Scripture Text: Acts 2:1-21 (Pentecost)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
14 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. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 “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. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
When the Day of Pentecost had come…I thought I’d write about it! I know, I haven’t done this in a while. And, of course, I really should have posted this earlier today but maybe that points to what Pentecost really is. Pentecost is not just a day. Pentecost really isn’t merely the Church’s birthday. Pentecost is a season. It is our season. After all the waiting and the birthing and the revealing and the journeying and the death and the Resurrection of Christ happens, Christ steps away and invites us into the place where he stood. He steps away and leaves emptiness to fill and here, in this empty place, we are given everything we need. And this season of Pentecost becomes our becoming. It is the season when, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we become who God calls us to be, who God had always called us to be.
The Hebrew word for God’s Spirit is ruah. There’s not really a way to translate it into our language. It is not limited to wind; it is not limited to breath (although that’s how we usually end up translating it); it is much, much more. Indeed, it is the very essence, the very fullness of God. Talking about Spirit is talking about God. God in power like the force of the wind and God in intimacy like breath. God’s spirit blows through and breathes into each and every person. This is the fullness of God. This is us in our fullness. This is the place to which the story was leading us all along.
Several years ago, I had an experience that, for me, gave life to this Pentecost story. I was traveling through Hungary as part of a church choir tour and one of our singing opportunities was the Sunday morning worship service of a small, extremely poor Protestant church on the Pest side of the Danube in the city of Budapest. No one in the small congregation spoke any English. We, of course, did not speak Hungarian either. You have to understand that the Hungarian language is usually grouped closely with Finnish because of its syntax, but it has so many words and sounds that are borrowed from Turkish as well as centuries of various gypsy languages that it has no real commonality with any language. So, our communication was limited to hand signals, nods, and smiles. The entire worship service was in this language that was more unfamiliar than anything that I had ever heard. We went through about an hour of unfamiliar songs (not just new hymns, but songs in a new language), foreign liturgy, and a 45-minute sermon that meant absolutely nothing to us.
At one point I looked around and realized that they had their heads down and were speaking what must have been a common prayer. We put our heads down. As I sat there, praying my own prayer along with them, I was suddenly aware that something had changed. I still, of course, could not understand the words but somewhere in there I had heard something inherently familiar. I looked at the person next to me and said, “That’s the Lord’s Prayer.” I started with the second petition of the familiar prayer and slowly those around me began to join in. When we came to the end, there was sort of a stunned silence around us. We had all finished at the same time.
This was not a case of me somehow miraculously understanding a language that I did not know. It was, instead, a hearing of an incredible rhythm that runs beneath every language and connects us all, a rhythm that is within us when we learn its cadence. That rhythm is the Spirit of God. THAT is ruah. I realized at that moment that the point of the Biblical Pentecost story was not the speaking, but the hearing and the understanding. Regardless of our differences, there is one common voice that connects us all, if we will only listen.
Pentecost did not create a church. Pentecost breathed God’s breath into the world and equipped all of us for work. This is precisely the work that Jesus envisioned. Jesus did not come to create a new institution. Jesus was never a Christian—that came probably as much as 20 or so years after the Resurrection. Jesus came to give us holy breath. His teachings and his behavior were all radically new—the beginning of a new Creation. In order to empower people for such work, Jesus gave them the very breath that had stirred him. “Live differently,” he told them, “Be a “new Creation”.” The church is not about liturgies and hierarchies and doctrines and building walls. Those are merely tools that we use to help us along, to help us define who we are as God’s people. But we are about so much more. For through us all runs the Spirit, the breath, the very essence of God. And when we choose to establish institutions or doctrines or beliefs that are not open to God’s Spirit flowing in its midst, we have missed the point. When we choose to have structures that leave out part of who we are, that leave out part of our diversity, that leave out some of our voices, that leave out some of the all of us who are called to God’s work, we are not tuned to that rhythm that is created by God’s breath breathing into the world. So, in this Season of Pentecost, this Season of Our Becoming, listen…listen for that one voice. It is part of who we are. Author Richard Lederer told a graduating class in a 2007 commencement speech: “Let there be no distance in who you are and what you do.” Pentecost is our moment when we see who we are so that we’ll know what it is we’re called to do. So, it’s time to go and be disciples—ALL of us, together.
Everything has already been given. What we need is to live into it. (Thomas Merton)
OK, new plan…I’m going to try to post once a week during this Pentecost season (maybe sometimes twice if I get extra spirity!) I may try some other things too. I know that I need to write. But I need to know what you hear in that! Let me know your thoughts, your visions, your dreams. Share what you are becoming. More later…
Grace and Peace,
Shelli