May 20, 2018 - Pentecost - Preparing For and Participating In Pentecost Worship

Someone asked me last Sunday, before the service, if I was ready for Pentecost next Sunday. In a practical sense this was easy to answer. The youth were leading the music with Matt, reading the lessons and acting as Assisting Ministers like they did last year. They performed "Glocal" music so we had Pentecost moments of singing in different languages but I was participating purely as a congregation member. I wondered what it means to ask if a congregation member is ready for Pentecost.

Photos by Debi Stromberg

Last week's service, and many things that happened between then and today, oddly did "prepare" me in a certain way. The question also made me ask myself this week, "Were Peter and the disciples ready for, and anticipating that first Pentecost?" I read Acts 2:1-21 with that in mind. The passage starts "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place (or house)"  Many modern readers place the disciples gathered in the Upper Room mentioned in Acts 1:13. Considering the crowd and the crowd's diversity it seems more probable that the place was public and that Luke’s language reflects a manner of speaking within Judaism about the Temple of Jerusalem, i.e., as the “house (בית) of the Lord.”

Of course this event happens at a transitional time for the disciples so either location is reasonable. They might have been gathered in the Upper Room, still cowering and afraid. With the next verse starting with the word suddenly, the argument could be made the disciples were not prepared for what happened. Yet the details that follow point to the place being the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during celebrations of the festival of Pentecost because of the ready crowd encountered by the disciples, and the ritual immersion of the large crowd that finally repents. Also I don't sense the disciples are cowering here on this day. There is also the evidence of Luke 24:49 where Jesus tells the disciples explicitly "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Next something extraordinary happens in this place where they are staying:

"And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."

The different responses from this crowd of "devoted Jews from every nation under heaven" makes it obvious the whole crowd did not experience what was described in the verse before. There were those who see the cloven tongues, as of fire. There were also bewildered foreigners. The comments about this bewilderment indicates they likely did not see the flames, but only heard Galileans speaking in their native language. Lastly there were those in the crowd who sneer at everything that happened.

When I was young the Pentecost story amazed me. I longed to live in those times. I wanted to feel the great wind and see those flames. Later I went through a time where I thought that the world doesn't and can't work in ways that defy natural law. Now I envision it as a choice to be made. The choice is to hide from God becoming known in the world or not. Another way to look this might be - to shift our focus more to "what might be" rather just on "what is".

There are many factors contributing to the making of this choice or focus. One factor is preparation - to be open to possibility of "seeing" manifestations of God that might be - like divided tongues, as of fire. I believe the disciples anticipated something they could not predict, that something might be coming. What makes me say this is Peter's response to those who sneer, "They are filled with new wine". He reminds the crowd it is nine o'clock in the morning. This is not only offered as a proof they are not drunk. Peter's observation also ties this moment to the hour of the day the crucifixion of Jesus started.

God even speaks through the words described here as sneering. These people don't simply say "They are drunk" but rather "They are filled with new wine" These are words that resonate with Biblical implication. Take an earlier verse, Luke 5:38 "... new wine must be poured into new wineskins." Perhaps this is an indirect witness, beyond what the speakers intend, that the disciples are filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit.

Let me repeat the Winner quote I posted last week:

You have a choice:
see God as here or not;
see salvation, or see only
human courage; see the divine
subtly at work or see chance.

In Pastor Ray's sermon he reminisced about his childhood and his love of watching Wonder Woman in the TV series. Last year the Wonder Woman film was released and he quoted words from one of the promo campaigns that said, "Her time has come". Because of his former enjoyment he looked forward to seeing the film and was not disappointed.

Pastor Ray continued by observing how the stories of superheroes, however we are entertained by them, share certain characteristics. They normally have relatable, underdog alter egos who transform, gain the super power of the hero, swoop in and save the day. He then preached from the words of the Gospel reading, John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. What Jesus said about the Holy Spirit as Paraclete or companion stands in stark contrast to a powerful hero who swoops in and saves us from our troubles.

What is memorable, desirable to us on an immediate level is the gaudy (God-y) fireworks images of Acts. We want the hero swooping in to save us. Pastor Ray's words let me see this is what I found attractive in my youth. Today I choose to listen to the quiet voice, described by Jesus in John, of the Holy Spirit Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is with us in our troubles whether we recognize this or not. There is a comfort, trust and love that works in this through a relationship with God as Holy Spirit.

Lauren Winner also points out in her book, Wearing God, the duality in using fire as a God image as a primary vision. At times fire is destructive and dangerous. It can become too intense and burn too quickly before going out. When this happens fire radically changes what existed before. Considering more deeply the inspiring image of a cloven tongue, the metaphor suggests snakes and from that comes the all associations we have, and fear, with snakes.

There is also fire of the kind that Cleopas notes during the Emmaus story when he asks "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”. There is the possibility that a fire cools down and flickers out over time because it is not intense enough or loses intensity over time.

The service offered the second reading, Romans 8:22-27 that details how the Holy Spirit, acting as more than companion, also navigates and propels us through the possibilities of changes through fire and hope:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.