What would it have been
like to be there; to be in Jerusalem that busy, urban center at the beginning
of the Christian era, at the beginning of the Christian Church? Walking those
narrow streets, crowded with people from all over the known, and the unknown,
world? “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of
Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabs…”
Eventually finding
yourself in an open square filled with people, standing before a house where
the followers of Jesus had gathered? “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.”
It would have been wild.
It would have been crazy. It would have been chaotic, and maybe even a bit
scary. You would have been amazed and astonished, and perhaps perplexed.
But for sure you would
have known that something new and different and powerful and transformative for
the world had taken place… and maybe even transformative for you, yourself. But
at that moment you’re not sure, you don’t know what it means.
And then this powerful
figure rises and stands above the crowds and tells you and all assembled what
it means as he repeats the words of the prophet Joel,
“…I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall
see visions,
and your old men shall
dream dreams.” It is the Lord’s great and glorious day.
And then you remember the
scripture, “And all flesh shall see it together.” And you see it. You get it.
You believe it. You know it.
You have a new and
powerful sense of yourself as God’s child, so beloved by God that God’s Spirit
would descend upon you. God’s blessing would be upon you.
And you resolve to build
your life anew upon it. You want all people – you want the world – to see and
know what God has done in Jesus of Nazareth and how God has empowered the
people by the coming of the Holy Spirit. You want the world to be built anew
upon it.
You want it for those you
love, you want it for your family, you want it for your friends, you want it
for those who are closest to you and you want it for those who do not have it
or know it or who live across the world. You want them to know this joy, you
want them to receive this power, you want them to claim this purpose for their
lives.
It is as if you are
filled with new wine… filled to overflowing with God’s Holy Spirit and Power
and you want it to flow out and over all those around you.
And here we are today,
two millennia later remembering how it was, way back there, back when God’s
Spirit came so powerfully onto God’s people, came so powerfully into God’s
world. And perhaps we wonder, What has happened? Where is that presence? Where
is that power, today, in my life, in this world?
I want to say to you that
“Today is Pentecost.” Today is the Day of the Lord. Today God’s Holy Spirit has
come upon you. Today you are declared God’s beloved. Today you are to know that
Jesus of Nazareth was born and lived and ministered and was crucified and died and
was resurrected to life and has ascended to God’s right hand – all for you and
for the life of the world.
You have been called by
name. You have been saved. You have been baptized by water and the Holy Spirit.
God’s Spirit has descended upon you and enriched your life already and
empowered you – and sent you into God’s world that does not know God. Sent to
God’s world that knows not God’s power. Sent to God’s world does not know God’s
presence. Sent to God’s world does not know that Jesus has come to save the
world. Sent to God’s world does not know that life lived in Christ and in the
power of the Spirit is a life filled with joy and purpose and power and
fulfillment. Sent to God’s world, which God has created and redeemed and loves
and will not ever abandon.
Today is Pentecost, a day
to know anew God’s power and presence and purpose in our own lives and in the
lives of those around us, indeed in the life of the world.
It is the Lord’s great
and glorious day and you are God’s great and glorious child upon whom his
spirit has come to rest. It is a day when everyone who calls upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved.
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