[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #663, Pentecost Sunday, 5/31/09

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Pentecost Sunday – May 31, 2009


Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Acts 2:1-21
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

“What A Reality!”

Drunk, huh?  Why did "drunk" even come to mind among the accusers?  Even Peter treats it as a plausible conclusion:  ”Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.” (Acts 2:15)  The reason he gives for the accusation's being false seems silly compared with the reason at hand.  “When was the last time you heard a drunk speaking in your own language, though he didn’t know that language?”  Is Peter not aware that foreigners are hearing the church speak in their own language?  Is he defending glossolalia against the charge of it's being irrational speech?  The whole periscope is a defense of Spirit directed speech facilitating communication rather than frustrating it.  

Peter doesn’t get sidetracked by the idea of glossolalia, though, and goes straight to the heart of the event that is the announcement of the day of the Lord.  The fact that everyone understood regardless of her/his nationality is indicative of the day of the Lord being for everyone.  Joel, the latest of the prophets, foreshadowed what God would do with the church.  God would pour out God’s Spirit without regard to the traditional order, not through Jewish males only.   “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...”  (Acts 2:17) [Your daughters shall prophesy!!]  “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  (2:21) [Everyone!]

There were Roman proselytes among the audience at Pentecost.  The Jewish community had become evangelical in the period preceding the Christian era.  The church emerged as a further work of God begun among the chosen people.  God had been helping them realize that they were the bearers of a world religion -- thus the emergence of evangelism in the Jewish community.  But, if Jews were teaching their children to swim, the church transformed them into fish.  Evangelism became the central work of the church -- “to proclaim the Lord’s death until his coming again.”

All of the lections for this Sunday proclaim the mighty work of the Spirit of God, of course.  The Psalm declares that God’s Spirit imparts life to the planet.  I hadn’t realized that when we pray the prayer to the Holy Spirit at Emmaus gatherings, we are praying for animals, fish and insects, viz. “Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.”  

Paul’s marvelous, mystical vision expands the horizon of the Spirit’s power: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now.”  (Romans 8:22) Then he settles in on the central power for this Sunday, communication, the gift of direct
 communication between God and people, people and God.  Oh, my, what a concept, what a reality!

Then Jesus talks about the power of the Spirit to communicate:  “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...” (John 16:13) Uh oh, that means that the truth of God is not limited to the Bible.  God’s self-revelation can be progressive.  It can progress beyond the first century.  What does that mean?  The Pope is infallible when speaking ex cathedra?  The Book of Mormon is progress?  Gay and Lesbian orientation could be God given?  Jesus doesn’t say to the disciples, “The Spirit will guide you into all the truth for a few years and then knock it off.”  I find this promise of Jesus as troubling as it is exciting.  I want all truth to be in hand, not something that unfolds into the future.  I want to have a finite document from which I can verify all conclusions.  I shudder at the responsibility for discerning a new word of the Lord.  But, then, when the Spirit moves, the Spirit takes responsibility for the direction. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
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