The Feast of Pentecost
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A blessed Feast of Pentecost to you all!
And - happy birthday to the Church!
On this joyous feast day, the disciples were knit together as one body, and divinely empowered by the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is at this moment that the Church was born - and this is why we call it the birthday of the Church.
On this joyous feast day, we also celebrate the continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us, a people united and empowered to do the work which God calls us to do in the world.
Drawing from the Yale Anchor Bible Commentary on Acts, written by theologian and scholar Joseph Fitzmeyer, (p. 4 on pdf) Pentecost is the Greek-name for the Jewish festival Shavuot - Feast of Weeks (Exodus 23:16, 34:22, etc.). It was initially a festival where people would bring the first fruits of the grain harvest to the temple in thanksgiving for the blessing of God and the gift of grain and food.
In the centuries of religious and cultural development, Shavuot was aligned to be 50 days following Passover - becoming associated with the celebration of the giving of the Law, the Torah, on Mt. Sinai to Moses.
Culturally, then, the disciples - who are Jewish - are in Jerusalem to celebrate this festival and give thanks to God for the blessing of first fruits and the giving of the Divine Law to Moses. It is fundamentally a festival in thanksgiving for the outpouring of God’s goodness to God’s people.
And in this celebratory milieu comes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The gathered disciples are suddenly thrown amidst a great sound, and splitting and bright flames of fire erupt over their heads. And in that dramatic moment, they are filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is important to note that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are written by the same author, and are effectively one book commonly referred to as Luke-Acts. The early church would have made a clear relationship with the event of Pentecost to the the Baptism of Christ, the event when the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ which initiates the public ministry of Jesus. The homologous event of the Spirit’s descent upon the disciples likewise initiates the public ministry of the Church.
The descent of the Holy Spirit begins the public ministry of Christ Jesus.
The descent of the Holy Spirit begins the public ministry of the Church.
Functionally, Pentecost initiates, by the pouring out of God’s spirit, the Church. The Disciples are empowered to go and do the work done by Christ, only now on a larger scale.
After the giving of the Spirit, the disciples begin to speak aloud in the native languages of the people. Notably, this is not speaking in tongues - known as glossolalia, ecstatic speaking in an unknown tongue. Rather, they experienced xenologia, speaking in actual foreign languages which could be understood by the people present.
The preservation of the diversity of languages in this event is significant. It emphasizes both the universal witness of the Church to all people in the world. And it emphasizes the preservation of diversity in the midst of the unity of being made one body in Christ by the union with the Holy Spirit.
All being one does not erase our languages, our experiences and cultures. Rather, the diversity we carry is brought into fullness by the Holy Spirit.
Powerfully, dramatically, in Pentecost we bear witness to the universal call of salvation which the Church is tasked with, and empowered to do. We are called to bring all people into the very love and knowledge and experience of God through Jesus Christ.
Next, St. Peter gives the first sermon. In his sermon, we again see the Holy Spirit led initiative to turn outwardly - from their own community to the peoples of the world. He quotes the Prophet Joel, and the close proximity of the sermon to the events of the Pentecost account underscore a theological interpretation of what is going on.
St. Peter quoting Joel emphasizes the universality, the catholicity, of the Church’s witness: that all people will have the Spirit poured upon them. Furthermore, the Spirit’s presence indicates the arrival of the end times, there is an eschatological angle to this.
This also, notably, challenges the end-of-the-world-obsessed Protestants who are constantly trying to identify the “end times.” The reality is, we have lived in the end times since the Holy Spirit’s descent, and we will continue to live in the end times.
The events of Pentecost are thus initiatory (begins the church and its ministry), invitatory (all people are invited to be empowered by the Spirit), evangelical (welcoming all people), and eschatological (a movement of the end-times).
These few verses we read today underscore a profound shift in not just the history of Christianity, or the history of the world, but also in God’s saving action for all peoples in the world - adding a soteriological (the theology of salvation) component to everything.
Critically, the Holy Spirit was not poured out once - but the Third Person of the Undivided Trinity is constantly being poured into the world, calling, empowering, consecrating the Church to do the work of Christ.
St. Paul articulates this for us: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3b). That is, when we do good, when we name God appropriately and respond to God’s call, we do so empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our fundamental relationship and dependence on God is such that to any good is a gift given by the very God who calls us to do good for the world.
So we are humbled. Any good that we do is good which flows from God, which we participate in. We are reminded of our fundamental dependence on God to do anything which is good.
And this bountiful goodness which we are called to participate in, is a “manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Cor. 12:7). The diversity of gifts which we are given is activated and united under the One Spirit of God to whom we are constantly responding. And the purposes of the gifts we are given are not for ourselves - but for all.
Once again, the theme of Pentecost as being a turn towards all peoples.
On this joyous feast day, the Holy Spirit came upon the gathered faithful and split as flames of fire, empowering the disciples to go out into the world and become the church, to do the works of Christ - of healing and reconciliation and salvation - for all the world.
On this joyous feast day, the Holy Spirit invites and empowers us to continue the healing and reconciling and saving work of Christ in the world.
On this joyous feast day, we are reminded that we are not meant to be an ideologically puritanical church - but a body of Christ, responding to His call, and to the Holy Spirit, who makes us One Body, preserved in glorious diversity, for the sake of the world.
On this joyous feast day, we become what Jesus calls us to be in the Gospel: Believers from whose hearts shall flow rivers of living water.
And we live in a parched world. We live in a drought stricken and dying world. We live in a world grasping for that sweet living water which is Christ Jesus. And we ourselves are meant to be that very water, following in the footsteps of Christ, to be poured out for the sake of the world.
On this joyous feast day, we become and are and continue to be the Church, the very body of Christ. So let us give great thanks for the presence of the Holy Spirit who empowers us and calls us and demands a great deal from us.
Amen.