Acts 2:1-11 The promised Spirit for all
Pentecost

This summer our family will go to India to visit our extended family. We want to make this trip mostly because our older daughter will be going away to college in the Fall. As we all know in this country, going away to college marks the very important process in a person’s life of asserting one’s independence and identity that is distinct from the parents. Having grown up with an Eastern outlook where family ties and tradition are so very important, it is a painful thing to realize that for our American children it is equally important for them to establish their individualism and define their lives in their own terms. So, this year’s trip to India may very well be the last one we make together as a family. My husband and I want to make sure that our girls make and keep the connections needed for them to find their roots for the future. I am also convinced that the great American sense of individualism will be stronger and more defined with a better understanding of ones distinctive roots in the midst of all the people that land up on our shores from every corner of the world.

Which brings me to the story of Pentecost that we read about in our lesson from the Acts of the Apostles. Pentecost has been celebrated in the Christian Church for as long as the church has been in existence, in fact, most Christians believe that the Day of Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. And of course, we should celebrate Pentecost as the day when the Church came into being, but let us also not forget that birthdays happen because of a certain history of ancestors. Similarly we cannot extract Pentecost out of its deep roots in Jewish history.  Our celebration of Pentecost happens 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, which if you remember took place just around the time of the Passover. Passover as we know is the commemoration of God’s mighty act of lifting the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and leading them toward the Promised Land. Having crossed the Red Sea away from the clutches of their Egyptian oppressors, the people of Israel camped at the foot of Mount Sinai where God gave Moses their leader the Ten Commandments. Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks is the celebration of the giving of Torah by God to His people. Pentecost for the Jews falls on the 50th day or seven weeks after Passover, which mark two very important stages in the history of Israel in establishing its identity and connection to God. Passover freed the people of Israel physically from bondage, and the giving of the Torah is seen as what redeemed them spiritually from their bondage to idolatry and immorality. Our Christian celebrations of Easter and Pentecost too draw meaning from the Jewish story of redemption from slavery and the giving of the Ten Commandments as the guiding force toward a spiritually mature life.  For the people of Israel, the Ten Commandments answer the question of how to live as God’s chosen and freed people. They give descriptions of how to live as God desires them to, which is with joy and satisfaction, being accountable to God and to each other in service, duty and justice. So there is the clear sense that at the Passover the people of Israel gained their freedom and at Pentecost they were given the knowledge of how to live a holy life pleasing to God.

Our Christian story of redemption from sin through the death and resurrection of Christ is certainly an echo of the Exodus story from the Old Testament. The story of Easter is not something that just happened randomly at one point in history. Easter is the fulfillment of God’s great salvation story for all of his creation, which He promised right in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve disobeyed and rebelled against Him. In His great love for us, even as we rebelled, God was already laying down the plan to redeem and draw us back to Him. The unfolding of God’s plans led to Christ giving us freedom from the bondage of sin on Easter, and at Pentecost God gave the Holy Spirit to all believers so that we will learn how to live in a right relationship with God, with each other, and with the land.

The miracle of Pentecost was not so much about the spectacular appearance of the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire, the miracle was in all those people hearing and understanding the glorious message of God’s good news in their own language. There was such a diverse group of people from many parts of the then known world, people who came from different language groups gathered around the disciples that day, and it says, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." On Mount Sinai, it was only Moses who was filled with the Spirit of God, it was Moses alone who received the commandments of God for the people of Israel. But on that particular Pentecost after Jesus ascended into heaven, as the disciples prayed and waited for guidance from God, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all who had gathered and the message of God’s mighty deeds were heard by all in their own language. God opened heavens’ door so that we can live a spirit filled life of freedom.

Very often we forget and live like we are still slaves, we allow our burdens, our limitations, and our many problems to weigh us down and allow ourselves to move further and further away from the connection that God made with us through Jesus. Far too often we completely ignore God’s great workings in our lives, instead we like looking for the external tongues of fire on our heads rather than acknowledging the miraculous indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us that God gave so freely.  The sound that comes roaring like a violent wind and the tongues of fire are just the external symbols.  The real gift is the Holy Spirit that lays waiting to burn brightly in our lives, the Spirit that enables us to express the great wonders of God’s redemptive love in a language that others can understand.

For me Pentecost is not so much about celebrating the birthday of the Church, it is more about celebrating God’s faithfulness  and His promise of a spirit-filled holy life. Just as Easter comes as a fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan for us, Pentecost too comes as a reminder of God’s promises being fulfilled. It is the fulfillment of God’s promise through the prophet Joel that one-day He will pour out His spirit on all flesh. The outpouring of God’s Spirit is the sign and the reminder that God will gather all His faithful children unto Himself.  Pentecost comes every year to remind us that we are not abandoned, but that the Spirit of God is here with and in us all, not just in me, not just in some great preachers’ life, but in all of us. And if we believe that the gift of God’s Spirit is in us, we will also understand that we are called to live our lives in tandem with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is what liberates us to speak in the language that others will understand, to be able to proclaim the might deeds of God in our lives. Let us learn to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that is given to guide us into living a holy life. Let us not lose sight of our connection to God and to each other in and through the Holy Spirit. Let us make or spiritual journey in faith and in the knowledge that God has paved the road for us already in Jesus Christ. Amen.