Isn’t it awful when someone breaks a promise? You took someone’s word, relied on what they promised and then, they weren’t there for you. Some people have had promises broken so many times in their lives that they could keep a separate folder entitled, “Broken Promises” in their computer. Opening that folder and reading the files in it could easily bring tears and hard pains to the surface.
God is a promise-keeper. Jesus is the proof that God’s promises, made a long time ago to the needy people of Israel, are kept. The pattern of promise-making didn’t stop with the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures. The promises continued in the New Testament.
Today we celebrate another promise made and kept. For example, John the Baptist promised, “… there is one to come who is mightier than I….He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 3.16). The risen Christ, speaking to the Eleven, before he was taken up to heaven, promised, “See. I send down upon you the promise of my Father. Remain here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (24:48-49). Once again our God has seen our need and, in Christ, keeps a promise. Today we celebrate the coming of the Spirit to the apostles and the 120 disciples (1:15, 2.1 ff). All gathered were filled with the Spirit just as promised. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all humans. Your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Even upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, I will pour out my spirit” (Joel 3:1).
Pentecost was one of three major Jewish festivals. It celebrated the harvest and occurred seven weeks after the beginning of the grain harvest. The Book of Numbers (28:26-31) calls it the “feast of weeks” and the “day of first fruits.” It took on a historical significance and became the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses. While it was a lesser Jewish feast, because of the event we celebrate today, the coming of the Spirit, Pentecost became an important feast for Christians.
Look what happened very rapidly for the gathered disciples: the descent of the Spirit upon them, the gift of tongues, Peter’s speech and the formation of the Church. While the elders in the Hebrew texts (1 Samuel 10:5 ff) spoke in ecstatic speech under the impulse of God’s Spirit (“prophecy”), today we celebrate Jesus’ Spirit empowering the fledgling church to address herself to all nations and to be understood by them.
The Bible tells us that when humans, filled with pride, attempted to build the tower of Babel, there were division and a multitude of unintelligible languages. Now, Pentecost restores unity and, with the Spirit, the church goes out to preach the gospel — witness Peter’s discourse right after the Spirit comes. Peter clarifies what was happening for the people who were attracted by the sound and who heard the disciples “speaking in their own language” (2:6). The before-and-after contrast is strong. Before the coming of the Spirit the assembled disciples were a shattered and confused collection of would-be disciples. After the Spirit came the group became bold and articulate, ready to respond to their original calling, to be “fishers of people.”
The Pentecost event has nothing to do with the sterling and exemplary character of the first disciples. They had shown themselves to be a hapless and motley group. This feast isn’t celebrating their merits and earned reward, but what God had done and continues to do — fulfill promises. The native gifts of the early church were not enough to spread their faith in their teacher and Lord, Jesus, to the whole world. Instead, guided and affirmed by the Spirit, God was able to use the diverse group of disciples to spread the gospel through the whole world by the Spirit’s gift to speak in “our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
Remember Advent and Christmas? There were the Advent wreath, pine trees in the sanctuary and then the manger. At Easter we had the lighted Paschal Candle and flowing water. But what symbols should we use for today’s feast — besides the red vestments and the “tongues as of fire? Luke describes the coming of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism as descending “invisible form like a dove” (3:22), so the dove has often been the symbol for the Spirit in religious art and architecture. That’s a lovely image and it captures the gentleness of God’s coming among us. Recall the appearance of the dove to Noah as a sign of the Flood’s ending and peace. In the New Testament the dove is the offering of the poor at the Temple. If the Spirit descended on Jesus “in visible form like a dove” it shows the gospel using a symbol that identifies where God’s heart lies — with the poor.
But we don’t meet the gentle dove in today’s Pentecost event from Acts. Instead, we get a vivid and action-packed story with a sound like a driving wind, tongues of fire and immediate animated activity by the community. Today’s Spirit is noisy, very public, felt and accompanied by public signs.
If we are looking for a symbol for today we might turn to the gospel and John’s narration of the event. After issuing a word of peace to his disciples locked up in fear, Jesus shows them his wounds. Then he breaths on them and gives them his Spirit. I don’t know how we might display those two symbols day — wounds and breath.
But I am sure that one of those symbols is already in full display in our church or chapel — the wounded Christ hangs on the cross. It’s an image we can’t put aside on this great feast. Jesus’ wounds are always before us when we worship and should be in our minds when we leave this worship space to return to our daily lives. Followers of Christ are followers of a wounded Christ, who placed his life into our hands — and we crucified him. Now he places his life in our hands again — this time with the breath of his Spirit. It’s a Spirit we heard about earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us it “blows where it will” (3:8).
Without our breath, we die. The breath of Jesus is a good symbol for us today. If we were more conscious throughout our days, we would remember, as we breathe, that God is closer to us even than our own breath. So, what about focusing on our breathing for few a minutes each day, inviting the Spirit to come more fully into our lives with each breath we draw. “Come Spirit of Jesus,” we could pray as we inhale. The Spirit comes not just in the “holy places” we gather for worship, but is present to us “out there,” breathing in us and directing us to unexpected and surprising places to serve the Lord.
Our world needs witnesses to the love Jesus preached and exhibited from the cross. We are a Spirit-filled church and must transcend all barriers of race, gender, economic class, languages and cultures. God needs us and so supplies us with the Spirit so we can, like Jesus, proclaim God’s love and peace to the world through our words and actions. After all, we have the very animating and courageous breath Jesus had — the Spirit of God.