Genesis 11.1-9; Acts 2.1-21
Today is the day of Pentecost. This is the third great festival of the church year, along with Christmas and Easter. Fifty days after Easter Sunday (the name Pentecost comes from the Greek word for fifty), a small group of Jesus’ followers waiting in Jerusalem are filled with the Spirit’s power and new life. From there, they are sent out into the world to witness to the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ.
Pentecost is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the church. I suppose that means that if we were to celebrate Pentecost properly, we might have an enormous birthday cake at coffee hour and try to blow out the 2000 or so candles that would be on it. That would exhaust us, of course. Except we could pray for the Holy Spirit from today’s reading in Acts to come down and do the job for us. Acts’ description of the Spirit’s arrival accompanied by a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind is one of the great images of Pentecost.
Another is the Spirit, like wildfire, spreading through the ranks of the disciples, flames separating off and settling on the head of each disciple, setting each on fire for the Lord. Then there is a chorus of languages and the strange speech of all those people from all those places all gathered in Jerusalem—no nation is left out of the gifts God gives—to say nothing of the over-the-top joy that led to Peter’s disclaimer about the disciples’ behavior. “These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine in the morning.”
Wind, fire, speech, and joy are all the work of God as the Spirit gives birth to the church and sends disciples out into the world filled with God’s life for the world.
Now some parties can get pretty raucous, as you know. Last Saturday, we had some spirited joy in our backyard thanks to a birthday party that spilled over from the next-door neighbors. I was outside wrapping up lawn mowing and yard work when Albert, now eight years old, saw me in the driveway. He came to me and whispered a caution of sorts. “It’s my birthday party today. If you hear a loud celebration outside, that is what it is.”
As it turns out, he wasn’t wrong. At one point, the party goers were outside playing hide-and-seek. We had a sprinkler set up in the backyard, the kind that oscillates and shoots water up vertically, the kind you have to run through, recently purchased on recommendation of the bishop. Albert was hiding in our backyard by the garage, a good strategy, when the sprinkler got him. Instead of waiting to be found, Albert went and found his friends and told them, “I got wet.” Soon enough all the partygoers were in our yard, jumping through the sprinkler, having a great time. They were drenched. Meanwhile, the parents and grandparents came over to check things out and, like the crowds in today’s reading from Acts, were ‘amazed and astonished’ at what was going on, unsure of what to make of it all. We told them the only thing we were sure of. “You’re going to need towels.” Albert’s alert that there might be sounds of a loud celebration was accurate. It was wonderful. I later showed the bishop a picture of the sprinkler in action. He said, “Add their names to the baptismal register.”
High spirits, jostling, boisterous celebration spilling out to others: both Albert’s birthday party and the birth of the church at Pentecost. Yet while the gift of the Holy Spirit fills, empowers, and transforms the disciples with joy and new life, that same Spirit doesn’t change the world into which they are sent. The world remains the same. I suppose that’s obvious—that Jesus’ followers are sent into the world as it is and not as it’s meant to be. But sometimes it’s good to be reminded of the obvious to appreciate it in fresh ways.
The late Peter Gomes observes how these changed disciples were sent into an unchanged world. “The Romans still ran the show; the Greeks were difficult; life was ‘brutish, nasty, and short.’” After the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, none of those facts were changed or mitigated.” How true is this for us, too? Is it even possible to list all the ways the world is fragile, broken, angry, anxious, afraid—unchanged? And not just the world but our lives. In this unchanged world, a line from Ecclesiastes comes to mind. “There is nothing new under the sun.” What is new, however, and what the gift of the Holy Spirit gives birth to, is a new way for disciples to live and be in the world. “The Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers, enabled them to live as changed people in an unchanged world.”
To live as changed people in an unchanged world. This is the calling of Christians, our calling—changed people in an unchanged world. The gift of Pentecost overcomes the curse of Babel, the account of the scattering of the nations told in today’s first reading. The Tower of Babel is a symbol of the world as it is. Our common humanity breaks down as people strive to breech the heavens, supplant God, and make “a name for themselves” apart from God. As a result, people are divided by the inability to hear or to be heard, to understand or be understood. There is nothing new under the sun. “Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate, and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding one another, as the Spirit reestablishes… communion between earth and heaven.” The curse of Babel is undone.
This is the power of the Holy Spirit we celebrate today; the power to remember and trust the faithful love of God; the power to think through how we can be God’s people and make Christ known in word and deed; the power to persevere in the works God has given us to do even when it is difficult. Anyone can be a Christian in a Christian world,” Gomes says. “But in case you hadn’t noticed, this is not a Christian world. This is a fallen world, a secular world, a sordid world…and it happens to be the only world you and I have.” Yet this is the world the Father sent the Son to out of love, a world where we are born anew by the Holy Spirit. That is what Pentecost celebrates. At the birth of the church, Jesus’ followers are sent out as changed persons into an unchanged world, our own getting wet in the water of baptism and sent to find our friends to show them where and how God is at work
Now, at times, life in the Spirit could be as dramatic as today’s reading from Acts. There could be times when it echoes Albert’s caution, “If you hear a loud celebration, that is what it is.” But life in the Spirit doesn’t need to be that way and, in fact, it often isn’t. JI Packer has said, “The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is not to give us thrills but to create in us Christlike character.” The Spirit leads us to Jesus, keeps us alive in him and alert to his presence to create us in a Christlike character. Because when we leave here this morning, the world won’t have changed; it won’t be what we want it to be. But through the Holy Spirit, we are being made into the people that God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit is at work in us, the catechism of the Book of Common Prayer says, whenever we “confess Jesus as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors.” Babel undone. And as we witness to Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit can be known through us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control described by St Paul in Galatians. There is nothing dramatic in any of that, but it is all so important because spiritual thrills are no substitute for kindness, generosity, peace and more all filled with God’s power.
Yet if we do make a little noise along the way, and even get sprinkled with water in remembrance of our baptism, it’s because of the sheer delight of our new birth in the Spirit, made alive in Christ, and sent into the world as living witness to the grace and truth of God.
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