The birthday of the Church
Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church. It was poured out on all flesh, the Biblical way of saying that the Holy Spirit is available to everybody. though not everybody has the Holy Spirit in this full way.
Lectio365 this week (of writing) talked about a relatively unknown person in the Bible who they say was the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Bazalel. Have you heard of him? Me neither.
Was Bazalel the first? Hard to say. Some say it was Moses, some say it was Joseph, though it is Pharoh who says Joseph is Spirit-filled, not God. Others say Adam, because God breathed life into his nostrils and the Hebrew for spirit and breath is the same word. You could argue that everybody has God’s Spirit as we all have that breath in us, but this is not the full way the Holy Spirit came into the Church at Pentecost nor the way the Spirit of God came on Prophets in the Old Testament.
Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills
Exodus 31:1-3 NIV
The purpose of the Holy Spirit
What did God send the Holy Spirit to Bezalel for? The Holy Spirit is sent with a purpose, if we have the Spirit we are supposed to do something. In Bezalel’s case, he was filled with the Spirit of God in order to make stuff. Bezalel is one of the great craftsmen of the Bible. His job was to make and design the Ark of the Covenant, the ornate box that held the stones on which God had written the 10 Commandments, as well as the altar and all the other things that made up the Tabernacle, the mobile Temple the Israelites carried through the desert.
Making stuff is not usually taught as a gift of the Spirit, we like neat lists like the ones in 1 Corinthians 12 or Ephesians 4. These two lists are about certain things. messages of wisdom, messages of knowledge gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. (Corinthians) are specific to gifts used in worship.
Other lists of gifts are about positions in the church. “First of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.” (Corinthians again) “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians).x These are not meant to be exhaustive lists, for instance, the seven deacons given the task of administration of charitable giving in Acts: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas, had to be people “full of the Holy Spirit”.
The reason for the Holy Spirit being given individually is varied. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts that the Holy Spirit wants to give, it is not ours to pick and choose. But individuality as far as the theology of the Holy Spirit is concerned is overrated. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the Church for the Church. God empowers us not so we look good but so that we can serve others.
If God has called us into a role the Holy Spirit will empower us for that role if we let her. We can allow or resist the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been poured out and those who believe and follow Jesus have been filled. Paul said, “19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
How to test the spirits so that we follow the promptings of God’s Spirit and not any other often includes instructions that the Holy Spirit who inspired scripture and that the prophesy etc. must be tested by the Church. Good teaching, but there is a danger. Whose interpretation of scripture are we taking? There are different, contradictory versions of what scripture does teach, the disagreements over LGBTQA+ in church is a case in point. Also, anyone who has looked at the history of the church will see that denominations have a chequered history, sometimes following the promptings of the Spirit, sometimes going against those promptings and often standing on the sidelines indifferent to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, We could end up reinforcing our denomination’s dogma rather than following the Spirit of God. Let he who has ears to hear…
Instead, I am taking a different route, I am looking at a passage in Galatians. Not the fruit of the Spirit, but the passage before it the fruit of the flesh.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
Is the movement of the Spirit you are testing leading to division? Is it beneficial to the church or not? Is it pointing to God or is it building up the reputation of the person speaking or some other leader? That last point is especially true when authorities are not open about their investigation.
What the example of Bezalel teaches is that the Holy Spirit may be doing something outside of what the churches, particularly those influenced by Pentecostal and Charismatic theology? Which of these teaches that making furniture or decorations for worship is a Spirit-filled activity?
This is Pentecost Sunday (If you are reading on the day of publication) the birthday of the Church. Let us pray for God’s Spirit to fill us:
Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardour glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.
Making an ass of myself 
I have been inspired by the fact that the Spirit enabled the ordinary men and women of Galilee to share their story with others and to help those others to share their stories so that the church grew and spread. We are all, as Christians, called to do that and can draw upon the Spirit.
Good to hear that the person who prepares the notices or church flowers could be exercising a gift of the Spirit.