Pentecost: the Birth of the Church
Notes
Transcript
On Friday and last night, something really special was happening here in Kamloops. The Kamloops Symphony had a special guest artist. They welcomed Indigenous musicians Jeremy Dutcher - a tenor/pianist/composer who mostly sings in Wolastoqey (language of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick). Through his music, Jeremy seeks to aid in keeping a language alive that has very few fluent speakers left. He’s a stunning vocalist, a brilliant composer, and, I think, a Canadian treasure. Dutcher fuses traditional Wolastoquyik melodies with classical compositions and electronic music.
On Friday evening at the concert, he talked a bit about the language he was singing in, and about how, even though we couldn’t understand each word he was singing, we could understand the feelings and ideas his music was conveying - and indeed we could. He also warned us before one song about how the next song contained some English and so, not to suddenly think we could speak Wolastoquey when we began to understand a line here and here. And indeed, as he sang,
That experience of suddenly being able to make sense of something is quite a striking feeling, isn’t it?!
Like swimming in deep water and suddenly there’s ground beneath your feet.
Maybe some of you have you been somewhere where you don’t speak the language? (Maybe that somewhere is HERE!) Where signage and intercom announcements are all being made in a language you don’t read or understand? Do you know the relief of suddenly finding someone who speaks ENGLISH (or whatever your preferred language might be)?
There’s a relief. A sense of things coming into focus. Of bits and pieces that just wouldn’t organize themselves into anything meaningful falling into place.
Imagine then, that on this day that the disciples have been told to wait for, there are people from all around the known world. People with different customs and traditions, speaking a variety of languages, all gathered in Jerusalem. Waiting.
Our reading today comes from Acts chapter 2.
Let’s turn our attention there and we’ll just read the first four verses of the chapter. So, you can remain seated.
Greek
Old english
Chat GPT - Gen Z/Alpha slang - “selling” (losing) and “???” (winning)
OK… how about 21st English translation of a 1st century koine greek text?
CEB
1 When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
When Pentecost Day arrived…
What is Pentecost?
we tend to think of Pentecost as what happened on this day. The birth of the Church, the Spirit descending on the people, the explosion of gospel speech in all those languages…
But Pentecost was already a thing when all this happened.
So what was it? the fiftieth day, an existing Jewish holiday - part of telling the story of God and God’s people.
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Pentecost
The Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, deriving from its occurrence 50 days after Passover (Acts 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8). Because the early Christians received the baptism of the Holy Spirit on this day, the term is now more commonly used to refer to that event recounted in Acts 2:1–13.
The Feast of Weeks was the second of the three great Jewish feasts. Its name signified that it concluded the period of seven weeks which began with the presentation of the first sheaf of the barley harvest during the Passover celebration (Lev 23:15–16; Deut 16:9). Thus it was originally an agricultural feast marking the end of the grain harvest and was celebrated during the month of Sivan (May/June).
what happened on that day?
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Pentecost
According to Acts, the apostles remained in Jerusalem after the Resurrection appearances. On the day of Pentecost they were gathered in one house when the Holy Spirit came upon them, sounding like a mighty wind and appearing like tongues of fire upon each of them. Then the apostles began miraculously to speak in foreign languages, attracting the attention of foreign Jews who were amazed to hear their native languages spoken by Galileans. This set the stage for Peter’s sermon which resulted in the conversion and baptism of about 3000 people (Acts 2:1–47).
When Pentecost Day arrived… it’s still arriving!
We’re still telling the story - year by year, we let the story of God and the story of God’s people give shape to the worshipping life of our community. But the difference for us, is that the story we’re telling is centered on Jesus. On his life, death & resurrection.
Christmas & Easter, yes, but also Advent & Lent to prepare for those “holy” days, and then days like Pentecost which are “hinge” days… Eastertide ends and we swing into the bottom half of the cycle.
So, for us this year, it means moving from our journey through the Gospel of Mark, and then our Eastertide contemplations of what the resurrection of Jesus might mean for our lives - whether that be facing the uncertainty of losing a loved one through a tragedy like in Barb’s story, or being able to see the relentless pursuing love of God, even through the shadow of death as Ellery showed us in Psalms 22 and 23. Or joining the Emmaus Road disciples on their journey from discouragement to hope, or joining the disciples as Jesus told them to WAIT. A word none of us is likely excited to hear. And now, in today’s text, we move from waiting to receiving. But what exactly is going on here on this day of Pentecost. Where is this God story going? Well, today, in our text, we see that it’s going wide… but I’m getting ahead of myself - for now, let’s see that this Pentecost story if centered on telling the story, the good news about Jesus. A story we’re still telling. A story that is making sense of our stories. And a story that is the centre of our shared life - as a community of faith.
And so, from our Eastertide series, we’ll move into what I’ve titled “God Stories”… first tracing a few key events through the book of Acts, and then following Paul to Corinth and unpacking the epistle or letter we call 1 Corinthians. Then, in the summer, we’ll move from hearing God Stories from Paul and Corinth to hearing our own God Stories… more on that in the weeks ahead.
Back to our God Story for today… Acts 2.
So, when Pentecost Day arrived,
they were all together in one place.
Community.
What do you think of when I say that word?
Good and bad experiences.
Messy. Inefficient.
Rich. Connecting.
It’s hard for us sometimes when we see how important the collective seems to be in scripture. The “one anothers” that are everywhere in Paul’s instructions. The plural “you” that we sometimes lose sight of either because of our hyper-individualistic culture and society OR because English uses the same word for the singular and plural.
But the thing we can’t ignore is that the day that the church is born, the Spirit comes to a group of people who are “all together in one place” … not to a selected group of individuals. But to people who had gathered. Or, as Joyce taught us last week, people who had stayed together because Jesus told them to WAIT HERE.
And, lest we romanticize how easy this group had it in being together, let us remember that this was a group that had some serious differences among them. A tax collector and a zealot, for instance. (One collaborated with the Empire, one wanted to overthrow their oppressors - and violence wasn’t out of the question) Those who ran to the tomb and then decades later included details about who won the foot race in their gospels.
I saw this great video… Peter comes to John after reading his gospel: John, how could you?!
And John responds: “What, are you going to deny that, too?”
They were all together in one place.
If we’re waiting for the Spirit, if we’re wanting to live by the Spirit, community isn’t optional.
We will have to wait together. Receive together. Grow together. Serve and be served.
When the Day of Pentecost came,
they were all together in one place.
Suddenly…
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
Posture of waiting in community and then the Spirit comes.
And descends on them collectively - oh, what looks like a tongue of fire rests on each one individually, but they are experiencing this TOGETHER. And what they experience is not for their individual divine experience, but FOR the world who is gathered in Jerusalem.
The Spirit falls and it’s not for those who are already part of this thing. It’s for those who have not yet been included.
And the Spirit enables them to speak languages they do not know and have not learned so that these visitors to Jerusalem, these God-fearing Jews from all over the place can be invited to join in … to be part of the community who are going to live in and from the Jesus Story.
We know, because of our vantage point, that the inclusion of God-fearing Jews will not be the last group to get in on this. The line between Jew & Gentile will be crossed very shortly. And it will be clear that the idea from the beginning was always that the smaller, select group would be chosen for the sake of the whole world.
We wait for and receive the Spirit in community SO that we can then speak to those who have not yet heard that Jesus is for them. So much so that Jesus has come to demonstrate that:
God is for us
God is with us
God is stirring in us
God is inviting us
God is around us
God is in us
Then the question becomes how do we recognize the Spirit at work in our lives and in our midst?
Centered on Jesus - does this look and sound like Jesus?
In community - both the local, but also the global and historic Church
Surrendered to the Spirit - willing to listen and to respond.
If we’re want to be responsive to the Spirit’s leading, we need to centre ourselves on Jesus - on the Story of God and God’s people.
If we’re waiting for the Spirit to come, we had better not be alone.
They were “all together in one place”
If we’re waiting for the Spirit to come, we will have to surrender to the Spirit.
We cannot maintain tight control and also ask God to come in power.
The folks from all over were not given the ability to understand the Galileans (come, join us) but these Galilean disciples were gifted with the ability to go and speak to people in ways that those people would be able to understand. They, by the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them, were able to be understood by people who should not have been able to understand.
Willie James Jennings, in his BRILLIANT commentary on Acts writes this: This is love that cannot be tamed, controlled, or planned, and once unleashed it will drive the disciples forward into the world and drive a question into their lives: Where is the Holy Spirit taking us and into whose lives?
What might happen to us as a community if we wait and expect the Spirit of God to be in our midst and to fill us with divine life? Living & loving like Jesus in ways that will demonstrate the story of Jesus in ways that people will feel relieved to hear it - in a language they understand - in a way that makes sense?
Do we actually want that? Or would we prefer to keep doing what is familiar to us. What we can maintain control over. What we are comfortable with.
If you thought it was risky to join in community. (And it is.) I feel I ought to warn you about the added risks of joining a community that is centered on the Story of Jesus. It is risky to join in this story. To wait for and receive the Spirit in community SO that we can then speak to those who have not yet heard that Jesus is for them. Risky because it will compel us to follow Jesus’ lead and to demonstrate to our neighbours and to “those people” that:
God is for them
God is with them
God is stirring in them
God is inviting them
God is around them
God is in them
