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 and filled the whole house. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
There were in Jerusalem Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in confusion, 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? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); those from Crete and Arabs - we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own languages!” Amazed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Then Peter stood up 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. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what the prophet Joel said:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. On my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great day of God. Everyone who calls on the name of God will be saved.’
Corinthians
Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you followed mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who determines which to give to each person.
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A colleague of mine, Thom Shuman, once posted a version of modern church development, from a humourous point of view - the “Disciple Model Church Kit”. This kit comes complete with:
(1) Perfect Pastor (Paula or Paul, depending on who you order);
(1) Highly efficient, totally organized, fully mature governing board, representing the diversity of the congregation;
(273) Members, divided into
(48) 55 years and older (but extremely healthy)
(95) ages 40-55 (they all work 60+ hours a week, but give 10 hours or more to the church)
(85) ages 25-40 (most raising bright, well-behaved children who sit quietly in worship)
(45) ages 18-25 (mostly single, but they all love traditional music and the old hymns)
In addition, the kit contains (27) 15-17 year-olds, (33) 12-14 year-olds, (49) 6-12 year-olds,
(43) 2-5 year-olds and 32 kids in the nursery
A supplemental kit contains modular pieces which allow you to build the sort of physical plant you wish: including a sanctuary with both immovable pews and chairs on wheels; a fellowship hall that can convert into a home theater complete with stadium seating; classrooms which can only expand; the pastor's office has wireless internet. For a small additional cost, a pastor's study can be included, providing a place for the pastor to engage in those seemingly arcane practices like prayer, study, and meditation. The kits require some assembly. If you order within 30 minutes of seeing the ad, one of the four easy payments of $29.99 will be dropped and the Holy Ghost Prayer Shawl will be included free of charge.
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In the first century, the churches of Peter and Paul were small splinter groups in the larger Jewish church. They were barely tolerated by the religious authorities, who thought that with Jesus gone, everything was over. The environment was multi-cultural and multi-faith, so they struggled to find their place in a much larger mosaic of cultural and religious difference. They struggled with what it meant to be Jews who were followers of Jesus, in that context of pluralism.
In fact, it wasn’t until the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion that the faith really began to grow - largely because people had no other choice. They had to agree to be Christian or die.
The church today is looking at this phenomenon from the other side. We have had 1700 years of the Constantinian model of the church. Christianity was until recently the largest world faith, but it is that way no longer. With the advent of large-scale immigration, more and more different faith groups live in many more countries; the church finds itself becoming again, a small group in a pluralistic, multi-cultural and multi-faith society. So we struggle with what it means to be followers of Jesus, with integrity and with faith, in this multi-cultural, multi-faith society.
Although Thom Shuman’s story was intended to be a joke, there’s more than a little truth in it. What we want is the Disciple Model Church - just the right demographics, and people whose taste in preaching, music and justice issues will be completely compatible with ours. We want to see more people in church, we want to be welcoming, we want to offer innovative programming, we want new and different music, but without giving up the hymns or anything else we love. The list goes on - and it’s understandable. In a rapidly changing world, the church has been the one constant where we felt at home. So in our heads we recognise the need for change; in our hearts we have more difficulty doing it. We want it, and we’re afraid of it, all at the same time.
Change is a death of one way of being, and the birth of a new way of being. But death frightens us, and in daily life we have trouble with resurrection. So as we face change, we see only the death, instead of the multitude of possibilities for resurrection. The disciples faced the same - they had seen the death of Jesus, and the resurrection - yet were still worried about being “left alone”, orphaned, reduced to their own devices.
As I have worked with congregations, I find that faith in the future is the hardest thing for a congregation to develop. When I raise the role of faith - believing that the Spirit is at work, even if we cannot see the outcome - most people smile tolerantly. The minister is supposed to say that, but isn’t living in the real world. It’s hard for us, in this post-post-modern time, to think in terms of having faith.
The real question for the disciples is can they still love Jesus after he is gone - and the answer is probably not something they want to hear. John tells them they cannot love Jesus by clinging to a cherished memory, nor by retreating into their private experience, nor by trying to keep things the same as they were before. They can continue to love Jesus by emulating his example.
Author and preacher Fred Craddock tells about a lecture he gave on the US west coast speaking at a seminary. A student stood up and said, "Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal." The room grew silent. Craddock looked around for the Dean of the seminary, who was nowhere to be found. The student continued to ask. Craddock replied, "Do you mean do I belong to the Pentecostal Church?" The student said, "No, I mean are you Pentecostal?" Craddock said, "Are you asking me if I am charismatic?"The student said, "I am asking you if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?" He said, " I want to know if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "I don't know what your question is." The student said, "Obviously, you are not Pentecostal." And he left.
Pentecost is based on the Greek word meaning ‘50 days’ - it was Shavuot - the Feast of Weeks - marking the end of Passover season. In Leviticus 23, upon entering the promised land, the Israelites were instructed to bring the first sheaf of the harvest to the priest, and from the day the sheaf is brought, count seven weeks. Pentecost was also the commemoration of God’s will revealed in the commandments which formed the basis of Torah, the Law. In the Jewish prayer book, it is zman matan torateinu, the “season of the giving of our Torah”. The Feast of Shavuot recognises that while the giving of Torah is commemorated, Torah must be received every day. The Jews understood that the Spirit of God was alive and active in the world Torah was given through the Spirit.
Christians have tended to see Pentecost as the "coming of the Holy Spirit”- a linear progression in which God came first, then Jesus, then the Holy Spirit. John gets himself into trouble - in my mind - by declaring that Jesus was around from the beginning of time, along with the other two. But even the most cursory reading of the Bible will reveal that the Holy Spirit was always present. The Spirit moved on the face of the water at creation; God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, used wind to part the sea. When the Israelites are giving Moses the headache of a lifetime, God instructs Moses to bring seventy elders, and the Spirit is poured out on them. So what we celebrate at Pentecost is the moment of new openness and receptivity to the same Spirit which was always present. The Spirit did not come to the disciples for the first time, it was revealed again, when they had lost the connection. This is a reading which is consistent with the Hebrew understanding of the Spirit.
While we say Pentecost is the birthday of the church, I think we need to be careful that we don’t try to make it more than it was, or more than it is. We cannot bind the Spirit to the Word, or to the sacraments and authority of the church. The church does not control the Spirit, nor can the church command its presence. The Spirit moves where and when it will - all our theology and regulation cannot contain the movement of the Spirit. The Spirit existed before the church, and continues to move in its own way, regardless of what the church does.
Jurgen Moltmann, the German theologian, says "The Holy Spirit is not simply the subjective side of God’s revelation...faith is not merely the echo of the Word of God in the human heart. The Holy Spirit is.... the power that raises to new life, the power of the new creation of all things..faith is the beginning of the rebirth of human beings. This means that the Holy Spirit .... has to do with life and its source. The Holy Spirit is called Holy because it sanctifies life and renews the face of the earth."
In the early Hebrew texts, the word for Spirit was ‘ruach’, breath or wind - the Greek ‘pneuma’ - where we get words like ‘pneumonia’. The Spirit of God was not a peaceful and quiet dove coming into violent and wild circumstances - the Spirit of God was what brought the violent and wild circumstances. In the early Celtic churches, the symbol of the Spirit was a wild goose - untamed, loud, raucous.
The power of wind and fire terrify - because they are wild. We talk about things spreading “like wildfire”. A flash of lightning starts a forest fire. Wind spreads the fire, and the fires can become so extensive they create their own winds which fan the flames further. Fire can hop from the top of one tree to another - or it can burrow underground and come up somewhere else.
Wildness is not a phrase that I would use for United churches: our Presbyterian side shows up when we worship; everything decent and in order. Worship services well-structured and familiar, so that no one is disturbed; and exactly one hour. A few minutes over and we’re checking our watches. We all have our places: the organist on the bench, preacher in the pulpit, congregation in the pews, and some in the same pew every week. So it really does make us uneasy to hear about the Spirit and change, because we have trouble even giving one hour a week to something which we *claim* is vitally important to our lives.
Yet, in our liturgies, we ask the Holy Spirit to come and ‘inspire’ us. The word ‘inspire’ means ‘breathe in’ - and if we want to be ‘inspired’ then we are asking for energy, wind, fire, the blood racing in our veins. To be inspired by the Spirit means to breath in wildness.
Spirit is a gift, enabling us to live differently. It involves affirmation and the exercise of the gifts of each person - it is the energies, the powers, the ‘charismata’. The disciples had not figured this one out. They sat around, generally doing little, for 50 days - a motley group of depressed and somewhat disoriented people. Finally, they decided to pray - and the Spirit inspired them - on a rush of wind and in flames which had them up and shouting - and all the many nationalities understood what they were saying, in their own language. Some people thought they were drunk - today we’d assume they were high on some drug. We certainly wouldn’t want to have anything to do with them, in any event. That kind of behaviour is certainly not United Church.
The story of a different Pentecost in the first century, and our stories in the 21st century, have grown apart. There was an urgency and intensity among the Pentecost crowd to gather for prayer. We have lost any urgency and intensity we might feel. We are happy to say the words “Come, Holy Spirit, inspire us.” - but we really don’t want it to happen.
Yet there is a truth we can’t avoid. The Spirit continues to blow where it will. It may blowing among us . . . out of control, out beyond liturgies that have settled in, out beyond our little packages of truth. It’s the blowing, the not being in control that scares us - and as soon as things begin to get different, we agitate to make them go back to the way we like. But if the church is going to live - and I mean really LIVE - then they have to open ourselves to the Spirit.
In Corinthians, Paul tells us that where the Spirit blows, there will emerge people that have extraordinary power to turn the world right side up. Imagine what would happen if we invited that kind of Spirit into our congregation each Sunday, and let that Spirit have free rein?
Sources:
1. Overcoming Pentecost or: What Do We Do When the Spirit Starts Messing with our Worship?
A sermon based on Acts 2:1-21 by Rev. Thomas Hall
2. The Advocate, 6th Sunday of Easter 2009 Rev. Fran Ota
3. Wind and Flame, Pentecost Sunday 2006 Rev. Fran Ota
4. Jurgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit. New York: Harper & Rowe, 1977.
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