Acts 2:1-21 is an account of the Pentecost miracle of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the first group of believers in Jerusalem and the account of the first sermon of Peter. Its images invite reflection on our need for power and the importance of testimony. The barriers of social convention come down when the Spirit is among the people of God. Only Luke separates the events of Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost into three distinct moments. The fully exalted Jesus - the Messiah and Lord ascended and seated at the right hand of God's heavenly throne - bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit. The significance of this account is that the Spirit establishes the fellowship of believers, and therefore the Spirit is not just the assurance for the individuals of salvation.[1] John 20:22 applied in a profound way the breathing of life into humanity to the breathing of new life into believers. Yet, the distinction in time that Luke presents has an important theological point.[2] It distinguishes the eschatological reality of the risen Christ from the church itself. One could get the idea from Paul that the work of the risen Christ and the work of the Spirit are the same. Luke has opened the door for spontaneity in the experience of the Spirit as the source of the proclamation of Christ.[3] Yet, connecting the imparting of the Spirit with the appearance of the risen Lord and Easter, as we find in John, is a more likely construction. Luke has the theological interest of placing the imparting of the Spirit outside the 40-day period of the appearances of the risen Lord.[4]
What was Luke trying to do?[5] Luke wanted to present the most important incident since the departure of Jesus, namely the coming of the Spirit. He had to depict it vividly so that it would rise unforgettably before the eyes of his readers. He also had to emphasize the meaning of the event. The event of the outpouring of the Spirit involves a comprehensive account of the church as the eschatological people of God who, in contrast to the Jewish people, has gathered from humanity as a whole and thus becomes the new people gathered out of all peoples.[6]
1When the day of Pentecost had come, Luke stressing the event of the coming of the Spirit took place 50 days after Easter, in association with the 40 days he already made to the ascension. The use of the feast of Pentecost shows the indebtedness of the early church to its Jewish heritage. Leviticus 23:15-21 describes the institution of the festival. Pentecost, or the "Feast of Weeks," or Shavuot, was a festival of the "first fruits," where the faithful brought the first of the grain harvest to the temple and offered it to the Lord. Eventually, the tradition replaced the original agrarian meaning of Pentecost with a commemoration of the giving of the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and even later tradition associated it with the observance of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The very name of this celebration - "Pentecost" or the "50th day" - tied it back to the wondrous events of the Passover/Easter and crucifixion/resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the one who received the Holy Spirit from the Father, and now pours it out onto his disciples (Acts 2:33), empowering them with talents and initiative they never had before. They (the eleven, Mathias, and the women) were all together in one place. They are in the home to which they had retired to wait and pray, as the risen Lord had told them. 2 And suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. We find here a play on the word for “spirit,” ruach, meaning wind. The oblique language describing this sound reminds one of the slightly circuitous way that the writer describes the divinely revealing wind in I Kings 19:12 ("like a sound of sheer silence" or "like a gentle whisper"), or the way in which everything related to God is "something like" something else in the first chapters of Ezekiel. The resistance to directly describing God or God's Spirit is a very ancient phenomenon. This wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, also a play on the double meaning of glossai as language and tongues, as of fire, appeared among them. The image of the "tongue" of fire may also have, however, a connection to a roundabout association between the spoken word and swords, which in Hebrew have "mouths." Further, a tongue rested on each of them. 4 The Holy Spirit filled all of them and they began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. The statement in I Corinthians 15:6 that the risen Lord appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at the same time may be the original form of the account of Pentecost.[7] The point here is that the Spirit imparts prophetic inspiration to all members of the covenant people. This event is a collective experience of ecstatic speech that Luke links to the Christian missionary proclamation.[8] One Jewish background possibility for this imagery is that of Philo. His midrash on Ex 19 describes tongues of fire at Sinai and the people from the seventy languages were present to hear the law. He presents it as a fire streaming from heaven, from the midst of which comes a voice. He even says that the flame became articulate speech in the language familiar to the audience.[9] From now on, the receiving of the Spirit is constitutive for being a Christian. However, Luke will still define its specific effects in each case. It may be Luke's purpose, as well as describing the receiving of the Spirit, also to depict the Pentecost event as a miracle of language. The fact is that on the very day on which God establishes the Christian religion, the Holy Spirit equips the members of the new movement with the languages of all other peoples. Thus, Luke immediately expresses his conviction of the universal nature of Christianity.[10] From the perspective of Luke, the origin of the church is a prayer meeting of the disciples and women at which one of the manifestations was “speaking in tongues.” In I Corinthians 12-14, Paul saw it as an eschatologically given possibility of praising God with the angels, and of experiencing or repeating the mysteries of heaven.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. This account of Luke stresses the Christian mission to the Jews but it also views the outpouring of the Spirit as occurring at the beginning of the Christian community.[11] 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Yet the "native language" for Diaspora Jews was not the local dialect of the isolated region they lived in but was typically either Greek or Aramaic. For Diaspora Jews in Western regions, Greek was their vernacular tongue. For Diaspora Jews of the East, Aramaic was their native language. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs. Luke's emphasis on the various nationalities represented by the Pentecost‑day crowd often clouds our image of a basic homogeneity that ran through this group. What they hear is these people speaking about the deeds of power God performed. Thus, they hear of the mighty work of God in Jesus of Nazareth in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” Luke is saying that the Holy Spirit is among them and in them, demanding one thing--speech. The crowd is amazed at the varieties of languages with which people spoke. The real miracle is the content of the words. The timid were now proclaiming. The disciples became conscious of a new inward power that completely transformed their whole outlook; and this they attributed to the possession by the Spirit of God. It is indeed this new sense of power that is the significant factor in the experience of Pentecost. Now they became conscious of the Spirit as power—in accordance with the promise of 1:8—wherein they might go forth to their work of bearing witness. Accordingly, the great central fact of the day was not that the Father and the Son gave the Spirit for the first time, but that it marked the beginning of their active missionary work. 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 However, others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
The crowd is already splintering into those who believe and want to hear more and those who cynically attribute all this jabbering to "new wine." What Luke has done is anticipate the reaction to Christian proclamation by placing the reaction here, at the beginning. Some will hear the mighty acts of God, while others will view the proclamation as unintelligible.[12] Most agree that Luke is not describing the whole community experiencing glossolalia. What he appears to describe is xenolalia, the speaking of various intelligible forms of foreign languages. According to Richard J. Dillon, xenolalia is more likely because everyone in the crowd understands the "mighty acts of God" that these first followers of Jesus are speaking. The same type of event occurs the Gentile converts speak 'in tongues' in 10:46. Dillon says that 10:46 and 19:6 confirm Luke's consistent interest in reinterpreting the "tongues" prompted by the Spirit in terms of inspired and intelligible preaching of the Word. "It is conceivable that Luke's outlook had been influenced by Paul's critique of the glossolalia in 1 Corinthians 14:2-19 comparing their incomprehensible sounds unfavorably with the edifying words of prophecy." According to Dillon, this means that the miracle of Pentecost was more than just miraculous speech. It was an event of more "lasting significance: the inauguration of a mission that would cross all language barriers."[13] This view becomes more likely when we consider the range of nations present in this scene, even if all are Jews travelling to Jerusalem. They are from points to the far east (Elam) and the far west (Rome). They are from African nations (Egypt and Libya), desert nations (Arabia), as well as island nations (Crete). Miraculous witnessing to these gathered would in fact constitute spreading the Word of God to most of the known world of the time. In addition to the significance of this event as a beginning of the spread of the Christian gospel to the whole of the Gentile world, the gathered crowd also represents the Jewish diaspora, gathered in Jerusalem as prophecy predicted by the fire of God and the power of God's might (Isaiah 66:15-20). Thus, the Word of God not only seeks to go out and find new hearers in the world, it also seeks to draw back to itself its original hearers, the Jews. And as the citation from Joel 3:1-5 makes clear, the Spirit not only intends to fulfill prophecy, but to inspire it as well, beginning a new age of inspiration intended for all people, male and female, of all ages and nationalities, signaling that the great Day of the Lord is dawning in the world.
Against the background of the story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) that we can understand the extraordinary event of Pentecost. The sound that was like the rush of a mighty wind signaled a new creation. The fire of the Holy Spirit burned clean, making possible a new understanding. The Jews of diaspora heard these Galilean followers of Jesus telling of the mighty works of God in their own language. The promised people themselves, who had been scattered among the tribes, learning their languages, were now reunited in mutual understanding. The wound of Babel began to be healed first among the very people God had called into the world as a pledge of God’s presence.
The joy of that healing surely must have made them ecstatic. It is a joy not possible except by God’s creation. It is a joy that comes from recognizing we have been freed from our endless cycle of injury and revenge. It is the joy of unity that we experience all too briefly in moments of self-forgetfulness. It is no wonder, therefore, that some onlookers simply attributed this strange behavior to the consumption of potent wine. …
The unity of humankind prefigured at Pentecost is not just any unity but that made possible by the apocalyptic work of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a unity of renewed understanding, but the kind of understanding is not that created by some artificial universal language that denies the reality of other languages. Attempts to secure unity through the creation of a single language are attempts to make us forget our histories and differences rather than find the unity made possible by the Spirit through which we understand the other as other. At Pentecost God created a new language, but it was a language that is more than words. It is instead a community whose memory of its savior creates the miracle of being a people whose very differences contribute to their unity.
This new creation is the church, which is constituted by the story we tell and the story we embody.[14]
Acts 2:14-21 is part of a segment that extends to verse 36, having the theme of the message of Peter on Pentecost. The images in the sermon become powerful, as the coming of the Spirit is a sign of the age to come, breaking down barriers of social convention, such as roles of male and female as well as master and slave.
Peter offers his first sermon.[15] The Christology is very elementary. We may describe the speech as an early Christian defense of the gospel. The first aim of the Christian preacher was to show to his fellow citizens that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Jewish faith. The Crucifixion seemed to have given the lie to the preaching of Jesus concerning the nearness of the rule of God. Until the early church could dispel this impression all preaching of the Christian message was futile. Hence, the defense of the gospel rather than its exposition is the need of the hour. Peter will develop the first creed. He will clearly state what he believes about Jesus and invite others to join him in the journey. The stress is not so much on the content of the gospel as on the evidence of its truth. The supreme argument for the messiahship was the Resurrection. It removed the impression left by a disgraceful death, proved that Jesus was no impostor, and vindicated all his claims. This explains the effort, which this speech so beautifully illustrated, to see the scripture differently than they had before. They now saw certain passages as giving us a hint of the importance of resurrection for faith in the God of Israel. In this part of the sermon, Peter will see some new things in Psalm 16. Once the disciples saw this connection between their recent experience of the crucifixion and resurrection on the one hand a scripture on the other, they became the first to proclaim of what God had done in Jesus of Nazareth. To a Jewish audience no other argument would be necessary. If the early church could show to a Jewish audience that scripture prophesied an event, they would have enough reason for believing in its truth and its divine significance. We believe because of the testimony or witness of these apostles.
These early accounts Luke offers of the church in Jerusalem show that early Christians lived quiet lives of faith in Jerusalem. We learn that Joel 2:32 and Psalm 110 were early biblical texts that helped the early community understand who Jesus was. We detect little trace of Pauline ideas that must have been current in the environment in which Luke wrote. For example, any reference to faith as a necessary condition of sharing in the blessings of the messianic age is noticeably absent. Only once in these early speeches does Peter mention it: in 3:16, where it states that this faith is the reason for the healing of the lame man—a close resemblance to the view of faith characteristic of the Synoptic Gospels. To judge by these early sermons the first preachers contented themselves with the demonstration of the messiahship and did not ask what the messiahship involved for Jesus himself. There is no reason to suppose that at first their idea of messiahship differed from that of their fellow Jews. It was only when the original messianic expectations had waned that Christians began to fill in or add to the picture with its original Jewish content, probably by drawing on their recollection of Jesus' own words, the full meaning of which they had at the time missed. Only when it dawned upon them that Jesus' work was something more than the founding of a national messianic kingdom did they begin to speculate upon the person of Jesus himself. This explains the complete absence here of any developed Christology.
14 However, Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them. Peter is speaking as a leader of the church in Jerusalem. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what the prophet Joel 2:28-32 spoke: 17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young people shall see visions, and your elderlyshall dream dreams. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. The importance of this passage for this moment in history is clear. Among the “500” or the “120” are men, women, young, old, and slaves. The Spirit has come with power upon them to testify. When an act of God occurs, especially when it offers a new revelation or unveiling of who God is, the event will need witnesses. It will need testimony among the people to whom God wants. In this case, God wants the nations to know of this revelation. This passage is one of the most powerful arguments in favor of female preaching. Of course, other passages show the early church struggled with this notion, but we can see here that it did not matter if you were male or female. You had a responsibility to offer testimony to the work of God in Jesus of Nazareth. The addition of slaves suggests that the distinctions society establishes as barriers need to come down among the people of God. 19 In addition, I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The Lord shall turn the sun to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Such signs of the end of human history are typical among the apocalyptic texts of the Jewish people. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, the Lord shall save.’ The point Luke makes is that the arrival of the Holy Spirit in power and authority is like the well-known apocalyptic text from Joel 2:28, 32. It is a time of a new, never before seen event. It is time to mark the birthday of a new creation by God, a creation that itself invokes the beginning of the end times. Linguistic abilities are not the foundation of the miracle of the Holy Spirit's arrival. Rather, the birth of God's power and authority on earth through the new creation of the church becomes the foundation.
This passage invites reflection on its powerful images.
The word in English is “spirit.” In Hebrew, the word is ruach. In Greek, the word is pneuma. Holy Spirit. The Greek is hagios [holy] and pneuma [a breath, or a gentle wind]. Therefore, a better translation might be Holy Breath or Holy Wind. We may have discovered an interesting benediction, as we might bless people in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Wind.
The 12th-century mystic, Hildegard of Bingen, once told a little parable: “Listen, there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus, I am a feather on the breath of God.”
Wind has a mysterious quality, even for us modern, scientific people. The wind can be unpredictable. We try to harness its power for good, whether for sailing, kites, or energy. Wind can also be destructive, as tornados and hurricanes remind us on a regular basis. We might say that a person is “spirited,” by which we mean lively, energetic, and full of life. We might refer to the spirit of the times, or the spirit of a group of people, by which we mean certain qualities, which one might call either life giving or life denying.
The Holy Spirit is life-giving, uplifting, empowering, inspiring, creative Spirit. If we sense another “spirit” at work, bringing us down, sucking life out of us, and destructive of hope, then we know that this is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
When the body of Christ is truly together, it shares the same vision. A flock of birds migrates from one place to another and head in the same direction because they have caught the same wind. In the same way, the church that is truly together has members who have caught the Spirit of God and start heading in the same direction by communicating what God is doing with courage and clarity. It makes itself fully open to the energy it needs from the Holy Spirit.
Migration – unifying force in nature – it is a fascinating thing to see – what if other people saw the church in that way fascinated that the church is migrating to its destination.
Unlike the complexities of energy sources for human communities, this matter of power for the church and for your life is not rocket science. Instead, it is a Simple Way. In part, we use energy to arrive at a destination. Our destination is a lively, spirited community of faith, making disciples for Jesus Christ, and bearing witness to our community of the love of God for them. I need that power. The reader may well need that power. I want to suggest that the way for us to have the power to accomplish our mission is simple.
First, I suggest the simple way of the power of community. Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the apostles of Jesus “were all together in one place” (v. 1). Community is critically important. In a time when we can take our spiritual quest to the Internet, community may seem less important. In reality, it has become more important than ever. In our culture, we will need many ways of being together in worship, in learning, and in ministry. You and I need a place to belong. I would take it a step further and suggest that if we feel a loss of spiritual power, if we start feeling empty, we need to ask ourselves if we focus too much upon self. Have we become self-centered? Have we cut ourselves off from the community? Compassion fatigue is a very real risk faced by anyone who feels driven to make the world a better place. The antidote is to tap into a source of power that comes from beyond self. The power of Pentecost is an energy source that can keep us burning with love for God and for the people around us, while radiating warmth and light to a cold, shadowy world. We do not find this power primarily in programs, policies, or institutions but instead in the loving actions of a faithful Christian community.
Second, I suggest the simple way of the power of clear communication. We need to take a lesson Rene Descartes, a philosopher who wrote of the need for us develop “clear and distinct ideas.” For a philosopher, he followed his own advice. His philosophical essays were concise, clear, and distinct, unlike many philosophers who came before him or after him. Communication is already difficult enough. The apostles in Jerusalem “began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (v. 4). This amazed the devout Jews from every nation who were living in the city, because they knew that the apostles were Galileans — men not famous for their foreign language abilities. The Holy Spirit of God had given the apostles a gift of communication so that they could tell people about the good news of Jesus in a clear and compelling way. We know how to make communication difficult. We can make everything more complex than it is. We may not be genuine in our communication, and therefore must resort to deception. We need to speak from our hearts.
Every generation of Americans has experiences that shape their perspective on the world. The church keeps learning how to deal with these different perspectives, these different languages, to communicate the gospel in a way that each generation can understand. A generation shaped by a depression, a generation shaped by a World War, a generation shaped by the assassination of young leaders, a generation shaped by the Internet and a technologically oriented war, each respond to their world differently.
Communication does not stop at understanding others. It also means understanding your message. When the apostle Peter spoke to the crowd, he did not invent a completely new set of Holy Scriptures. Instead, he clarified a passage from Joel that had been confusing before, but now made perfect sense. He provided a commentary on this Scripture lesson that awakened people to the power of the Holy Spirit and the significance of God’s Son, Jesus.
We cannot simply repeat the phrases of the past. We need to keep searching for new ways to express ancient truths. For Peter, that meant showing that God’s promise to pour out the Spirit was coming true all around them, and the day was dawning in which “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 21).
Third, I suggest the simple way of the power of courage. Acts tells us that some of the residents of Jerusalem sneered at the apostles and said, “They are filled with new wine” (v. 13). They did not want to hear the message of the Galileans, so they tried to write it off as drunken babbling. Nevertheless, Peter raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose” (vv. 14-15). It took guts for Peter to stand up to the sneering crowd. It took Spirit-powered courage. Peter had recently denied Jesus three times. He hid himself from the authorities after the crucifixion. Yet, with the power of the Spirit, Peter makes a strong stand for what God was doing in the world at that moment. This passage challenges us to do the same, especially when people dismiss our practice of the faith. Whether at work or in our personal relationships, we have limits. We always risk alienating friends, family, and co-workers if we let them know where we stand. We struggle with how we can show a little courage to describe what God is doing in our lives and in the world. Some people may have the calling of engaging philosophical arguments with agnostics or refuting best-selling books by atheists. For most people, however, the challenge is to point out what one sees God doing in our lives, especially the changes Christ has brought into our lives. We may even have an insight into what God is doing in and through our church, touching the community and the world. When estranged family members come together, that is a God-moment. When people for whom Christ and the church meant nothing suddenly turn aside and come alive to the things of God, that is a God-moment. When an unexpected healing of damaged emotions occurs, that is a God-moment. When warring factions make peace, that is a God-moment.
You do not have to be a creative genius. Pentecost power itself is love. We can do no remarkable things. We can do small things with great love. The issue is not how much you do, but the love you put into do it. Such is the nature of Christian action.[16] The power of Pentecost is the power of love, fusing the love of God for us, our love for God, and the love both have for the world.
Jesus says that the one who is near him is near fire, but one who is far from him is far from the rule of God.[17]Just as “tongues like fire” were over the heads of those gathered in the upper room, a fire started on that day. Too often in history, the fire has flickered and burned dimly. Today, the light seems almost dim in comparison to other perceived lights in the modern world. Yet, the church never loses its basic commission to be witnesses for the light that God has brought into the world through Jesus. Let it be so.
First, in some of Jesus’ subsequent followers, one can see the light of the Spirit almost visually. Several years ago, after the English writer Malcolm Muggeridge spent some time observing Mother Teresa working in Calcutta, India, taking care of dying people she plucked off the streets, he authored a book about her he titled Something Beautiful for God. In it, he said that the universal love of God has rubbed off on Mother Teresa, giving her features a noticeable luminosity and a shining quality.[18] In most of us who follow Jesus today, the light within us may not be quite that apparent to others. We are not always brightly shining. Yet, when we confront darkness in our lives, we often become conscious of how the way of the Lord is the primary light of our lives.
There is a story about a little girl who, on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, the preacher’s sermon this morning confused me.” The mother said, “Oh! Why is that?” The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” “Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied. “He also said that God lives within us. Is that true, too?” Again, the mother replied, “Yes.” “Well,” said the girl. “If God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn’t he show through?”
Second, the thing is, in this world, there are lots of other lights, some that seem more glitzy or powerful or, in some fields, even more illuminating. These lights may dim our appreciation for the light God has given us, especially if we do not nurture that light. John describes Jesus as “the light of all people,” affirming that his light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it (John 1:4-5). I have read versions of the culture being complete darkness from both left and right sides of the theological and political spectrum. Yes, darkness will not overcome the light of Jesus. Yet, could the light we see in culture overwhelm our appreciation for the light of Jesus?
Here are some examples of what I mean.
Let us consider the light of education. Some of us who first met Jesus as children or teenagers had a little spiritual light glowing inside us when we went off to college. There, we encountered not only current information, but also new ways of thinking about it, all emanating from the lamp of education. On balance, that is a good lamp, one that has been helpful to our world, but its nature is such that our spiritual light can look pale by comparison. Moreover, for some of us, the scholastic light seemed, at least for a time, to overpower our inner light of the Spirit.
Let us consider the light of psychology. You have struggled with some personal baggage from the past that interfered with your ongoing life. You may have prayed about it without finding the help you needed. So eventually, you sought some professional counseling, and through it, you found some relief and new perspectives that set you free from the old bondage. Given those results, the counseling certainly qualifies as light for your darkness, and therefore a good light. Nevertheless, it does not necessarily follow that it is a better light than the light of the Spirit. It is a different light, a more specific light for a specific need, but it is not a light for what is at the root of every one of us: our need to get right with God and to fill our lives with meaning and purpose.
Let us consider the light of the culture. Secular life itself has a glitter that sometimes outshines the light of the Spirit within us. If you have ever been with a group of people who seem quite happy without the morality and values of religion, you may have wondered if you were mistaken to cling to the way of the Lord. I will say that many such persons who say that everything is OK in their secular lifestyle do not appear to be OK in reality. In any case, the light of secularity can appear powerfully bright at times. It can illuminate certain pleasures. At times, it can even shed a benign glow. Yet it has neither the heat of inspiration nor the inner-path-lighting ability of the Spirit’s light.
It ought not to surprise us that every culture develops some ideas, institutions, and practices that enlighten humanity. God made us all in the image of God. United Methodists believe in prevenient grace, the grace that comes before salvation in wooing us into the full light of the gospel. We can expect that human beings will produce many good things. Personally, I hope the church is always open to learning new things from the lights of medicine, learning, behavioral studies, sociology, human motivation, technology, or anything else. I hope we do not have a view of the gospel in which the choice is always “either/or,” as in “either we will follow Jesus, or we will follow science or culture.” We need to be open enough to allow these other lights to illuminate our lives where possible. Yet, the organizing fire or light of our lives need to emanate from the Holy Spirit. Let the “tongues like fire” rest upon each of us.
That brings me to my next point.
Third, like it or not, if you are a Christian, you are called to bear witness, to testify to the hope that is within you, to tell people about Jesus. In one sense, I think it only fair for us as pastors to let you know that it will be increasingly difficult to be a faithful Christian. This time is no time to sugarcoat the gospel. Becoming a Christian will not solve every problem you face. In fact, if you read your Bible closer, you will discover that adversity is often part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is not necessarily a terrible thing. When the church received much support from the culture, some found it easy to participate in the church. With the change in the culture, many more people feel free to do something else with their time and energy. When we gather for worship, praise, focus upon the Bible, preach, and teach, we are equipping ourselves to be light-bearers. I may have an easier task of being a witness. People expect it of me. However, tomorrow, when you get into the classroom, or the boardroom, the office, or over the kitchen table, witness is more difficult. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, you can witness. That must be one of the main points of Acts 2. The Father raised Jesus from the dead through the power of the Spirit and showed Jesus to be the promised Jewish Messiah, Son of Man, Lord and Savior, but nobody knew how to talk about it, and few possessed the courage to speak of such a thing. Then the Holy Spirit descended, and the Spirit brought the mighty deeds of God to speech. People began to witness. They continue to witness throughout the Book of Acts and throughout the history of the church.
The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost lit the fire of the church. The Spirit of God is still and must always be the main source of light for Christians. Individually and as the church, we should do what is necessary to keep ourselves in good places for the flame of the Spirit to burn hotly and shine brightly. Our job is not to extinguish lesser lights. The witness to the light we have found in Jesus does not mean followers of Jesu have the only lights in town. Sometimes, we even need to help other people see the light they bring into a dark world. At the same time, however, other lights ought not to dazzle us so much that we no longer shine for Christ or no longer “reproduce” and bring forth new generations of Christians.
Is the church losing its voice? It at least appears that increasing numbers of people identify as Christian are uncomfortable speaking about their faith. Our conversation revolves around work and our social lives. Spiritual conversation tends to invite tension or arguments. Like so much of life today, the conversation can turn political. Further, we do not want to appear religious, weird, or extremist.[19]
If we are to overcome our hesitation, we may need to reflect upon what we are doing when we talk about God to others. God is beyond all our words and concepts. We speak by analogy, metaphor, or symbol of a reality that is not definable or measurable. We cannot point to God as we can point to a tree. In that sense, we can only speak of God indirectly. Thus, we need to open ourselves to the many possible ways we can imagine God.[20] We have other undefinable experiences in our lives. For some persons, it might be the beauty of Rocky Mountains in spring. Yes, we can say it is beautiful, but even that word falls short of what one experiences. Your spot may be the beach, the prairie, or an island, but I imagine you have such places in your experiences. Such experiences are beyond words. Experiences of deep grief and sorrow are similar, of course. Through our struggle and tears, we have no words. The heights of beauty or glory and the depths of despair or grief have no words. The best and the worst experiences of a human life are beyond words. Yet, it may well be that we will capture a glimpse of God amid such experiences.[21]
Despite its difficulties, witness in word and deed is the primary act of the Christian and of the church.
Erasmus, the famous Renaissance scholar, once told a classic story which was designed to emphasize how important it is that we take up the torch of Christ’s ministry with great commitment. In the story, Jesus returns to heaven after His time on earth. The angels gather around Him to learn what all happened during His days on earth. Jesus tells them of the miracles, his teachings, his death on the cross, and His resurrection. When He finishes his story, Michael the Archangel asks Jesus, “But what happens now?” Jesus answers, “I have left behind eleven faithful disciples and a handful of men and women who have faithfully followed me. They will declare my message and express my love. These faithful people will build my church.” “But,” responds Michael, “What if these people fail? What then is your other plan?” Jesus answers, “I do not have another plan.”
[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 13.
[2] Scholars have evaluated the historical dimension of this passage negatively.
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 14.
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 14.
[5] Lohse and Bauernfiend.
[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 13, pointing to A. von Harnack, Mission and Expansion, I (London, 1904, 300ff.
[7] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 14.
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 13.
[9] Philo, Decalogue 46 on Ex 19:16ff. "Then form the midst of the fire that streamed from heaven there uttered a voice ... for the flame became articulate speech in the language familiar to the audience, and so clearly and distinctly were the words formed by it that they seem to see rather than hear them.”
[10] Ludemann.
[11] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 13.
[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 13.
[13] ("Acts of the Apostles," New Jerome Biblical Commentary [Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1990], 731).
[14] —Stanley Hauerwas, “God’s New Language,” The Hauerwas Reader, eds. John Berkman and Michael Cartwright (Duke University Press, 2001), 146–150.
[15] Historically, many scholars (Ludemann and many others) think the construction of the speech has its source in Luke. Historically, one can be reasonably certain that the Christians quietly and devoutly led their lives of faith in Jerusalem. Here is how some scholars break out the historically reliable material in this passage.
{14 Then Peter, (the leader of the church in Jerusalem in that first year after the death of Jesus), stood up with the Eleven ... (from Joel as a proof text:) 21 And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. ... (from a Christological view of Ps 110:) 34 The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand, 35 till I have made your enemies your footstool.}
[16] Mother Teresa
1. [17] Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, “He who is near me is near fire, but he who is far from me is far from the kingdom”
[18] “God’s universal love has rubbed off on Mother Teresa, giving her features a noticeable luminosity, a shining quality.”
[19] Jonathan Merritt, New York Times, October 13, 2018.
[20] —Frederick Buechner, “Religion,” in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC (HarperOne, 1993).
[21] Ralph Milton, Angels in Red Suspenders: An Unconventional and Humorous Approach to Spirituality (Wood Lake Publishing, 2012), 175.
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