Day of Pentecost 2017

Pentecost 2017
1. At some point, after Jesus death and resurrection, he left this earth for good. Pentecost celebrates
the fact that even though Jesus physical presence on earth had ended, God continue to be among
Jesus disciples as the Holy Spirit, who guided and enlightened them, and gave them the power,
courage, and drive to spread the Gospel to every country and every culture.
But did you notice that todays readings give us 2 totally different accounts on how the Spirit was
received? In Acts we read that after Jesus had ascended to heaven the Spirit descended on the
disciples in the form of tongues of fire. In the Gospel of John, we read that, after the Resurrection,
Jesus breathed on his disciples and told the receive the Holy Spirit.
We know what happened: the disciples received the Holy Spirit. But the descriptions of how it happen
differ. Luke and John are focused on explaining the meaning of what happened, and so they reach back
to their Jewish heritage and use images from the Hebrew Bible to help their readers grasp the
significance of this event.
There are clues in Johns and Lukes stories of Pentecost whose meaning was obvious to audiences
coming from a Jewish heritage. But that are not immediately obvious to the rest of us.
Put in in another way. John and Luke stories about the coming of the Holy Spirit differ because they
wanted to emphasize the importance of different ideas to their audiences. Lets look at them:
2. In the Gospel of John, Jesus breathes over the disciples and tells them Receive the Holy Spirit, and then
gives them the authority to forgive sin.
Breathing over is a reference to the creation story in the book of Genesis. Genesis starts with, In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was
darkness over the deep, and Gods spirit was hovering over the water. God said let there be light, and
there was light.. In Hebrew the expressions: spirit of God and the breath of God have the same
meaning. The creation story ends in Genesis chapter 3 with the first humans committing a sin of
disobedience and being banished from the Garden of Eden.
By using these images, John is telling his readers that Pentecost is a new creation: the church is a
new universe being created through the power of the Spirit. The history of salvation, from Abraham
to the prophets to Jesus had the purpose to undo the original sin and reconcile humanity to God.
Jesus by giving the disciples the power to forgive sins was completing his mission to reconcile
humans to God.
 Pentecost 2017
3. In Acts, Luke explains the meaning of Pentecost, by using a different set of Biblical references.
Luke choose to emphasize the Pentecost took place 50 days after Easter. (Pentecost = 50 days in
Greek) There are two 50 days references in the O.T. that are reflected here
a. The first is in Exodus: 50 days after leaving Egypt the Israelites became the people of God by
making a covenant with God at Mt. Sinai and receiving Gods law. In the process, Moses
ascended (up Mt. Sinai) and then returned with Gods law to guide the Israelites. In Luke, 50 days
after Easter Jesus (the new Moses) ascended to heaven and sent the Spirit of God, rather than
the law, to guide the church (the new people of God). This was the creation of the new people of
God
b. The second reference is to is the harvest feast that was celebrated by the Jews 50 days after
Passover. Jewish farmers started sowing after Passover and the first harvest was ready 50 days
later. At Passover, Jesus was sacrificed and put into the ground like the spring seed, and 50 days
later the Church was born as the first fruit (the spring harvest) of the Spirit
c. There is another reference to the Old Testament in Luke in the statement that the Apostles were
understood by people who spoke various foreign languages. With this statement, Luke is telling
his readers that Pentecost is the reversal of the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis.
Genesis chapter 11 has the story of the tower of Babel: humans wanted to be like God and decided to
build a tower to climb up to heaven, the place where God lived. But God confused them by creating
multiple languages. As a consequence, humans could no longer understand each other and stopped
building the tower.
For Lukes speaking in tongues was the undoing of the divisions in the tower of Babel story. This time,
Gods Spirit reached down to the disciples of Jesus and transformed them. The outcome was to enable
them to communicate with people of every nation and every language, overcoming cultural differences.
So, Luke explains Pentecost by reaching back to Exodus, to the Covenant with God to the spring harvest
festival and to the tower of Babel to help his audience understand the meaning of Pentecost.
1. At Pentecost the church became the new People of God, guided by the Spirit, not by the law
2. Christians are the new harvest, the fruits of Jesus redemptive activity that came to fruition at
Pentecost.
3. The coming of the Holy Spirit is a new creation: the new people of God is no longer limited to the
Jews, but includes all cultures, all nations and all languages.
 Pentecost 2017
4. The first humans had sinned in their pride by wanting to be like God and tried to to climb to
heaven. But God had reversed this pattern by sending his son to live and die as one of us, and
then, at Pentecost, when Jesus mission of earth had ended, God sent the Holy Spirit to guide
and enlighten his disciples, and to unite every nation and culture into the new people of God
4. Finally, in the reading from Corinthians, Paul describes the impact of the Spirit on their
community: we know a tree from his fruits, we know that the Spirit is here from his gifts
For Paul, Christians are totally dependent on the Spirit. Even a simple statement of faith such as Jesus
is Lord could only be made as a result of the action of the Spirit: you and I would not be here if we had
not been called by the Spirit of God.
For Paul, each member of the community has talents, abilities, skills that should be used to benefit the
whole community. Paul calls these abilities the gifts of the Spirit. Paul goes on to describe a variety of
gifts that the members of the church had: healing, working miracles, prophecy, discernment, language
skills, etc. All of these gifts had come from the Spirit of God and had been given to individuals for the
benefit of the entire community.
5. Let me wrap up by reminding you that our church is like the church of Corinth:
We are here because the Spirit of God had brought us here. All of us have a very personal story of
how we happened to come to St. James and why we felt at home here. It was the Spirit who led us
here for our benefit and the Spirit gives us gifts for the benefit of the entire community
We have different skills, abilities, qualities. We use these skills in our jobs, in our families, in our
communities. Paul reminds us that these skills are all gifts of the Spirit: everything comes from the
God who created us.
Paul also reminds us that a body has many organs: we have eyes, ears, hands, feet.. our organs are
not free agents, they all members of the same body. We are members of the body of Christ, of the
same church, and the gifts we have have been given to us for the benefit of all
St. James has many needs. We need everyones help. Please share your gifts and ask them how you
could help make our church stronger and more vibrant in carrying out our mission to imitate Jesus in
loving God and loving our neighbors.