To a Mouse

 

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!” (Robert Burns, To a mouse). 

 

“Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away” (Mark 14:50, NLT).

 

It may not be immediately obvious from the title but this reflection is for Pentecost, or Whitsunday. What have you been doing in the 50 days / 7 weeks since Easter? Chalked up another half of an academic term? Caught the early morning train 35 times? (OK, 31 given all those lovely bank holidays) Have you – like the mouse – been ‘holed up at home’, going through the motions rather than living to the full?

 

The disciples had an ‘interesting’ 50 days between the first Easter and first Pentecost. After running away from the garden of Gethsemane they regrouped at some point to mourn the murder of their master. Then a couple of the ladies are in a tizzy early Sunday morning – Peter and John check things out, and return to confirm the earth shattering news – two of the gang rouse them late at night having rushed back from Emmaus, “It’s true!” – Jesus appears to them in a locked room – by now they know they are part of something very big, very different. 

 

We aren’t given 50 day’s worth of detail so we don’t know all that happened, but it is possible that boredom then set in: what now? What are we meant to be doing? Will Jesus reappear and eat some more fish with us? And then the ascension – what did they make of that? Further grieving? Loneliness? They return to Jerusalem – to their (very large) room where 120 of them wait for the fulfilment of Jesus’s promise – the sending of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49).

 

And on the day of Pentecost He comes: “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm … Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages…” (Acts 2:2-4, NLT). No more cowering, no more timorousness – the mice are now fully men, and about 3,000 were baptised and added to the church that day.

 

We also have the Holy Spirit. Perhaps this Pentecost we should reflect on what difference this makes – or should make – to the way we live each day. Are we cowering, timorous beasties? Or, through the Spirit’s power, are we going to step out as ‘men’ (used in a gender-inclusive sense) and engage with the world, or at least Ashtead, as we should?