Constructive Pneumatological Hermeneutics in Pentecostal Christianity

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symbol that looks forward to the reality of the conquering Kingdom of

God (c.f., Mt 26:29). Seen this way, the Eucharist cannot be an ordinance

and an occasion for personal refl ection. It is a time to taste the reality of

God’s ultimate eschatological victory, an opportunity to receive spiritual

nourishment of the life that Jesus guaranteed for us through the Spirit’s

deposit. As an eschatological people longing for encounter, Pentecostals

should strive to make the Eucharist the central doxological moment of

their worship service. It provides the moment to drink deeply of the real-

ity of God’s redemptive act in the world; to worship God with a heart of

gratitude within the fellowship of the one body united by the one bread;

to long for the eschatological kingdom; and to receive God’s continual

mercies through the reality of Jesus’s soteriological accomplishments. To

offer a time of spontaneous praise in tongues may unite the central divine

acts of the atonement and Pentecost to create a powerful, transformative

time of worship.

Finally, Pentecostals should embrace the liturgy of the Dismissal. How

appropriate is it for Pentecostals to receive the prayer of blessing from

God as the fi nal word “before they leave their ‘Mount of Transfi guration’

to return to the world to serve”? 79 Pentecostals should be acutely aware

of the anointing they received from the service. Indeed, they have expe-

rienced a “fresh touch” from God; the Mount of Transfi guration is a

normative experience for them. The nourishment they receive is for the

nourishment of the world. Unlike the disciples who kept silent after the

transfi guration (c.f., Lk. 9:36), Pentecostals are to proclaim the reality

they intensely experienced, heard, and participated in during the worship

service. Pentecostals, an Acts-motivated missional people, must receive

this word in the dismissal. They need to be reminded that their dismissal

is not merely the end of a worship service, but that it is a call to return to

the world to proclaim the Eucharistic reality of God’s present redemptive

kingdom and to invite all into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The world

is a harvest fi eld; the Spirit their sickle; the Eucharist their nourishment;

the liturgy their home of the Father in which they grow, are formed, and

trained for the harvest fi eld.

CONCLUSION

RO is a helpful conversation partner for Pentecostalism due to their simi-

larities which I have identifi ed. Both affi rm the intimate participation of

creation in God that affi rms the goodness of the material. The atten-

RADICAL ORTHODOXY, PENTECOSTALISM, AND EMBODIMENT IN EXODUS 20... 135
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