On the surface it doesn’t sound like good news. Jesus says, “It’s better that I go away, that I leave you, so that the Spirit can come” (John 16:7). How’s that better?

We know how the story goes. Jesus does leave his grieving disciples – in his death, resurrection and ascension. Through all these great acts of God, things are no longer the same afterwards for the disciples. What changed for them? Well, the Spirit did come, as promised. Did it ever!

From last week’s account of Pentecost, tongues of fire settled on the heads of the disciples. This dramatic spectacle proved the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. And the first result of this spiritual outpouring?

It was their surprising ability to speak the languages of other people.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4).

And they do this because before Jesus left his disciples, he gave them these important parting words. He told them to go to “all nations” (Matthew 28:19) with God’s love. He encouraged the disciples to be Christ’s witnesses from Jerusalem “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

We know the most effective way to learn another language is to be immersed in a culture and society whose dominant language is not your first language. It is to be immersed in the culture of the language you want to learn.

Language, regardless of which one we speak, is about making connection with others. Communication. The purpose of speaking other languages is to build relationships, to open the circle and expand it outwards. With the church, the missional arrow always points outward. Our mission is not ‘to bring people in’ but rather ‘to move out’. The feel of it is like the sensation of centrifugal force.

In the end, Pentecost isn’t about the church getting a power upgrade, for its own sake. It’s about God’s Holy Spirit sending us toward people who don’t speak our language. It’s about God’s Holy Spirit breaking open the comfortable circles we build around ourselves. Because, in the Spirit, we are drawn in love toward people unlike us.

To be clear, the mission of the church is not worship on Sunday morning. That’s not what this is about. The purpose of coming to worship is to find the sustenance, strength and nourishment to do the mission of the church. Sunday morning in the church building is a deployment centre, where gifts are learned and resources are gathered to prepare for the mission.

When we think of this centrifugal, outward spinning movement, we might first imagine the push factor – the energy of motion at the centre forcing the particles outward. This image is perhaps more in line with how we think about, or fear, doing church mission.

Because learning a new language is not easy. We’ll inevitably make mistakes along the way. Sometimes we won’t even know what we are doing. It’s scary to go outside our comfort zones. We’d rather stay in the confines and security of what we know. Moving out often means curbing our impulse. We may even believe we need to be forced to move out, and perhaps even literally pushed out the door. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.

Science, however, tells us, that this notion that we are being pushed or forced out against our will is false. Based on the physics of circular motion, centrifugal force is really a phantom force. Scientists call it “fictitious” (Lucas & Ghose, 2024) because it’s more of a sensation based on our frame of reference, which can change. What we experience in the apparent centrifugal force is, actually, inertia wanting to continue moving in a straight line.

If centrifugal force is not real, what then is the force? What energy do we participate in when going to the ends of the earth in Christ’s name?

Let’s stay with the science.

Besides gravitational force, both electrostatic and magnetic forces attract opposites – either polar, or positive and negative charges (Platt, 2025). Using models based on the opposite forces of attraction as a metaphor for mission, you could say the attraction to what is different, or opposite, is the basis of the agape love demonstrated and taught by Jesus.

We love others not because they are the same as us. We move, in love, towards others who are different. That’s the basis of Jesus’ command “to love your enemy” (Matthew 5:43-48), or loving others as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).

How do we practice this natural, yet opposite, force of attraction? Attraction can be nurtured by the spiritual practice of “beholding” (Frykholm, 2025, pp. 28-30). The command to behold occurs frequently in the bible. Depending on the translation you use, “Behold” or some variation of it appears approximately 1,500 times (Llewellyn, 2022). A lot.

When we practice beholding what is before us – the person we meet, the situation we encounter, the world around us, any circumstance of our lives – our attention is on the experience, without judgement. Like the example from last week when we want to see a wild animal in the bush, beholding involves slowing things down and just noticing who is there and what is happening. Without judgement.

And over time, whatever we behold, we eventually become beholden to. We enter a loving relationship with what we accept without judging the person, the event, the experience. We learn to love it, not resist it. And in so doing, we notice that we are connected, just like the invisible string of gravity holding the tension between the earth and the moon, the sun and the earth. We are interconnected with the whole creation.

We can behold and hold others, the world and what is. When we practice simply paying attention to what is happening around us without impulsive distractions leading us and dividing us, we experience something incredible.

Contrary to centrifugal force, centripetal force is the real force. Centripetal is the centre-seeking force, a force that keeps acting towards a fixed centre – such as the rotation of the moon around the earth because of the earth’s gravitational force, or the earth rotating around the sun because of the sun’s gravitational force.

Christ is at the centre. Christ is the Son at the centre of the universe we inhabit. We move outward from our frame of reference – different it might be from one to another – not because we are unhinged, untethered, unrooted.

We move outward because of the universal attraction to God’s love. The world welcomes us because Jesus waits for us out there. Love is the pull, both to the centre of our lives and outward to where love waits. There is a tension here. We are drawn inward and outward by love. We see Christ in the world, and we follow in faith where the Spirit leads.

You may feel unable to do this. And you wouldn’t be alone. Sometimes we feel we lack the courage and the faith and the belief to love like this.

“It’s better that I go away so that the Spirit can come,” Jesus said. How is this better?

If Jesus continued to be present and visible on earth – in other words, if he didn’t leave them – the focus of his disciples to this day would be on Christ in one location in one time, and one space. Not a bad thing, actually. But there is better.

Because Jesus left, we discover the Spirit of God no longer bound in space and time but wherever we are, right here, right now, even within, in all and for all.

Like Jesus, the Spirit is another comforter, teacher and guide just like him. But now, the divine presence is available to everyone, everywhere, always. The same Spirit who descended like a dove on Jesus will descend upon us. The same Spirit who filled Jesus will fill all who open their hearts, in love (McLaren, 2014).

I say, that’s better! Thanks be to God.

References:

Llewellyn, C. (2022, February 23). God says ‘Behold’ 1,500 times in the bible. Here’s what it means. Premier Christianity [Website]. https://www.premierchristianity.com/columnists/god-says-behold-1500-times-in-the-bible-heres-what-it-means/6136.article

Frykholm, A. (2025). Journey to the wild heart. Orbis Books.

Lucas, J., & Ghose, T. (2024, September 4). What are centrifugal and centripetal forces? Live Science [Website]. Future US Inc. https://www.livescience.com/52488-centrifugal-centripetal-forces.html

McLaren, B. D. (2014). We make the road by walking: A year-long quest for spiritual formation, reorientation and activation. Jericho Books.

Platt, P. (2025, June 9). Attraction – GCSE physics definition. SaveMyExams [Website]. https://www.savemyexams.com/glossary/gcse/physics/attraction/