Pentecost
“Utterly
amazed, they asked: Are not all these men who are speaking
Galileans?The how is it that each of us hears them in his own native
language?”
Acts
2:7-8
Today
is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate as the birth of the
Christian church. The disciples were 'all together in one place' when
they heard a sound like wind and tongues of fire appeared, separated
and entered each of them. They began speaking in languages other than
their own. Some who observed this transformation accused them of
drunkenness, but Peter stood up and explained to the gathering crowd
that they were filled with the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the the
prophecy of Joel; “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your
young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” It is
said that one-hundred twenty people received the Spirit that day, and
three-thousand were converted to Christianity.
As
with other Christian holidays, Pentecost has a history elsewhere. The
word means 'the fiftieth day' and is celebrated as the Feast of the
Harvest by Jews, or the Feast of Weeks. It falls fifty days after the
start of the barley harvest. Since in the southern hemisphere it is
autumn, heading into winter, it would be their 'Thanksgiving.' In our calendar, it falls fifty days after Easter. For
the Jewish disciples, it meant that Spirit, which had only spoken
through prophets before, was now available to everyone—even
Gentiles.
Most
of us don't speak in tongues, and we are not so sure what it means to
be filled with the Holy Spirit, but all of us do understand being
'fired up' with energy and excitement. We know how to throw ourselves
into our task, especially into the work of our hearts, and do so with
enthusiasm and great hope. We can understand how disciples felt
when they finally understood what they were supposed to do.
I
think of Pentecost as the day those dense disciples finally got
it—praise God! Can't you just picture them all those weeks, holed
up behind closed doors after Jesus had left them, scratching their
heads and asking one another, 'what do we do now?' They must have
wracked their brains trying to remember what Jesus told them; trying
to ferret out the meaning of his often ambiguous words. Should they
go back to their wives and their fishing boats? How could they ever
be the same again after all that had happened with Jesus? And then,
they got it! Go into all the world and teach people how to live like
he did. Speak to them in words they can understand, like Jesus did.
Forgive their sins, feed them, and heal them, just like he did. What
a relief it must have been to finally comprehend!
Happy
Birthday, everyone! I hope those tongues of fire fall on all of us
today, and inspire us to do what needs to be done for the betterment
of the world. Allelulia!
In
the spirit,
Jane
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