Pentecost - God's invitation to us all.
John 14: 8-17 Acts 2: 1-6, 12-18
Having travelled from Easter to Ascension day we have now arrived at Pentecost. We remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to ignite the early church.
Pentecost is an invitation to all of us to become part of God’s kingdom here on earth – to know God more closely and to be given the strength to be the body of Christ, together.
But like so many invitations in life, it’s worth looking at it a bit more deeply, to see quite what it all means.
Let’s start with the name “Pentecost”
Luke begins his account with “When the day of Pentecost had come” because this was a day that was already a Jewish festival – it already had a name, Pentecost was already a thing.
Along with the Feast of Passover & the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost was one of 3 major Jewish feasts, coinciding with the Spring, Summer and Autumn harvests.
During these three great Jewish festivals, every male Jew living within twenty miles of Jerusalem was legally bound to go to Jerusalem to participate in the feast around the temple, and many others from further afield would choose to go. They were times when the city would be very busy and there would be people gathered from many different places.
The word Pentecost means “fiftieth” - it was celebrated fifty days after the Feast of the Passover.
During Passover, the first measure of barley was offered to God. Fifty days later, at Pentecost, two loaves of bread were offered in gratitude for the fulness of the harvest.
That’s why Pentecost already has a name.
And it explains why so many different people, speaking different languages, were gathered in Jerusalem.
What does the name signify for Jesus followers?
It means that this day, Pentecost, has a sense of completing what began 7 weeks before – with Passover in the Jewish feasts – with Easter for us..
In the Jewish calendar, they give thanks that the small gift of a measure of barley from 50 days ago has now become bountiful food for all.
We celebrate how at Easter – on Good Friday - the life of Jesus was laid down. And then how on Easter Sunday he was raised up.
Then, at Pentecost, this offering of one life, the life of Jesus, is transformed through the gift of the Holy Spirit and of fire to become a whole feast of offering of many lives, eventually throughout the world.
The small group of disciples are transformed into the ‘body of Christ’ – the ones who go out to tell about Jesus, and show his life, and be signs of his life wherever they go.
But we might feel this is all too dramatic for us – are we really ready for the invitation of Pentecost?
There is no escaping the fact that the events on that day of Pentecost when the Spirit comes to the disciples of Jesus are remarkable.
The sound like a mighty wind; the tongues of fire resting on everyone: both signs of the presence of God – but very dramatic signs, we might think.
And yet the fire which signifies God’s presence is not just about ‘fireworks’ – but also, like any fire, about warmth and light.
On the 24th of May the Methodist Church celebrates ‘Aldersgate Day’.
This was the day in 1738 when John Wesley, feeling that his message as an Anglican priest was being rejected, went to a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street in London – he writes in his journal that he went “unwillingly”.
During the sermon that evening, Wesley said he felt his heart “strangely warmed”.
He was not hearing the gospel for the first time, and yet John Wesley had a new sense of what God had done for him.
He wrote in his journal:
“I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation.”
This, surely, is another example of the work of the Holy Spirit – not blazing like tongues of fire, but warming one man’s heart, bringing light into his life’s darkness – and leading to the foundation of the great Methodist movement.
So what has all this to do with us – why are we celebrating Pentecost today?
At Easter we celebrate the power of God the Father raining Jesus from death – and we rejoice both that Jesus is alive and that we are promised eternal life through him.
At Pentecost we celebrate the coming of God’s power, through the Holy Spirit, to the disciples – an invitation to the to join in with the continuing activities of the risen Christ.
But we know that the witnesses to this coming of the Spirit hear the message in all their different languages, so that both the message of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit is also for them.
Peter reminds the crowd about the prophecy of Joel – that God will send the Spirit on all flesh.
Pentecost truly is an invitation for us – because it is for everyone.
In John’s gospel we heard the account of Jesus promising the Holy Spirit to come as Helper or Comforter to all his followers, to be with us – to abide in us.
This Spirit does not make us all the same, but gives us what we need to answer the invitation to follow and serve Jesus.
So Pentecost is for us all.
As the Spirit comes
Like fireworks;
like warming fire and a light to guide
Bringing whatever help we need.
We celebrate the Spirit coming to us & answer the invitation to be part of Christ’s work today.
To the glory of God. Amen.
Comments