A Reading from Acts, the 2nd Chapter
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
The first time I met Kelly’s dad, I was meeting a police captain and an Army sergeant major. When our daughter brought a boyfriend home a few weeks ago, he had to meet me, BUT he ALSO had to go to church for the first time… not just the first time at THIS church… the first time he had EVER gone to any church in his entire life! I think between the two experiences, he probably wins. Plus he seems to be a good guy so I don’t mind him winning that contest.
But that encounter brought to the front of my mind, something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while. And that thought is that it might not be a bad idea, with uniquely “churchy” things, not to assume everyone knows about “churchy” things these days and I might ought to back up and start at the beginning from time to time. So today is Pentecost, which is one of those uniquely “churchy” things, so let’s back up to the beginning!
Pentecost is one of the three big Jewish festivals where, as a faithful Jewish person back in the day, you would, if at all possible, make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate. It happens fifty days after Passover. Passover (another churchy thing) was the celebration of the people of Israel being freed from their bondage in Egypt where they were slaves. Fifty days after walking out of Egypt, the people found themselves parked at Mount Sinai, where they were given the ten commandments. That was the first Pentecost. Now, this wasn’t so much about getting a new set of rules as it was about the creation of a new community… it was the beginning of a new way of living together as God’s people. The old way of living in Egypt had ended. A new way of living had begun, not as property, but as God’s children.
The Pentecost we read about today is the story of an event that happened many years later on that Jewish festival day. That’s why there were Parthians, Medes, and people from lots of other difficult-to-pronounce places gathered in Jerusalem. When the SECOND Pentecost happened that day, it echoed many of the same themes as the FIRST Pentecost. Like the FIRST Pentecost, this second Pentecost was also the beginning of a new way of living together as God’s people. Because of that, some people call it the “Birthday” of the Church… although calling it the “Baptism” of the Church is probably better since the Holy Spirit comes to us in Baptism. This second Pentecost, also opened a new way for God’s people to live together… a new, radically-inclusive way of living… a way all people could be included as Children of God.
Here in the book of Acts (which is the sequel to Luke’s Gospel) the symbols of wind and fire (two of the most unpredictable things you can imagine) bring together people from all over the known world and now, through the transformational power of this Holy Spirit… things that have always divided people are blown apart. Cultures, borders, languages, walls… everything that humans do to keep people apart from one another are burned away by this Spirit. This second Pentecost is about God presence, in the form of this powerful, mysterious, Holy Spirit, bringing the world back together from all the millions of ways that it has been torn and broken and shattered apart.
And that work… the work of the Holy Spirit blowing apart walls and shattering divisions and bringing people together in an inclusive community of equal human dignity… That isn’t JUST the work of the Holy Spirit. When we are Baptized, we are baptized with that same Spirit and we too are also given the Holy Spirit’s work to do in the world.
In Baptism we are asked in the liturgy to renounce Satan and stand up against all the forces that rebel against God’s desire for this inclusive kind of community. We are asked to renounce the evil powers that corrupt, destroy and diminish other human beings and creation. We are asked to accept the loving and inclusive Way of Jesus and trust in his ways of grace and love. In Baptism we promise to continue to build this new, unified community with study, fellowship, worship and prayer. We promise to stand together and persevere in resisting that divisive, hateful, evil. We promise to both speak and live the ways of Jesus… live the Good News WAY Jesus lived… a way of love that is stronger than hate… a way of unity that is more powerful than division. We promise to serve the Christ that lives equally in ALL people and we promise to strive for justice and peace in all the world and respect the dignity of every human being… a dignity that transcends every wall and border.
In the FIRST Pentecost God brought together the people of Israel. Freed from the indignity and evil of slavery in Egypt… Freed from the people who saw them as less than human. God rejected that evil notion and formed them into a new community. In the SECOND Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blew apart national boundaries, cultures and languages and burned down the notion that only some were God’s chosen people and then that Holy Spirit again formed a even wider, more inclusive, unified community.
Now at TODAY’S Pentecost… at OUR Pentecost, we look at out at the same sorts of powers at work in our world… powers that continue to to divide, build walls, reject the presence of Christ in every person and reject the dignity God gives every human being… And at OUR Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blows and burns against all of that evil once again and insists that God’s vision for creation will be done, on earth as it is in heaven! At our Pentecost the Holy Spirit is again burning and blowing... and God is again calling each and every one of us to join in the work begun in that first Pentecost and continued in the second Pentecost. So, come Holy Spirit! Burn the divisions and blow down the walls! Move us boldly to confront the evil that demonizes and divides, and empower us to join with you in this new day, creating the world God intends for this to be!
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