Habitually I
pulled into the Cosco fueling station this past week at seven in the morning and
observed a long time station attendant sitting on the side of the fueling
island, reading. His wearing of the kippah is a daily habit but today he also
was wearing tzitiza (those four tassels on a garment under his shirt) and
intently reading his prayers. Being
reverent of his devotion I did not acknowledge him verbally but close to the
end of fueling he greeted me and told me to have a nice day. I took the opportunity ask what he was
celebrating. He said the Festival of
Weeks. I invoked “have a wonderful day,
may God bless.” He responded; “he does,” and I drove away. Making my way to my favorite bagel shop, I
could not remember, for the life of me, the parallel Christian celebration to
this Jewish observance. With my coffee doctored and waiting for my usual “toasted
very dark, almost burnt please” bagel I searched my iphone. Yep, what I knew but couldn’t recall is Pentecost! I almost felt embarrassed , as I was raised in the
Pentecostal faith. “And you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth Acts 18.
The season
of Pentecost is the season of growth. It wasn’t until later in life did I come
to celebrate Pentecost Sunday but am reminded that for the last fifteen years I
haven’t probably thought about it but once or twice. Without being critical, I
suppose that worshipping at our home church which gives little or no attention
to the celebration has fostered my forgetfulness. On the other hand I am totally at fault by my
neglect in celebrating Pentecost in my own personal worship. It’s like
everything else, if I don’t use it, I lose it. Pentecost celebration is where I
remember the birth of the church and its growth in numbers and witness. The book of Acts records the events
surrounding that momentous day the violent wind from heaven, the appearance of
tongues of fire, and the miraculous gift of languages that caused the Jews who
had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Harvest to wonder if the disciples were
drunk.
In Judaism,
Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks is the celebration of ingathering or
harvest. At this particular celebration
of Pentecost, the harvest was of peoples representing all the regions of the
known world at that time Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and residents of
Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs. The languages represented the gospel pushing
outward, beginning in Jerusalem, but pushing out to the remotest parts of the
earth.
Indeed, this
is what Jesus had promised would happen with the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost. The good news of Jesus the
Messiah would go out beyond the walls of Israel to remote corners of the
earth. Taking a fresh look these past days
I have forgotten that as a modern reader in a pluralistic and multicultural
world that taking the gospel to the remotest parts of the earth would have been
an unexpected message for those first century Jews who believed that the
Messiah was only for Israel.
To
understand why this mission of the Holy Spirit was so radical and unexpected,
I have to understand how Jews felt about Gentiles in the first century. By the standards of the Law, Gentiles were
unclean and Jews had no dealings with them.
Jesus was often criticized for ministering to Gentiles or to Samaritans
who were also despised by the Jews. This
background helps me understand why, for example, Peter's vision of the great
sheet in response to the Gentile Cornelius's prayers. For on this sheet were all the animals deemed
unclean by Jewish ceremonial law. Peter,
understandably, cries out when he is told to kill and eat By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten
anything unholy and unclean Acts 813-14.
This was not merely a protest against a new dietary law, Peter could not
conceive of bringing the pure and holy gospel to those he would have considered
unclean. Cornelius was a Roman solider
praying—praying as it turned out for Peter, his reluctant evangelist.
As a result
of this vision, Peter declares about the Gentiles, I most certainly understand
now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who
fears God and does what is right is welcome to God. The word which God sent to the sons of
Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ...of him all the prophets bear
witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness
of sins Acts 10: 34-36, 43.
In this
season of Pentecost, I remember the teaching of Jesus to Nicodemus about the
unexpected nature of the Spirit's work.
Jesus says, The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so is everyone who is
born of the Spirit. The call of God on
Peter (and eventually Saul of Tarsus) a Hebrew of Hebrews to be apostles to the
Gentiles certainly gives a concrete example of the wind blowing where it will. God called Jews to reach out with the good
news to people initially deemed unworthy of the gospel and far outside the
promises and plans of God.
The Spirit
is like the wind. The wind often arises
unexpectedly, and blows with such force that everything in its path is toppled
over and displaced. If I am honest, this
is the challenging aspect of this metaphor concerning the Spirit.
I am unable
to capture the wind. In this way,
Pentecost serves as a fresh and gentle reminder that the Spirit blows through
all of my categories and continues to do the unexpected. I confess that I have thought I have grasped the wind, only to find that it has blown in a different direction . In the face of such a wonderful mystery, I can
either shield myself from its power, or revel in the wind that eludes my grasp.
Father, God
I thank you for the Jewish attendant who stimulated my interest and most of all,
the Spirit at Pentecost. I thank You for the reminder that it is the Wind who is
blowing in my life and far beyond to the most remote parts of the earth. During these later years of my life, I invite
the Spirit to continually blow and I will intentionally release myself to be
carried along.
