John 7: 37-39 (Common English Bible)
Acts 2: 1-21 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word for “fifty days,” and for the Church, we recognize the date as the 50 days after Easter. But the initial opportunity for this Pentecost was meant for “Shavuot Seder,” or the Feast of Weeks. It fell on the 50th day after Passover. Passover usually arrives during the middle of April and Pentecost at the beginning of June.
Both Shavuot and Pentecost share something. Before Pentecost became important for potential Christians, Shavuot was a reminder of something that transformed Jewish history, that being the exodus when the Hebrew slaves left their bondage in Egypt.
The New Testament account of Pentecost is not easily explained and open questions remain. For example, it’s very probable the story of Pentecost was written for intended symbolism to leave impressions that are helpful for the basis of faith. It’s the story behind the written story that is the most important.
The mystery of the Holy Spirit described as “flame” is a good example. Flames are mysterious as they flicker and spread as they provide warmth with light flickering a wide range of color. But we know that flames require air, fuel, and enough energy for a reaction to start. Imagine the pilgrims at Jerusalem during Pentecost receiving that type of inward energy.
In our social and political moment, we need a universal Pentecost, not one with flames and speaking in tongues, but rather in the same compassion as Jesus Christ, and the same compassion the Jewish pilgrims felt and experienced that day in Jerusalem. Today we face division and hatred within the US that hasn’t been seen since the Civil War. Uncivil debates about immigration, guns, racism and now the Federal Budget. This political moment is colored by a complete loss of mutual understanding and civility. The result is causing many people to resign to the status-quo, that nothing better will ever happen.
But there are people who are committed to make room in their lives in helping those in need and for exposing injustice and for inspiring others to a more positive outlook. And I’ve seen that happen in this very church. I heard it on Thursday, at the meeting of the Presbytery of Ohio Valley at PYOCA, near Brownstown. Unfortunately elsewhere, there are people out there who call themselves “Christian” who do not reflect the same Spirit. Many within that group are more interested in what God can give them.
But what can the Holy Spirit mean to us in our daily lives? It does not mean we will always feel spiritual. But it does mean that we have the right to expect God’s Spirit to work within us, if we open our hearts and minds. Sometimes God works in our lives in the deepest ways when we sense or recognize God’s presence the least. It is only after hardships and heartaches we realize how the Spirit made our faith grow.
When we remember the cross on which Jesus died, this was not a kind of an emergency tactic done by God when everything else seemed to fail. It was part of God’s life. Too often some Christians still believe Jesus did something to change the mind of God, from judging, to loving. That is very wrong. It was by God that Christ was sent to earth. The Cross was a window in time allowing all people to see the suffering love which is eternally in the heart of God. God was always like Jesus, and vice-versa.
The Pentecost community in the 1st century was diverse, inclusive and egalitarian. The words written by Luke in the book of Acts, which is also a part of his gospel, show us the early church as a spirited community of visionaries, dreamers, male and female, slave and free. This egalitarian theology extended to the Church they formed. According to Acts 2: 44-45, it says, “All believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them.”
Sounds almost like a very kind and voluntary form of communism to me. But I always kind of suspected that Karl Marx had to get some of his ideas from somewhere.
The Holy Spirit has often been compared to overflowing rivers and streams. And this is the living water cited in today’s reading from the gospel of John. And the same water of eternal life that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7-15).
On that day of Pentecost in 33 AD, what we do know is that a large group of Jewish people, including followers of Jesus, gathered together at Jerusalem. Suddenly the Spirit of God filled them and their enthusiasm was on fire and illuminated. On that day the Church was born. But here is the surprise, no contemporary historian of that time ever heard anything about that event. When Luke wrote his gospel including the book of Acts, 30 years had passed since that event happened on Pentecost.
But, the real significance of Pentecost was the transformation of the people who experienced it. How did Pentecost shape their lives? Their focus was not on large church buildings and head counts. Instead the long-lasting significance is showing love and compassion. That will outlive any large church building with three big books of current members. That is why Pentecost is important. While the mythic story of the Tower of Babel was a parable about division, caused by human arrogance and pride, the true story of Pentecost reverses that with a true story of unity based on a love that can create miracles.
The Spirit-led Church has been created, not to gather behind locked doors or just in one place. But instead go out into the world to continue what God has been doing from the beginning, which is love. And God gave us the Christ to live on earth to show humans how to live that true love. And may that Spirit Love touch and illuminate us everyday.
AMEN
