Pentecost 2007

Preached by Rev. Ree Hale
May 27, 2007
Text: Acts 2: 1-21

As a child I didn’t know that Memorial Day had to do with war. My grandmother, mother, older brother and I would walk to get the bus (or my aunt would come get us in her car) and we’d go downtown to Schenectady, New York, to the parade route. It was very near the cemetery where my grandfather and my mother’s older sister who died at age 14 were buried. My grandmother’s mother was buried there also.

There were military bands and troops in the parade, but there were military people &troops, everywhere in every parade, World War II was still very fresh in everyone’s mind. If there was a gathering to hear speeches at the end of the parade I never knew it, since, when the parade had passed us by we went to the cemetery to pay respects and put flowers on the graves of family members.

I had not known any of the people on whose graves we put flowers, but it was clear how much my mother and grandmother loved them. At home, my mother often talked about Ethel who had been 6 years older, as her favorite sister and how devastated mother was as an 8 year old when Ethel died. I carry the name of that sister as my middle name.

My grandmother told stories with great pride of her husband. But he was killed in a hit and run accident when my grandmother was 35 years old. She was left with 6 children to provide for and raise. She also loved to boast about her mother, who had the courage way back in the late 1800’s to divorce the abusive father of her children and move them from Maine to New York State, managing to care for them on her own.

So, I understood Memorial Day to be about celebrating the lives of family members and other loved ones who had died.
A few years later it was a huge surprise to learn that Memorial Day was to honor those who had given their lives in war, to keep our country free and to help free other peoples.

PENTECOST is not about war or remembering those who fought, but the Jews and proselytes who were in Jerusalem for this Pentecost we read about, were in for a much bigger surprise than I had about Memorial Day.

Pentecost was a Jewish harvest festival. The word means 50th day and was celebrated 50 days after the second day of Passover. The New Harper’s Bible Dictionary says. “It was one of the three yearly festivals which called Diaspora Jews back to Jerusalem to celebrate the goodness of God toward the nation.” It was also called: The Day of First Fruits, The Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Weeks, because it was 7 weeks after Passover. The Jewish name by which it is known is Shavout. It was to be celebrated at the sanctuary (Temple in Jerusalem if at all possible) by every male. Specific offerings were not required, but each man brought voluntarily what his harvest offered….usual labors were halted and people met in a “holy convocation.”

Later Judaism, especially after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., added to the meaning of Pentecost by also commemorating the anniversary of the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai at this festival, making Shavout a joint harvest and historical celebration.

For those coming to Jerusalem on the particular Pentecost, from all over the known world that you can see on the map in your bulletin and heard listed in the reading, the expectation of Pentecost was a festival, perhaps something of the feeling of festival at the Farmer’s Market on the Capital Square, but with a religious core and everyone bringing an offering.

The group of 120 followers of Jesus were at Pentecost. They had just chosen Matthias to replace Judas as the 12th Apostle. They were waiting for something to happen.The coming of the Holy Spirit! In Acts ch.1 Luke has Jesus tell them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit and it would come soon.

What happens? They were together in one place. There is a sound, LIKE THE GREAT RUSH OF wind. The SOUND filled the building where the believers were. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible then says; They, the 120, saw tongues of fire resting on each one. “The Message” translation puts it; Like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks. The 12 Apostles and the rest of the followers of Jesus, all 120, received the Holy Spirit. The New Interpreter’s Bible comments; “Luke’s intent is to create a vivid impression of the Spirit’s presence among the community of Jesus’ disciples as its distinguishing mark.” ….”The Spirit’s arrival is a noisy affair with special effects and draws an interested public ‘from every nation’ to the community in amazement.”

Many of the devout Jews living in Jerusalem, or there just for Pentecost, heard the sound and came running to see what it was. The listing forces us to recognize how wide a territory was influenced and what a perfect time for the presentation of the Holy Spirit. Thousands came!

They saw and heard a group of Galileans speaking words that were understood in the native tongue of each listener. They were amazed and confused about what was happening. Galileans were not known for being good at dialects or foreign languages, so even that was a surprise.

In the gathered mob, people talked with each other asking, “What’s going on?”

It clearly wasn’t going well, as some began to say; “They’re drunk!”

At this point, Luke’s writing has Peter take charge, Peter, who had denied Jesus at the time of his trial. But he had been forgiven and recommitted to Jesus’ ministry. This Peter, now steps forward as the speaker of the Apostles.

Luke’s purpose for writing in his own time (80-85 A.D., 50 years after Jesus no longer walked the earth) shows through in Peter’s words. It was to defend Jesus’ followers against the charge that they were destructive of Jewish institutions. Jesus’ followers were not, at this time, separate from Judaism, though many followers by 80 A.D. were gentiles. Luke himself was a gentile proselyte to Judaism

If the Holy Spirit came to this group of Jews on Shavout, a Jewish festival, fulfilling the prophesy of Joel, a prophet of Israel, and came among Jews from the whole known world, this gave opportunity for the followers of Jesus to be heard within the context of the Jewish tradition and bring to reality Jesus prediction of Acts 1:8: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem & in all Judea, & Samaria & to the end of the earth.” Whether this happened just as Luke presents it, 50 years before in 30 or so A.D. or; was Luke’s way to explain the strength of the early Apostles and followers it enabled the community to carry an inspired word about God’s risen Messiah to the entire household of Israel. It has given POWERFUL support to the sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence and God’s guidance in our lives.

Luke recorded that 3,000 were baptized. Many would be going back to those homes in the countries shown on the map, listed in the reading, taking what they had experienced with them. So, Christians now proclaim Pentecost/Shavout/ or Whitsunday as the birth of the church.

(Whitsunday is the term that was used in Europe when Christianity was spreading there in the 11th Century. People were baptized on Easter, or if Easter was not possible, on Pentecost. They came in white garments so it was called Whitsunday. Europe and former British Empire nations still call it that. My Day Timer Calendar, that I have used for 25 years, listed Shavout on Wednesday of this past week and today as Whitsunday)

When Peter & Paul and others went on journeys to tell the stories some had already heard about Jesus, perhaps from this experience.

Of course, this writing of Luke’s actually occurred after Peter and Paul were no longer living. It gave strength to the young church, as a part of the accepted Jewish traditions, against the growing persecution of followers of Jesus.

Just as it is hard for us to explain what has happened in our lives when we know God has called us to do, or be, something specific– perhaps teach a class, be a Pastoral Partner, or a Welcomer, or; mentor a child, be a teacher, plumber, computer specialist or simply to live our life differently than we did before we paid attention to God’s call in our life. It is what was changed in the lives of the apostles and other disciples and the newly baptized that made others pay attention to what is it to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and want to live as a Child of God.

The story of Jesus doesn’t end with Jesus. It continues in the lives of those who believe in him. If the first disciples had not gone out and told others, and others had not come to believe in Jesus Christ, and his understanding of God’s call in our everyday life, we would not be sitting in this worship hall this morning. If we do not continue to live the teachings and tell the story in words that are meaningful for today, as Luke was doing for his community just 50 years later and others have done through 2000 years, there will be no people who are followers of Jesus in the next generation. God calls each one of us to be disciples with our lives. Listen for what and how God is speaking to you. Amen.