Wow! There is a lot going on during worship this morning! We are recognizing our graduating seniors. We’ll baptize one of our young people. We will celebrate the confirmation of four of our young people and we will celebrate communion. We have special music, visitors and we’re even seeing a lot of red in honor of Pentecost. We are celebrating a lot of new beginnings – a lot of passages from old to new – from that which was to that which shall be - from the present to the eternal. Nothing could be more exciting!
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In the Biblical text, the feast of Pentecost is also called the feast of weeks: it comes seven weeks or fifty days after Passover. In Jewish history it commemorates the time when the Lord gave the tablets of the Law to Moses. In a way, it celebrates the beginning of the Jewish religion because it was then that the first people of God knew what the requirements of God were.
We also celebrate the day of Pentecost as the birthday of the church. We remember it as the day that the Holy Spirit was given – not just to a few, but to the many – not just to Judeans, but to the world. The coming of the Holy Spirit ushers in the beginning of eternity. It reverses the confusion of tongues and gives us a single language – the one language of the love of God.
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One of the many wonderful things about the Feast of Pentecost is all the wonderful images we have for it: a rushing wind - tongues of fire – and this thing about ‘languages’. We can imagine wind and fire easily enough, but scripture tells us that everyone was hearing the disciples speaking in their own language – can you imagine how that must have been? Do you wonder how it might have been to experience it? How did it happen?
Did the disciples speak in other languages without realizing it? I mean, did they switch to Ethiopian or Arabic in mid-sentence? Or did they each speak in their own language and people just heard it in their own language? Have you ever been in a restaurant where it seems like everyone is speaking at the same time? Imagine if each of those conversations was another language. What noise and what confusion! Is it any wonder that they ask each other, ‘What does this mean?’
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What does it mean? The day of Pentecost is the beginning of the church, the beginning of the end of time and the beginning of the restoration of all the things – including language. We say ‘restore’ language because scripture tells us of a time when humanity did have a common language. We read about in Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the
Aren’t we human beings something? At an early point in history, when all the people in the world can talk together and work together, they decide to build a tower that reaches to heaven and to make a name for themselves. They want to exalt themselves and get to heaven on their own. They are convinced that they don’t need God – they can be gods on their own. They can get to paradise through their own hard work. (Does it seem that perhaps some things never change?)
Of course, they never could get to heaven on their own. But they were going to try and the Lord came to disturb their plans by confusing their language.
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The celebration of Pentecost, coming of the Holy Spirit, signals us to expect the unexpected. For today and tomorrow and for every day in our futures, God is doing a new thing. Before Pentecost, the Spirit of God was given to a few persons and only for a short amount of time and only for a single purpose. But after Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out not on a few, but on everyone – not for a time, but for always – and not for a specific purpose (like building the temple), but for showing the fullness of the presence of God in all places at all times to all persons.
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And so, in a way, Pentecost is a little frightening, too. It is easy for us to deal with images of the other two persons of the Trinity. God the Father, the Creator, and God the Son, the Redeemer who was incarnate in Jesus, are easy images for us to understand – at least as far as we thing we can understand the things of God. But the Spirit – the mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire, doves descending from heaven – the idea that God might actually dwell within us – fruits of the Spirit – gifts of the Spirit – the idea that God might get inside us and change us - this is scary.
Although we can try to isolate the work of the first two persons of the Trinity, that pesky Holy Spirit cannot be controlled, limited, defined or even anticipated. Before Pentecost, people could assume that they knew what to expect from God. Before Pentecost, they could assume that if they just played by the rules, they could justify themselves before God. Before Pentecost, people could assume that they could think and feel as they pleased – that they could harbor anger and hatred and bigotry and greed in their hearts as long as they just did the right things right and things looked good from the outside.
Before Pentecost, people could be excluded from the Synagogue because of their race or their gender or their social class. People could be excluded because they could not keep the Levitical laws. They could be kept out of the chosen company of the synagogue because they were old, or lame, or disfigured – or simply - you know ‘not the right kind of people’.
Of course, they were wrong even then, but after Pentecost, none of the old rules apply at all anywhere. All are invited to the fellowship of God. All are worthy inheritors of faith. All are worthy of God’s love and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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Another, less obvious and more enduring image of Pentecost is that this is the birthday of the church – the day when the Holy Spirit came to usher in the beginning of the Reign of God – and inviting all people everywhere to come to faith and be a part of the church of God.
The coming of the Holy Spirit makes us uncomfortable. The Holy Spirit cannot be stopped – it cannot be controlled – it cannot be planned or anticipated - nor can the Spirit of God be ignored. But sometimes, even well meaning people of faith try to put the Spirit of God in a box and decide just how that Spirit works in a particular time of place. We hear it all the time when we hear people say:
We can’t do that, it’s not church policy. We can’t do that, it's not proper. We can’t do that, it’s never been done before. We can’t sing those new songs, worship at a different time or in a different place or in a different way. We can’t do it – we just don’t do it that way.
In first century
What does it mean? The coming of the Holy Spirit brings a remarkable change to the disciples. They are changed from a cowering, confused, rag-tag group of eleven has-been wanna-be’s to a great and fearless army of God. Where before they never quite understood the things Jesus taught them, the Holy Spirit leads them into all truth. Where before Peter had been really good at putting his foot in his mouth, we see him speaking eloquently to a crowd of thousands. Where before the disciples ran for their lives when Jesus was arrested in the garden, they will all stand their ground bravely until they are martyred for their faith.
What does it mean? It means that the confusion of
What does it mean? It means, that unlike the people who built the
What does it mean? It means that the reign of God has broken into the history of the world. It means that we are all empowered to show love, seek wisdom do the work of God in the church and in the world beyond.
What does it mean? The restoration of all things has begun – a time when all people will live together in faith and love.
What does it mean? Our futures are free of the limits of the past.
Although this is the beginning of the reign of God, we are still not there. Although we are graduating, being confirmed in the faith, and celebrating communion together, our lives are only just beginning And perhaps, in this coming year, by God’s grace, we will all come to understand the fullness of what Pentecost means and maybe we can celebrate the coming of the Spirit in a time of peace and justice for all.
Amen.
