Today’s readings welcome the arrival of God’s Spirit at Pentecost.
From John 15:26, “I will send you the Advocate-the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me” (NLT).
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity with God the Father and Jesus the Son. The point is that Jesus is present through the Holy Spirit and represents the love poured out from the Father and Son .
Pentecost on May 31 marks the fulfillment of Christ’s promised presence through the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit re-energized the Apostles who were lonely and afraid after Jesus left them. It was a reminder Jesus would always be with them and emboldened them with a strength beyond themselves.
The Holy Spirit provides the comfort, the inspiration and fire. It gave them courage and gifts they didn’t know they had. The gifts mentioned in Isaiah are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Jesus was no longer just for Jerusalem but for the world. It was their job to do this – and ours.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:27- “You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it. 28 First, God has placed apostles in the church. Second, he has placed prophets in the church. Third, he has placed teachers in the church. Then he has given to the church miracles and gifts of healing. He also has given the gift of helping others and the gift of guiding the church.”
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
V. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
In Acts, God’s Spirit, poured out on the disciples, astonishes and empowers the community. Paul explains that we come together to worship and serve in the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to his friends and breathes on them the Spirit of peace and forgiveness. The readings are here.
The Holy Spirit is known in various aspects: Mighty wind and still, small voice; gentle warmth and consuming fire; Giver of Life who fills the whole world and hidden Presence within our heart
Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, celebrated 50 days after Passover. The first fruits of the wheat harvest were presented, and the covenant with God was renewed. The promised outpouring of the Spirit and the beginning of the Church’s mission occurred during this feast.
Luke sees the gift of the Spirit as a reversal of Babel (see Genesis 11:1-9) and the fulfillment of the promise of a new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:33). The law will indwell each individual believer.
The words given by the Spirit are not babbling but proclamation. The variety of languages in which the message about God’s powerful works was communicated represent the potential spread of the gospel to all nations. Peter interprets the experience for the crowd. While some could only explain the peculiar events as the result of human dissipation, Peter calls the events supernatural generosity and the marvelous fulfillment of an ancient promise found in Joel 2:28-32.
In the Epistle, the Corinthian community was torn by dissension over the characteristics, distribution and use of “spiritual gifts” (12:1). Paul emphasizes that these are gifts of grace to all, not just the private possession of certain people. He points out the triune operation of God in these gifts: the Holy Spirit as the giver, Jesus as the One to whom service is given, and God the Father as the One at work in the gift. The gifts are complementary and meant for the common good. Every gift has an important place in the life of the community. The list of gifts is not exhaustive, for other lists differ (12:28-30; Romans 12:6-8).
The fruits of the Spirit, Paul tells his congregation in Galatia, include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22-23a). All of those will be required to allow the decisions we make be guided by God’s concern for and commitment to those who are most vulnerable.
The purpose of all the gifts is to create not division but unity in diversity. Paul illustrates this by using the image of the body to show the Corinthians the interdependence of all in the Christian community.
The Gospel’s post resurrection appearance of Jesus from the Gospel of John is shared with the other gospels. Jesus shows his wounds to establish that the crucified Jesus and the risen Christ are one and the same. John’s account stresses the fulfillment of the promises made in the Farewell Discourse: Christ’s return and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For John, the coming of the Holy Spirit is intimately linked to the resurrection. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, creating humanity anew for eternal life. To this new creation, the Church, he then bestows the power to mediate forgiveness. Its mission will divide people by their response.
The Rev. Randy Hollerith, Dean of the National Cathedral, writes about Pentecost 2020 :
“Unless the eye catch fire, God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire, God will not be named.
Unless the Heart catch fire, God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire, God will not be known.
(William Blake from “Pentecost”)
“All of us, who call ourselves Christians, have been given the gift of God’s impossible love, God’s Holy Spirit, in order that we might be more than we imagine, in order that we might do more than we dare dream, in order that we might be like Christ to a hurting and broken world. The Holy Spirit is God’s love in action, and as such, every loving thing we do is a gift of the Spirit. As Bruce D. Prewer once wrote (and I paraphrase),
“The Spirit is quietly at work:
In those who take a stand against injustice
In the grace of folks who go the second mile
In the selfless service of those who care for others at the risk of their own safety
In the inner resources we discover in times of crisis
In the grace that enables us to admit when we are wrong
In the resilience of people who fight for the rights of others
In our ability to find joy in unexpected places
In refusing to let the greed of society take over our souls
In our ability to rise above past failures and put past hurts behind us
In our willingness to give thanks even through the hard times of life
“Make no mistake about it, if there wasn’t a Holy Spirit this religion of ours would have died out long ago. You don’t have to throw too many people to the lions for them to get the message that they ought to find a different religion. And yet, our faith has survived and thrived in the midst of persecutions, wars, injustices, famines, disasters – you name it. And I am positive that we have made it through all this not because we are so good or so faithful – but because of the Spirit’s presence in our midst. With it we can do almost anything. Without it we might as well keep the church doors locked and stay home.”