Pentecost 19 May 24 (Christ Church St. Lucia)
Readings: Acts 2: 1-21; Psalm 104: 26-36; Romans 8: 22-27; John 15: 26-27, 16:4b – 15
God comes to us in so many ways. People feel God in special moments in a beautiful place, or in quiet moments of prayer, or in all the power and volume of a well-known anthem or song sung at full blast, or in a sudden flash, or a growing realization, or in a simple, kindly act of love. Some of these special moments are so clear to us, but difficult to describe to others. Sometimes we see things through the eyes of faith - a rainbow for example reminds us of God’s covenants. When Libbie and I were in the Parish of West Mackay, we would often, when the sugar cane crush was on, take visitors to see cane fires. The great tongues of flame would flare up, move across the cane being burnt and then die away. I always thought of Pentecost when I saw them. Today’s Feast of Pentecost celebrates a revelation of God’s power. Seemingly simple - tongues of fire descended on the disciples and they went out and preached the Gospel in several languages - but very difficult to describe. If we look carefully, Luke, in writing the Acts of the Apostles says it was “like” a mighty rushing wind or “as of” tongues of fire. It reminds me of other passages of scripture, such as Ezekiel struggling to describe his vision of God, or St. John, writing his revelation, who uses the word “like” as he, too, struggles to find words to describe the beauty, and the power and the significance of what he has seen in his visions.
In the picture St. Luke describes for us, he too tries to find an image to define what happened and its significance. Ezekiel tries, too. In Hebrew, the word for breath, wind and spirit was the same. There is a constant word play in Ezekiel’s’ wonderful vision of the dry bones gradually coming to life. In his vision, the bones are the exiles from Jerusalem who have no more hope of restoring the Kingdom of Israel than of putting flesh on a skeleton and calling it to life. Jesus followers are without hope. They have for the most part until now have been behind locked doors, dispirited and in fear of their lives. They’ve no idea what they’re going to do. They have lost their leader and have lost their way. Jesus has promised that when he leaves them, the advocate, or the counsellor, or the comforter will come to them. Suddenly they begin to experience something new and different - the life-giving breath and power of God. They feel a new sense of direction and purpose. They have a new understanding. They have a new energy. They are compelled to go out into the world and tell the good news of the mercy and love of God. Jesus, in St. John's account in Ch 15 of his gospel is specific that the disciples will continue his work, but they won’t do it alone. The Spirit of God will testify with them. Through Jesus’ message of peace and love they become a community of faith once more - transformed from a group of fearful individuals. They begin to proclaim the faith fearlessly, and in a way that resonates with the people's culture and spirituality. The new understanding encompasses everyone. The spirit fills the entire world without obliterating particular identities - names of languages and cultures and peoples are specifically listed - the spirit respects the diversity of language and culture. Peter’s quotation from Joel emphasizes the Spirit is for all, irrespective of age, gender, or socio-economic status.
The Feast of Pentecost was initially a celebration of the fruits of the earth, fifty days after Passover. Farmers gave thanks to God for the first fruits of their harvest, given by God to sustain his people. The early believers in the church adopted the occasion to give thanks for the first fruits of the Spirit. St. Paul explains to the church at Corinth that the fruits or gifts of the spirit are at the very heart of the church and are an expression of the breath of God working through different personalities. Further in Galatians, Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit – love joy peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control - and sets these against the "works of flesh".[1] We are all one body, the body of Christ, but the Spirit works in a different way in each of us. And we come together to share and to give thanks for those gifts and skills and to build each other up, and to build the whole community of faith. But there is a much wider context as well - Paul in Chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans sets our human longings and desires against an enormously broad canvas - so broad we can hardly imagine it - our human experience of the Spirit is set against the canvas of the whole creation.
As we hear the word of God, we might be tempted to think that our community of faith does not exhibit the remarkable gifts of the spirit described in Acts. But we are unique, as they were, and the spirit comes to us in different ways - just like the wind which blows where it will as Jesus reminds us in his conversation with Nicodemus which St. John records in Chapter 3 of his gospel.[2] We might have already felt the breath of God; it’s just that we don’t always call it a Pentecost, or charismatic experience. The evangelists use images like tongues of fire, or a mighty wind to describe these transforming experiences. But as we know, some things cannot be fully captured by words. Perhaps you can recall moments when you felt supported or transformed, and able to give thanks for the indwelling of the Spirit.
And the Spirit does work. When in the name of Christ, we pray and work for peace and reconciliation - in the world, or in the home or workplace or community, we are moving in the Spirit. When we work for healing and care of the environment, we are moving in the Spirit. When we take the time to be there for a stranger in our midst, we are moving in the Spirit. When we speak a word of compassion or are moved to an act of compassion for someone who is suffering, we are moving in the Spirit. When we hear a word of love or reconciliation spoken by someone we have hurt, the Spirit is working to make the gift of forgiveness a reality. When we gather with others in a spirit of unity as we do for World Day of Prayer or as Anglican and Roman Catholic Clergy will do on 29th May, we are moving in the Spirit. When we gathered, as about 250 members of Mothers Union from around the Province and beyond did at St. Francis College yesterday – people of different ages and cultures to hear a moving and inspiring address from Sheran Harper, the World Wide President of the Mothers Union, we were certainly moving in and being moved by the Spirit. It is the unseen breath of God that keeps on working, blowing us along, challenging us. leading us all into new adventures of faith.
If we say that Pentecost is the disciple’s experience of a new understanding bursting forth in them in the days following Jesus’ death and resurrection, what was the nature of the new understanding? It was that Jesus was somehow still alive and with them. That despite the death of Jesus and him being taken from them at the Ascension, they felt him as close as if he were alive in their being. That everything he’d taught didn’t suddenly become meaningless but was still worth giving one’s life to. That one way to keep Jesus alive to generations who never met him was to witness to his life and ministry. And that one way to talk about all of this was in the imagery of a spirit that fills us, lights us, moves through us, urges us onward and takes us to new worlds of understanding on the wings of a dove.
And if we take the story of Pentecost into our hearts and lives, we’ll see something more than tongues of flame lighting upon a group of people in Galilee almost two thousand years ago. We’ll hear our own language spoken among those that day. We’ll see tongues of flame above our own heads. We’ll see the reach of the story through time all the way to us in the concern of the disciples that this remarkable story be shared, that it continues as a living experience long past the reach and the lives of the disciples themselves. Then, when a new understanding breaks in on us, it is we who will ask: How shall we live? How shall we witness to our generations? Who is among today’s excluded that we should embrace. What new dreams shall we dream? What new visions shall we see?[3] Where does the Spirit of truth lead us today?
[1] Galatians 5: 19-22
[2] John 3: 1-9
[3] Joel 2:28
© Reverend WD Crossman