The Day of Pentecost – Mark S. Winward
The Significance of Pentecost
Although many Christians don’t recognize it, Pentecost is perhaps the most important Christian feast day for our corporate lives together as God’s people. If Christmas recalls the incarnation, Good Friday Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, Easter his victory over sin and death, and Ascension Day the commissioning of his representatives to share the Good News; then Pentecost frames the meaning of it all to us as God’s people. I want to suggest to you that Pentecost represents three revolutionary ideas.
The Universalization of the Covenant
First, Pentecost represents the universalization of the covenant. In other words, Pentecost opened the way of the God of Israel to all people. Most people don’t realize that the Gospel is, for the most part, a story about Jews. Jesus, all his disciples, and most of the major players in the unfolding of the gospel are Jews. When non-Jews are mentioned in the gospels, they are clearly presented as outsiders; that’s because until the day of Pentecost, non-Jews are outsiders. When Jesus’ followers gathered together in Jerusalem in the second chapter of Acts on the Day of Pentecost, they were actually celebrating a Jewish holy day. Pentecost is another name for Shavuot, or “the Feast of Weeks.” Shavuot celebrates the day God gave the Torah, or law, to the nation of Israel gathered at Mt. Sinai. While on Passover, the people of Israel were freed from the tyranny of Egyptian slavery, on Shavuot Israel was given the Torah and became a nation in a covenantal relationship to serve God.
The story of the Old Testament is the account of God’s mighty deeds among his people, Israel. God’s contract or covenant with the people of Israel was that if they obeyed God’s commandments: that he would be their God and they would be his people. The heart of the Jewish people, then, are the stone tablets of Moses’ Law—their contract with God received at Mt. Sinai. But Pentecost is the beginning of a new contract, a new covenant. At Pentecost, Ezekiel’s prophecy is fulfilled: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Note that Ezekiel doesn’t say “if you keep my laws, I will put my Spirit in you.” Rather, in God’s new contract, there’s a shift that most Christians still don’t get even to this day: God graciously bestows his Spirit on his people—and it’s because they already have his Spirit, they will keep his commandments. God’s people are no longer limited to a particular nation and by their strict observance of a law written in stone. Rather, God’s people are those whom God graciously chooses to bestow his Spirit regardless of race or nation. At Pentecost, the prophet Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled: “And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28).
The Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
Second, besides representing the universalization of the covenant, Pentecost represents the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Spirit of God thus becomes available to all people who would open their hearts to Him, through Christ. In the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit was reserved for prophets and sages on a special mission for God. We hear how the Spirit of the Lord came upon the likes of Moses, Samson, Samuel, and David, who performed mighty acts of God. In the Old Covenant, the Spirit of the Lord wasn’t for ordinary people but select people acting in extraordinary ways. At Pentecost, the Spirit of the Lord was poured out on all those with open hearts. And a shift takes place: no longer is our relationship with God defined by who we are or what we do; rather, it is defined by to whom we belong. And that’s no longer for a special few, but to all who open their hearts to God, God empowers ordinary people to do extraordinary things in His name.
Many people believe living in the power of the Spirit is reserved only for prophets and saints, but Pentecost changed that and opened the empowerment of the Holy Spirit up to ordinary people like you and me. This is what Jesus was talking about in last week’s gospel when he said, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Now we affirm at baptism that every Christian has been marked but the Holy Spirit, but not every Christian has experienced the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Think of it as a pilot light on a stove; how much we dare opening the valve defines how bright that flame shines. But it is up to us how much we choose to open that valve.
The Birth of the Church
Finally, beside representing the universalization of God’s covenant and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost represents nothing less than the birth of the Church. God did not send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost only to comfort—rather, he sent it for us to be empowered to boldly share his message of hope, salvation, and transformation in word and deed, and to live a life experiencing the fullness of joy he meant for us. Like the prophets of old, Pentecost empowered God’s people to spread his Word—yet not just to Israel but to a world so desperately in need of Jesus Christ.
We see the culmination of this covenant, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and new as we baptize Barbara this morning. In the waters of baptism, we witness the same miracle that began at Pentecost: a person being grafted into this universal covenant and “clothed with power” from on high. Just as the Spirit descended upon the first believers to mark them as God’s own, today we celebrate that the same Spirit is still moving, still calling, and still adding to the family of God.
Employing God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
This was revolutionary on the day of Pentecost and is revolutionary today. Pentecost is the one time of year we focus on the Holy Spirit—and all this talk about the Spirit may seem a bit strange and familiar. Now I recognize that this congregation is made of up people who grew up in a diversity of faith traditions. Each our Christian traditions tend to emphasize certain persons of the Trinity over others. It has been said mainline churches often practice a faith where the Father is fully employed, the Son is under-employed, and the Spirit is unemployed. Evangelicals can sometimes fall into a faith where the Father is unemployed, the Son is fully employed, and the Spirit is underemployed. Pentecostals can have a tendency towards a faith where the Father is unemployed, the Son is underemployed, and the Spirit is fully employed. I think all three strands of Christianity have the employment part right! The Biblical faith we recall in the Great Commission, remember today in the second chapter of Acts, and celebrate here on the Day of Pentecost calls us as a corporate people of God and in our daily life at home and at work to fully employ God the Father, fully employ God the Son, and fully employ God the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is nothing less than the culmination of God’s salvation story in the Gospels. This day we celebrate God opening his way of salvation and hope to all people; God’s empowering ordinary people like you and me with the Holy Spirit to discern and do mighty works; and the mobilization of the Church to share that message of hope, healing, and redemption in word, deed to a broken world desperately in need of reconciliation with God and each other.
So, as we leave this place today, let’s not leave the Spirit behind these doors and settle for a “pilot light” faith. Dare to open the valve. Go forth as a people fully employing the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Be the evidence of Pentecost in our community – a people clothed in power, speaking the language of love, and living out the revolutionary hope found in Jesus Christ. Amen.