When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "
John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
Three times a year the people called Israel were required according to their faith to come before the presence of the Lord. Their understanding of this requirement, for those who lived anywhere near Jerusalem, was that they should come to the Temple. These three occasions during the year were the Celebrations of Passover, the Celebration of Shavuot, which in Greek is Pentecost, and the Celebration of Sukkot. Passover was the celebration of their release from bondage in captivity in Egypt. Pentecost was the time of celebrating when they received the law, the Torah, by Moses on Mt. Sinai, and the gathering of the first fruits of the harvest. And Sukkot was a kind of ingathering of the late harvest of the year. These three occasions were the times that they came to the temple to bring their offerings and present themselves to God.
Life had not been simple or uncomplicated or especially peaceful. They had been taken over by different groups of people, they had been driven off their land into exile. They had a difficult time being in the land that they felt they were promised. And so many of the people called Israel found themselves over time living in a number of different places – places they had fled for safety. That meant they lived within other cultures, other traditions. They learned to speak other languages where they lived.
So when the people called Israel would gather again in the temple, when people would come back to Jerusalem from the places where they had settled, they came back with all of the languages, all the cultural acquisitions and all the things that had shaped them where they had made their home.
We hear in our lesson from Acts of the Apostles the impact of what happens when the people now make their way back to Jerusalem. Together again as they are beginning to celebrate the Pentecost, they have come with everything they are now from all the places that have shaped them and holding onto their Jewish traditions.
But at their core, they have come to this place, in order to appear before the Lord and to bring their gifts. There they are – those who have emigrated back, people who are pilgrims alongside the folks who have lived through all of this and continued to make Jerusalem their home.
If the memories of what happened just 50 days before aren’t still fresh for them it would be a surprise. Because the last time they were all gathered into Jerusalem for the Passover, we know that they experienced the unexpected execution of their beloved teacher, rabbi and friend. We have to wonder if in their own minds they aren’t at least a little anxious, if they aren’t asking themselves what could happen now? Are they kind of frightened about what might happen just 50 days later?
And as they’re gathering, these people from all these places, who speak so many different languages, who have been formed by all these different traditions – start hearing something very different. They might know a few others people who speak their languages, but they are not expecting a bunch of Galileans, to be speaking their language – to be sharing the word of God with them in a way that they can understand.
They realize they’re hearing something new. What is this? How can this be? How is God doing this?
Now notice how it is that the Holy Spirit comes into Jerusalem: the Holy Spirit does not come in quietly. We see in our gospel lesson from John today that Holy Spirit comes in quietly. Jesus bids them peace and then breathes the Holy Spirit onto the disciples in that room, it’s a quiet thing. But in Acts, the Holy Spirit does not come quietly into Jerusalem. But loud, big, booming, roaring in. Getting everyone’s attention. Shaking everything up. This shows how the Holy Spirit can work in our lives – the Holy Spirit come quietly but also can come in and shake us up so that we’re not quite the same again.
So Peter is trying to explain to them how it is that this day has come to pass. And he does so using words that should be familiar to them, he goes back to the words of the prophet Joel. God says that God is going to pour God’s Holy Spirit upon you – no matter who you are: men and women, slave and free, young and old. No matter who you are or where you are, God can pour that Holy Spirit upon you and make you brand new. So here we see everyone beginning to process what it means for God to be at work – in new ways, in unexpected ways, breathing life into a body of people in a way they never expected. Because God does that. God does exactly that.
We’re filled with all these incredible visuals of this day in Jerusalem, and we think … what does all of this say to us today as we continue to be shaped in our world by the work of God? One thing it should say to us is that unexpected thing – that God sometimes comes in unexpected ways; God might be speaking a language we don’t think we understand, that God might be doing something that we never expected God to be doing. And we have to be ready for that. We have to be ready, no matter what, to move with God into the place where God wants us to be.
But it says something about the community of believers doesn’t it? All these diverse people with diverse experiences and languages and ways of living, the one thing they do have in common with one another is that love of God. They share that. Even if they don’t communicate well with each other in any other way they are there and they are present because they share that love of God just as we are all here and present today sharing that love of God.
Like them, we are all diverse. We all come from different backgrounds and traditions. We all come to the language of God is very different ways. But none the less, we come together to be nourished by the word, by fellowship with one another. We come to grow together as children of God.
And any artificial boundaries that separate us fall away because what is important to us, what is real to us, is our love of God. And we come together to find our way to go forth into the world and serve God as the Holy Spirit empowers us and moves and refreshes us.
I hope the Holy Spirit is coming to each of us today in just the perfect way that makes sense to us – whether it’s shaking us up of coming on the blessing of peace. Either way, let us ask ourselves – what is God calling ME to do to make a difference? What is God calling US corporately to do to make a difference?
Too often we think that we can’t do enough because we think of ourselves as solitary, individual beings. I can’t do that because I’m not big enough, I’m not strong enough, I don’t control enough or I don’t have enough resources at my disposal. But every single one of us is capable of effecting the life of another person in a mighty way.
In John’s gospel Jesus offers, along with the breath of the Holy Spirit, his peace. We are carriers of God’s peace. And sometimes it’s only just by saying a kind word that we are able to show God’s love and help others find their way to God.
We’re really not that much different from that early community. All brought together with one hope and one aspiration of a shared love of God. And from that, the Holy Spirit breathes on us the knowledge that when God’s people all say “evil cannot triumph over God, it is real.” But we have to believe that with the power of the Holy Spirit nothing is impossible.
So my prayer for us this day, is that we take this image we have from this early community – this rag tag bunch of folks that come from everywhere who don’t even speak the same language, we take that image and we say to the world that nothing is greater than God’s love for all of us. Amen.