Acts 2:1-21
Do you have a visual image of the Pentecost event? When you think about the story we just heard from Acts, how do you picture it in your imagination? A group of bearded men gathered together, each one with a little flame dancing over his head? That’s how I’ve always pictured it. Each disciple with his personal flamelette.
Pastor Bradley Schmelling writes:
I learned many Bible stories by watching movies in Sunday school. They were those old-fashioned movies, shown on a reel-to-reel projector, that tried to portray the stories as some Cecil B. DeMille wannabe imagined they took place. They were seldom more than a few steps grander than the local Christmas pageant; most of the disciples basically wore fancy bathrobes.
The Pentecost movie was dramatic. They all had flames above their heads, and they closed their eyes as they mysteriously spoke in tongues….
The movie managed to portray the Pentecost story as an individual, private experience. [But] the text says that “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” That's "all," not "each." Pentecost was a communal experience.
Pentecost was a communal experience. No little individual personal flamelettes.
I’ve recently come across a really neat visual representation of Pentecost that presents a different perspective. It’s a mosaic. A modern mosaic by Anne Wyner installed in 1988 in one of the chapels at the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England.
And this is what the Scriptures say. There was a sound that filled the entire house where they were gathered together. Then “divided” tongues rested upon each disciple. Not individual tongues, divided tongues from the Spirit that came upon them all, filling the space where they were gathered.
It’s common to refer to Pentecost as the “birthday of the church.” That’s OK, but it sounds a bit too institutional for me. This is not the birthday of an institution or organization. It’s better to think of Pentecost as being about the formation of a new community. The community of the new covenant. God, through the Holy Spirit, takes a group of individuals and forms the Community of the New Covenant.
It’s the Spirit that enfolds, encompasses, connects, creates the community. God didn’t give individual doses of the Spirit to each disciple. God filled all of them with the Spirit, forming and establishing the Community of the New Covenant. And baptism is initiation into the community of the new covenant. Ethan, today you will be initiated into this community, the community of the new covenant.
It’s worthy of note that when it was established this was a remarkable inclusive community. Inclusive really across every measure of diversity they were aware of at the time. Peter, quoting Joel, says that it includes men and women, old and young Paul talks about including slaves and free! And, of course, the Pentecost story is about including all nations, every color and ethnicity known at the time.
As the Holy Spirit forms this community, the Spirit brings two things into the community: the presence of Christ and the power of God. The presence of Christ and the power of God. I think many of us are drawn to the church, the community of the new covenant, seeking and finding the presence of Christ within this community. Seeking the peace and hope and guidance that the presence of Christ brings to us. But inseparable from the presence of Christ is the power of God.
The Spirit enables, activates, empowers the community of the new covenant to do nothing less than what Christ did in his earthly ministry.
The Community of the New Covenant is the continuation of Christ’s presence and work on the earth. Think about it. After the gift of the Spirit, Peter (!) preaches a sermon that draws thousands into God’s kingdom. Peter does what Jesus did. The disciples heal, just as Jesus did. In today’s Gospel from John, Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” You are sent to do what I have been doing. Including forgiving sins.
Paul lists the gifts that members of the community of the new covenant have been given. Everyone does something. Everyone has a role doing Christ’s work for the common good.
As members of the Community of the New Covenant, you have all been given the gift and the power to do Christ’s work. How are you using that power? The power of God? What are you doing? The Community of the covenant has been given the power to do nothing less that what Christ did in his earthly ministry. What are you doing?
The source of that power is here. Not in the building, but in the community assembled in fellowship and prayer. The Holy Spirit is present in the community assembled. It is within the community that we plug into our common source, that flame that binds and encompasses us all.
So get rid of that image of little personal flamelettes dancing over individual heads. This mosaic is a much better image. The Spirit comes with power throughout the community assembled. Power to create the Community of the New Covenant and empower us with nothing less than “power from on high,” God’s own power to be the Body of Christ in the world.
