SEEKING UNDERSTANDING

June 8, 2014

Pentecost Sunday

Numbers 11:24-30

Acts 2:1-21

(prayer)

Shavuot
(sha-vu-ot), the Feast of Weeks occurred every year - seven 'weeks' after Pesach (pe-shaCH), Passover. 

Passover is the annual commemoration of the Israelite people's liberation from slavery to the Egyptian Pharaoh, under the leadership of Moses. 

Weeks commemorates the giving of the law (Torah) to the people by Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of the ten commandments, seven weeks after the Exodus began - as it evolved, the feast of weeks expanded to celebrate not just the 10 Commandments, but the gift of the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) traditionally attributed to Moses' authorship.  In Israel, the Festival of Weeks also happens to coincide with the spring wheat harvest.  All in all, Weeks was a joyous time of celebration for the goodness of
God made manifest in the people's lives.

That was certainly true in New Testament times.

In the greek-speaking world of the 1st century, the Festival of Weeks was also called Pentecost, because 7 weeks is (essentially) fifty days: pente = five.

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When the day of Pentecost came, [the disciples and other followers of Jesus] were all together in one place. (Acts 2:1) 
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It started with a sound: difficult to explain - it was like the sound of wind (a strong violent wind), but it wasn't coming from outside... it was in the house!

The followers of Jesus sat there stunned, startled, and I suspect worried and afraid. 

Then the moment got even stranger: out of nowhere, an unusual sight - again hard to explain - some "thing" filled the room.  It was both tangible and fluid.  It moved as if it were alive.  It divided into various strands that settled on and around each one of then.  So hard to explain - these strands were like the leaping tongues of a fire.

Again, this does not sound comforting.  Being surrounded by the sound of destructive winds and being touched by something that resembled leaping fire, must have been absolutely terrifying.

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And then the scene got even stranger... the followers of Jesus began to speak in (what the text describes as) other languages.  The author of Acts attributed this to the work of the Spirit, although I doubt that anyone in the room was thinking about it that way.  The presumption is that the languages they were able to suddenly speak were not languages they knew - and perhaps these were new languages, known to no one.

It is in hindsight that the Acts author says that these disciples must have been filled with the Holy Spirit and that is why they were able to speak as they did.  The implication is (of course) that the wind sound and the tongues of fire were manifestations of the Spirit.

Then the scene got even stranger... it turns out the wind-like sound was audible beyond the house where the disciples were.  A crowd gathered to see what was going on.  They arrived in time to hear Jesus' followers speaking in those strange tongues.  Only the words weren't sounding strange at all.

Stranger still, this crowd was not homogeneous: they included people from all over the jewish diaspora, many with different native languages.

Okay, let's recap this scene - the followers of Jesus are together in Jersusalem about 50 days after the sorrow of his crucifixion and the glory of his resurrection.  The have a sudden frightening experience that culminates with their ability to speak in languages that not one of them understands but the people in street seem to comprehend just fine - as if the disciples were speaking directly to them in their own native tongue.

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This is the Christian Pentecost story!

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Seven weeks after the multi-layered experiences of the unimaginable grief-joy of Jesus' death and resurrection, the followers of Jesus are faced with a new encounter with the holy that was nothing like anything they had known before.

It was so new that they had trouble finding the words for what was going on.

But... they had to try.  This experience could not be ignored - it had to be talked about - the wanted to make sense of what they had been through.

"This new, different experience:  What does this mean?  How should I react?  Scared, excited, discouraged, encouraged?  Is God saying something in all of this?"

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I think this is not an isolated reaction.  Many of us find ourselves asking those questions as we move through this life - particularly times of hightened emotions.

We are curious-creations: our minds have evolved to want to discover and understand.  And so, we don’t often feel comfortable in times of uncertainly and mystery.

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And yet, mystery seems to be normal-place when it comes to the Spirit of God.  We find glimpses to peak our curiosity and then it’s gone making us wonder what it was we had just experienced. 

Think about Jesus on the mountain top with Peter, James and John.  It was the last story we read before we entered the season of Lent a few months ago (The so-called Transfiguration: cf. Mark 9:2-8).  For a fleeting moment, the disciples saw Jesus in a scene of dazzling white, standing alongside with heroes of the faith.  It was not just their eyes that feasted on this glory, but their ears also.  “This is my beloved son.  Listen to him.”  And then, as quickly as it arose… it was gone.

The story goes that the disciples didn’t talk about that day much until much later - we might wonder: did they ever make sense of it?

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And here we go again, during the Festival of Weeks.

As Simon Peter listened to the speculation of the crowd on that Pentecost day, he drew on the traditions of his faith: while it may have looked to an outsider that the manifestation of the Spirit that day was simply the odd behaviour of inebriated festival goers, Peter knew that it began in the sobriety of the disciples’ morning prayers: the wind-like sound, the flame-like presence, the confusion and unity of language brought Peter's thoughts to the oracle of an ancient prophet. 

Joel spoke to the people of Judah who had experienced the tragedy of a season of crops lost to a severe drought and an infestation of locusts.  They worried about their relationship with God. The prophet assured them that the locusts may have caused a temporary hardship, but that they would again know blessing.  Therefore, the prophet encouraged even deeper faith in God's promises. 

The words that Peter keyed on centuries later in Jerusalem were the prophet's promise of God's Spirit being made manifest: "the days are coming... when God's Spirit will be poured out on all people".  We are witnessing that today, Peter suggested to the curious crowd.

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I think it is human nature to be curious in the midst of mystery.  We desire more than the experience - we want to understand.

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And yet, a wise prophet once reminded us that one of the things required of us is to walk humbly with God (cf. Micah 6:8). 

Reinhold Niebuhr eloquently espoused that it is a gift of serene wisdom to know the difference between the things we can change and those we can't.  Perhaps, it is equally wise to be able to appreciate where the limit of our understanding is at significant times of this life - when our 'desire to understand' butts up against 'the need to live with the mystery'.

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In every era, there can be the prophetic voices who seem to discern a level of understanding beyond what most people are capable of.  The tradition of the prophets is one of finding a window into the heart of God that speaks to the 'experience of now'.

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The urge to understand what happened was a desire to know the Spirit, Peter proposes.  The message is that the Spirit moves indiscriminately: that the mysteries of the holy are available to all - young and old, male and female, slave and free: the typical dividing lines within the first century Hebrew culture.

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Sometimes, it is the gift of humility that opens us up to the presence of the Holy in our midst. 

Even if we don't fully understand, the promise remains: in the Spirit, we are one.

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Let us pray;

Holy Spirit, who came as wind and flames of fire, unite us in creative loves that unites us, celebrates differences, ans brings glory to God.
Amen.

#625VU "I Feel the Winds of God"