the descent of the Holy Spirit, they experienced something, that was infinitely greater than human knowledge, — as a matter of fact it was now, that they finally recognized the limitedness, the incompetence of human reason, that made a straight-jacket of religion, messed up the lives of those, who tried to live by rules and elaborated ceremonies, and couldn’t give an explanation to the question of the hungry human intellect: WHENCE CAME LIFE AND WHERE DOES IT GOP

The Holy Spirit made the disciples realize the truth, Jesus put before Nicodemus: “That which is

born of the flesh is flesh.” (John 3:6) — And being flesh ourselves, being matter, the laws of gravity are chaining us to the dust, of which we are made, and our thinkings and philosophies cannot help us to escape the gravity of our limitedness, the gravity of our incompetence and most of all: THE GRAVITY OF OUR SINS!

The great liar of the Middle Age, the Baron Munchausen affirmed, that once, when he was horsebackriding and fell into quicksand, he pulled himself and his horse out of it, by grabbing his own hair. — Bidiculous — we say, yet this is what we are trying to do and this is what on a larger scale nations all over the world do. We are surprised to witness the corruption and failure of all kinds of systems and governments. Why should we? THAT WHICH IS BORN OF FLESH IS FLESH and this our human flesh, our human life carries a deadly disease in itself, the disease of sin, which expresses itself in selfishness, in hatred, in cruelty, in war!

What the Baron Munchausen needed was: ASSISTANCE FROM THE OUTSIDE, ívhat man needs including all his governments and systems is a POWER, that grabs him and pulls him out from the swamp, the pit of his misery and desperation.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST PENTECOST.

Christ’s timid and coward disciples, full of big words, full of enthusiasm, full of know how — yet with no power to achieve anything valuable—SUDDENLY BECAME FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. No more did they fear the High Priests, the Pharisees, the Romans, but stood up and testified of their LORD CRUCIFIED AND RISEN: THE SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND.

If you want to escape your miseries, if you want to understand yourself, this world, life, existence, if you want to escape the gravity of sin, YOU MUST FALL ON YOUR KNEES, AND YOU MUST PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT TO PERFORM SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE? THAT COULD BE TERMED AS A MIRACLE: another birth, a second birth, a rebirth of your whole being, a REBIRTH OF YOURSELF: YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN, BORN BY THE SPIRIT. This cannot be learned, bought, achieved, it can only be GIVEN. As no man can say, that he was born by himself, the same way, no man can say, that he was reborn by himself. THIS IS PERFORMED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

We can ask with Nicodemus: How is this possible? — Jesus told Nicodemus, that it is something similar to the blowing of the wind. I cannot explain it to you, who could? Who can actually explain the birth of the flesh, the life of a single cell, who can explain life itself?

But babies are bom, new life is starting out and the same way I can point to people WHO WERE REBORN. And even now, in this world, there are people, who were drunkards, liars, indecent, or just plainly selfish, selfcentered and full of hatred — and