Putting Jesus Back in Pentecost - Acts 2:1-21

Welcome to the Day of Pentecost, arguably the Christian holiday in a distant third place behind Christmas and Easter. Honestly, it’s an awkward day that we’re not quite sure what to do with. Should we call this the birthday of the Church and have a sheet cake at coffee hour? Should we continue the party theme and fill the place with red balloons? For better or worse, churches tend to get creative on this day. I hear that a previous rector at Christ Church wanted to release doves inside the Church as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Without a solid plan for catching the live birds afterward, or for preventing any “surprises” on people’s church clothes, he was quickly talked out of it. I think even entertaining that idea points to the fact that we’re not quite sure what to do with Pentecost.

Some people suggest that it’s a denominational problem. Episcopalians are generally comfortable with the idea of the Holy Spirit as, say, a giver of spiritual gifts or as the Spirit of truth that will lead us into all truth. But we keep our polite distance from the Spirit-based practices of other kinds of Christians, like speaking in tongues or being slain in the Spirit. Maybe we’ve tried to domesticate the Spirit over the years. Or maybe it’s just difficult to hear the story of Pentecost as mainline Protestants in a post-Enlightenment world, where there is little room in our imaginations for the miraculous.

I think that our not knowing what to do with Pentecost isn’t really a denominational problem, though. It’s a theological one. When we think of this day primarily as a celebration of the Holy Spirit, we try to honor the third person of the Trinity in isolation from the other two, the Father and the Son. This compartmentalization is an easy mistake to make. Fortunately, next Sunday is Trinity Sunday and Hannah’s preaching, so she can clear up this and other heresies then. For today, I want us to think in a new way about Pentecost. This day is not only about the arrival of the Holy Spirit. It is also, fundamentally, the next chapter in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And it is, in the big picture, a full expression of God’s own vision.

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 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.”

It was incredible. All who gathered could hear the disciples speaking in their own language. They heard about God’s deeds of power - about Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. They heard about the forgiveness of sins. They heard the Christian good news for the first time. Some scoffed at the spectacle and thought the disciples were drunk. They used to call Jesus a drunk, too. But Peter denied it and gave his first sermon. This is significant, especially since he had denied even knowing Jesus when Jesus was arrested. By the grace of God, he was now called to preach in his name. Peter declared this moment to be the fulfillment of God’s vision, which the prophet Joel had foretold. God was now pouring out God’s Spirit on all flesh in real time, with eye witnesses. For young and old alike, prophecy, dreams, and visions were now within reach, and all who called on the name of the Lord would be saved.

As we marvel at this event, I’d like to offer a brief interlude in this sermon. "If you’re ever in a bar full of Old Testament and New Testament scholars and you want to pick a fight, just ask whether the Holy Spirit was present in the older Testament. The Old Testament scholars will all say no, that the Spirit of the Lord we hear about there is different than what’s going on in the Book of Acts. The New Testament folks will hedge a bit in their answer, noting that the wind in today’s story sounds like something out of creation in Genesis, and that the tongues of fire are like the burning bush and several other ancient fire miracles. This text certainly echoes the Old Testament. But there is something different about Pentecost. Prior to this event, people might have expected the Spirit of God to be in the Temple or among the priests on high holy days. No one could have imagined a Holy Spirit, the Lord himself, dwelling indiscriminately with all people. That was an expansive move no one saw coming. That new reality would have elicited awe, even terror, a kind of “are you kidding me” wow factor to everyone who witnessed the miracle on Pentecost (Matt Skinner, Working Preacher).

It’s that radically expansive wow factor of God’s activity that we honor today. I’m not begrudging any Christians who serve sheet cake or tie balloons to the pews for the occasion. Although no one should release live birds. I do, however, want us avoid limiting our celebration to a compartmentalized, domesticated Holy Spirit today. I want us to marvel at the crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus who, in the words of Ephesians, now fills all in all and activates and enlivens the Church as his body. I want us to marvel at the windy, fiery presence of God among us, which has been with the Church since the day of Pentecost. I want us to marvel at the miracle of our inclusion in God’s vision. Like Peter, grace has been extended to us. And since God poured out God’s Spirit onto all flesh, our sons and daughters shall now prophesy, and our young men shall see visions, and our old men shall dream dreams. Everyone shall prophesy. And all of us, who call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.