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PENTECOST SUNDAY

This Sunday is the great celebration of the birthday of the Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered Church. The themes all hold up the Spirit in story, teaching, and conversation. In Acts 2, the Spirit descends to empower and enable the Church to speak the Good News in the language of the surrounding cultures; in Romans 8, the Spirit works internally within the lives of those who follow Christ to ensure that they become increasingly aware of their familial status with God. And in John 14, the Spirit becomes for the Church "another" Comforter, another in the sense that the Spirit who replaces the physical Jesus will be an equal, of the same quality and kind of presence as Jesus was and is.

Acts 2:1-21-New Israel

In Israel the feast of Pentecost-at least in later times-was the celebration of the giving of the Torah on Sinai. At the core of the celebration was the covenant that gave them identity that constituted them a people. Pentecost then became the feast for the celebration of New Israel. Our lesson includes quite biblical signs and symbols of God’s active presence: wind and fire. With the detail of the "tongues" of fire, Luke may point to The New Israel who would witness to God’s living presence through proclamation. The preaching of the new People of God on Pentecost launched the Church’s mission to the world-to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Romans 8:14-17 - The Teaching

Though a brief snippet in a much longer chapter, this lection says much about the Holy Spirit’s role in our life in just four sentences: to be led by God’s Spirit is to be children of God, the emphasis placed on our familial relationship to God. We have the Spirit of adoption, not a spirit characterized by fear. Paul also speaks of an inner confirmation of our adoption that he says is sometimes detected in Christians’ heartfelt prayers-"Abba," for instance, an Aramaic word that suggests a more intimate family relationship. Because of these familial qualities, we are not only children, but heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-if in fact, our history is wrapped up with his.

John 14:8-17 - The Conversation

Philip and Jesus are having a conversation that, in a round about sort of way, leads us back to the Spirit. Philip wants to see the Father, perhaps to have a tangible way to grasp "Father." Jesus, however, speaks in almost modalistic terms, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." To see the one is to see the other. The works, the words, the relationship-its (we’re?) all interconnected, Jesus seems to say. Finally comes the promise of the Spirit of Truth, the Helper, the Defense Attorney, the Comforter, who will be given to Jesus’ followers, but not given at random to the world. The Spirit is the missing link that will not only abide with them, but will abide within them.