renewed understanding of its significance will energize the long journey of the time after Pentecost—“ordinary time,” as the Roman Catholics call it. The meaning of Pentecost, the too often neglected
festival, is really quite simple: the Spirit of God is pres- ent in human community. Community is not an add-on to life, something that should be thought about when the needs of individual life are taken care of. Community is where the Spirit of God takes up residence. The Spirit who hovered over the waters at the time of
creation, who was and is present for the massive task of creating, the Spirit who clearly invaded Jesus, the one the Gospel of John says reveals to us the Father—this Spirit is experienced in the simple gatherings of people, in their communal times of mourning and their commu- nal times of laughing.
The Spirit is present as the community works hard and as it shares leisure, as it moves toward perfection and lives most often within imperfection, as it experi- ences extraordinariness and ordinariness, as it reflects grumpiness and joyfulness. This truly is an amazing claim, which is why Luke in Acts needed to express it in such a wild way. Sometimes things that are amazing require amazing images— tongues of fire resting on people’s heads, the rush of a mighty wind, people speaking in languages they didn’t even know, the sun turning to darkness and the moon turning to blood. This is all so amazing and, frankly, quite weird. What is happening is so amazing, so weird, that some folks think this Pentecost gathering is just one big drunken melee. But no, Peter makes clear, this isn’t about too much wine. This is about the presence of the Spirit.
As the prophet Joel said, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:16-17). For Luke, these days—his and ours—are the last days. The days when the Spirit takes up residence in human community are the days to which you and I should pay attention, days that in the end really matter.
It strikes me that the church that understands the
meaning of Pentecost for our life together is the church that pays close attention to the significance of our regu- lar gathering. Sometimes it appears we operate with the assumption that our regular gatherings are just ordinary experiences of predictability. What if we trusted that as we gather the Spirit of God shows up? What if we trusted that as we gather we are part of the last days, not in some
literal, chronological way, but in a way which claims that what is most important in life is in our midst now? What if we trusted that as we gather, the Spirit of God is up to some wild and amazing things? If we follow Luke’s lead in Acts we see that those wild and amazing things are primarily about undoing ancient curses that divide us. The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis describes well those ancient curses. The people in this story are busy creating a high tower that will make them famous. God’s Spirit shows up in this story to confuse their speech so they can’t build it. The confusion, so this ancient tale claims, causes the development of the variety of languages that exist in the world.
The people who once were one in desire to build themselves up are now fractured—divided by their languages.
When the Spirit came at Pentecost, Luke would have
us know, the curse of disunity was undone. Communica- tion was restored. Broken relationships were healed. What if we trusted that as we come together the Spirit of God who takes residence in our gathering is busy unit- ing a once-divided people? What if we trusted that as we come together, people who should not be together, people who have been divided by the ancient curses, are brought together and united by the power of the Spirit who shows up when we assemble? What if we trusted that indeed our coming together as God’s people can make a radical difference in people’s lives? Such trust, such expectation, will help create a cul- ture of growth in our congregations. While many think screens, certain music styles and technology are the keys to church growth in our current era, I’m convinced that, as important as these things may be, they pale in com- parison to the congregational expectation that the assem- bly of God’s people transforms us. People long to know that what they are involved in makes a difference in their lives and in the lives of others. The truth of Pentecost—the day and the season—is
that the difference-making Spirit of God shows up as we gather. This Spirit is busy breaking down the walls and barriers that have divided us from the very beginning, reversing the ancient curses that so dominate our lives. This is life-transforming news. This news transforms our congregations. The wise congregations among us will be those who live week in and week out expect- ing the Spirit of God to show up, expecting the Spirit to change us, to do the wild thing of uniting people who for too long have been divided.
Download a study guide for this article (free to print/Web members) at
www.thelutheran.org (click on “study guides”). July 2013 15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52