Letter from Aaron Kennedy – Vicar of Otley Parish Church
We have now reached the end of the Easter season and are staring down the barrel of a long window of Ordinary Time – a name for the periods of church life without any great liturgical moments to look forward to. But be not dismayed, for all is not as it seems. In fact, the adventure of church life is about to begin!
Ordinary Time begins after Pentecost, and anyone with a bit of Bible knowledge will know that it all kicked off for the followers of Jesus, in a serious way, at Pentecost. But more on that in a moment.
Remember the little book called Surprise the World? This was our Lent study focus. The book encourages us to develop five habits that will help us fulfil Jesus’ Great Commission, his sending out of all his followers to go and make disciples. Using the acronym BELLS, it helped us focus on being a people on mission with Jesus, by prayerfully considering how we might bless others (B), practice table hospitality with others (E for eat), listen to the Holy Spirit (L) and learn Christ (L), all grounded in the habit of journaling all we are learning about being sent (S).
Well, we are going to pick up on this theme again over the next 6 months by undertaking a study of the book of the Acts of the Apostles (or ‘sent ones’), which will take us all the way through to All Saints Sunday at the start of November.
Famously, the Apostles’ acts actually began with the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The risen Jesus had been encouraging and teaching his followers for 40 days until he ascended through the clouds (think of the smoke of incense filling the Holy of Holies, in the tabernacle or the temple – Jesus was going back to the throne room of heaven from where he now reigns!), and then 10 days later, BANG, King Jesus pours out his Spirit from on high, the church is empowered and is sent out into the world on mission with the Spirit, demonstrating the power of God as they went. Exciting times (although accompanied by great persecution too)!
There are two words for ‘sent’ in the New Testament: apostille which is where we get Apostles, carrying the sense of ‘sending’ a letter; and ekballo which means to hurl or cast out. This is the word Matthew uses to describe Jesus’ casting out of demons, which makes sense. There are two other more curious uses. First, Mark uses it to describe Jesus being sent into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit where he faces his temptations – implying this is how the Spirit can lead us. But second, Jesus uses it in Matthew 9:37 & 38:The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out (ekballo!) labourers into His harvest.
I have three invitations for you as we begin to walk this journey through Acts together:
- Connect with Jesus’ heart for a world that is harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, and pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out labourers into his harvest. When he sends us, we are ekballoed!
- Read the book of Acts several times over the course of the next few months, ideally in one or two sittings, so you can get a feel for the whole book.
- Revisit Surprise the World (the free PDF was emailed out by Kevin before the start of Lent) and refresh your commitment to live in obedience to the command of Jesus to go!