June 4, 2006 Read: Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-16:15
These are the two classic readings for Pentecost. The selection from Acts is the story of Pentecost itself, while the reading from John tells us what Jesus had to say about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He begins by telling the disciples “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” They have been walking with Jesus for three years, but have not fully understood his message. Very shortly Jesus will be arrested and they will scatter for fear of their lives. Jesus knows they will need more knowledge and more courage to go out and face the world.
The promise is that a Counselor will come, the “Spirit of Truth,” to guide them into all truth. The Spirit will show the way, but then it will be up to them. “You also must testify,” Jesus tells them “for you have been with me from the beginning.”
The wait must have seemed to take forever, but finally the day came. The Holy Spirit arrived with the sound of rushing wind and the appearance of tongues of fire. Both of those must have been frightening to the disciples, gathered in one place, hiding out from the authorities. Any unexpected noise would have startled them, but the wind and then the fire would have threatened to destroy their hiding place.
Fortunately for them, they were quickly “filled with the Holy Spirit” and everything that Jesus had promised them came true. His words and their mission were both suddenly clear. Not only that, now they are able to explain it to the crowds, in whatever language was needed. We are told that they were, “utterly amazed” and the effect of the Holy Spirit is still utterly amazing to us today.
On the day of Pentecost, the words of the Joel came true: “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” The annual celebration of Pentecost reminds us that we dare to dream dreams, that we dare to cast visions, and that we can convict the world of its sin and live in righteousness.
Pentecost also challenges us to act upon those promises and to carry them out boldly. After all, the book that we read from is not called the Prophecies of the Apostles, or the Dreams of the Apostles, or the Visions of the Apostles. It is called the Acts of the Apostles, because that’s what they did after Pentecost. They acted.
We are called to do the same. May we, like the apostles, be filled with that Holy Spirit. And may we, like them, go boldly forth to proclaim the message to the world.