All Nighters - Acts 2:1-21

Today’s story of Pentecost from the Book of Acts is wild. We’ve got tongues of fire, violent wind, an explosion of languages, big sermons, and an ancient prophecy, all by 9:00 in the morning. Biblical events don’t get much more dramatic than this. The Holy Spirit arrived on the scene in a big way, empowering the disciples to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke, who gives us the account, must have been thinking about the annual parochial report because he was clearly keeping track of the numbers. He tells us that the disciples baptized three thousand people that day alone, and several more every day that followed. The church, as we would say today, had gone viral.

When we celebrate Pentecost all these centuries later, there can be a certain kind of nostalgia or wistfulness that creeps in. While we marvel at what happened back then, we don’t expect anything quite like it to happen now. It’s hard to relate to Pentecost. We could chalk that up to a modern skepticism about miracles, or perhaps to an understanding that the Church has settled into a very different chapter, marked more by stability and institutional life. There’s much to be thankful for about the Church now, with a beautiful building like this and traditions we hold dear. And yet, I think it’s natural from our vantage point to wonder why the Spirit seems to have settled down. Where’s the rush of a violent wind now, and tongues of fire that would enliven us to bring the Gospel to thousands more on this day alone?

If you've ever wondered about such things on Pentecost, you’re not alone. I want to suggest that our struggle with Pentecost is not only a modern problem. It also comes from our tendency to see Pentecost as an isolated incident. When actually, it’s much more common than we think. You’ve probably experienced something like it yourself. Especially if you've ever pulled an all-nighter for work or school. You know how things look different, maybe a little bit weird at 4:00 a.m. when you haven’t slept because you have a paper to write? And maybe you’ve relied on Ben and Jerry’s to stay awake? Or if you’ve been up at all hours in a hospital room, or at an airport in the middle of the night between destinations and time zones? If so, you were not far from the disciples’ experience at Pentecost. Because it’s reasonable to assume that they, too, had been awake all night.

The Day of Pentecost was  clearly a significant event for the early Church, but its origins go much farther back to the ancient Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot celebrates the day the Torah was given to the Israelites. It is one of three pilgrimage holidays, so Jews from all over the ancient world would make their way to Jerusalem. And once there, many would follow the custom of all-night Torah study. We should also note that Shavuot is the dairy holiday, so I picture them with some ancient equivalent of Ben and Jerry’s. There are remarkable accounts of those all-nighters. While studying Torah in the wee hours, people would see things, including sparks in the air and tongues of fire. Such stories are not passed down as hallucinations. They are understood to be encounters with the divine, the kind that can only happen when we reach the human limits of stamina and productivity. There’s something important, even life-changing to be learned about God and ourselves at 4:00 a.m. (Bibleworm, episode 345, 2022).

With a little Torah study ourselves, there are other ways in which Pentecost becomes less of an isolated incident. The wind in Acts sounds like something out of the creation story in Genesis, “when the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). There are other echos, too. The tongues of fire are like the burning bush and several other ancient fire miracles. We are meant to hear Scripture commenting on Scripture, connecting the present in the Book of Acts to the past and to the future. God did a new thing on the Day of Pentecost, in the way God has always done a new thing and will continue to do new things. God’s continuity is pretty stunning.

But if anyone still wants to argue that there is something different or unique about Pentecost, you’re right about one, pretty big thing. Prior to this event, people would have expected the Spirit of God to be in the Temple or perhaps among the priests on high holy days. But Peter saw something new happening, and quoted the prophet Joel to explain it. “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” The Spirit was now not only in the Temple but among the masses. No one could have imagined the Holy Spirit, the Lord himself, dwelling indiscriminately with all people. That was an expansive move no one saw coming (Matt Skinner, Working Preacher).

That expansive move includes you and me, by the way, as part of all flesh. With the Holy Spirit among us, we, too, will be drawn into prophecy, visions and dreams. We will be the ones to bring good news to those who have yet to hear it, and to declare that salvation is at hand. Pentecost is an ongoing event, and we are now swept up in it.

In today’s brief quest to see Pentecost as deeply rooted in the past and enlivening the future, rather than as an isolated incident in the first century, there is one more question to consider. This one is especially for anyone who has a hard time seeing God at work in the world today. The world around us can feel very heavy and anxious these days, and sometimes that hits deeply. So if, by chance, these days are making you weary, I invite you to remember those late night Torah studies and the bleary eyed disciples in the upper room. Their story is a promise, that it is when we reach our limits that the flame of God appears, drawing us into a new future.