It’s Pentecost. A great holiday. Huh? You hadn’t noticed? Pentecost may be the most overlooked holiday of the year. We’re all in on Christmas, decorating, planning and celebrating, as we should be. But as great a gift as the world was given in the birth of Jesus, the world received another, maybe even greater gift on Pentecost. At Christmas, the Lord sent God the Human to personally give us the good news that God loves us and is with us. But even Jesus’ closest followers didn’t completely understand. On Pentecost, the Lord sent God the Holy Spirit to teach us and show us what Jesus meant.
The Holy Spirit is God the teacher and coach. And the Holy Spirit’s teaching isn’t just words. The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of personal experience of God. The Spirit has the power to not just teach us, but to change us, transform us - mind, body and soul - into the living Christians God wants us to be.
That’s a big claim. But Pentecost is a “change your life” event. Our readings describe how the early disciples were amazed, awestruck at the new confidence and ability that flowed through them. Jews had been doing temple sacrifices in gratitude to the one God for the early wheat harvest. The pagans had been doing sacrifices to “buy off” their gods, sort of a protection racket. Both rituals to appease a far-away god. Then Jesus delivered the Father’s message that the Law of Moses was more than a set of traffic rules and social regulations, that there was a new Law in town both simpler and more challenging: Love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. A new way to live. A transformation.
God the Father knew and Jesus the Son warned that we messy humans couldn’t do it alone. So as Jesus promised, the Father on Pentecost gave ordinary men and women and children the gifts of spiritual power, of a new experience, the gift of energy and purpose and ability flowing through their bodies. A gift of LIFE.
Pentecost was the real birthday of the church, the day many had a personal experience of God. On that day doubts were put aside for many. God was real. Jesus was who people said he was, the Son of God. And as Paul tells us in our reading from Romans,“…all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Pentecost is our invitation to become a child of God with Jesus as our older brother. It’s a call to experience Life as God wants humanity to live, and feel, and think.
This sounds incredible. But Jesus explained it to us: God the Father used Pentecost as a special event to wake up His divine creation and give us a boost up the human development ladder.
Pentecost was actually an old established holiday for the Jewish People. By Jesus’ time on earth, this feast had already been a holy day of sacrifice for over 1,000 years. It was the first Thanksgiving. Its Hebrew name was Shavuot, which means “weeks” since it was celebrated seven weeks and a day after the Passover Seder.
On that late spring day 2,000 years ago, 50 days after Passover, Jerusalem was filled with Jews and God-lovers from all over the Mediterranean region come to celebrate Thanksgiving in the Holy City. But God had a surprise for them this holiday. This Shavuot was something special.
It started in a house close by the Temple. Jesus’ disciples had come down from Galilee, way up in the north country, far from the Metropolitan area - like Weedsport or Marcellus from New York City. The disciples may have been gathered in the same upper room where they had celebrated Passover. They were indoors, yet they heard a roaring sound like a powerful wind as the Holy Spirit descended on them. Suddenly they began speaking ecstatically in foreign languages. They poured out into the streets and the crowds gathered around. Jews and gentiles from every nation in the Mideast heard through their ears and understood exactly what was being boldly shouted out by these uneducated disciples from the sticks. They heard, in their own language, Praise be to God! God has done wonders! Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest! And maybe they were also hearing urgent messages from God that this day their sins were forgiven, their old lives of depression and fear and pointlessness were over. Be healed in mind and body. Come and believe what Jeshua taught is true! Be baptized into the new life of the Spirit! The Holy Spirit!
Three-thousand Jews and converts believed and stepped forward for baptism that day, and that day the church was born. Many Jews did not accept this new spirit-filled form of Judaism. Whether out of fear or the force of tradition many stayed as traditional Jews.
But the Spirit took charge that day. It wasn’t the wise and experienced rabbis who experienced the superhuman fearlessness, energy and insight the Spirit gives us. It was ordinary working men and women and children who yielded to the Spirit’s rush of energy and strength and confidence. The Holy Spirit comes to whomever is open to receive it.
The Spirit empowers and enthuses. The word “enthusiasm” literally means “filled with God.” And these ordinary people found themselves filled with the Spirit of God. And let’s thank God there was a crowd shouting and praising God. One person might feel awkward or inappropriate and try to squash this feeling bubbling up inside them. But surrounded by others experiencing the same new and exciting, loud, disorderly, yet respectful and godly joy, they encouraged one another.
Christianity is not an individual sport. Christ wants us to build community; to encourage and uplift one another. To look for the upside, to experience the fullness of what is and be further excited about what can be. Christianity is very much a team event. And it doesn’t really matter to God whether your team wears orange or green, red or blue. Christianity is a community experience and needs a community. Even the most solitary monks live in community.
Pentecost has come down to us today. Here. It’s our annual chance to renew our spirit. What are we doing with this new high wattage flowing through us? Do we squelch it because it doesn’t seem neat and orderly? Or are we fearless in our work? Are our lives and hearts transformed so we see and act with God’s love? Do we trust God and throw ourselves into what we are trying to do with energy and conviction that the Spirit will give us the wherewithal and perseverance to make it happen? As Paul said, This is not a matter of talk, but of power. Christianity is about the transcendent spiritual power available to the individual - and the community which believes – which moves them to build God’s kingdom.
And the Jews who didn’t believe Jesus? Will God condemn them? Is God through with his Jews? Paul in Romans says, Of course not! I am an Israelite myself, of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected the people he acknowledged of old as his own. Paul looks forward to the day when the remnant of Jews comes into the fullness of Christianity and accepts the wisdom and truth of Jesus’ message.
To those Christians who now claim to be the chosen people because God has switched his promises away from Jews, exclusively to Christians, Paul warns: Put away your pride, and be on your guard; for if God did not spare the natural branches, no more will he spare you.” ...”whereas they, if they do not continue faithless, will be grafted in, since it is in God’s power to graft them in again.” If we live out our spirit-filled Christian life, our Jewish elder sisters and brothers will be inspired by our lives to join in the great worship of our God. As Paul said, salvation has come to the Gentiles, and this in turn will stir them to envy.
The Holy Spirit comes to transform us. Paul also writes these words that were the first words I heard as a Christian: THEREFORE, my friends, I implore you by God’s mercy to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart. Conform no longer to the pattern of this present world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
And I can attest that this is what happened to me. Two different men showed me Jesus Christ in their lives. They lived fearlessly, acted righteously, thought deeply and taught by their actions. I wanted a life like theirs. They would never think of themselves as evangelists, but they showed me God in their actions. These men showed me they were children of God and their quiet teaching caused me to listen to the word of God spoken by Jesus, spoken by Paul, spoken by Peter and John, and to make the best decision of my life and become a Christian.
It has been almost 60 years now for me as a Christian, and my faith, belief and love has grown year by year. I almost feel like a grownup! The Holy Spirit is guiding me to transform my messy oh-so-human life. I slip and I fall, but there’s the divine strength to get up and do better. I have my Pentecost gift: the child-like experience of the wonder of God’s creation, the wisdom of his plan and the gracious mercy and love God has for every single being on earth stuns me and lightens every glorious day.
This to me, is the meaning of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit fills you with power and teaches you all things, not as book learning, but as an experience of God’s love and spiritual power.
I urge you, as Christians, to experience this Pentecost gift. It’s yours. Feel it. Let it move you and fill you.
Whether you speak in tongues, interpret, teach, do good works, or quietly manage things or counsel others you will be doing your part in God’s creation. Do it with God’s love.
Let yourself be transformed. The faith and love with which you act consecrates your charity, consecrates your compassionate care for others and your ability to joyfully bear whatever suffering is your portion in this life. God knows and cares and will, one day, wipe away every tear. God’s Holy Spirit is with you every hour of every day.
So don’t just celebrate this Pentecost. Open the gift. Live it. Feel it. Experience it. God sent it for you.