The Day of Pentecost, Cycle B
On this day we enter into the period of each year in which we celebrate the ongoing activity of God in our lives. The activity of God has a special meaning for us as Christians because of the life of Jesus. The texts appointed for this day, however, are a reminder to us that the activity of God and God’s relationships with people did not begin with the life of Jesus. The activity of God and God’s relationships with people take on new meaning for us because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and for that we are grateful.
Analysis of the Hebrew Bible (the Older Testament for us as Christians) indicates that within those documents various hypostases (words used to represent God, anthropomorphic expressions used in attempts to describe activities of God) were developed. Among the most important and frequently used of these are the Word of God, the Glory of God, the Wisdom of God, the Presence of God, and the Spirit or Breath of God. These words became valuable vehicles for communicating effectively that God is indeed actively involved in the world even though we cannot actually see or touch God. These hypostases are helpful as we endeavor to talk about God and to God. We realize that as we attempt to talk about God we must use words, descriptive word drawn from our human experiences.
On this Day of Pentecost, our attention is focused on one of these hypostases used within the Hebrew Bible, namely the Spirit or Breath of God. The Spirit of God is the principal unifying factor in these five texts. Within the development of specifically Christian theology, the Spirit of God became one of our three most basic hypostases for God, most useful in our struggling attempts to talk about God and about the activities of God in our lives. As an hypostasis for God, the Spirit of God concept did not originate during the 1st century of the common era, nor on the day of creation, nor at any point within recorded history. We believe that the Spirit of God is a God-given means by which we are enabled to talk about God.
Within the Day of Pentecost observance in the Christian calendar, the dominating text is obviously the Lukan playwright’s Pentecost story that we have in Acts 2:1-21. We could hardly celebrate this day in the Church Year without using it. The Lukan writer’ Pentecost story brought the Christian observance of Pentecost into existence. Therefore, let us turn to this text.
Acts 2:1-21
Just as in early Christian tradition recorded in the Synoptic Gospels the Last Supper of Jesus was placed within the context of the Israelite-Jewish Passover observance, here in this sequel to the Third Gospel tradition the Lukan writer placed the inception of Christian prophecy within the context of the Israelite-Jewish celebration of Pentecost.
By the time of the 1st century of the common era, the Israelite Feast of Weeks (in the Greek language known as Pentecost) had evolved from an agricultural festival in which groups of Israelites came together to enjoy the first fresh fruits and vegetables of the season and to give portions of these first fruits and vegetables to God by sharing them with those who functioned as priests among them to become for them also a commemoration of the giving of the Torah. Apparently the Lukan writer — or a source utilized by the Lukan writer — took the process of development one step further, taking the Jewish celebration of the giving of the Torah and transforming it for followers of Jesus into the occasion on which Christian prophecy began. This account in Acts 2:1-21, consistent with many others in early Christian traditions, took an Israelite-Jewish custom or ceremony and adapted it for Christian use in a supersessionistic process. By means of this account, early Christianity was able to claim not only to have its own “Torah” in the Synoptic Gospel accounts, but also its own “Prophecy” here in the utterances of these early Christian leaders, all of whom were depicted by the Lukan playwright as gathered together in one place. There are some what we might call “rough edges” in this Acts 2:1-21 account (an indication perhaps of the freshness of the construction). There is a disagreement among those who in the text heard the voices of the disciples as to whether the utterances were incoherent babblings such as might be made by intoxicated persons or whether the utterances were excellent translations of a single message into a variety of languages and dialects such as those provided during sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. Nevertheless, the message intended by the account is clear.
In our Day of Pentecost proclamation, it is the message, not the details of the account that is of primary importance. In the best ways possible for us, we shall certainly want to proclaim that God through the Holy Spirit inspires us also today within the priesthood of all believers, comes over us with mighty power, gives to us the ability to prophesy (that is, to speak forth for God), and fulfills the biblical expectation in our time. Certainly we must claim the Spirit of God as we celebrate our Day of Pentecost. It is not sufficient for us to repeat or to paraphrase this Acts 2:1-21 account only as something that happened in a certain way during the 1st century. We must claim the Spirit of God also for the Church and for us today.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
It is the Spirit of the Lord God that leads Ezekiel in this fascinating account and places him into the valley filled with dry bones. It is the Spirit of the Lord God that commands Ezekiel to speak to the wind (the breath of God) and call it back into the bodies of the Israelites who had been rendered lifeless. Spirit/wind/breath comes from God for the restoration of life. This is also our God-given claim as Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others today.
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
In this delightful poetic expression of God’s initial and continuing creative activity, it is said that, as in Genesis 1:2, when the Spirit of God is sent forth, all creatures, even the sportive Leviathan, are brought into existence and sustained. We are called to share this message about the power of God today, especially as we continue to be reminded of the destructive powers being marshaled not only by large nations in the world, but also by smaller nations and by terrorist groups.
Romans 8:22-27
According to the Apostle Paul in this account, the entire creation has been groaning and in agony like a woman who is suffering with labor pains that never end. Paul wrote that within all of creation, all people have been struggling in agony under the bondage of sin until the time of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ. For Paul, the Spirit of God is now with us at all times to provide the support that we need, because by ourselves, Paul wrote, we do not even know how to pray. The Spirit of God, therefore, intercedes for us with prayers that are so profound that we can neither imagine nor describe them.
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
In these texts the Spirit is described as the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father and is to be sent by the Johannine Jesus after he leaves the Johannine community. The Paraclete will glorify Jesus, will take from the things that belong to Jesus and declare them to the Johannine community, will condemn the sinful world and convince the members of the Johannine community that the righteousness of God is fully known within the Johannine Jesus. The Paraclete is described as in some sense the surrogate for Jesus who cannot come unless the Johannine Jesus will go. The Paraclete is a guarantee that there will be more of the grace and truth of God to come, that the revelation will continue for the Johannine community.
In our use of this text, particularly on the Day of Pentecost, it is important that we claim participation in the ongoing revelation of God, that we as pastors, leaders in worship, and congregations as a whole affirm that we are expressions of the work of the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, in our time and place. The work of the Johannine Jesus, of the Paraclete, of the Spirit of Truth, did not in any way end during the first few decades in the development of Christianity. The work of the Spirit of Truth continues among us where we are, and among others, even among those who are very different from us.
