Acts 2:1-21 & Numbers 11:24-30
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
Welcome to Pentecost, the most difficult day of the year for Presbyterians. It is the most difficult day of the year, because this is when the church celebrates the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is hard for us to understand. We’re okay with the awesome power, wonder and majesty of God the Father. We definitely love the stories, the parables, the teachings, the death and resurrection of God the Son. But God the Holy Spirit, we’re not quite sure what to do with. Why is this?
Some of it has to do with the characters. At Christmas, we have a little baby that we can put in a manger. We have Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, angels and animals lowing in the manger. Christmas is an easy one, who doesn’t love babies, angels and farm animals? Easter is a little tougher because it deals with a dead person coming back to life, but we do pretty well with it. It is such a powerful story that we enjoy telling and re-telling it. Who hasn’t wished for the return of a deceased loved one. In Easter we get that story. But at Pentecost what do we have? A sound…rushing wind…this really weird image of tongues on fire. Try to put that on a Greeting Card. Sound, wind, the Spirit… these images are hard to visualize.
But it’s not only hard to capture on a greeting card, the Spirit is also hard to talk about and understand, especially for people who love things to be done ‘decently, in proper order.’ For us linear minded folks who sing from printed words, follow a printed bulletin, begin and end (at least close to) on time, the rushing of the wind can cause quit a disruption. We may lose our place in the lyrics our grasp of our bulletins or even forget what time it is. The Spirit is a bit mischievous like this, she often disrupts our normal patterns, she instigates change and this can be very painful. For that matter, we don’t even know what to call the Spirit. He? She? It? The Hebrew is feminine. The Greek is neuter and the English is often he. So then, just what can we say about the Holy Spirit?
Community
Community worth sharing is our theme for this year and we have explored what this kind of community looks like during Lent when we looked at the community of the cross, during Easter when we looked at the community of the resurrection and now we come to the season of Pentecost in which we begin to look at the community of….the Holy Spirit. What does a community of the Spirit look like, sound like, feel like? This morning we get our first glimpse.
As I studied through the passages for this morning, I noticed a theme that I had not originally planned on exploring. I’ve preached on this Acts passage about 8 times, and each time I’ve failed to explore and perhaps even notice this theme. We first see it in the passage Cami read in Numbers.
Numbers and Prophets
Moses had had enough. The people were complaining again about not having enough meat. Moses lays it before God, “I am not able to carry these people alone, for they are too heavy.” God compassionately listens and provides a solution. “Gather 70 elders…I will come down and walk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and place it on them.” Moses does as God commands and God does as he promises and as a result these leaders prophesied. But the Spirit filled gathering was not relegated to the tent of meeting, somehow the Spirit fell upon two other elders who were still in the camp. Eldad and Medad were outside the tent, outside the meeting, outside the geographical bounds and yet the spirit fell upon them and they too prophesied.
This was a dangerous place. By sharing the burden, Moses was also losing control. Evidently, Moses disciple Joshua sensed the danger in such an occurrence and asks Moses to have them stop. Moses responds, “I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them.” Moses loosens the reins of control and accepts the danger of freedom. This episode foreshadows the work of another who would himself give up control so that God’s work might be done in even greater ways.
Pentecost and Prophets
Jesus and Moses had several similarities. But the one that is most pertinent to our gathering today is the barrier of human limitations. Moses had come to a place where it was humanly impossible for him to manage, nurture and lead the thousands of Hebrew refugees on his own. The weight had become too great. He couldn’t be there for everyone. He needed to reproduce himself. Jesus, in a similar fashion, had accomplished all that was possible while filling this human role. He came from heaven to earth, he physically lived a human life in perfect harmony with God the Father, this life was so bright that the world, though created by him could not recognize or deal with it, so they crucified him. But the grave and death could not contain him, so on the third day, Jesus accomplished the greatest part of his ministry, the victory over death when he rose from the grave. This was the greatest of good news, yet how would people hear about it; this victory over death? Like Moses, one voice was not enough. He needed to reproduce himself.
Fishermen, tax collectors, and a variety of other blue collar peasants constituted Jesus’ resource pool. Not much to look at. Over and over and over again these disciples didn’t get it. The disciples were worried and confused. They wanted to know, “Lord is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” They were still asking the wrong questions. Jesus wasn’t there to restore an earthly kingdom. Jesus was there to restore a heavenly relationship. And these thick headed disciples were his means of restoration. Over and over Jesus had told them that I won’t leave you alone, I won’t orphan you, I will send my Spirit. And that is what he promises one last time, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And then like that, Jesus was lifted up into the clouds. Now what? They must have wondered. And then they departed confused, afraid and uncertain and returned to their gathering place, the upper room.
It is here that the similarities between Moses’ trial in the wilderness mirror the disciples gathering at Pentecost.
1. In the wilderness, the 70 came together around the tent. At Pentecost, the 12 along with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, were gathered in the upper room.
2. In the wilderness, God came down with cloud and smoke. At Pentecost, God came and filled the house with the sound of a rushing wind and then appeared as tongues of fire.
3. In the wilderness, God took the spirit that was on Moses and ‘put’ it on the 70 elders. At Pentecost, tongues of fire rested on each of them and then they were ‘filled with the Holy Spirit.”
4. In the wilderness, the elders began to prophesy. At Pentecost, they began to speak in other languages.
5. In the wilderness, it was Moses’ spirit of leadership that was shared among the 70. At Pentecost, it was Jesus’ Spirit that filled the room and bodies of the disciples.
6. In the wilderness, the prophesying refused to remain contained within the tent of gathering. At Pentecost, the speech burst through the boundaries of the upper room into the ears of all of those who filled the streets of Jerusalem regardless of ethnic origin.
7. In the wilderness, there was resistance, fear and misunderstanding to this boundary breaking, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” At Pentecost there was amazement and confusion, “What does this mean? They must be drunk.”
8. In the wilderness, Moses responds to this resistance with the desire for even more freedom, “I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them.” At Pentecost, Peter responds with an explanation from Joel, “In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…sons, daughters, young men, old men, slaves…[all flesh] shall prophesy.”
Do you hear this theme emerging? In both the wilderness of Numbers as well as the upper room of Pentecost, the Spirit of God manifests herself through prophesy. Prophecy. Prophecy? What do you think of when you hear this word?
Beginning with the letter ‘P’ is about the only thing that Presbyterians typically have in common with prophecy. Yet, here it is in the tale of Pentecost. What are we to do with it?
The Bible talks a lot about prophets and prophecy. In fact, almost ½ the Old Testament bears the name of a prophet such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos and the beloved Obadiah. In the NT, the quintessential prophet is found in John the Baptist who lived in the desert and ate locusts with honey, ewh, no wonder we stay away from prophets. But let me attempt simplify this briefly.
The case can be made that the Bible is one big story of God calling the world back into a right relationship; with each other, with creation and with God. If it is about relationships, then there must be a way to communicate. Therefore, God created two roles to help with communication. First the priest. The priest speaks to God on behalf of the people. We see this all through the OT as the priest takes the sins of the people and the prayers of the people and lays them before God. Priests speak to God for the people. But relationships are not a one way street, God also needs to speak to the people, for this God has the prophets. And just how do they work? There work can be summed in three ways; foretelling, forthtelling and re-telling.
Foretelling
As some of you mentioned, one of the roles of the prophet is to tell the future. We get a fair amount of this in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel as well as Isaiah. The authors of the New Testament, such as Paul often pick up on these prophecies to point to the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah. Later in the NT we have the book of Revelation in which John foretells how the whole story will end with the ‘new heaven and a new earth.’
Forthtelling
The second role of the prophets is sometimes overlooked, yet is in fact their most prominent role throughout the Bible and it is that of forthtelling. What do I mean by this? Forthtelling is bringing forth the word of God. Forthtelling is speaking truth, be it hard or easy, joyful or sad, pleasant or painful. Forthtelling is the reason why prophecy is so dangerous. Upon his arrival to Jerusalem Jesus cries, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you...” From Jeremiah to John the baptist, prophets don’t have a long life-expectancy. In filling out your life-insurance form, you would be wise to leave ‘prophet’ off as your occupation lest your rates be too high to pay.
Re-telling
Prophets foretell, prophets forthtell but in almost every case the way they do both of these is through re-telling. Over and over both the OT prophets as well as the NT figures tell the truth of the future and the truth of the present by telling the truth of the past. Prophets tell how God will work and is working by looking at how God has worked. Look at Acts 2 again and what do you see?
When the people began to speak in other languages, the crowds who’d gathered from all of the world for the festival in Jerusalem heard their own language. But look at what they heard, it wasn’t jibberish, no, what do they say, “…in our own languages, we hear them speaking God’s deeds of power.” God’s deeds of power, what do you think this was? This was re-telling.
“In the beginning, God created…” God’s deeds of power. Abraham and Sarah were over 90 years old, yet God gave them a child that would lead to a nation. God’s deeds of power. For 400 years, the Hebrew people lay enslaved to the tyrant Pharaoh but God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and led God’s people to freedom through the Red Sea. God’s deeds of power. And on and on and on the stories go. The people weren’t speaking jibberish, they were speaking God’s deeds of power, they were re-telling the ways God had worked in the past so that the people could see God’s work in the present and make decisions about what might happen in the future.
Us Prophets?
Have you ever imagined yourself a prophet? Or as they might say in England, “ever fancied yourself a prophet?” My guess would be no. Yet, what do we witness here at Pentecost. Peter gets up and re-tells the words of Joel in which God promises to ‘pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophecy…”
Do we have any sons and daughters in here? You shall prophecy. Any young folk? You shall see visions. Any old folks? You shall dream dreams. Upon all of God’s people from the greatest to the lowest, God will pour out his Spirit and they shall prophecy…”
Brothers and sisters, at Pentecost we celebrate the pouring out of God’s Spirit. Do we embrace the gift of prophecy and the role of the prophet? Are we foretelling, forthtelling and re-telling? The spirit is willing, but is our flesh weak.
The way out…
Let me close with a very brief word from one of the leaders in the early church. At the end of what is perhaps his first recorded letter, Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica and he says this, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” Sound pertinent for today? But he doesn’t stop, he goes on to say, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”
Brothers and sisters, as we part from here I encourage you not to put out the Spirit’s fire. Don’t dampen her flames or pour water upon its embers. Instead, feed it with air, with God’s word, with listening, with community. Allow God’s spirit to grow in you and in us that more and more we might be a community of prophets, a community of the Holy Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment