Pentecost.
Pentecost! I love Pentecost! I’ll admit that it is one of those days that only
“church people” really talks about, and that’s mostly because the minister
brought it up. That’s probably because it hasn’t been marketed to death in
secular culture. There’s no Pentecost mascot that sells things like Santa
Clause or the Easter Bunny. I know they give stuff away, but you know what I
mean.
There
aren’t any cards that say, “Happy Pentecost!” Children don’t wake up looking to
see what color of fire the Holy Spirit brought them. I’m not suggesting this as
a marketing strategy. If anything I’m glad that it’s not all that marketable.
Pentecost
is kind of pure in that it celebrates the activity of God, tells part of our
story, and sets us up to tell the next chapter. Sure, there are lots of other
liturgically significant days on the calendar, but this one is special. At
Pentecost we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and many of us take it as
special permission to be creative in worship like we ought to be doing all
along!
We
have streamers. We create drama in music and liturgy! We sing of God’s active
and unsettling presence. These are things we struggle with as Presbyterians and for good reason. Fundamental to our belief system is what John Calvin
called the sovereignty of God. We don’t want the excitement of worship to be
confused with the reality of worship. We don’t want the self-gratifying feeling
of joy to replace the reverent humility that comes with realizing that God is
God and we are not.
Yet,
across the church, for one day we hire fire breathers, and create banners, and
shoot confetti cannons, and make paper hats with construction paper flames!
last year I even lit the baptismal font on fire!
Maybe
we need the outlet. Maybe we need the spectacle every now and again. Maybe,
just maybe, we like the idea of Pentecost more than the reality of Pentecost.
Which raises the question, what exactly is Pentecost anyway? For that matter,
who are the Pentecostals? Isn’t this their thing?
OK,
for starters, Pentecost was a Jewish festival, called Shavuot or The
Festival of Weeks. It celebrated the wheat harvest, but it also celebrated
the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. So it is no small thing that the
Holy Spirit might be given to the church on this same day. That’s what happened
on Pentecost.
We
say that God gave the Holy Spirit to the believers, but it’s not like they
owned it. No, what was given to them was the ability to perceive the One who
was already active and present and in their midst.
In
some ways it was another tearing of the veil, but this time not just the veil in
the temple. This time it was the veil between God and God’s good creation. The
Pentecost event was the flipping of the script of the Tower of Babel. It was
the event that created a connection across languages and barriers, and it
included everyone!
We
can locate that event in time if we want. We can view this as a historical
report of something really amazing if we so choose. I think that’s what we tend
to do. We tend to celebrate the event of Pentecost and neglect the reality of
Pentecost.
Yet
Pentecost, if it was ever real at all, has to be something that ripples
throughout history. It has to be something that assures us that our towers and
attempts to wrest control from God are simply vain and sad. Instead, Pentecost
is recognition of the active presence of God, which we call the Holy Spirit,
and it happens over and over again!
It
happened to our team of Clean Water Saints and Sinners a few weeks ago in Cuba.
You may recall a request for food to take down with us, given the rationing of
food they are experiencing. Your rice and beans were graciously received,
though it couldn’t have put a dent in the need. Even so, such was their
generosity that we had to ask them for smaller portions at lunch.
Their
generosity and hospitality were just beyond description. They brought us coffee
throughout the day and an afternoon snack (even though we told them that we
brought our own snack foods). One day one of our operators, Santiago, was
offering me some coffee. He seemed to want to interact or communicate in some
way. I apologized for not being able to speak Spanish. He said something like,
“We don’t need words to communicate.”
I
thought about it. I realized how much communication took place non-verbally as
we all moved through that little church building. I thought about the kindness
in his eyes. Suddenly I realized I could show him pictures of my family on my
phone. We had a nice conversation, with a common language.
The
last day we had told them that we had our own food for lunch, and we brought
out all the snack foods we’d had all along and made a buffet of protein bars,
salami, cheese, and crackers. Somehow, in the midst of it, Santiago had gotten
us a freshly baked pizza! I don’t know where he got it or what he gave up to get
it, but it was God’s grace in our midst.
Some
will hear me say that it was a Pentecostal, providential, God blowing off the
doors of our hearts and setting us on fire with love moment, and they’ll say,
“Go home. You’re drunk on your own story. You’re high on your own
do-gooderness. You are not the white savior of the brown people.”
But
I say that in that pizza we experienced the Pentecostal reality that Peter
spoke of when he quoted the Prophet, Joel. I don’t just mean the beginning of
our Living Waters partnership. No, I mean the end. Joel spoke of the end of one
reality and the beginning of another.
Pentecost
was the end of our inability to experience the active presence of God. It
signaled the end of the expectation that might equal right. It was the end of
the belief in God as a capricious king on a throne. It signaled the futility of
siege towers and barriers, and it announced a new time of imagination and
co-creativity with God.
The
truth is that God has always been active and present. Pentecost affirms that
truth, but it also tells us to open our eyes and our ears and our mouths and
give glory to God for the amazing things that God has done and is doing, even here
and even now.
Through
this celebration today, we are reminded that it is through Christ, and through
God’s Spirit, that our purposes are joined with Gods’. In fact, they are so
joined with God’s purposes that God will
advocate on our behalf!
John’s
gospel even promises that God will give us what we ask! To be clear that does
not include Super Bowl tickets or passing a French test with Pentecostal flair
(or so I’ve heard). It means that our wills are already knit with God’s such
that when we pray, we are simply announcing our agreement with God.
When
we pray in this way for God to help with the homeless, it’s because we are
already working on it and really committed to solutions. When we pray for health
and healing, it’s because we want to become more of who God created us to be.
When we pray for wealth and riches, it’s because we want to be more generous
then we already are.
All
these things are a part of the calling that we share as Christ’s body, which is
being broken for the world again and again and again.
The
joy and the calling of this day is wrapped up in the opportunity to be made one
with God in suffering and joy, such that God is known in the blade of grass and
the mighty tree, and in you, and in me.
Let
our sons and our daughters tell the truth about God’s presence, the truth we
are unwilling to tell. Let our men and women, old and young, dream and create a
vision of the truth we proclaim together, for God is active and present and in
our midst. We see it in clean water, in the baptism of the Spirit and renewal of
hope! We see it in the inspired work of people who love the Lord and love one
another equally.
Let
them call us out for our excitement over what God has done. Then we can boldly
proclaim what God is doing in our midst because Pentecost is kind of like the
“double-dog-dare-you” of Christianity. It’s the reminder that going to church
isn’t enough to be a follower of the way of Jesus. Even saying and praying the
name “Jesus” isn’t enough for Pentecost.
For
we are moved and shaped and formed by the Spirit of God. We are Reformed and
always reforming by the grace and mercy and power of God. What is next for us?
Only God truly knows, but if we align our hearts and minds with the cause of
Christ, we will certainly catch visions, dream dreams, and find peace in knowing
that we are being swept up, again and again, by the tender mercy of God.
This
week a few of us are going to Camp Agape to experience that love in a sacred
community in God’s good creation. Pray for us – as we will certainly pray for
you – and may the fires of Pentecost burn brightly between us as we proclaim
God’s grace again and again and again! Amen.
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