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May 30, 2004; The Day of Pentecost, Year C
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

On this Memorial Day weekend 2004, when Paul Lyon and thousands of World War Two veterans have made a pilgrimage to participate in the dedication of the World War Two memorial in our capital city of Washington, D.C., it is appropriate that we should pause to remember and give thanks for all of the men and women of our armed forces who have died defending our country and the people of the world against tyranny and terrorism.  (Pause)

Every nation, culture, and religion has its holidays and holy days which mark significant events in their history.   In the Jewish tradition Shavuoth, or the Feast of Weeks, occurs fifty days after Passover.  This festival dates back to the time of the Exodus from Egypt when Jews were commanded to observe the spring harvest of wheat and barley by presenting an offering of the first fruits of the harvest to God.  Several centuries later the commemoration of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the Torah, or the Law, were also added to this feast.  With the building of Jerusalem Jews began making an annual pilgrimage to the Holy City to present their offerings to the priests at the temple and to celebrate the giving of the Law.  By the time of Jesus, hundreds of thousands of Jews, including those who lived in the Middle East and Asia Minor, would fill the city in order to present their offerings and celebrate the festival.

It is during the holy day of Shavuoth in about 34 A.D. that Luke records in his Acts of the Apostles the gathering of the disciples and other followers of Jesus in Jerusalem following the ascension of Jesus.  After Peter briefly stated what had taken place, the followers of Jesus, which numbered about one hundred and twenty,[1] set about getting things organized.  The first order of business was to replace Judas, so that the complement of disciples would number twelve again.  Undoubtedly during this time they were trying to figure out what else they should be doing. 

Then without warning the Holy Spirit descends on them, creating chaos.  Like a violent wind, the Holy Spirit, pushed them around.  And like flames of fire, the Holy Spirit, energized them.   They, meaning the entire gathering of more than one hundred and twenty people, began to speak in different languages.

How do we interpret this event?  Flames of fire dancing above people’s heads and speaking in tongues is foreign to us.  As Episcopalians, we prefer the image of the Holy Spirit as a dove.  That gentile creature, without a feather out of place, who gracefully descends on us to fill us with the presence of God.  But as we learn from the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is not always that gentle.  Instead of a warm fuzzy feeling, the Holy Spirit sometimes, maybe we can even say most of the time, shakes things up a bit.

The Spirit is described as “a sound like the rush of a violent wind.”  In Hebrew, the word for wind is rûah.  In Greek, it is pneuma.  These words are also translated as breath or spirit.  The same word is used in the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, “a wind from God, swept over the face of the waters,” [2] and later, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”[3]  In our Gospel reading from John this morning, when Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit,”[4] pneuma is used.

Pneuma is the word that we find in today’s text from the Book of Acts that has been translated “wind.”

In the beginning the rûah. or pneuma of God gave life.   Throughout the Bible that same breath/wind/Spirit continued to bring life and God’s inspiration to his people.

The wind on Pentecost was not a gentle breeze, it was a strong wind, the kind that shakes things up and breaks things loose.  This is the way the Holy Spirit works, at least in the accounts that are given to us in the Bible.   The prophets are another example of the work of the Holy Spirit.  In the Nicene Creed we say that the Spirit spoke through the prophets.  Now, the prophets did not hold people’s hands and say, “There, there, everything is going to be all right.”  They said, “Everything you’re doing is an unholy mess.  Repent.  Turn your lives back to God.”  The prophets shook things up.  This way of thinking about the Holy Spirit is uncomfortable to most people.  We don’t want to be shook up.  We know what we want and the way we want things to be.

Just think of the disciples.  They were in the process of getting everything in order.  Why, maybe they would even hire a church growth consultant and start a Sunday School program for the kids.  And then along comes the Holy Spirit, blowing them off of their duffs and out into the world to spread the Good News of the risen Christ.

To make sure that they know what is happening to them, tongues, as of fire danced over their heads.  Fire, in the Old Testament was often a sign of God’s presence.  Remember how God appeared to Moses in a burning bush?  And the pillar of fire that led the Hebrew people at the beginning of the Exodus from Egypt?  The tongues of fire are a sign of God’s presence on Pentecost.

But why, you might ask, were they inspired to speak in different foreign tongues.  Well this is not the gift of speaking in tongues that Paul refers to in I Corinthians.  Rather, the disciples and those gathered with them were given the ability to speak in foreign languages so that they could tell the Jewish pilgrims who had gathered in Jerusalem from different countries for Shavuoth all about Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the Pentecost story, is not about the details of what happened, but is the fact that the disciples who had been afraid to be seen on the streets of Jerusalem, now began to preach about Jesus Christ.  Instead of hiding behind the familiar walls of the upper room, they went out into the streets and countryside carrying the message they had been entrusted with to the people.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Church.  But this is more than just a birthday.  It is more than a day like Memorial Day, in which we remember what has happened.   While Pentecost describes an event that happened almost two thousand years ago, I believe that it is a statement of what continues to happen to the followers of Jesus Christ – the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to – well light a fire under us and blow us out into the world to speak about God’s deeds of power – not just his past deeds but how he is acting in the world today.   This is a little uncomfortable for Episcopalians, yet it is what we are called to do, to be God’s agents in the world today.  

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