Pentecost

Today we complete the transition from the Fifty Great Days of Easter, to the season of Pentecost.  And as Christians we celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the Christian Church, because it is the day, as Jesus promised, that the disciples received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and began to share the Good News with others. But we have to remember before Pentecost was celebrated by Christians, it was already an important Jewish Festival, The Festival of Weeks, a thanksgiving harvest festival fifty days after Passover, which was a time of great rejoicing for the bountiful harvest.

After the 7^th century BC, all Jewish festivals were held only in Jerusalem, which is why all the people were gathered together in the city in the first place, as the reading from Acts puts it, ‘There were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem’ A city of normally 40,000 people, swollen to about 150,000 for the festival.  It must have been quite a scrum.  You imagine a city the size of the town of Lichfield suddenly trebling its population.  All the extra food, wine, accommodation, the extra sacrificial animals, the smell!! And we also have to remember that the concept of the Holy Spirit was well known to the Jews of the Old Testament, they knew it as the “active but impersonal power of God”, which guided them as a nation.

We Christians would now say that the Holy Spirit is “personalised and given ethical content”, because Jesus gave us the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our individual lives. And we see examples of that shift in emphasise from an impersonal power of God, to a personal centred power of God in the reading from John, when we hear the assurance from Jesus that Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit will be sent to us to be with us and guide us in the truth.

So, Jerusalem, was filled with Jews from far and wide, who had made the journey to celebrate Pentecost and the giving of the law, the Commandments, all enjoying themselves, a real party atmosphere, food and wine flowing, an opportunity to let their hair down and get drunk.  That’s why Peter tells them “Indeed these are not drunk, as you suppose, for its only nine o’clock in the morning”. And these revellers certainly didn’t expect what would happen that day, and neither did the faithful followers of Jesus huddled together in the Upper Room, holding endless discussions about what had happened and what was likely to happen in the future. It must have been like a PCC meeting when the vicar has asked them to do something which seems impossible like increase the Parish Share, and they haven’t plucked up courage yet to tell him they think it’s impossible!!

Yes, Jesus has promised that He would send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit to be with them forever, to strength them and support them in taking the truth of the Good News throughout the world. That was the Great Commission Jesus had set them to do, but they had no idea what form or shape this Advocate, this Holy Spirit would take, what it would do to them and for them. These were ordinary men and women, who had experienced the most extraordinary events in their lives, they had personally witnessed the death and resurrection of our Lord in very personal ways.  The Empty Tomb, The Road to Emmaus, Appearing in the Upper Room when Thomas wasn’t there, Appearing to Thomas and letting him see and feel the marks of the crucifixion for himself, Preparing food for them while the disciples were fishing,  and then the glory of His Ascension. Yes, they could now all cry like Thomas, “My Lord, and my God”, but now Jesus had gone from them, they had seen him ascend into heaven. What did it mean to them, the sending of the Holy Spirit?

Luke, in The Acts of the Apostles, describes it so well for us, “A sound like the rush of a violent wind, filling the entire house where they were sitting, divided tongues as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability”. They must have been terrified when this rushing wind filled the place, it was so loud and real that crowds gathered outside. 

We have become used in recent years in seeing the destructive force which hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunami waves can wreak upon people and the environment.  From the safety of our television sets we have seen the devastation from a safe distance, so they mean only fantastic images in the mind’s eye, without us feeling the real power and destruction they bring about. But for those caught up in any of these phenomena it is a different story, a different experience, a terrifying experience. Their lives are changed forever in one way or another. Suddenly comes a new respect for the immense power residing in nature, real and dangerous – a power that before had no meaning or existence, so hidden and remote did it remain from the predictable routine of daily life.

Science helps us to understand the systems behind this release of energy.  But the world continues to be caught by surprise by its many manifestations.  We are continually reminded of our fragile existence within creation, as we experienced as a nation the devastating floods of 2007 and to a lesser extent, last year. People’s live torn apart by the power of water, and lives lost. But there is another power, a creative power of an altogether different dimension and magnitude which informs our faith.  It is this creative power that changes lives at Pentecost.  It is this power that fills the Upper Room, and sends divided tongues of fire to rest on the Disciples and the faithful followers of Jesus, gathered in Jerusalem, waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. The horizons of their world were limited to the countryside of Galilee and Palestine, they knew nothing else, but then the Holy Spirit opened their hearts and minds to a greater world beyond. Nothing could have prepared them for the magnitude of their enlightenment, as they responded to this world-shattering experience of the supernatural creative spirit of God.  To stand in its path was to catch fire with divine love.  In an instant their world was turned inside out by a tremendous rush of creative power released into their hearts and minds, souls and bodies, manifesting as flames about their heads.

This inrush of creative energy, that unifies more powerfully than natural powers tear apart, poured itself out among them.  Their hearts were opened to a completely different kind of experience, unknown to the world.  They saw a new world through new eyes.  The difference of culture and language that separated one from another crumbled before this unifying power.  Suddenly each could speak and hear, with the same understanding, the stories of God’s deeds of power, God’s love and grace and truth.

As the power of nature opens us up to the enormity of its scale and its ability to destroy, so too the power of the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to a new relationship among men and women, a new intimacy with God, which is renewing, refreshing, loving and unifying.  Man made bridges crumble before natural disasters, but the Holy Spirit builds bridges which go beyond time and space, between slave and free, between men and women, between Jew and Gentile. It is this power, the power of the Spirit of God; that changes lives at Pentecost.  This supernatural power that sustains creation, reunites what has been torn apart, reconciles the alienated.  Offers us peace, justice and mercy.  Offers us that new Covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The Spirit of Pentecost rushes into the world as if out of nowhere, and breathes life into the midst of death,  breathes new life into each one of us, if we let it.  This is Pentecost, the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the disciples, then and now. Then and now, when the Holy Spirit rushes in and breaks open the old fears and prejudices that grip our hearts and minds, to reveal the magnitude of God’s connecting power, there is no returning to the old ways.  Lives are changed forever; their lives and our lives.  Hearts are broken open to a dimension of relationship newly reconciled through the death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of God.

There is no end to the horizon of God’s embrace for all people. Disciples of Christ see things differently, hear things differently, understand things differently, and are sent out as apostles to share what they see, and hear, and understand about the love of God for the world he created, and for everyone who lives in it. God opens the way and teaches our hearts.  All are one in God’s love through the power of His reconciling Spirit.  For God’s power has been received and has revealed the unity of creation, which exceeds beyond our capacity to understand, and beyond the power of nature and man to destroy. God has breathed his Holy Spirit into humankind, the fragile beloved children of His creation, and know filled with the power of God, we are capable of extending God’s love, mercy, compassion, and His forgiveness to this blind world.  We are now capable to see this new Covenant between God and His chosen people, and capable to understand we have been chosen to deliver the Good News, just as the disciples were, that Good News that tells of Gods call for us to live in the freedom of His Spirit, and in His unfailing Love for each of us.

We experience Pentecost, whenever in the depths of the most destructive forces of our own hearts, we discover a more creative force compelling us toward love and reconciliation, toward kindness, toward forgiveness; because the Holy Spirit is rushing in, giving us new eyes to see, new ears to hear, new voices to speak God’s love.    

Often the question asked by Christians and those who would want to be followers of Christ, is, how can we, who live in a world that is wary of the mysterious and the unknown, connect to and trust in the unseen power of the Spirit, which we cannot see.  Well the answer to that is the Power of the Holy Spirit is at work in our world , in our hearts and minds even as we speak, because Jesus promised us it would be, transforming our lives, even in the most painful of circumstances, and just when we least expect it, we can feel its presence in our lives, working away at us.  What we have to remember is that this happens in God’s time, which can sometimes take longer than we understand.  As God reminds us, ‘My ways are not your ways’.

This is Pentecost, a life changing force within us and around us sent by God to enable us to do His will here on earth.  Can you hear it, can you feel it, just open your hearts and minds to God’s love and let the Holy Spirit fill you with His joy. Amen.