Pentecost Sunday

1st Reading
  Acts 2:1-21 or Num 11:24-30
  Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 

2nd Reading
  1 Corinthians 12:3b-13  

Gospel
  John 20:19-23 or 7:37-39

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day when the Church celebrates the Spirit descending on the disciples in Jerusalem and what is considered the birth of the Church. No doubt we are familiar with the story. The disciples are waiting in Jerusalem for the promised arrival of the Holy Spirit and suddenly, he comes and rests on each one like a flame and they are filled with power. The crowd also hears the disciples speaking in the native tongues of each listener. As a side note here, I used to understand this passage to mean that the disciples were speaking in other languages which they obviously did not know how to speak. But the text says, “Each one of them was hearing them speak in their own language.” (Acts 2:6) With only 12 disciples, they couldn’t be speaking the language of everyone present, but they were heard and understood by everyone in their native tongue. But getting back to the story, Peter eventually stands up and preaches to the crowd and about 3,000 people were baptized that day.

We are familiar with the story, but I was struck this week by something my pastor mentioned as an aside about the disciples waiting for the Spirit. Waiting is so important to the Christian life. And not the type of pointless waiting with no goal in sight. When Jesus was tempted in the desert at the beginning of his ministry, there was a time of preparation and waiting before Jesus started his work in ministry. Here at the beginning of the Church, the disciples are waiting for a fresh and new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to occur. If you go back to chapter one of Acts, however, the disciples are not waiting in fear or boredom. They are praying, planning, replacing Judas the Betrayer, and basically doing what they can so they are ready when the Spirit comes.

This is why waiting is important. We experience times of waiting so that we can be prepared and ready when the call comes. We wait in expectation of the work the Lord is going to do. When people get engaged, there is typically a time, of various lengths, of waiting for the wedding to occur. The bride and groom to be are not just waiting around for the day to arrive, but are planning the wedding, the honeymoon, and how life will be once they are married. Waiting and planning. When people go off to college for 4 or 5 years, in a sense, there is time of waiting for them to graduate and enter adult life. But again, they don’t just sit for 4 years until graduation day so they can get a job and finally earn some money. No, they are studying, making friends, and growing so when they graduate, they have the skills and the relationships necessary to find a job.

Sometimes waiting comes in much shorter burst like in the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Mark ch. 6. Right after Jesus has done this amazing miracle, and is not doubt feeling good about his work, he doesn’t go and celebrate with the disciples and build himself up.  He doesn’t even start getting ready for the next big event; rather, he goes up alone on a mountain and prays. At first, one might think that he could have a better waiting time for the next big event by doing a planning session with the disciples, or even organizing who will bring the food next time, but Jesus reveals an important aspect of the type of waiting we are to do: we are to wait on the Lord. This is the best type of waiting we can do. If our waiting only includes our own human made plans without God, it is likely to fail. Jesus waits for half a night in this account.  At the beginning of his ministry, he waited for about 40 days. You might even say that Jesus waited for about 30 years before he began his ministry.  The length of time isn’t important, and it changes, what is important is that we wait for the Spirit’s guidance like they did at the day of Pentecost.

You might find yourself in a season of waiting right now, or you might be like the disciples at Pentecost and at the beginning of something new, or you might be like Paul later in Acts when he wants to go to Asia, but the Spirit led him on to Greece and Europe.  Whatever the case, make sure that the Spirit is present with you.

I want to wrap this up, but I did want to point out one thing in the 1 Cor 12 passage: the amazing way the Trinity is present. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” I added the bold to help you see that in these 3 verses Paul makes it clear that the Spirit, the Lord, and God are equal and connected to him. This isn’t a full theology of the Trinity, but it shows that Paul isn’t afraid to say the Spirit and the Lord/Jesus are God. Just an interesting note, I think, when we have the three persons of the Trinity mentioned so close together.

This week, wherever we are, let us be mindful of and seeking after the Spirit in our lives and the world. The Spirit is alive and working today and wants to empower us to do the work of the Lord. May we wait in anticipation and serve faithfully.

Grace and Peace.