| June 3, 2001 |
| Acts 2:1-11 + 1 Corinthians 12:3-7 12-13 + John 20:19-23 |
| The trouble with the way Luke compresses things in his writing is that we end up thinking that something happened in an instant, that results which is what he’s really telling us about are the consequence of the event he uses to describe the results. In other words, wind and tongues of frre are not the point. What happens to that motley crew of frightened, disheartened and disparate disciples is the point. It’s not a matter of “how”, but a matter of “what” and it is the same for us all. |
| The trouble is that Luke’s images and version of this event play into our modern day expectations of instant success, instant pleasure, instant everything. Fast food, internet connections, one hour glasses at the Mall, and digital cameras all play into this “thing” that has happened to us with the result that we can’t and don’t want to wait. We get impatient with things that just take time, and begin to miss out on the opportunities that are there for people willing to put in time at practice, study, and reflection. |
| Personally, I like John’s version of Pentecost (that coming of the Spirit) much better than Luke’s. At least with John, the relationship with Jesus is in tact. Matthew and Mark don’t even attempt to deal with it. Maybe because their writing is so much earlier that the results or “consequences” of the Spirit’s presence are not yet so obvious that they have begun to wonder how it happened. They simply deal with the great commissioning that gets lost in the pyrotechnics of Luke’s version. |
| What has happened to these people is the issue here – and the only reason to tell the story again is to try and make sense of what has happened to us, if anything. |
| In a word, they became a church, a united, praying, preaching, serving assembly of believers witnessing to the person and mission of Jesus Christ. The point of celebrating Pentecost and telling again the stocy from Luke and from John is to ask ourselves what’s happening to us. Is there any similarity? Forget about the wind (which is hard to do in Oklahoma), forget about what “seem tobe tongues of fire” and pay attention to the results – unity, prayer, service, witness through a life style and values rooted in the Life |
| and Values of Jesus Christ. To whatever extent we can measure ourselves and growth in that direction, then there’s been a Pentecost for us too. In fact, it has nothing to do with language, but everything to do with unity and an ability to cut through the externals that often defme and divide us and discover what we have in common as children of God. It has nothing to do with wind or breath, but everything to do with Life and Creation as we hear of it in Genesis. It has nothing to do with fire, but everything to do with purification, illumination, and the passion to live as Jesus lived. |
| We celebrate this Feast because it is ours, not because of something that happened to the group freightened and barely loyal disciples a long time ago. We celebrate this Feast because of what is happening to us, slowly but surely, patiently, and progressively as we become more and more Church, a people living by grace, filledwith blessings and gifts too numerous to count. In a world suddenly conscious of ethnic origins and identities made clear by language difference fiercely possessed, we run the risk of losing the real identity that matters, our identity in Jesus Christ. |
| The hope this Feast and its readings stir within us is that we shall not become impatient and give up the effort, that we shall not tire of the struggle to grow stronger in faith and more clear of purpose, that we shall not grow weary of the long struggle for justice and for peace. What those disciples became, we are becoming, but not in an instant. Although we are countless generations removed from those first disciples who were spirited and dispatched for duty by Jesus, we are nonetheless sharers in the same Spirit and participants in creations eternal encore. |
| As we assemble to celebrate the abiding gift of the Spirit today, I give you the words of the John Chrysostom, a bishop in the fourth century “You are not only free, but also holy, not only holy but also just; not only just, but also sons and daughters; not only sons and daughters, but also heir; not only heirs, but also brothers and sisters of Christ, but also join heirs, not only join heirs, but also members, not only members, but also temples, not only temples, but also the instruments of the Spirit.” |