28 May 2023 Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:26-36; Corinthians 12:1-12; John 20:19-23
In 2011, about 8 others and I were doing a ‘Bethsaida’ trip led by Greg Jenks. At the end of our week in Jerusalem, we left to travel to the kibbutz where we would stay for the two weeks at Bethsaida. It was Pentecost Sunday, or in Israel, Shavuot. Greg planned for us to stop in Nazareth to go to church there, but when we stopped, we found the church closed. No notice or indication of why, the service should have been starting, but the gates were firmly locked. A local also arrived for church and when he found it all closed, he rang the Priest to find out why, only to discover the Bishop had summoned all clergy in the district to Jerusalem for a special Pentecost service and pilgrimage. So, not to be put off, we continued our journey having decided that, between four priests, a deacon, a formation student, a hospital chaplain and three ‘laity’, we should be able to put together a service ourselves. So, having arrived and settled into our rooms, we gathered around a flattish rock on the banks of Lake Galilee, with a chalice I had bought on my travels, a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and we celebrated Eucharist. The wind was howling and threatening to blow us and everything on the rock away, and then I read the Acts reading we have heard today, and as soon as I read it, the wind dropped and we were surrounded by peaceful silence.
Now, I am not trying to infer that this was some ‘God act’, but it did leave us all with a strong sense of the presence of the Spirit. And when I read this passage from Acts, I am taken back to that day, to the strong wind, which then suddenly dropped. Luke describes for us the first ‘Christian’ Pentecost, or Shavuot, when ‘God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven’ came together in the streets of Jerusalem. On that day, despite the mocking and ridicule about being drunk, three thousand people joined the Jesus movement. And from that ‘small’ beginning, the world’s first fully globalised institution was born.
Sometimes, when we speak about Pentecost, we get caught up in ‘the gift of the Holy Spirit’, we get caught in debate about ‘speaking in tongues’, about those who ‘exude’ joy and happiness, and the rights or wrongs of those labelled ‘happy clappy’. But that is not what today is about. The primary miracle that the Spirit of God enabled here is breaking through barriers of communication. People who could not understand due to language barriers, heard and understood; God’s message was heard by people who otherwise could not have heard it. We cannot define how it happened, did those empowered by the Spirit suddenly speak in languages they previously did not know, or did the Spirit act as instant translator so those who heard these men heard them in their own language as opposed to the language that was being spoken. Who knows, and, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because what does matter is that the Spirit allowed for barriers to disappear, the Spirit provided for those who were willing to listen and hear about the great things of God being spoken to them in ways that they were unprepared for.
It might be said that, for a lot of us, we would prefer for Pentecost to be something we celebrate, and speak about, but we are not really keen on ‘experiencing’ it. We do not expect any dramatic visitation of the Spirit, and we would not respond well if we were suddenly confronted by fiery wind blowing through the Sanctuary or even the Church. But we also need to remember that the great religions of the world began with unexplainable, or mystical, experiences. Scientists and mystics all have something to contribute to our understanding of our world, our faith, and our experiences. God can touch us unexpectedly and we too, can become mystics.
When Paul speaks to the Corinthians, he proclaims the ubiquity of spiritual gifts. All with gifts are gifted for the common good. God is present in the small, the humble, as well as the grand and overt, and God gives gifts and graces for the good of the whole community and the planet. As we discover our own gifts and passions, we find ways to respond to the world’s great needs.
John takes us back to the day of resurrection, when, as he tells it, Jesus appeared to the disciples. Jesus breathes on these followers and they receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives them, what some describe as spiritual CPR, awakening in them new life and filling them with the evangelical message that would transform the world.
Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t respond well to ‘unexpected events’ in our lives, and therefore, to the Spirit ‘moving’ in our lives, is that we usually like to maintain some level of control over our lives. Human nature means that we do not like being ‘out of control’ of what is happening to us and for us. And God working in our lives; the Holy Spirit moving in our lives means that our level of control is either diminished or non-existent. But all of readings today invite us, even beacon us to ‘let go’ and allow God to both work in us and through us. We are invited to welcome and allow the Spirit to come into our lives that we may be beacons of God’s love and God may be seen in our actions and heard in our words.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and kindle in them the fire of your love. And, when you come, help us to get out of our own way, so that you can work through us unimpeded. Let us ‘let go and let God’.