June 8th, 2025 - DAY OF PENTECOST (C)

Readings

Acts: Day of Pentecost - miracle of speaking x hearing; They are not drunk, it is only 9am (riiight)

Romans: Spirit of Slavery x Spirit of Adoption; we suffer with Christ, and with Christ we are also glorified

John: Promise of the Holy Spirit - foreshadowing to Acts reading

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Pentecost

PENTECOST (חג שׁבעת, chg shb't, “weeks”; πεντηκοστή, pentēkostē, “fiftieth”). In the Hebrew Bible, Pentecost is an annual harvest festival that occurs seven weeks after Passover. It became an important Christian holiday after God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Jerusalem church on the first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection.

Good morning,

Pentecost is here! While others may consider Memorial Day to be the mark of the coming summer, I think in the church it is Pentecost that will soon turn into the green-colored After Pentecost for quite a while, 23 to 28 Sundays to be more precise! Sure, it extends beyond summer, but it does cover the summer in the northern hemisphere!

In many ways, it is also the beginning of the church. For a simple reason - there cannot be much of a church without the Holy Spirit. Without her, it would be just a smattering of Jesus followers trying to make sense of the post-resurrection world and probably not succeeding much. Just like there wasn’t much of a chosen nation without the reception of Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, which became the focus in the Jewish observance of Pentecost in times after the events of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible - the celebration of the reception of the Ten Commandments. We can then infer that Pentecost portrayed in our text can be understood “as the establishment of a covenant between God and the Church in a way reminiscent of the events on Sinai” (Davis, “Acts 2,” 43–45; Witherington, Acts, 131).

A little sidebar - it always gets when I read Peter’s argument that they are not drunk - it’s only 9 in the morning! It reminds me of watching morning news in Czechia, a long time ago. At that time, there was a problem with widespread counterfeit hard liquor bottles that contained methyl alcohol instead of ethanol, which is extremely poisonous. So all bottles of hard liquor had to be pulled until it is sorted. And so this reporter was interviewing people in the streets at like 8AM about it and there she was, a, I kid you not, distressed old lady that complains that she ran out of alcohol last night and now she cannot buy more the first thing in the morning! The bottom line is that Peter should have workshopped his defense a little more!

But back to the event as there is so much to take notice of - we are fortunate that we can celebrate a baptism today, which is a significant, if a bit muted continuation in comparison to our text - instead of flames, different languages, and a rush of violent wind, we pray, sing, and pour out a little bit of water as an outward sign of this mysterious initiation ritual. It’s less flashy, but I am sure the fire marshall is glad we are not doing any big fire in the sanctuary! Still, the significance remains as Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize.

Another important aspect of the Pentecost event is that in fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel, it is stressed that the Spirit is poured out on ALL flesh, men, women, slaves and free, young and old, native and immigrant, Black and White, Pinoy and Slavic, poor and rich.... The access to the Spirit is not limited or restricted, it is meant for all! In our tradition we believe, as Luther puts it, that

“For whatever crawls out of the baptismal font may boast about itself that it is already consecrated a priest, bishop and pope, although it is not seemly for each to exercise such an office. “ (Wengert, Timothy, "The Priesthood of All Believers and Other Pious Myths" (2005). Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers. Paper 2. http://scholar.valpo.edu/ils_papers/2 - page 16)

In short, we believe in the priesthood of all believers and it is thanks to the Holy Spirit! Being a Christian equipped for the work is not meant to be an exclusive club and I recommend running for the hills if any community you encounter tells you so!

Beloveds, Pentecost is so much more than just an event in the Bible - its influence continues to this very day and will do so for a very long time. We are called to continue the wonder of Pentecost, inside and outside of our walls! The enumeration of the nations in our text is equivalent to nations from all around the world - Canada, China, Rwanda, Madagascar, Italy, Norway .… you name it! It was their whole world all around them as they understood it.

The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, is meant to spread and reach as many people as possible and if we believe that is a good thing, then we ought to do it and help spread the Spirt of Love, inclusion, and care!

Amen.