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The Day of Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Acts 2:1-11
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Acts 2:1-11
✛
The Power of God
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And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Pentecost, together with Christmas and Easter, is one of the three greatest solemn feasts of the Church, yet it still requires explanation.
First the name. Pentecost is the ancient biblical name. (Whitsunday is an old English Christian nickname referring to the white robes used on the day during Holy Baptism.) Originally Pentecost was the Jewish Feast of Weeks mandated by the Torah and falling fifty days from the beginning of Passover. [A “week” of weeks multiplies to the fiftieth day, which is the meaning of the word, Pentecost.] At the beginning of the Passover, there was an offering of the first sheaf of the spring barley; on Pentecost, the priest waved two new barley loaves before the Lord. (Lev. 23:17-20) It was a day of joy and thanks for God’s deliverance in the Exodus and his continuing providence over the Chosen People.
In the course of time, Pentecost came to be regarded as the anniversary of the giving of the Law (the Torah) to Moses on Mount Sinai. This only added to Israel’s sense of the day’s importance as a festival.
Inasmuch as the first disciples of Jesus were Jews, their experience of the death and resurrection of Christ was imbued with the Jewish calendar between Passover and Pentecost. So it was, that during the first forty days after the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb on the first Easter Sunday, Jesus impressed the full reality of his Resurrection on his disciples by many various appearances and proofs that he was alive. On the fortieth day, his appearances ceased with his ascension into heaven.
During that climactic appearance, Christ told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem. The disciples, still thinking in this-worldly messianic terms, asked him if at last he would restore the kingdom to Israel. His reply was it was not for them to know times and seasons, but instead: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Power for what? To be “my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)
This came to pass ten days after his Ascension. On the Day of Pentecost, while thousands of pilgrims were entering Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, the disciples were gathered in the Upper Room where they had been accustomed to be with Jesus. The Spirit of God descended with power. There was a rushing wind and tongues of fire.
But it was the transformation of the disciples that was most noticeable. They spoke the praises of God in the various languages of the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem. This itself was a miraculous sign of something still more remarkable; namely, these formerly perplexed and frightened people, cowed by the enemies of Jesus, were now openly and boldly preaching Jesus as Lord and Christ.
If we had continued our reading from Acts, we would have seen Saint Peter preaching the first explicitly Christian sermon in history, right in the center of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. This is the same Peter who, fifty days earlier, denied Christ three times to save his skin. We need to remember that Pontius Pilate was still governor of Judea. Annas and Caiaphas were still running the religious authority. Yet here is Peter, telling the world now that Jesus’ death was no accident but God’s plan. Listen to what Peter said: “God raised [Jesus] up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:22-25)
The transformation of the Church on the Day of Pentecost is the strongest evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus himself. What can account for the change, for example, in Peter, from the Good Friday coward to the self-forgetful, bold witness fifty days later? People do not give their lives lightly, especially in the persistent commitment we see over and over in the apostolic church, converting doubtful kin of Jesus like James or enemies of the Church like Saul of Tarsus into witnesses for Christ and fellow apostles with Peter and the Twelve.
The power from on high did not stop with the passing of the apostolic generation, either. Christ’s prophecy at his Ascension was fulfilled in due course. After two centuries of martyrdom, the Church was the most powerful spiritual force in the Roman Empire, converting eventually the emperors themselves. What followed was not without many troubles, but there came many glories predicted by Jesus, who had said, “Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father.” All this is the work of God the Holy Spirit.
The power of Pentecost produced Christian kingdoms and cultures, Christian art and architecture, heroic service to the sick and poor, intellectual insights and profound wisdom, deep prayer and mystic contemplation, self-sacrifice and missionary heroism. Christianity is now easily the largest faith community on earth, growing rapidly in Asia and Africa, and yet we are said in the West to live in a “ Post-Christian” era of newly found secularity and New Age spirituality.
Where is our Pentecost? Just exactly where it was in the beginning with the apostles. We are called to give the reasons for our faith and hope. We need to be able to spell out the Gospel, to make the case for what we believe. How much does it mean to us? The more it means to us, the more power we have to be its witnesses.
The more devoted we are to Christ, the more surrendered we are to the goodness and providence of God, the more power we receive to speak and live as Christians. That “Post-Christian” world out there may be materially wealthy, but it suffers from starvation of the soul. Whether it knows or not, it is hungry and thirsty for the food and drink of Christ.
Dearly beloved, we don’t have to hear wind and see fire here to know the power of Pentecost (although it would very exciting to see tongues of fire on your heads!). We need to believe Christ and let God have his way with us. Then Pentecost comes, and just you watch what happens.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
