Pentecost and the End of Shame

As we celebrate the glorious day of Pentecost where the church was baptized in the Holy Spirit, reborn in the midst of a fallen world to be ambassadors of Christ’s reconstruction of the world which He redeemed, we bear the message, the only message, of hope to a world crushed not only in her sin, but in her shame.

Shame crushes.  And everyone knows they are under the guilt of their sin, their lawlessness.  The law of God is written into the conscience of every image-bearer and he or she cannot escape that sense of right and wrong his or her Creator placed in his or her heart.  When we are guilty of transgressions, we are ashamed and, just like our original parents in Eden, we try to hide from God.

We hide from God by refusing to acknowledge Him, by refusing to give Him thanks, and by building institutions, whole-sale K-12 programs across a country, at the cost of billions and billions of dollars, to tell our children that God is dead or irrelevant, or only some trinket to hold on to in the privacy of your own heart.  We write thick books proving that Darwin was right (at least on the point that we have evolved from other species – we of course don’t want to argue alongside Darwin that therefore there are races of men which are lower forms of that evolutionary process than others – which was the point of his book – and the reason Planned Parenthood makes its millions and millions by chopping up little black babies at a far greater rate per capita than little white babies).

But I digress…. – all of our sin, even the unacknowledged, hidden, self-justified sin – just won’t go away.  The guilt won’t go away no matter how long we shout that right is wrong and wrong is right and that it just doesn’t matter what reproductive parts you were born with, everyone has a right to redetermine their gender or preferences because, hey, there is no God, this is all simply a matter of chance plus time.

But the guilt won’t go away.  The shame won’t leave.  The loneliness from being so far away from your Maker, your Creator, and the One who calls on you to come and be healed, forgiven and restored, keeps nagging and nagging at your blackened heart.

Hear the good news!  The Savior has bled and died.  He has died and risen again.  He has risen and ascended.  He has ascended and been enthroned.  He is enthroned and gives gifts to men – nothing greater than Himself in the Holy Spirit – poured out on this world, in this world.  Glory that takes away all shame.  Light that shatters darkness.  Forgiveness that washes deep.  Resurrection that makes all things new.  Come and worship this Jesus – come and worship the LORD.