Year B, The Day of Pentecost
May 25th, 2015
By Thomas L. Truby
Acts 2:1-21 and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
The Day of Pentecost is Huge!
The Day of Pentecost is huge. It is one of the highest days of the year for most churches. We celebrate it with its own color; the color red. The only other day red can be used, though it usually isn’t, is on Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday.
The Day of Pentecost is also the fiftieth and last day of the Easter Season. Tomorrow we begin The Season After Pentecost, also called Ordinary Time or Kingdomtide. On the Day of Pentecost Jesus’ Spirit arrives and that arrival is no small thing. Luke says:
2When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place.2Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting.3They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them.4They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
There is an ancient story in Genesis about how the Babylonians wanted to build a tower to rival God. As the story goes, the tower was never completed because God confused the workers speech making it impossible to communicate. When humans want to be their own God things unravel. What better way to convey this truth than to tell a story where God confuses the speech of the people building the Tower of Babel.
On the Day of Pentecost the confusion of speech reverses and now people who don’t ordinarily understand each other, do. The coming of the Holy Spirit made it possible to again find unity. The Day of Pentecost is the un-tower of Babel making human cooperation possible. We continue.
5There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.6When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages.7They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them?8How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language?
The speakers were all Galileans; back-country, common, non-cosmopolitan people who none-the-less seemed to be communicating in all the languages of the world. It would be like the people of Clarkessuddenly being able to talk to the Sudanese in their language. How could this be? And Luke presents all of this as evidence of the arrival of the Spirit. Jesus has ascended ten days before and now he sends his Spirit to be with us in his physical absence. The list of names of those to whom the people of Galilee could speak is every liturgist’s nightmare.
9Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism),11Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”
All these different people, speaking different languages and coming from very different cultures, hear the mighty works of God declared in their own language and it’s being spoken by Galileans who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to communicate with them at all. Something extraordinaryis happening.
12They were all surprised and bewildered. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?”13Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”
Every single one of them was surprised and bewildered. None of them knew what to make of it. This was totally outside their experience. Some were willing to let their experience challenge how they viewed the world. They opened themselves to it and asked, “What does this mean?” Others, equally bewildered but unwilling to explore what was happening, immediately dismissed it as the effects of alcohol. They are full of new wine they said. They reduced the event to categories they understood and so missed the richness and possibility of what was happening right in front of them.
Peter stood up and spoke! Peter, that guy who denied his Lord and ran away, is speaking. He has been changedby the Spirit’s coming. He no longer denies his Lord and instead speaks strongly to the very people he had been afraid of. Here is how St. Luke presents it.
14Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this! Listen carefully to my words!15These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!16Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit interprets scripture showing how it describes the very thing they are now experiencing and will continue to experience as the Spirit works in the world. Something new has been let loose and from here on it will slowing change the world. Joel caught a glimpse of it and captures it in these words.
17In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
What is this Spirit that God has poured out on all people, causing sons and daughters to prophesy, the young to see visions and the old to dream dreams? John’s gospel for today says The Spirit that came down on the Day of Pentecost is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father and will testify to Jesus, the Son. This Spirit will be our Companion and help us to testify to the same truth that Jesus brought.
In this text Jesus prepares his disciples for his death by telling them what his Spirit will do when it comes. On first hearing it’s an odd sentence that we will have difficulty understanding. The sentence goes: “When he comes, he will show the world it was wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgement.” Do you get that? When the Spirit comes on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit will show the world it was wrong about sin, righteousness and judgement. The world in John’s gospel refers to everyone who does not believe in Jesus as the one who shows us what God is like. If you don’t believe in the God Jesus shows us, you are going to get sin wrong, righteousness wrong and judgement wrong and this is what the Spirit will gradually show the world.
What is the world’s view of sin? Sin is the problem in the other guy. It’s never me. It’s those poor people or rich people, those people who don’t think like I think and see things the way I see them. They are the problem. But the Spirit shows us that the world is wrong about this. The Spirit knows the problem is in us all and goes about showing this by pointing to Jesus hanging on a cross.
What is the world’s view of righteousness? The world’s view of righteousness is that I am righteous unlike those others who aren’t and my group is righteous unlike that other group who isn’t and every worldly group believes this about itself to the extent to which it is worldly. The Spirit knows otherwise and is in the process of showing us this. The proof of this, according to John’s gospel, is that Jesus isn’t with any one person, group or nation, he has ascended and so is with God where he is for us all.
What is the world’s view of judgment? The world’s view of judgment is that people get what they deserve or at least should. But the Spirit shows the world is wrong on this because Jesus has exposed the world’s way and condemned its ruler. All of this is straight unpacking of the gospel passage from St. John.
On The Day of Pentecost the Spirit of Truth arrived. It poured out on all people. After this many people began seeing in a new way, a way that penetrated the fog and saw things for the way they are. Some of our own sons and daughters got the sense of it and began to speak up. Some of our children had a vision for what the world could be. They captured it in children’s songs and children’s drawings where the sun poured down on everyone from the upper corner of the page. Now old people likemany of you and me have dreams of a better world and we work to fulfill those dreams. The Day of Pentecost is where it began. The Day of Pentecost is huge! Amen.
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