May 31st Pentecost
Reading – Acts 2 (also John 20: 19-23)
You might want to read the account of the first Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 – how the crowds in Jerusalem found the disciples speaking and all of them hearing in their own languages. In John’s Gospel, the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is there on Easter Sunday, and the two are linked. The period when the risen Jesus was apparent was brief. Easter is a frustratingly particular event – genuinely unique, once for all. We remember and celebrate but we must not get stuck on the event, but we should live with what it means. We now get on with living, knowing for sure that God has spoken and that God has revealed his “character” in the person and life and death of Jesus.
Pentecost was a harvest festival for the Jews, and it is the harvest of people from all the nations that signifies the new era, but it is for the disciples to preach and proclaim the news.
At the Tower of Babel people were scattered and separated through various languages, but now the various languages are brought together in this one message; all can hear in their own language, the message is for everyone.
We live in a modern world where the Christian message has gone vague and dim and distant – some say secular, or even post-Christian, and in the current crisis many simply treat it as a worldly issue, though some recognise it may have started because of very poor meat practices. Our predominantly secular world needs to hear afresh the call, invitation and challenge of God. Are we part of the answer, and how would we shape what we say to connect with our modern world?
How do we sense the Spirit of God blowing through the world today, and do we experience God’s Spirit within us, for we can only speak from what we know.
What do you notice from this passage?
