Pentecost Sunday 2013

Today’s Scriptures: Lectionary selections from the Revised Common Lectionary Year C Acts 2:1-21 Genesis 11:1-9 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Romans 8:14-17 John14:8-17, 25-27

Today’s Reflection: Understanding sometimes gets in the way of the noblest endeavors. Someone misunderstands a measurement and you have a leaning wall. Someone misunderstands a command and you have a war. Everyone understands each other and humanity’s ego challenges God. But when God provides a way to reconnect with humanity, understanding becomes a great gift from him. The Day of Pentecost focuses on what unites us. THE Holy Spirit came not just from the apostles, but to all believers who call on the name of the Lord. The experience had to be so exciting with the “tongues, as of fire,” spread through the crowd accompanied by the sound of wind. Suddenly a barrier between the apostles and most of the world disappeared: everyone in the presence could understand the message of Jesus Christ. Some churches celebrate the giving of the gift of tongues, but what stands out in the passages today is not the speaking, but the understanding that took place. God suddenly made it possible for everyone to know his will in the world. Peter dismisses those who would challenge the event by recalling prophesy that the Spirit is for ALL believers – those with societal rank (old men) and those without (slaves). The Roman and John passages reinforce the identical message: God’s Spirit will dwell with all believers. The gap between humankind and God no longer existed as the Spirit was there to “teach and remind” (John 14) all believers what was expected. With the Holy Spirit in our midst, we no longer have the excuse, “I didn’t understand,” and true understanding may be the best gift God has ever given us.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org

May 27 - Pentecost Sunday

Today’s Scriptures: From the Book of Common Prayer Psalm 118, 145 Deuteronomy 16:9-12 Acts 4:18-33 John 4:19-26

Today’s Question: How can we worship and serve with the zeal of the early apostles?

Today’s Reflection: Pentecost Sunday gives us the opportunity to break a bit out of the normal, stoic worship experience and worship with zeal. We cannot talk about Pentecost without excitement – and that makes me wonder why we do not still worship and live with the forceful exuberance of the early apostles. If they can do it, why can’t I? Like many of our Holy Days, Christian Pentecost coincides with the Jewish Pentecost or Festival of Weeks that occurred fifty days after Passover (hence the name derived from the word meaning fifty). For the Hebrews, it was a harvest festival celebrating the bringing in of the harvest. While the harvest for the Christian faith does not come in heads of grain, Pentecost does represent a harvest of souls through the opening of the Church to all people. The Deuteronomy passage describes the festival of weeks as a time for everyone to celebrate – family, slaves, Levites, strangers, orphans, widows. The community presented the grain tithes from the harvest as well as free will offerings above and beyond the required tithe. The festival served as an opportunity to celebrate the harvest and to remember the days enslaved in Egypt despite now being safely in the land the Lord provided. Acts describes an event much like the one Jesus described in last Sunday’s passage from Matthew 10. The apostles had been threatened by leaders, yet they continued to speak boldly with the power given to them by the Holy Spirit. They came out of the experience and continued to tell the works of Jesus with such fervor that the Holy Spirit shook the building where they worshipped. They experienced all these things first hand and courageously followed Christ’s commission to them We have their first-hand accounts. We have the Holy Spirit with us even today. How often do we act with this much boldness even with the same tools? The apostles preached boldly when their lives were on the line for every statement they made. Very few of us today live in a place where our lives are jeopardized for belief in Christ or the proclamation of that belief. Certainly we sometimes face mockery and disdain from people who do not believe, but rarely is life or livelihood put at risk. Following the examples of the apostles, we learn that absolute reliance on God, and God’s presence with us in the Holy Spirit, allow us to do everything he desires. In the John passage, Jesus tells the woman at the well to worship God in spirit and in truth. Psalm 145 promises all who call on God in truth will be heard. The same promises continue for us today – and we will see the same results when we take courage and fully believe in the assurances from God and listen to the message of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Prayer: Let us be as emboldened by the Holy Spirit as the early church to worship with zeal, preach with confidence, and believe completely.