Special Days in May

 2nd May:          Athanasius the theologian

 This is the name behind the Athanasian Creed. Athanasius (296-373) was born into a prosperous family in Alexandria in Egypt, studied in the Christian school there and entered the ministry. He was 29 years old when he accompanied Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, to the Church’s first ecumenical Council, at Nicaea in 325.

 Although Athanasius could not take part in the Council’s debates because he was a deacon and not a bishop, Alexander consulted him on the meaning of Biblical texts and theological distinctions. With Emperor Constantine sitting as President, 300 bishops argued about the Person of Christ. How is He the Son of God? Is He God or man or both together? Did He exist before He was born? If we worship Him, does that mean that we are worshipping two Gods?

 The young Athanasius saw that some bishops wanted to impose the teaching of Arius on the Church. Arius was a popular preacher in Alexandria who taught that Christ was not eternal but was a ‘Saviour’ created by the Father. Athanasius worked with his bishop, Alexander, in framing what became known as the Nicene Creed. Our Lord’s full divinity was safeguarded in the words, ‘eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.’

 When Bishop Alexander died in 328, Athanasius succeeded him as Bishop by popular demand. For the next 45 years Athanasius’ devotion, scholarship, and forceful leadership established the Nicene Creed in the Christian Church. His enemies, both in Church and state, conspired against him, and he was exiled five times from the See of Alexandria and spent a total of 17 years in flight and hiding. It was his uncompromising stand for Nicene theology that gave rise to the familiar saying, Athanasius contra mundum, ‘Athanasius against the world.’

 Athanasius’ name will always be linked with the triumph of New Testament Christology over every form of reductionism. Of his many writings the most significant was his great study on the person and work of Christ; On the Incarnation of the Word of God, written before he was 30 years old. The whole Church of Christ is always in need of bishops, leaders and theologians in the mould of Athanasius.

 8^th May:          Julian of Norwich

 Julian of Norwich, despite the name, was a woman. She was born in 1342 and wrote at the end of the 14th century, when our modern English language was slowly emerging from its origins in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English.

 We know little about Julian’s early life, but when she was 30, she fell ill and was near death when suddenly her pain left her, and she received 16 visitations. Julian wrote these down, in what became known as the ‘short text’. 20 years later she extended this to become her ‘long text’.

 She was an anchoress – someone who had committed herself to a life of solitude, giving herself to prayer and fasting. St Julian’s, Norwich was the church where she had her little ‘cell’.

 Julian taught that all things depend upon the love of God for their being. Her spirituality was focussed on the cross, and she wanted to share the sufferings of Christ. She believed that humanity is separated from God by sin, but redeemed through Christ, who reunites us with God. Julian also emphasised Christ as mother, but within a clear Trinitarian understanding of the godhead.

 Her masterpiece, Revelations of Divine Love, reveals a mystic of such depth and insight that it is still read by many thousands of Christians today. One of the notable features is that her theology determined her experience, rather than the other way round.

 She is honoured this month in the Lutheran and Anglican Churches, but although she is held in high regard by many Roman Catholics, her own Church has never felt able to recognise her as a ‘saint’. This is probably because she spoke of God as embracing both male and female qualities. Revelations is an account of the visions she received in her tiny room, which thousands of pilgrims visit every year.

 Her most famous saying, quoted by T. S. Eliot in one of his poems, is ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’ These words have brought comfort and strength to many a soul in distress.

12th May:        Ascension Day

 Forty days after Easter comes Ascension Day. These are the 40 days during which the Risen Christ appeared again and again to His disciples, following His death and resurrection. (Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; and John 20.)

 The Gospels give us little of Christ’s teachings and deeds during those 40 days. Jesus was seen by numerous of His disciples: on the road to Emmaus, by the Sea of Galilee, in houses, etc. He strengthened and encouraged His disciples, and at last opened their eyes to all that the Scriptures had promised about the Messiah. Jesus also told them that as the Father had sent Him, He was now going to send them – to all corners of the earth, as His witnesses.

 Surely the most tender, moving ‘farewell’ in history took place on Ascension Day. Luke records the story with great poignancy: ‘When Jesus had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, He lifted up His hands – and blessed them.’

 As Christmas began the story of Jesus’ life on earth, so Ascension Day completes it, with His return to His Father in heaven. Jesus’ last act on earth was to bless His disciples. He and they had a bond as close as could be: they had just lived through three tumultuous years of public ministry and miracles – persecution and death – and resurrection!  Just as we part from our nearest and dearest by still looking at them with love and memories in our eyes, so exactly did Jesus: ‘While He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven.’ (Luke 24:50-1) He was not forsaking them, but merely going on ahead to a kingdom which would also be theirs one day: ‘I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God…’  (John 20:17)

 The disciples were surely the most favoured folk in history. Imagine being one of the last few people on earth to be face to face with Jesus, and to have Him look on you with love. No wonder then that Luke goes on: ‘they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.’ (Luke 24:52,53)

 No wonder they praised God! They knew they would see Jesus again one day!  ‘I am going to prepare a place for you… I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’ (John 14:2,3) In the meantime, Jesus had work for them to do: to take the Gospel to every nation on earth.

 24th May:        John & Charles Wesley, evangelists & hymn-writers

 John and Charles Wesley were the founders of Methodism. Two of 19 children born to Samuel and Susannah Wesley of Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire in 1703 and 1707, their father was the local rector, while their mother was a spiritual inspiration to her many children.

 Both John and Charles went to Christ Church, Oxford (1720 and 1726). John was ordained, and Charles and some friends formed a ‘Holy Club’ while still at college. It consisted of men who dedicated themselves to Bible study, prayer, fasting and good works. Such regular disciplines soon earned Charles the nickname ‘Methodist’. The name stuck.

 Both Charles and John felt called to the mission field, and so in 1735 they sailed to Georgia. Their time among Indians in America was not a success – they struggled for any real spiritual authority in their ministries. Feeling failures, they returned to England in some depression. John summed it up: “I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh, who shall convert me?”

 Then the Wesleys made friends with some Moravians. They stressed that salvation cannot be earned, but must be received by grace through faith in Christ.  Charles was the first to experience this ‘true’ conversion, when on Pentecost Sunday, 21st May 1738, he wrote that the Spirit of God ‘chased away the darkness of my unbelief.’

 Only three days later, on 24th May, 1738, it was John’s turn. As he wrote in his journal: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.”

 John and Charles Wesley then devoted the rest of their lives to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. In doing so, they turned England upside-down. When the established Church threw John out, he took to the fields, preaching to coal miners and commoners. His itinerant evangelism took him 250,000 miles on horseback and to preach over 40,000 sermons.  His small ‘societies’ attracted some 120,000 followers by the time of his death.

 Charles became the most prolific and skilled hymn-writer in English history, writing hymns that are sung widely today, such as ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.’ In all, he wrote more than 6,000 hymns.

 The legacy of the two brothers lives on. As well as Methodism, their teaching has widely impacted the holiness movement, the Pentecostal movement, and the charismatic movement.

19th May: Whitsun                                Two articles about this special day.

      1. Fire of Pentecost

 “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8

 We all get tired, and battle weary sometimes. The disciples of Jesus had just been through a three-year long roller coaster adventure with Jesus that had culminated in His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.

 The range of emotions would have been hugely taxing in the days leading up to Pentecost, as they remembered Jesus weeping in the garden of Gethsemane, betrayed by Judas, brutally beaten and crucified, and then dead and buried. Then there had been the shock and awe of finding out that He was alive again! But then He had left them again, to return to His Father. By the time the day of Pentecost arrived, the disciples would indeed have welcomed some fresh spiritual fire!

 Today, many of us have been emotionally drained by the uncertainties of Covid 19, the worry of prices rising at an alarming rate, and now the uncertainty of what will happen in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

 So, what better day to pray for fresh spiritual fire for each of us? As we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and birth of the Church, let us thank God that He will never leave us or forsake us.

      2.  Day of Pentecost

 Pentecost took place on the well-established Jewish festival of First Fruits, which was observed at the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was seven weeks after Easter, or 50 days including Easter.

 A feast day to celebrate the country’s wheat harvest does not sound exactly world-changing, but that year, it became one of the most important days in world history. For Pentecost was the day that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit – the day the Church was born.

 Jesus had told His disciples that something big was going to happen, and that they were to wait for it in Jerusalem, instead of returning to Galilee. Jesus had plans for His disciples, but He knew they could not do the work themselves. They would need His help.

 And so, they waited in Jerusalem, praying together with His other followers, for many days. And then on that fateful morning there was suddenly the sound as of a mighty rushing wind. Tongues of flame flickered on their heads, and they began to praise God in many tongues, to the astonishment of those who heard them. The curse of Babel (Genesis 11: 1- 9) was dramatically reversed that morning.

 That morning the Holy Spirit came to indwell the disciples and followers of Jesus. The Church was born. The Christians were suddenly full of life and power, utterly different from their former fearful selves. The change in them was permanent.

 Peter gave the first ever sermon of the Christian Church that morning, proclaiming Jesus was the Messiah. His boldness in the face of possible death was in marked contrast to the man who had denied Jesus 50 days before.  And 3,000 people responded, were converted, and were baptised. How’s that for fast church growth!

 Of course, Pentecost was not the first time the Holy Spirit had acted in this world. All through the Old Testament there are accounts of how God’s Spirit guided people and strengthened them. But now, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, He could INDWELL them. From now on, every Christian could have the confidence that Jesus was with them constantly, through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.