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| We call Pentecost the Church's birthday, but it's a day about more than just cake and taking a picture. |
© Seth Olson 2019
June 9, 2019—The Day Of Pentecost
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Church,
Happy birthday to you.
If you didn’t know already Pentecost is the Church’s birthday. Yay! Hooray! This year the Church turns 1,986 years old… give or take a few years. [Whispered: We can say the Church is only 1,984 years old so as not to insult the Church.] Each year we commemorate the Church’s founding by remembering the story of the Spirit coming down on the Day of Pentecost. This was when the followers of Jesus got to work building the Church. We’ll talk a bit more about Pentecost in a moment, but what else do we do to celebrate the anniversary of the Church’s birth?
All over the world today people are dressing in red. It’s a fiery color that helps us to remember the gift of the Spirit, which ignited the post-resurrection Jesus movement. Some churches, like our own have special liturgical banners or utilize the symbol of the dove or a fire—again to remember the Spirit. Lots of churches take pictures together—we’ll do that after the service, so stick around and head outside right after this service ends. All Saints does something else too, which I had never heard of until I arrived here. We have cake—and lots of it! Every month of the year gets its own birthday cake—AWESOME!
Now each of these different elements really does make today feel like a festive birthday party—right? Like at other parties we dress up in something special. Like at other parties we take a picture together. Like at other parties we eat cake. And, all of this is great, but what about the presents? I mean birthday parties usually have some gifts, no? Well, oddly enough even though we are celebrating the birthday of the Church, it is the Church who is passing along a gift that God gave to us long ago on that fateful Pentecost day. We heard about this gifting in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Now before you ask, no, the Church is not just re-gifting the same old thing. Let us explore in more depth the day of Pentecost and how God’s presenting of the Spirit was and is a gift for everyone!
The story we heard from the Acts of the Apostles was not actually the original day of Pentecost. Pentecost was the name for a Jewish Festival called the feast of Weeks or Shavuot. This big day was the third of three great feasts in Judaism. It was called the feast of Weeks because it was the seventh week after the Passover—a week being seven days and all, this feast happened after a week of weeks had passed—just like our own Pentecost. On this monumental day many people came to Jerusalem because it was a harvest celebration when people would give their first fruits over to God. Something we too talk about in the Church as we are called to be sacrificial, proportional, first-fruits givers. This celebration of Pentecost was also more importantly the commemoration of the giving of the Torah, the Ten Commandments to Moses.
What better day could there have been for God to impart the Spirit than this day? For this was when so many in Jerusalem were celebrating Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the guidelines for righteous living that would set this people apart as God’s own. So, this Pentecost in the story from Acts when the Spirit descended was not the first Pentecost, but it was an expanding of what was already being celebrated. For when God gave this present (to the Church on its birthday) God through the Spirit was embracing all people as God’s chosen people. Everyone was called, everyone was welcomed, everyone was met right where they were. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at what the Spirit did on that Pentecost Day long ago.
The story opens with all the disciples being together. You might be thinking that’s just twelve men, including Matthias who just replaced Judas, and they were simply waiting for the Holy Spirit to come since Jesus had promised it. And, you might be right. However, there is at least one scholar who believes that when Luke writes, “They were all together in one place,” he meant all the followers of Jesus. This would have meant that hundreds of people were gathered together (in a house). [1] Whoa! That’s a lot of people and it completely changes what the Spirit’s movement and the imparting of the gift of tongues looked like. Can you imagine our whole congregation gathering together and the Spirit descending and gifting us with the ability to share God’s Good News of transformational love in as many different languages and dialects as people present?
But, that’s not all. If in truth, there were so many of Jesus’ closest followers gathered together on this Pentecost Day, then in that number would have been not only men, but also women and children! This helps us to truly see that God’s gift of the Spirit—this birthday gift for the Church—was meant not simply for some, but for all. These who received the ability to speak God’s good news in new languages and new dialects were not receiving the gift of tongues, which we hear about elsewhere in the New Testament. They were not speaking in some spiritual jargon only detectable by someone God designated to decipher. Rather, these ones whom God’s Spirit had given the ability to speak were doing so in many different languages. We might question why would God do something like this?
For years preachers—including myself—have said that this was a moment, which undid what happened at the Tower of Babel. You may recall that story from the Old Testament when God scattered the peoples of the earth giving them many different languages because together they had tried to build a tower to enter heaven to glorify themselves. If on the Day of Pentecost God had united everyone with one tongue that would be a reversal of what happened at Babel; however, God decided not to unite people with one language. Instead, God’s Spirit utilized the diversity of languages to speak to the many people of Jerusalem. Beneath this decision by God exists a profound truth of who God is and who God calls us to be.
When God used those many different tongues to speak in many different languages God was intentionally reaching out not to pilgrims who were in the city for the feast of Weeks, but immigrants who for one reason or another may have been stranded even enslaved in the city of Jerusalem. As subjects of Rome they would have been required to speak Greek, the official language of the Roman military. So, God could have spoken in Greek to all those immigrants. Instead though God’s Spirit enabled those followers of Jesus to share the Good News of Christ’s redeeming love in the native tongues of those who would have certainly felt lost, alone, and even persecuted.
We do not know exactly what those disciples shared with the people of Jerusalem. But knowing that God was using men, women, and children to reach out to those who would have felt alien and lost helps me to see that the gift of God’s Spirit is intended for everyone, everywhere. On this birthday of the Church (and always) God gifts us with the Holy Spirit. That dynamic force which inspires us to step outside of our comfort zones to share the Good News of Christ’s redeeming love with those outsiders who need it most. As we are given this gift from God, how will each of us in turn share it with others? How will we gift those whom we meet with this same love we receive? What might that look like?
I believe it looks like Joel’s vision, which Peter quoted in this lesson from the Acts of the Apostles:
Young and old, men and women are to share of God’s love.
We are to have visions and dream dreams of what that love looks like in our communities.
We are to envision what heaven on earth looks like in all its terrifying beauty.
And we are to help save each other’s lives. Yes through prayer, but also by serving those who are struggling to find relief.
Happy birthday Church! May we give to others the great gift of Christ’s love, which we have received through God’s gifting of the Spirit. Amen.
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[1] Margaret P. Aymer "Acts 2:1-21" in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, eds. David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, 15-17.
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