PENTECOST 2020
May 31
Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”
1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Our story is set out like a three Act drama of epic proportions.
Act 1 begins in the Book of Genesis, ch 12: The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you." A call, and with it a promise: "I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others."
Later on some poetic spirits filled in a background "from the beginning", and stacked a few basics into their picturesque narrative, elements such as that God is good and everything we have around us is good; God was on good terms with us and in the cool of the evening walked in the garden he had planted for us; and that we have a problem that is complex and the source of our shame, but sometime in the future it will be fixed by God.
Act 2 begins with another call: Metanoeite. Turn your thinking around 180 degrees. You've got it all back to front. As in Act 1, there are flashbacks to fill in how Jeshua came to be born and to live in Nazareth of all places. He moved around among the people of Galilee for a few years, taught some basic stuff and did some very significant things that were out of the ordinary, contentious, even provocative. Inevitably the authorities were provoked and they killed him off. But his followers discovered he was not dead and gone at all, but still alive among them, alive in them.
Act 3 begins in the second chapter of the Book of Acts:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
It reads like a sensational opening for a blockbuster movie as the scene develops with exciting urgency.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ...we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
None were more surprised than the twelve. It must have indeed been intoxicating. If people got to hear about this they would be seen as fools. Yet they had to tell of an event which of its nature should not be kept hidden. A man has overcome death!
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, d put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
* * * * *
The work of the dramatist is not much like the work of a news reporter, or of an official historian either. In the dramatic treatment of this great history we feast on symbols woven in an intriguing myth-like web. Working with these symbols the author is able not only to tell what happened but to show what each event means in the context of the whole epic. Hence not only are we free to draw out the meaning and significance of the event as a whole and the details in particular, we are obliged to do this if we are to come close to the heart of the work. Just as a painter includes in his canvass many details, each one with its own purpose and meaning, so the writer who presents history in the dramatic mode communicates much more than a mere record could achieve.
* * * * *
In the opening scene of Act 3, the Pentecost scene, four significant details tell of features to be found throughout this final act. "They were all gathered in one place." Other scenes tell of particular groups, like the twelve huddled in fear, or assembling on a mountain where they witness Jeshua taken out of their sight, but in this central feature ALL are present, all those who had followed Jeshua from Galilee along with all his Jerusalem disciples. Not that every last one was present, but everyone was there and not just the twelve. This is the first detail that sets this episode apart.
Wind and fire are the typical symbols of the Spirit. Both wind and fire are moving things. Movement is of their essence; they do not exist in a static form; likewise the flowing water of the baptismal ritual. While in Act 1 Abraham's family became established and took possession of a land to call their own, and later the temple became the holy place where God dwelt, in Act 2 Jeshua lived among us for a short time and was gone. In Act 3 the Spirit will be always moving and shaking things up, and burning to give light and warmth. This transition from fixed stability to the fluid movement of life is an essential characteristic of the Age of the Spirit.
Movement already marks the life of Jeshua. He chooses people to walk him as he goes through the towns and villages, with nowhere permanent to lay his head; he invites his followers to leave their secure homes and families; he sends them out as itinerants to be his witnesses far and wide. Do the authors simply neglect to mention his instructions on setting up a religious establishment, or am I correct in thinking that it is positively excluded?
The last of the four significant elements in this account is the most intriguing, and the least recognised. The fire in this event did not behave as fire does, burning and spreading as it reaches out to consume everything. Here what looked like tongues of fire separated and moved across the heads of the people, and a flame settled on each one there. The Spirit was given individually to each person. From having 'all' gathered together in one place, the author tells of the Spirit coming to each one separately. There is no hierarchy here as we might have expected. The Twelve were certainly there, and Peter as spokesman will lead them out to address the crowds in the street, but the gift of the Spirit with its empowerment is given to each person. The immediate effect was that each of them began to speak a foreign language 'as the Spirit gave to each'. The insistence on the individual is remarkable, and could only have been intentional on the part of the inspired author.
A new and surprising dimension of this theme of individuality is found in the crowd who came to see what was going on. Now it is not about speaking in foreign tongues but about hearing the message, each one in a way he or she could understand it. They were utterly amazed because each one heard their own language being spoken. This detail is so important that Luke is at pains to put on record that there were people from as far east as Parthia and as far west at Rome; he actually made a list of 16 places or regions by name.
Language is an expression of culture. When the followers of Jeshua, in the power of the Spirit, speak of their experience of the 'Word' as best they can, in the way natural to their culture, it will be heard and received in the language and culture of those who receive it. There will be no leveling of differences, no need to impose uniformity, no requirement for everyone to conform to one interpretation of Jeshua's way. People 'doing the truth in love' will be seen as a sea of colours moving and mixing as the wind stirs them.
* * * * *
The Pentecost event of Act 3 introduces the Age of the Spirit.
We are familiar with this title, the "Age of the Holy Spirit", but I have recently become aware of how little we live in the Spirit. Much effort of late has gone into identifying the original sayings of Jesus in order to give us an accurate picture of the man in his time and place. This focus on the man from Nazareth feels a bit like archaeology rather than a living spirituality for today. To be led by the Spirit is entirely of another dimension.
We have read critical rejection of Paul as one who not only had never met Jesus but who confessed he had no great interest in the history of the man beyond what is contained in Peter's first address to the people, cited above. Jesus himself said it was good that he was 'going away', to make room for the Spirit, or perhaps we could say, to allow the Spirit to take centre stage and be the focus of our attention. Of course Jesus is still with us, in his spirit and not in a bodily way. There might be nothing wrong with copying his life and behaviour, but then again you might earn the rebuke the apostles got from the angel: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?" (Acts 1:11) They were devastated, of course, by his going away, but that did not bring him back. They returned to the city where the Spirit came upon them with power, and they got moving: they went out and talked about it to everyone.
What does 'living in the Holy Spirit' mean?
It means listening, listening for guidance, listening for insight, listening with the heart for compassion to arise within us when we think we're too busy to stop for a wounded traveller.
To listen we have first to want to hear, to want guidance and inspiration and insight beyond our normal. We have to trust that we are being led. If we are so skeptical, or so confident in our own grasp of every matter of life and death, then we'll take no notice of the Spirit prompting from the wings. It is not enough to ask questions of every kind and to humbly admit one doesn't know the answers. If I accept that I am inspired, and guided, in doing what is within my power, and if I trust that guidance even while still mistrusting my own willful conceited ways, then I'm aware of being led by the Spirit.
The metaphor of docile sheep led out to feed on green pastures is for another situation. The Spirit will lead me into the desert, into dangerous confrontations, and finally to Jerusalem the seat of power of both the State and the Religion. If I go on insisting on truth and justice and compassion, on trust in a Father who knows what he is doing in this his marvelous creation, on love and care for those who need it most and may seem least attractive to us - least worthy of our love, then inevitably I'll be found too irritating and I'll get scratched out by the powers that rule the world. No safe pasture, only the promise of life beyond the agony of shaming, beyond the torture and even beyond the death.
A requirement in listening to the Spirit is waiting. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised.” (Acts 1:4) Waiting for the time to be right, waiting till I feel confident that I know what I have to say or do, waiting for the other person's time to be right - these all require my impulsive self, my ambition or my impatience, to be restrained. When I am free of that ego-driven need, then I can move into action.
Finally and most importantly, the Spirit-dynamic of the Age that began at Pentecost is to be recognised in the way we are motivated. We move beyond the compulsion of law to be self-motivating. This is the age of the auto-mobile. The Spirit moves and empowers each one to choose what is good with an energy and commitment that can never be experienced while we still see life as a framework of obligations, duties and restraints.
All this will eventually come to anyone who believes - and trusts - that God is powerful enough and more than powerful enough to bring to completion the work he has begun in us.
The Spirit is that mysterious force, that energy of the Divine that alone can account for this mystery that puzzles science: that in itsevolving the cosmos defies the laws of entropy and surges forward towards a greater culmination. In that final moment all things will be seen as good.
Notes for another time:
1. Renewal must focus on the work of the Spirit
2. What does the Spirit say to the churches? Not about material achievements or organisational efficiency or equality of women with men...
3. but about a shift if focus from church institution, leadership, ministry, sacraments, preaching, evangelising the world... to listening to the Spirit, teaching everyone what it means for us learning to be 'The Christ' living in their town or suburb or street.
4. Change in our individual way of looking at things: to consciously believe that the power of God, of the Spirit, is in my speaking, in me showing courtesy, showing interest with encouragement, helping, caring, guiding if that's what is needed.
5. We are sent, missioned, commissioned to communicate the Spirit to others.
6. Only through natural ways, ordinary sharing, doing and speaking, in imitations of the way Jesus stuck to simply relating to the persons he met along the way. He went through the villages, but it seems he did not go out of his way to visit particular people or to cultivate friendships. He assembled a little group whom he taught, but otherwise kept his distance with one exception - the family at Bethany.
7. The Spirit was given only after he was gone. He never saw any real result from his efforts. He never had a following, yet the apostles had communities in Jerusalem in no time.
8. The Spirit draws us together - for what? To listen together - like Quakers; then to share and in sharing teach/enlighten one another; then we can celebrate with song and dance; finally we can break bread together and drink a glass of wine in memory of him. That will be our Eucharist, our Thanksgiving in our Spirit-filled memory of him. Whenever they can, a small group will have a meal or a BBQ. Otherwise we just go about our business or return to our homes, since there will be many who cannot stay for the meal very often. If the extended meal became an essential part of the event these would gradually be separated from the main group not by their choice but by accident. Better to have the extended session less often and make sure it is for everyone.
The creative dance of the Trinity, as Richard Rohr suggests, a dance of relationships that contributes to the whole, the Oneness of being, is what we too need to join, respond to the invitation, not in fear, rather in awe that we too become co-creative participants in that dance that moves life forward to new horizons and possibilities. We are not to be outsiders looking at the activity happening but active in the relationship that calls us to become more in life by giving ourselves away in love for others to grow towards wholeness. - Joe Weber
What does the Spirit ask of the world? If, as often said, the golden rule is a universal, then let us apply it to the behaviour of nations: No nation should do to another nation what it would not want done to itself. Do to other peoples as you would want done to you. The same applies to business and to the heart of capitalist system, the stock exchange, and the question arises: Can the business world function while respecting the golden rule, or would it mean the death of the 'economy' world as we know it? In small communities people trade their goods for services and their services for goods, most using money as the medium of trade. Historically I imagine that most small communities were happy places where truth and justice prevailed as the practical expression of love. It is impossible to last for long in a small community if you are the one who takes advantage of others, who deceives others for personal gain. Until of course it all becomes a play for power; once holding enough power any one can dominate and deceive and oppress others for gain, even the whole population. The deception soon stakes the form of national well-being first in being ready to use force for self-preservation and then using superior force to subjugate other nations. Yet all these nations have their religions: if all religions teach the golden rule, then we would conclude it does not work and never has, for all nations treat others as aliens and are willing to subdue them as you would lesser beings. So much so that it becomes accepted as the way things work: once you lose the war your best will be taken away in slavery and the remainder will pay tribute (taxes) to the conqueror. So you bide your time and decades or even centuries later you turn the tables and crush those who crushed you. But the realists never suggest it could be different. This is just he way things work. Let's be honest about that and stop dreaming spiritual/religious nonsense.
What then does your gospel say, you ask. I think it says nothing about the management of international affairs, other than one fatalistic mention of wars and rumours of wars - as if that's ever going to be the way things are. The gospel appeal is entirely to the individual because it is only in the individual that there is freedom to choose, to change one's thinking, to re-imagine how things might be. National change can only come from individuals who, after changing themselves, share that insight and will to change with others via the communion and communication that is the life-blood of the community. It is when individuals in power say No to some suggestion to oppress another, and insist on the universal application of the golden rule that other ways will be found to resolve differences and remediate imbalances.
So, in a word, what does the Spirit say to the nations, to the 'world'? It says today what the United Nations saw in the clear light after the storms of war had receded: We must respect the rights of each human being, of every least individual person. The point is that this respect exists not in some wordy declaration of policy but in the mind, heart and conscience of the individuals who are commissioned to run the show.
It might be a good start if the oath of office began with the commitment: I shall do harm to no person; I shall respect the dignity and rights of each one in our commonwealth and I shall protect every person against the infringement of their dignity and their human rights.
But, you object, community is already under assault from unbridled individualism. To make such a commitment foundational to the Commonwealth would merely entrench the cult of the individual. Individualistic behaviour is directly opposed to concern for the common good.
I reply that the declaration of human rights does not necessarily lead to corrosive individualism. But this aberration can only be turned around by a universal, individual and institutional embrace of the principle that the first subject of respect is always the individual human being. And attack on or misuse of any single individual is an attack, and abuse, of all. You can never use some as the means of manipulating others. You can never act unjustly against one for the purpose of teaching the rest a lesson, however needed that lesson might be. NO ONE IS EXPENDABLE.