Pentecost Sunday

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Pentecost was the Greek name for the summer harvest festival held fifty days after Passover (Deuteronomy 16:9–12). It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals in which “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” were expected to come to Jerusalem. At the sound of a strong driving wind these same Jews rush to the scene to discover Jesus’ disciples speaking in their various languages. Ultimately, the Spirit’s work will not be limited to the “gift of tongues,” but this along with the power to speak of “the mighty acts of God” is the most immediate effect of Pentecost. With the coming of the Spirit, the disciples are equipped to further Jesus’ mission to gather “all nations” to God, beginning with Israel.

Socioeconomic divisions in Corinth have been exacerbated by a tendency to interpret different charisms of the Spirit as status indicators. Paul emphasizes that God has endowed the Corinthians with a variety of gifts—different gifts, different forms of service, different workings—that are meant to enrich the community, not divide it. They have not been given to individuals as much as they have been given to the community as a whole, and for the whole community’s benefit. The fact that the same Spirit is responsible for the variety of gifts means that, ultimately, they are meant to unify the one body of Christ, which the Spirit is building and unifying through those same gifts.

In John’s Gospel the risen Lord bestows the Spirit on his followers not at Pentecost but on the evening of the Resurrection. Compelled by fear to barricade themselves behind doors, they nevertheless suddenly discover that Christ has been able to enter into their midst. Although some of his disciples may have good reason to fear even him, having abandoned him at his darkest hour, Jesus greets them immediately with peace. His wounds are offered not as a reproach, but as evidence that it is he, the wounded Jesus, who greets them with twice peace, a sign of reconciliation. Breathing on them the promised Holy Spirit (14:15–17), Jesus empowers them to offer that same reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins.

Jan 07 2025

The Quiet, Tender Spirit

Happy Pentecost! This is the day on which we celebrate the life-changing power of God. The apostles preach to the ends of the earth through the strength of the Spirit and the church is born. Big, powerful, great stuff!

As I reflect on the grand event of Pentecost, I am holding my four-day-old granddaughter in the rocking chair. Her soft hair brushes my cheek. Her breath is irregular and a little squeaky. Her tiny body sinks onto my chest, asleep. Softness toward this new life swells into my throat. That tenderness brings to mind who the Holy Spirit is in my life.

I have had a few grand sweeping moments when the Spirit has filled me with fire to go out and change the world. But more often, the Comforter has come in the quiet of the night, bringing peace in a moment of grief, courage in a time of desolation, strength when I felt that I had no strength left. Like the touch of baby hair on my cheek, I have felt nudges so gentle. Like her soft breathing, I have felt a breath so tender. Like her body nestled into my chest, I have felt a Presence so warm. So . . . what? So held. As I am holding this tiny child.

I could be mistaken. I could be the most deluded of women. This might be all in my mind. I only tell you what I have seen and heard. My life has been touched by the Spirit, the Holy One who is with us. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that he must go. But we are never left alone. We are not abandoned; we are held. The most powerful of Advocates enfolds us as the most tender, the gentlest, and the warmest of Comforters. This Pentecost day. And all ordinary and everyday days.

Consider/Discuss

Describe a tender moment in your life. How has that experience of tenderness led you to God and love?
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spoke through the apostles in many tongues and in many different ways. The Holy Spirit continues to speak through us: many spiritual gifts but the same Spirit, many forms of service but the same Lord. You may not be rocking a newborn baby at the moment. But what unique experiences do you have through which the Spirit would like to speak to this world?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, we offer you this Pentecost day. Help us not to be too proud to surrender to you. You want to be at work through us. But we are as powerless as a newborn child. We cannot hold our heads up by ourselves. We struggle to breathe the air of this world. We get cold. We get startled. We need you. Divine Comforter, surround us and enfold us this day. Be our warmth. Be our breath. Be our strength. In this surrender, you are our happiness. Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!

Dec 16 2024

Holy Spirit, Mega-Gift

I heard a noted theologian quip that we might possibly think of the Holy Spirit as the Cinderella of the Trinity because the Holy Spirit does the work while the Father and the Son get the attention. Everyone laughed—but our readings today highlight the many ways the Holy Spirit enters our lives and gets to work.

Begin with the images of the Spirit found in today’s scripture: a strong, driving wind; hovering tongues of fire; the lavisher of languages; the giver of spiritual gifts; the breath of the risen Lord; the power of forgiveness—and these are only a few of the names given to the Holy Spirit. Turn to the Gospel of John, in which Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Paraclete or Advocate, the Teacher, the Witness.

Find the Sequence for the feast of Pentecost in a worship aid and you will discover even more insights into the role of the Spirit cast in a poetic form: father of the poor, the comforter, sweet refreshment, grateful coolness, healer of wounds, renewer of our strength. And my two favorite lines: “Bend the stubborn heart and will;/Melt the frozen, warm the chill.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to life and then to make us life-givers for others. Paul reminds us that all the gifts of the Spirit are given for the common good.

The church was born after this mega-gift was given to a small group of disciples who were disciples of a crucified Galilean. The Spirit is truly the Gift That Keeps On Giving.

Consider/Discuss

Which name for the Holy Spirit best describes the role the Spirit has played in your life?
What gift of the Spirit would you ask for, not only for yourself, but for the good of those you love?

Responding to the Word

Come, Holy Spirit; bring peace, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and wisdom to our world and its leaders. Come, Holy Spirit; fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Come, Holy Spirit; make your home in me that I might bring your light into the world.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

The Jewish feast of Pentecost was one of the three major pilgrim festivals of Israel, hence the presence in Jerusalem of devout Jews from every nation. Since the people who experienced the unusual occurrence understood the bold proclamations of the Spirit-filled disciples, the miracle seems to have been speech in foreign tongues, not ecstatic speech (glossolalia). In other words, there was a miracle in hearing as well as in speaking. This outpouring of the Spirit and the preaching of the gospel to all nations point to the gathering of all peoples into the reign of God.

To claim that Jesus was Lord was to set up a rivalry between his followers and the political authorities who were called “Lord.” This claim placed Christians at great risk for their lives. The word was also used in Greek as a substitute for God’s personal name. Therefore, its use implied that Jesus was divine. Paul insists that the spiritual gifts were not given for the self-aggrandizement but for the benefit of the entire community. He then compares the diversity found within the community to the human body. Each part has its own unique function, but all parts work for the good of the whole.

In John’s account, the Resurrection and bestowal of the Spirit occurred on the same day. Previously, religious meaning was given to the Sabbath. The Resurrection ushered in a new age, and so importance is now given to the first day of the week. The wish for peace, a common Jewish greeting, was also a prayer for the blessings of the end-times. Jesus uses it here as a declaration of the arrival of that time of fulfillment. The closed doors underscore the mysterious character of Jesus’ risen body. The wounds in his hands and side show that he is not a figment of their imaginations, or a ghost, but the person they knew. With the bestowal of the Spirit, the disciples are authorized to continue the mission of Jesus.

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

Pentecost comes from the Greek word for the Jewish Festival of Weeks, which took place fifty days after Passover. By the first century, this ancient harvest festival was also a time for Jews to celebrate the Noahic covenant, which God made through Noah with “every living creature” after the flood (Genesis 9:1–17). In the scene from Acts, Jews from all over the world represent the universal scope of this covenant and of God’s dominion and care. It is no surprise, then, that the Holy Spirit descends at Pentecost, bestowing on the church the power to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. The
tongues of fire and the driving wind are classic biblical images of divine theophany, in which the powerful and life-changing power of God descends into the world to set it on a new course.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul has been exploring the dilemma all faithful humans find themselves in: while wanting to live within God’s will, they nevertheless continually encounter a “flaw” in their human nature that resists God’s will and seeks selfish desires instead. This flaw Paul calls “the flesh.” The divine solution to this dilemma is Christ, in whom the flesh is crucified, and who bestows on the baptized his Spirit. Paul uses the language of debt to make his point. Christians “owe” nothing to the flesh; they are not “slaves” to it, such that they must do what it demands. In the Spirit, they are free children of God who can, if they wish, refuse the demands of the flesh. In doing so—even when it involves great struggle—they show themselves to be God’s children and heirs with Christ to his glory.

In his Last Supper discourse, Jesus assures his disciples that although he is returning to the Father, he will not abandon them. If they are faithful to him by heeding his commandments (the primary one being to love one another as he has loved them [John 13:34–35]), he will ask the Father to send the Advocate, or paracletos. This Greek term, drawn from the legal world, means an intercessor, spokesperson, comforter. All of these roles describe that of the Spirit, who will also teach the disciples and ensure their fidelity to Jesus’ teaching. Thus Jesus has equipped his followers to carry on his work by modeling his love for others and by faithfully teaching in his name.