Pentecost - What's really happening??

This Sunday – Pentecost – arises from two shared experiences.  First a group of Jesus' followers gathered in a house experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. Then a group of devout Jews from many nations, gathered because of the commotion caused by the Spirit, listened to Peter explain what was happening. In the verses that follow the ones we heard this morning from Acts Peter looks back at the prophecy of Joel who preached about God's wrath-filled judgment on “the day of the Lord.” Peter takes this ancient prophecy and re-interprets its to describes what God is up to now—in this new age.  Jesus has returned to the God-head; what has come next calls for new understanding of God and God's deeds.

Even the calmer and gentler coming of the Spirit that we find in John's gospel, Chapter 20, is shared by the group: “Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them, 'Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' When he has said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' ”

The new understanding in both instances refers to the how widely God's spirit is being given and how broadly it will be carried forth.  God's covenant relationship with the people of Israel is being extended from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and to people never before included in the covenant.  This should be a time of great joy, but the tension created by this explosive sense of inclusiveness must be acknowledged.  Am I going to be comfortable with those Parthians, Medes and Elamites being included with me by God through the power of the Spirit?  Isn't it bit ironic that three of the places or people in the list from Acts—“Egypt,” “Libya” and “Arabs”—carry some tension for 21^st century Americans?  As followers of Christ, given the passage from the 2^nd chapter of Acts, are we supposed to feel some sort of inclusive relationship with these folks through the power of the Spirit?

That's more of rhetorical question than a real one, for there is a real question to be answered on this Pentecost Sunday—which this year is the Sunday before we Americans celebrate Memorial Day.  The real question is this: where will our decision to live as Christians, as followers of our risen Lord who empowers us through the Holy Spirit, lead us?  To whom will we find ourselves led?  How will our shared relationship look?  What will we try to accomplish through this relationship?

To bring this into a Memorial Day context, I'd like to tell you about a conversation I had this week with someone in a nursing home.  I had never met her before I took communion to her at the request of a relative (whom I did not know either).  Her speech and demeanor were well-educated, upper middle class, but I quickly realized she could not think as clearly as she once did.  In trying to make a connection, I asked her to describe the Episcopal church in Connecticut she told me she had attended for many years and truly loved its beauty.  As she talked about the church, she asked me a most unusual question.  Her church has a memorial plaque with the names of those soldiers who died in the First World War.  From what she said, this plaque meant a great deal to her.  Her question about it, spoken with true anxiety, was this: “Now that there has been a second war, will they take that plaque down and put another one up for those soldiers?”

I have no idea why she asked me the question, but it points to the issue of how broadly, how inclusively, we will view who and what is important to us.  Memorial Day, begun as Decoration Day after the Civil War to honor the fallen Union soldiers, now includes all armed services members who were killed serving our country in every war—even wars that we might have personally opposed.  There is a broad and inclusive relationship between those who benefited from their service to our country and those who served and gave their lives.  That's what Memorial Day should be about.

The day of Pentecost should be a time of celebration for all who have come to know God's deeds of power and to appreciate the sacrifice Jesus made in love to reconcile all people to God and to each other.  This celebration should be broad and inclusive:  all the styles of Christian practice—Pentecostals and Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists, Evangelicals and Episcopalians—all discovering and loving God—each in their own style as the Spirit has given them.

And then should we look beyond Christianity?  A bit further in Acts—chapter 2, verse 21—the Jewish prophet Joel is quoted by Peter, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Historically, Joel could not have known about Jesus.  In addition, we know Jesus reached across the boundaries of Jewish religion and culture to minister to a Roman centurion and to a Samaritan woman. On this Day of Pentecost and all the days that follow, I believed we are called to cross respectfully whatever cultural or political dimension of difference confronts us, as we seek to live in a spirit of reconciliation and to minister as the Spirit has empowered us.  We must forgive as we have been forgiven, recognizing that the common good that Paul spoke to the Corinthians about must now include the whole world—everyone—no exceptions!