This year, the last Sunday in May — indeed, the very last day of May — marks the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is grounded in an Old Testament festival beginning on the fiftieth day after the beginning of Passover. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter Sunday.
The season of Pentecost is one of the most neglected in the church year. There are many reasons why. For some ministers and church people, there may be mental, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion after the great rush of activity and celebration stretching from Advent to Christmas to Lent to Easter. Others see recognizing Pentecost as an embrace of contemporary “Pentecostal” theology or charismatic styles of worship. Even so, I think there is real value in taking this season seriously in the worship and reflection of our church. It is a time to reflect deeply on our theology and to posture ourselves toward spiritual renewal, nurture, and growth.
In the Old Testament, it is called the Feast of Weeks — an agricultural festival celebrating and giving thanks for the first fruits of the early spring harvest (Leviticus 23, Exodus 23 and 34). Though its roots were agricultural, by New Testament times Pentecost was more associated with celebrating God’s calling and formation of a people. By the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, Pentecost focused almost exclusively on God’s gift of the Law, the Torah, on Mount Sinai. This is the focus that continues in Judaism to the modern day.
There are other references to Pentecost in various places in the New Testament, but the most significant is Acts 2 and the familiar scene of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on those following Jesus’ instruction to wait after his ascension. Some debate exactly what happened there — whether it is a repeatable event or only for the early church, or whether it is a paradigm for personal religious experience.
What seems clear is that Pentecost proclaims God’s gracious, enabling presence actively at work among those God chooses, calling and enabling them to live out the witness of being God’s people in dynamic ways. In former times, keeping the law was the means by which the faithful became God’s witness to the world. For Jesus’ disciples, that witness is known in the Spirit-powered testimony of a humble community alive with Christ, committed to sharing grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, service, faith, hope, and love with the world.
Pentecost is a time to celebrate hope, knowing that God is still powerfully at work through the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised. The Holy Spirit is God’s affirmation of Jesus’ promise to be with us to the end. It is a celebration of newness, re-creation, and renewal of purpose, mission, and calling. Pentecost is a celebration of God’s continuing work in the world, recognizing God’s gracious choice to work through people as God pours out his presence upon them.
We are experiencing a great unraveling of everything we thought wouldn’t really change in our lives. There remain as many questions as answers. For our church, which so eagerly stepped into 2020 ready to implement the God-given vision that had captivated our attention, we now ask how that vision comes to pass in a brand new environment sorely impacted by the disruption of this pandemic.
Now is a good time to be doing exactly this. Pentecost’s focus on the church’s mission to the world, and the assurance of God’s enabling presence through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, leads the way. This sacred season is the right time to respond to the call to renewal through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in Yates Baptist Church, and in our hurting world. I pray we will hear and respond to that call.
Grace and Peace,