Day of Pentecost

ACTS 2:1-21: In John's Gospel, the Spirit is given to the disciples in the upper room on the evening of the day in which the resurrection occurred. In Luke's writings (The Gospel and the Book of Acts), the Holy Spirit comes upon the church on the day of Pentecost approximately fifty days after Easter.

Pentecost was the third of the spring feasts that Israel celebrated, the first being Tabernacles and the second the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover, you recall, was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). Pentecost originally referred to the Jewish "Feast of Weeks," called Shavuoth. The Feast of Weeks was originally an agricultural festival, celebrated about fifty days after the first day of Passover. The name itself comes from the Greek word meaning "fiftieth." Since no work was to be performed on this fiftieth day, the whole community in Jerusalem was gathered in one place.

On the first Pentecost after Jesus' death and resurrection, the followers of Jesus met in a house to celebrate this feast. Something occurred that day that later Christians never forgot. "Suddenly a sound came like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them. . . . At this sound the multitude, 'certain devout men,' Jews living in Jerusalem who had originally come from regions through all the mid-east, came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking his own language."

Howard Kee, (To Every Nation under Heaven, 44) locates these events in their biblical history. "The coming from heaven of a sound 'like the impact of a powerful wind,'involves a play on the Greek word pneuma and the Hebrew ruach for which "wind" is a common translation. Both words can mean "spirit' in the sense of invisible power. The 'tongues as though of fire' recall the visions seen by Enoch of the dwelling place of God in the heavens. God's dwelling place is depicted as 'surrounded by tongues of fire' and as 'built of crystals' between which are 'tongues of living fire'; 'rivers full of living fire' encircle it (I Enoch 14:91 71:5-6). In the prophecy of Amos fire is the symbol of God's judgment (7:4), as it is in Isaiah. (4:4). The fiery tongues depict the divine presence that has now become accessible through the Holy Spirit." By means of these great events of Israelite history, Luke is relating the wonderful events of the day.

The "tongues" that were heard were not the same "tongues" that Paul wrote about in his Corinthian letters. That was unintelligible speech. These "tongues" are foreign languages: "Each one heard them speaking in his own language." Those who heard came from all over the Jewish world.

In response to this, Peter stood up to preach. He related what had happened that day to yet another prophesy, that made by the prophet Joel. Joel had declared that "on the last days" God will pour out his spirit upon all - sons and daughters, young men and old, menservants and maidservants. He said that they will see wonders in the heaven and signs on the earth. But Peter changed the text around. Joel had said that the signs of the outpouring of the Spirit are a prelude to disaster (see especially Joel 2:32b, c), but for Peter these wonders have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, himself the greatest of God's wonders. In that day, said Peter, "all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Peter asked all gathered there to commit themselves to Christ. Five thousand men were joined to the church that day.

The word went out to the areas where the "men of Jerusalem" had their homelands. So through them the Word of Jesus Christ spread to Parthia and Mesopotamia far to the east; Judea, where they were that day; Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in what is now Asia Minor; Egypt and Cyrene to the southwest; to Crete to the west and Arabia to the south; and to Rome itself, the heart of the Roman Empire. A start was made to Christian mission. It was indeed a Pentecost to remember.

Yet Pentecost is not primarily the commemoration of a past event. It is a present experience. Karl Barth asked once in a sermon, "Can we measure what Pentecost means?" He answered in this way: "Behind death, the Prince of Life; behind the transient, the Eternal; behind death, resurrection." (Barth, Come Holy Spirit 177) The risen Lord continues to pour out his spirit upon us, and each time that his spirit is at work within the church Pentecost occurs all over again.

GENESIS 11:1-9: This ancient story is beautifully constructed. In the first half of the story (1-4) the people hold a council with each other and make a decision. They decide to build a city and a tower so high that its top reaches the heavens. They were afraid that they would be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, and they wanted instead to be in touch with each other. Since each spoke the same language, they would be able to communicate with each other and make plans for their life together. Verse 5 is the pivotal verse. "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which mortals had built." In the latter half of the story (6-9), God holds a council and makes a decision. God decides to go down to earth and confuse their language, so that they will be scattered over the whole face of the earth. It happens as God said: human language is divided into many kinds of speech, and humans are scattered over all the earth.

We can pick out a number of concerns that went into the composition of this story.

"They migrated from the east." The Israelites were aware that their ancestors had come from the east, so they incorporated this into this story.

"They built their city of bricks and bitumen." The Israelites were aware that Mesopotamian buildings were made of sun dried brick and asphalt. The Canaanite buildings with which they were more familiar were made of stone and mortar. By the choice of building material, they were assigning the building of this city to the east from which they had come. The size of the remembered tower may reflect their awe at the great ziggurat of Marduk, the Babylonian god. That temple had a base 300 feet square and a tower that in seven stages reached 300 feet into the heavens.

Through their story they were trying to understand why human beings spoke so many languages. The question still baffles us today, and it must have been especially puzzling to them to come upon tribes and peoples each of which had their own language. "God must have determined it," they said.

The name they chose for their tower and name of their city may contain a play on words. They must have felt confused when they first walked into the city of Babylon. It had multiple races and languages in it; how can we accommodate to that? Its streets crisscrossed each other in puzzling patterns; how can we find our way through it? It had a welter of gods; where is the great God of our people? Babylon must have confused them, so they called their city "Babel," which means "babbling, confusion."

More important than these concerns are the theological concerns expressed in this story. They are important to us yet today.

The authors of the story recognized that human beings are always trying to take council together to do that which seems best to them. This early group wanted to have one language, to build one city in which all could live, and to make it so large that everyone would remember who built it; they wanted to make a name for themselves through their own strength and ability. But, to the writers of Genesis, that is the chief sin of all. Right relations with God involve a quiet listening to what God tells people to do and then to set about doing it. That was the problem with Adam. God had told him to eat of the fruit of any tree in the garden except the one in the middle, and you know what Adam then did! This group acted the same way. They sit down, take their own council, and they build the city with no thought of God. They had cut God out of the equation of their lives. God acted quickly to forestall that. God confused their language and scattered them abroad. God and God's plans are the heart of human endeavor, and to act otherwise is to give in to the sin that has plagued humanity from the beginning.

They recognized that God wanted them to till the whole earth, and not just a little corner of it. That is the sin of provincialism: my little corner of the earth is all that counts, and the rest of the world can be left to their own devices. God had to counter that sin also. So God "scattered" them, that they again inhabited the whole earth. God is concerned with all the earth and all its people, not just the tiny part that I personally inhabit. These people learned that lesson in a dramatic way.

They recognized that God loves diversity. The God who scattered them did not make one language definitive, one manner of life irrevocable, one way of behavior absolute. Israel in the exile and in their later history tried that. There was to be one people, one law, one way of life. But Jesus when he came ministered to all people, refuted varied precepts of the one law, and accepted the lifestyles of many. In the act of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spoke many languages, not just one. Paul recognized that the church is for Jew and Greek, slave and free, man and woman. God loves diversity; we are enriched by the contributions to our lives of all creatures, plant, animal, and human. The right kind of concord encompasses the concerns of the entire world, and to that end it encourages acceptance of the differences and diversity abroad in God's world.

PSALM 104:24-35: The key verses for today in this psalm are 29 and 30: "When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to dust. When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground."

The psalmist had in mind both the Genesis story of creation and his own experience. He had learned in Genesis that God had breathed into a human form, and life entered the human being. He also learned that when breath was taken away from the human, that one died. That corresponded with his own observations. When death deserted the body, the person died and returned to dust. What he also knew was that Genesis had said that in the beginning the Breath of God moved over the waters of chaos, and the face of the earth was made new. It can happen in my life, he deduced: "When God sends forth his breath, his spirit, life is created. When God blows the winds and brings the rain and sends the sunshine, the earth is renewed. "Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!"

The twelve verses of the psalm which we are to read today form a hymn of praise to God for God's creation. Walter Brueggemann sees the following in them:

1. He sees a God who is at ease with creation. Other ancient peoples feared and worshiped the sun; this psalmist sees the sun rise and fall as an instrument in God's hands. Humankind feared the power of lions and other great beasts; this psalmist hears their roar as their cry to God for food. All Hebrews feared the sea and the terrible monsters, so they thought, that dwelt in it; here God made the Leviathan so that God could play with him. This is a God serenely confident with all God's hand has made.

2. God gives us everything we need for life. Verses 27 and 28 are a table prayer, one I have used many times: "The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord. Thou gives them their food in due season. Thou openest thy hand and satisfieth the desires of every living thing." Note, this is a prayer uttered by all creation. Not only does God take care of humanity; the rest of creation is in his hands as well. Only when God hides his face are we dismayed. Only when God takes away our breath do we die. Even then we turn to God, asking that he send forth his creating breath, to renew the face of the world.

3. We are moved to wonder and praise. Verses 31 through 34 remind us "that God rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, death and sickness, riches and poverty and everything else come to us not by chance, but by God's fatherly hand." What else can we do but thank and praise God!

Samuel Terrien puts the psalm in an every greater context. Terrien sees it as re-capitulating the whole of the creation account of Genesis One.

The first strophe of the poem (2-4) speaks of primeval light, the blue beyond, the vault of the firmament, the clouds, the winds, and the bolt of lightning. So does the first part of the Genesis story.

The second strophe (5-9) tells of God's work of creation: setting the foundations of the earth, raising mountains and lowering valleys, filling the oceans, causing thunder to sound, all according to God's appointment.

The third strophe (10-13) turns to God's providing water for humans and animals; springs and rivers are God's creations.

Strophe four (14-18) describes the miracle of vegetation. God makes grass to grow, plants to cultivate for food, wine to gladden the heart, oil to make the face shine. In God's trees the birds build nests and the stork has her home. The high mountains are habitat for wild goats, the barren rocks a refuge for badgers. The cedars of Lebanon produce no fruit, the stork and the badger are not the most useful of creatures, but God cares for them, too.

Strophe five (19-23) speaks of days and seasons. When the sun rises, the animals return to their dens, but men come forth to labor. When the sun sets, human labor ends, but the beasts return to their hunting and their play.

Strophe six (24-26) tells of the sea, great and wide, which teems with life great and small.

Strophe seven (27-30) focuses on the most amazing wonder of all: the ever-renewed gift of life that continues only because Yahweh in his grace wills it so.

In the last strophe (31-35) the psalmist gives way to praise: "I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praises to my God while I have being, I rejoice in the Lord." The psalmist knows that not all people worship the Lord, and their wickedness introduces a note of disharmony in his song. But it does not stop him from singing: "Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!" God, the invisible, is creator of all. Israel's God is creator of earth and sky, Lord of all peoples, God over the destiny of the nations.

ROMANS 8:12-17: This passage is only a small excerpt of a lengthy argument that Paul gives in this letter concerning sin and death, righteousness and life. I shall try to summarize Paul's points, all the while knowing that a short summary does not do justice to all that Paul is saying here to the church in Rome.

Paul begins plainly enough: "We are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh -- for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." "Flesh" and "spirit" are contrasted. "Flesh" refers to the world around us, that attractive world that is passing away, that malignant world that is lost in its sins and given over to death. "Spirit" is the spirit of Christ, that brings to those who set their minds on him the life and peace which we find only in Christ. To live in this world only is to be subject to death. To live in the spirit of Christ is to be open to the life and peace that comes with Christ.

In verse 14 Paul advances his argument. "All who are led by the spirit of God are sons and daughters of God." In 15 he gives us the reason for his confidence. When we cry "abba," "Father," this is the indication that we are truly sons and daughters of God. "Abba" is the opening word of the Lord's Prayer. When we can say that prayer together with other Christians, that means that we are truly of the household of God. It may also have been used in the service of baptism. The newly baptized person can call God "abba," father, and this is a sign that we have moved from the spirit of slavery into the spirit of "sonship." The word may also indicate that we have truly been crucified with Christ and raised with him. Jesus used "abba" when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on his way to his trial and death, and by using this word the Christian is experiencing something of the feelings of Christ as he submitted his will that night to his father.

Verse 17 sets up one of those progressions so beloved by Paul. We begin as "children" of God. But if we are children, then we are also "heirs," heirs of God and Christ. But to be heirs we must suffer with Christ, suffer in the same way that he did. And if we suffer with Christ, then we will be glorified as he was glorified, with him we will be raised to the state of glory evidenced in Christ's resurrection from the dead.

For the next few lines, Jesus' last discourse becomes a dialogue. First Thomas asks a question, and then Philip.

Jesus closes with a statement that is dear to the heart of all of us: "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Note how the New Revised Standard Version translates these words as a command: "Do not let your hearts be troubled." There is a story that comes from India, told by a man who owned a pet monkey. One day as the monkey was playing around the man, the monkey noticed a cobra nearby. Monkeys and cobras are deadly enemies, and the monkey was terrified by the sight. He began to shake all over. Knowing that his shaking would attract the attention of the cobra, the terrorized monkey did the only thing he could. He reached around and grabbed his tail firmly in both hands. He held it firmly, all the while knowing that if he let go, he would begin quaking again. He held on until the cobra slithered away. There are times in life when we have to take Jesus' words not just as a comforting statement but an outright command, clasp onto that which we fear the most and hold on for dear life until the crisis is passed. Jesus tells us to be not troubled in our hearts. The interesting thing is that this particular word was used time after time of Jesus himself, especially as he stood before the tomb of Lazarus and also as he confronted his own cross. And now we are commanded to be not troubled. Is it an impossible command? No, it is possible of fulfillment, precisely because Jesus himself was agitated, and is able to redeem us from such agitation. "Do not be troubled, and do not let them be afraid," Jesus commands us.