John 7:37-39a
On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive.)
Acts 2:1-4
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Originally a Jewish harvest festival – Shavuot -- celebrated fifty days after Passover, Pentecost was taken over by the earliest Christians to be celebrated as something entirely different. The events of the Christian celebration took place in a Jerusalem filled with observant Jews from around the Mediterranean world, gathered there to celebrate Shavuot. Thus the Jewish festival with the Greek name – Pentecost means fiftieth – became a Christian celebration within the Christian world.
We know the story of that first Christian Pentecost – how a divine Spirit swept over the believers and turned them from lost, frightened failures into a force that ended up changing the trajectory of the entire western world.
But first, I want to spend a moment with the first reading we just heard – the one from John’s Gospel. This small snippet is Jesus speaking, long before that first Pentecost Day. He and his followers had been traveling around Galilee, pretty much avoiding Jerusalem because they were aware that the authorities were already looking for him to kill him and remove his worrisome influence.
It was the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles, one of the annual feasts that celebrate the journey of the Hebrew people out of Egypt and into their home land. At first Jesus resisted when the others urged him to travel to Jerusalem for the feast – insisting, “It is not my time yet,” but then changed his mind and went into the city and the crowds. At first he remained fairly silent, but eventually he began to speak out publicly. Today’s reading comes from his teaching from the Temple steps, given on the last day of the festival, and here, Jesus talks about believing in him and his teachings, and what it will be like when the Spirit come to them – like rivers of living water brimming and spilling out of the depths of anyone who believes in him.
Living water is one of the several images used by Jesus and the early church to describe the in-dwelling of the Spirit. The traditional Pentecost reading from which our second reading is taken uses images of Fire and Wind as well.
However it is described, whatever else it may be, the commingling of human experience and divine Spirit is meant to be definitively life-changing. My question today is this: Has 2000 years of hearing and retelling these stories numbed us to this life-changing aspect of a life in the Spirit?
The first Christians – those who were so fired up by the Spirit that they went out and re-shaped the world – were ordinary people. They showed few signs of being especially gifted, until they were gifted with God’s Spirit. Traditionally, within the church, there are seen to be several gifts, or manifestations of the Spirit: Healing, Hospitality, Wisdom, Prophecy, Evangelism, Teaching...and the most controversial, Speaking in Tongues. There are others listed in other places but these pretty well cover it.
How many of you, if I were to ask which gifts you have been given, would sit there and look at me blankly? Because you assume these things are for other people and not for you?
I used to know a couple who had the most extraordinary gift of hospitality. They weren’t especially educated or great speakers, but I’ve seen them corral lost souls from the street and take them home with them and care for them for awhile until they found their footing again. I’ve seen healings with my own eyes – and seen healing rejected by those who refused to pay the price of releasing their long-held resentments. I’ve known great evangelists – not in the smarmy-TV-give-me-your-money style -- but in that the truth and goodness of their own love for God shone so brightly from them that it just drew people to want what they have found.
And Tongues is so much more than uttering a bunch of gibberish words. It is speaking to others in a language they understand – even when we don’t understand it ourselves. Some interpret this as speaking sin syllables that only God understands. Some hear it as meaning speaking in our native tongue but being heard and understood in the hearers' native language. This is one of those areas where I don't know but trust that God has it covered.
But this, it seems to me, is a gift we need, perhaps more than any other, right now when we as a people are so divided from ourselves that neighbors can’t even speak to neighbors and conversations so often devolve into shouting matches and name calling. Perhaps being willing to engage in conversations that at least attempt to see the other person’s point of view – being willing to listen for awhile – this may be the most desperately needed spiritual gift of our time. Maybe this gift of speaking in tongues is less about talking and much more listening to each other.
[Much of my thinking on this subject was recently impacted by a poem by Maren Tirabassi, UCC pastor and poet. You can read the poem at https://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com/ -- it is simply titled, Pentecost 2017, and it is worth taking the time to spend a few minutes with it.]
But first, we have to believe that the gifts are given – not just to nameless “others” but to ourselves – us – me and you. We carry the Spirit of God in us. That very Spirit lives and acts in us. With which gifts have you been gifted? Are you using them? Are you allowing them to manifest in you, or are you stifling them because you are afraid of doing something weird?
Do we believe the stories we read here? Do we believe the things we claim are real?
I want to close today with something I found from writer Mark Suriano (and thank you Kathryn Matthews for pointing it out):
We know the story of that first Christian Pentecost – how a divine Spirit swept over the believers and turned them from lost, frightened failures into a force that ended up changing the trajectory of the entire western world.
But first, I want to spend a moment with the first reading we just heard – the one from John’s Gospel. This small snippet is Jesus speaking, long before that first Pentecost Day. He and his followers had been traveling around Galilee, pretty much avoiding Jerusalem because they were aware that the authorities were already looking for him to kill him and remove his worrisome influence.
It was the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles, one of the annual feasts that celebrate the journey of the Hebrew people out of Egypt and into their home land. At first Jesus resisted when the others urged him to travel to Jerusalem for the feast – insisting, “It is not my time yet,” but then changed his mind and went into the city and the crowds. At first he remained fairly silent, but eventually he began to speak out publicly. Today’s reading comes from his teaching from the Temple steps, given on the last day of the festival, and here, Jesus talks about believing in him and his teachings, and what it will be like when the Spirit come to them – like rivers of living water brimming and spilling out of the depths of anyone who believes in him.
Living water is one of the several images used by Jesus and the early church to describe the in-dwelling of the Spirit. The traditional Pentecost reading from which our second reading is taken uses images of Fire and Wind as well.
However it is described, whatever else it may be, the commingling of human experience and divine Spirit is meant to be definitively life-changing. My question today is this: Has 2000 years of hearing and retelling these stories numbed us to this life-changing aspect of a life in the Spirit?
The first Christians – those who were so fired up by the Spirit that they went out and re-shaped the world – were ordinary people. They showed few signs of being especially gifted, until they were gifted with God’s Spirit. Traditionally, within the church, there are seen to be several gifts, or manifestations of the Spirit: Healing, Hospitality, Wisdom, Prophecy, Evangelism, Teaching...and the most controversial, Speaking in Tongues. There are others listed in other places but these pretty well cover it.
How many of you, if I were to ask which gifts you have been given, would sit there and look at me blankly? Because you assume these things are for other people and not for you?
I used to know a couple who had the most extraordinary gift of hospitality. They weren’t especially educated or great speakers, but I’ve seen them corral lost souls from the street and take them home with them and care for them for awhile until they found their footing again. I’ve seen healings with my own eyes – and seen healing rejected by those who refused to pay the price of releasing their long-held resentments. I’ve known great evangelists – not in the smarmy-TV-give-me-your-money style -- but in that the truth and goodness of their own love for God shone so brightly from them that it just drew people to want what they have found.
And Tongues is so much more than uttering a bunch of gibberish words. It is speaking to others in a language they understand – even when we don’t understand it ourselves. Some interpret this as speaking sin syllables that only God understands. Some hear it as meaning speaking in our native tongue but being heard and understood in the hearers' native language. This is one of those areas where I don't know but trust that God has it covered.
But this, it seems to me, is a gift we need, perhaps more than any other, right now when we as a people are so divided from ourselves that neighbors can’t even speak to neighbors and conversations so often devolve into shouting matches and name calling. Perhaps being willing to engage in conversations that at least attempt to see the other person’s point of view – being willing to listen for awhile – this may be the most desperately needed spiritual gift of our time. Maybe this gift of speaking in tongues is less about talking and much more listening to each other.
[Much of my thinking on this subject was recently impacted by a poem by Maren Tirabassi, UCC pastor and poet. You can read the poem at https://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com/ -- it is simply titled, Pentecost 2017, and it is worth taking the time to spend a few minutes with it.]
But first, we have to believe that the gifts are given – not just to nameless “others” but to ourselves – us – me and you. We carry the Spirit of God in us. That very Spirit lives and acts in us. With which gifts have you been gifted? Are you using them? Are you allowing them to manifest in you, or are you stifling them because you are afraid of doing something weird?
Do we believe the stories we read here? Do we believe the things we claim are real?
I want to close today with something I found from writer Mark Suriano (and thank you Kathryn Matthews for pointing it out):
"On Pentecost, may you find your heart singing with the spirit of God, your ears humming with the voice of the Spirit speaking in a language that reaches deep into your soul and wisdom dawning on your mind so that the shackles that have hardened around your mind may be broken, and God's voice and language set free. May your communities and churches experience the coming of God's Spirit, anticipate it with joy and hope, give in to it with love, so that when the day is done all the world may know the love of God because of you!" Amen.
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