Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Steve Sveom.
There are three primary festival days in the Christian calendar. Christmas and Easter are the first two. Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection are the focus. The third key festival is Pentecost. Jesus promised to send his Spirit and Pentecost celebrates that gift. What is the significance?
The giving of the Spirit is the assurance that God’s work is not simply in the past, but that it continues. It holds the promise of God’s presence with us, in us and through us. And, in a way, it is a redemptive gift – bringing hope and healing to an injured world.
In Genesis, we hear that God’s creation is good. We also see how sin and separation bring disruption and corruption to what was good. One example is the Tower of Babel. It shows both human achievement and human pride: people believed they no longer needed God and could build a tower reaching the heavens. Yet in the story, God cannot even see this tiny tower without “coming down.” The people start to speak different languages and can no longer understand each other – pride is their downfall and their judgment is an inability to work together in harmony.
While this story may be an ancient attempt to explain things like different languages and the dispersion of people to different parts of the earth, it is a story about human pride, failure to acknowledge God, and the disruption of a society that becomes too proud and self-centered.
If we look at ourselves today, we see an Ebola outbreak in Africa that is impacted by the discontinuation of USAID. We see human pride bring war and undermine long-standing alliances.
The story of Pentecost, in Acts 2, is a reversal of the Babel story of Genesis. The disciples, filled with the Spirit, speak in other languages and the people hear the message of God’s love, in Christ, each in their own language. Pentecost is about God’s grace and God’s work to influence and overcome our human arrogance and divisions. It is redemptive. The message of Pentecost is that the Spirit continues to do God’s work in the world and through God’s people. Thanks be to God.
By your Spirit, o God, continue to speak to us in our own language and move us to be people of humility and grace in the world. Amen.