|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Acts 2:1–21
Acts |
104:25–35, 37b
|
Romans 8:14–17 |
John 14:8–17 |
The Jewish season running from Passover until Pentecost originally celebrated the first fruits of the spring harvest. Pentecost was the concluding festival for this period and also served as the annual occasion to gather at the Temple in Jerusalem or at the local synagogue, thanking God for giving Israel the Ten Commandments. Hence, the holiday served as the time for a corporate renewal of this ancient Covenant.
The Book of Acts records that when the earliest Christians gathered for the Day of the Pentecost festival after the first Easter, they became empowered to communicate the Gospel to cultures other than their own. The first Christians learned that the Gospel was not only intended to be meaningful to them who had roots in Jewish culture, but was truly good news for people everywhere. In some inexplicable way the early Christians discovered that Jesus spoke everyone’s language, near and far.
Today, many parishes read the account of Pentecost in several languages to make that point, and we have on occasion done it here also. Yet there is a danger in that practice, for what Acts is telling us is that the Holy Spirit is not just for those who can speak several languages fluently, not to just the leaders of the Christian community or those who knew Jesus personally in Galilee. The Holy Spirit gives on some level, the knowledge of the Good News to young and old, rich and poor, those extensively and formally educated and those less formally educated. The Holy Spirit has the potential to empower and fill all hearts.
That is why when the community reflected on what this experience meant, they recalled the words in the Book of the Prophet Joel, who reminded the people of his time, “In the age to come I will pour out my spirit on all humankind. Your sons and daughters shall interpret divine insights, your old and your young will see visions and dream dreams. Even your under-classes, slaves and servants, will be included.” While in 400BC Joel’s own vision was limited to Israel, the early Church would understand these words as the seed for a larger universalism. God’s intention was that everyone would be free and capable of having a living sense of God’s grace. That insight was as jarring and revolutionary back then as it is today. That is why Pentecost is not cast in the color of bland beige blending into our cultural milieu with whatever we wear. The color of Pentecost is an arresting and bright red. Pentecost reminds us today that the vision God intends to bring to pass stands out in contrast from how we often operate because God’s vision contains no distinction between illegal and legal alien, between migrant worker and college professor. All are full citizens in God’s new commonwealth.
Pentecost sets our hearts on fire so that we might realize that every place where people of faith might go and where people might live is inherently fertile soil for the Gospel. The Gift of Pentecost is therefore not merely an intense inner experience; it is a sign of the virtual universal potential of the effect of God’s love on every single person on earth.
I am not a particularly skilled gardener, plus I live in an area where the frosts are frequent and unpredictable, and the deer, groundhogs, and rabbits are ravenous. But the one crop I can predictably grow and harvest soon after Easter is chives — always the first fruit of my garden. Yes, chives may be one of God’s first fruits for everyone. Chives dependably come up whatever the weather and despite the ravenous varmints. As soon as the snow melts chives come up and quickly become tall and juicy. I know that if chives grow where the Snyders live, they can flourish in anyone’s garden. For me, chives are a wonderful symbol of Pentecost. It’s high time we have special plants for the other church holidays, besides lilies for Easter and poinsettias for Christmas.
At Pentecost, the followers of Jesus learned that the Holy Spirit gave birth to a church that can flourish and witness anywhere, just like chives. So today we give thanks that God’s love grows among us here, knowing that God’s love can grow among everybody, everywhere. Everyone is invited to sing happy birthday to the church on Pentecost. To celebrate, you might consider planting a clump of chives (or if you have some chives, giving a new neighbor a clump of yours. But whatever you do this Memorial Day weekend, take Good News of God’s grace out of here and share it with a smile. All of us have gifts to offer and the Holy Spirit will inevitably help guide us to penetrate the most formidable of the world’s barriers.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
