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PENTECOST SUNDAY

May 27, 2007

Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17; Romans 8:14-17

Acts 2:1-21 is the account of the anointing of the Holy Spirit falling upon the followers of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost (Feast of the First Fruits), and thus signaling the birth of the church.  The scripture lesson actually covers two portions of that story: the giving of the Spirit to the Christian community (2:1-13), and the introduction of Peter’s sermon delivered to the Jews who observed this filling of the Holy Spirit (2:14-21; the entire speech runs through vs. 36).

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the believers were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:1-4).

This great event was both climax and inauguration.  It was the climax of Jesus’ work among the disciples as they, like him, were filled with the observable power of the Holy Spirit.  It was inauguration, because it was the clear indication from God that the mantle had shifted from Jesus to his followers who would now become “little Christs” to the world.  Thus Pentecost marked the birth of the apostolic mission of the church, bringing Jesus’ kingdom of God (the shalom community) to the whole world.

It was particularly auspicious that this filling of the Spirit and consequent commissioning of the church occurred on the Feast of Pentecost.  The word “Pentecost” literally means “fifty days” in Greek.  Pentecost was the festival that followed fifty days after Israel’s celebration of Passover – the birthday of Israel!  It was the festival of “First Fruits” (Duet. 16:9-12; Lev. 23:15-21), in which Israel both celebrated the spring harvest (the “first fruits” of that year’s crops) and remembered its origins as impoverished slaves in Egypt (Dt. 16:12) by sharing their abundance with the poor and powerless in an intentional reversal of the nation’s fortune.  

Now, in essence, a new “First Fruits” was being celebrated by a “new Israel”, as the Holy Spirit anointing of Jesus’ followers declared that they were now called to carry Jesus’ “kingdom of God” not just to Israel, but to all humanity.  And that kingdom that they were to carry with them was one both of being chosen and blessed by God and of working to create a new world order where poverty would be eliminated and the powerless given power.  These early disciples were the literal “First Fruits” of Jesus’ redemptive and liberating work – and would now carry that fruit with them as they worked for the redemption and liberation of the world! 

That new mission would be symbolized in the actions of that day, when the Spirit’s anointing of the followers of Jesus would be followed by their proclamation of this liberating news in the languages of all the people gathered in Jerusalem (2:5-13), Peter’s sermon that calls upon Israel to embrace Christ and His Kingdom (2:14-36), the enthusiastic response of the people as they embrace the gospel (2:37-41), the creation of a Christian community that is based on the equitable sharing of wealth so that poverty would be eliminated (2:42-47), Peter’s healing of a paralyzed man (3:1-11) and his proclamation of God’s new shalom community through Jesus in the very citadel of the vested interest of the Jewish “principalities and powers” (3:12-26).

In order to understand the significance of Luke’s inclusion of the Pentecost story in his “Acts of the Apostles”, one must recognize that in the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit is confined to the empowerment of Jesus’ own ministry.  The only exceptions are those which are integral to the inauguration of the salvation history to be wrought through Jesus in the stories surrounding his birth – Mary (1:35), Elizabeth (1:41), John the Baptist (1:15, 17), Zechariah (1:67) and Simeon (2:25-27).  Otherwise, Luke is very careful to attribute the filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit as being given exclusively to Jesus.

But now, the transfer takes place.  That Spirit who had empowered Jesus was now given to all the followers of Jesus who would now be empowered to continue Jesus’ ministry of redemption and liberation upon the earth.  And signs are given to make clear that transfer of power.  Those signs are “a mighty wind”, tongues of fire and speaking in the languages of all those from around the world gathered in Jerusalem.  Each gift is significant. 

The gift of “a mighty rushing wind” or “violent wind” was, to all Jews, a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence (Ex. 3:2; 13:21; 24:17; 40:38; I Kings 19:11-13; Ezek. 37:9, 13).  In fact, the Hebrew word for “Spirit” is “ruach” or “wind”, while the Greek word “pneuma” means both “wind” and “spirit”.  The gift of “tongues of fire” was a symbol of God’s cleansing and judging power (Matt. 3:11, 12).  And speaking in all the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem (those languages are named in vss. 9-11) was the clear indicator and manifestation of the Spirit’s occupation of these disciples of Jesus.  In fact, the people observing this phenomenon commented, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans (in other words, these are unlettered, unschooled people from the poorest and most ignorant area of our country”)?  How is it that we hear each of us, in our own native language, about God’s deeds of power” (2:7—8, 11b)?  This was clearly a miracle that only God could perform. 

Thus, the wind, the tongues of fire, and clear communication in all the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost[1] are the three signs of the Spirit’s indwelling and empowering of Jesus’ followers.  The Jews, of course, responded in two predictable ways to these manifestations of the Spirit.  Some accepted the phenomenon as truly of God and embraced Jesus and His Kingdom (the shalom community) – and their acceptance into this new way of life that impacted their politics, economics and values is recorded in Acts 3.  And other Jews rejected the evidence, with the excuse “These followers of Jesus are filled with new wine” (vs. 13).[2]  Some believed.  And others closed themselves to the message.

In the light of this criticism, Peter speaks to the crowd.  He quotes from Joel 3:1-5, indicating that this prophet predicted that, in the latter days, there would be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the people of God that would be manifested with wind, tongues of fire and truth-telling.  That is what you Jews have observed – God coming to his people.  So listen, take seriously what you are seeing, do not dismiss it – for it may be the very word of God to you!  So hear that word, call upon the name of the Lord, and embrace Jesus and his coming shalom community (manifested in the life and actions of his church, right here and now – 2:42-47).  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (2:21).

John 14:8-17 begins with the disciple Philip’s statement to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (vs. 8).  His use of the first person plural, rather than his saying “Show me the Father and I will be satisfied” is an indication that he likely speaks for the disciples.  Jesus’ response to this request is pure exasperation.  “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (vss. 9-10)

What frustration Jesus must have felt at his disciples!  They seemed not to get it at all!  They had lived with him for close to three years now.  They had seen his miracles and healings among the poor.  They had watched him confront the religious and political leaders over and over again and call them to accountability.  More than that, they had heard his words.  Those teachings had been about the world as God intended it to be, the way that the greed and lust for domination by the powerful had corrupted that world, of the work of redemption and liberation that God wanted to do in all humanity – both peasant and powerful, and of the new community that God wanted to build among those who believed in him.  But those teachings had also been about his person – his frequent use of “I AM” statements in a way that equated Yahweh with himself, his indication that it was through himself that salvation would come for the world, his previous declarations of his oneness with God in both mission and person (John 5, 7-8, 10).  How could Philip and the others still not recognize that to know him was to know God?

Jesus continues in his response to Philip and the rest of the disciple band.  “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.  Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (vss. 11-12).

Jesus continues his argument that, if you find it hard to take his words, then take his actions.  Look at his ministry.  Note what he has done.  And let those deeds witness to who he is and, consequently, what is the nature of the relationship between himself and God.

But then Jesus shifts the focus of his words.  He moves from talking about the need for his followers to believe in him and his works, to talking about their works.  “Those who believe in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father”.  What does he mean by that?  How could any disciple of Jesus do greater works than the Master himself?

Jesus is not stating here that any individual Christian will do greater miracles than he has done.  Rather he is stating that the church’s work, as a community of faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit, will be accumulatively greater than Jesus’ works in either number or territory!  Whereas Jesus’ works are limited by time (he could do only so many miracles during his brief three-year ministry) and space (he could do great works only in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee), the church would be doing Godly works from the time of Jesus’ ascension to the “end of the age”, and would eventually be doing such works all over the world.

But it is also true that Jesus’ disciples will do what, ipso facto, Jesus cannot do.  The essential task for the followers of Jesus is not just to do “good works” but to build a people of power – to create and shape and maintain and nurture and build up a community of believers that would carry on the work of Jesus and the building of God’s kingdom from generation to generation and throughout the world.  That is the one thing Jesus cannot do.  That can only be done after Jesus has departed, and only a handful of followers are left behind.  That is, ultimately, the “greater work” that the church must do.  For the church must build the church – not as an institution or as buildings, but as a community of people knitted together around the same Lord, the same God and committed to the common cause of working for the liberation, redemption and ultimate transformation of the world.

But how will this handful of believers accomplish this great work?  The followers of Jesus are so few, so scattered and so defeated – and Rome and the Jewish powers are so large and powerful and dominating.  How can the believers be empowered to carry out the “greater work” with which Jesus is leaving them?

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (14:16-17).

“I will give you another Advocate – the Spirit of truth.”  Jesus promises them another Advocate, implying that there is an original advocate.  That is, there already must be an already existing advocate before there can be “another” advocate.  And that first advocate is Jesus himself!  He has long assured his disciples in the Gospel of John that he who has been with them in the past, healing them, supporting them, going to battle for them before the Jewish religious and political leaders of Israel (and, later on, against the Roman emperor himself in the person of his envoy, Pilate) will continue to be with them.  But Jesus is also saying that God will take even better care of Jesus’ community after his death, in that he will give them “another Advocate” who is “the Spirit of truth”. 

What does Jesus mean by calling the Holy Spirit an “Advocate”?  One will note, when looking at a spectrum of translations that a wide assortment of English words are used for the unique word Jesus uses for the Spirit in this text.  Besides “advocate”, the words “comforter”, “counselor”, “helper” are also used in various translations.  What is precisely the role Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit will play within the Christian community?

The Greek word John has Jesus use in 14:16 is the word “parakletos” (in English, “Paraclete”).  But what is a “parakletos”?  In the Roman law court, the accused didn’t hire a lawyer to present his defense.  Rather, he was responsible for defending himself.  Thus, in Acts 26:1-23, it is Paul himself who speaks in his own defense before King Agrippa and the governor of the Roman province of Syria, Festus. 

But how could an ordinary Roman citizen know enough about the subtleties of Roman law to argue his own case?  To do so, he hired a “parakletos” – an expert in Roman law who would literally “stand alongside him” during his trial and whisper into his ear what he needed to know so that he could present his best defense.  Later Jewish writers, such as Philo, then picked up this concept of “parakletos” to write about the Temple priest or the Pharisee as being a Jew’s “advocate” before God!

So what Jesus was saying is that God has provided another “parakletos” to come alongside the Christian community and each individual Christian to advise, advocate, instruct and comfort them or him as they or he faithfully sought to carry out the mission to which their original “parakletos”, Jesus, had called them.  In other words, this “Spirit of truth” is an extension of Jesus alive and at work in and among Jesus’ community today, enabling Jesus’ people to carry out the “greater work” to which God and Jesus (as one Lord) has called them!  That is the “Spirit of truth” whose coming upon the church we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday!                       

Romans 8:14-17 has within it a rather creative play on words in the Greek which cannot be easily translated into English.  Because we don’t see that play on words when we read it, we don’t catch the depth, beauty or significance of Paul’s argument at that point.  Let’s look at that play on words.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children (actually, “sons” or “huios” in Greek) of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption (Greek, “huiothesia”).  When we cry, “Abba!  Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

Obviously, the play on words are found in the Greek words for “sons” (“huios”) and “adoption” (“huiothesia”).  The concept of adoption in the United States is a legal concept – that is, that one who is not legally a son or daughter of a married couple can be legally made a son or daughter.  In both Roman and Jewish societies, however, adoption was not just a legal arrangement where by law one became the child of a married couple; it was that they became in reality as well as at law the child of those parents.  They became “flesh or their flesh” and “bone of their bone” as much as a man and a woman became one with each other in marriage.  This belief was captured in the reality that in the Greek language, the word for adoption is quite literally built off the Greek word for “son”. 

The other tender touch in this passage is that Paul uses the Aramaic word “Abba” to describe the one who has been “adopted” by God as a son.  The word “Abba” was the word a very small child would call one’s father.  It literally means “little father” or “daddy”.  God, Paul is saying, is not the overwhelming patriarchal father to his adopted child but is “daddy” to him!

Recognizing this rich heritage both of adoption and of father-love, Paul states that our relationship with God is much the same.  We “are led by the Spirit of God” to embrace the reality that we are “sons of God”, he writes, “for you have received the spirit of ‘son-ness’” so that we now “cry daddy” when we see him or are in pain or need.

Jesus, Paul is declaring, held the greatest trust and intimacy with God, because he was “his only begotten Son” (to borrow from John).  But we do too!  Because of Jesus, we too are embraced by God as his children and have become “flesh of God’s flesh” and “bone of God’s bone”, so that we have “son-ness” bestowed upon us.  The result is that we can embrace God as our daddy, who will be comfort, encourager and advocate for us, and whom we will seek to serve in the mission to which he has called us.

But how do we know this is so?  How do we know that we have been chosen by God for adoption?  How do we know that we have received “son-ness” and thus have the right to call God our daddy?  “When we cry “Daddy” (to God), it is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (vss. 15b-17a).  We are assured that we are God’s child by the Holy Spirit “bearing witness” to our own inner spirit that we belong to God.  The relationship, in other words, just feels right!  There is a sense of “shalom”, of peace and well being that comes upon us when we think of God as daddy, for that is a witness borne to us by the Spirit of God herself!

But it doesn’t end there.  Paul’s statement ends with a more somber note that keeps what he has written before it from degenerating into “twittering birds” theology.  The text ends, “if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (vs. 17b).  The Christian life does not begin, continue and end sufficed simply with rejoicing in the “son-ness” we have with God.  The final sign of authentic “son-ness” is that, because of our inseparable relationship with God through Christ and witnessed to by the Spirit, we “in fact, will suffer with him”.  Being a Christian means paying a price. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who knew what it meant to pay the price for following Christ,[3] poignantly wrote, “God is a God who bears.  The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore our sins, thus making atonement for us.  In the same way his followers are also called upon to bear, and that is precisely what it means to be a Christian.  When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die!”[4]

But to be willing to be a Christian who bears, who will be willing to take on the pain of the world and to seek to do something about it means that one will “also be glorified with Christ”.  Being children of God reaches its apex in both suffering and being glorified with Christ.           

On New Years day of 1945, while awaiting likely execution in the Gestapo prison in Berlin, Bonhoeffer wrote this poem, celebrating what it meant to be a son of God!

With every power for good to stay and guide me,

comforted and inspired beyond all fear,

I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,

and pass, with You, into the coming year.  

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening;

the long days of our sorrow still endure.

Father, grant to the soul thou hast been chastening

that Thou hast promised – the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving

even to the dregs of death, at Thy command,

we will not falter, thankfully receiving,

all that is given by Thy loving hand.

But, should it be Thy will once more to release us

to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,

that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us

and all our life be dedicate as Thine.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,

boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.

At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,

and oh, most surely on each new year’s day![5]

 (Copyright by PIUT, 2007)