Meditation on Acts 2:1-21 for Pentecost
Pastor Karen Crawford
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
May 28, 2023
My son left on a plane for Denver yesterday. He and I cleaned out his bedroom and packed three big suitcases and a couple of smaller ones. When we were done, all the suitcases were too heavy for me to lift. His dresser drawers are empty. His closets are MOSTLY empty. There’s still a few important things left that he will retrieve when he comes back, hopefully, in October, when his younger brother gets married here. But there’s no knowing what the future will hold. He graduated college this month, and is interviewing for jobs in Colorado, a place he chose to live for a number of personal reasons.
One by one, our children have moved away to find their destinies, live out their dreams, and become the people God has planned for them to be. One lives in Minnesota; one lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters. One lives in California; and now, one will be living in Colorado. After Jacob moved out yesterday, taking his three huge suitcases and two smaller bags with him, the house already felt too big for Jim and me, a dog and a cat. I am not sure how I will do with this new season of life. I don’t feel comfortable with this “empty nest” thing. Mostly, I am just missing my son.
Friends, the Power of Love is this—it doesn’t just let go of us, even if we might want it to. Love connects us to God and people with a power so strong that even when we aren’t together, Love is still there. Don’t you still love people who are no longer with you?
The only thing left to do, through all these seasons of our lives, is trust the Spirit.
The Spirit lives in all of us. The Spirit is doing its transforming work in us, right now, as I share this message. The Spirit of the Living God that came on Pentecost is with us still—transforming our hearts and lives in sometimes imperceptible ways – and then suddenly, we realize there’s been a big change! And we feel shaken to the core.
That’s how we know, dear friends, how we are reminded, that the Holy Spirit has come!
On Pentecost, the first group of Christ’s followers encounter LOVE with a capital L! Love sets them on fire with a gift of tongues that surprises everyone—including the disciples who are speaking in previously unknown languages. They are able to communicate with strangers from many nations gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Shavuot, a Hebrew word that means “Weeks.” “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word that means “50,” for it is 50 days after the second night of Passover. Shavuot is a time of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest and for the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
These Galileans—uneducated, unsophisticated—can’t possibly know these languages on their own, without God’s help. They are also beginning to live into their spiritual gifts, such as Peter’s sudden ability to proclaim the Word—and use humor to engage his audience—some who are taken by the wonder of the wind, fire, and speaking in tongues, and some who sneer with disgust, “They are filled with new wine!” They’re just drunk!!
Don’t forget! This is the Peter who had denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed! He had let Jesus down and all the disciples down! But now, Christ’s promise to Peter that he would be the rock on which he would build his church comes true. Now he breaks down the barriers between people when he opens his mouth and proclaims, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.”
In other words, wait till later—and yes, these will be drunk—just like you!!
His beautiful sermon connects the coming of the Spirit to its foreshadowing by the prophet Joel in Holy Scripture, beginning at verse 17…
17 ‘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,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
Peter’s preaching cuts to the heart. People are convicted of their sin and their need for a Savior. Thousands of people call on the name of the Lord. The Church of Jesus Christ is “born” and will grow and move, from person to person, testimony to testimony, place to place. The move of the Spirit is entirely unpredictable. As Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3:8, “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.”
At times, the Church stumbles a bit—and becomes divided. Does this happen today? Of course. One memorable time is in Acts 15:36-41, just before Paul leaves on his second missionary journey. While he and Barnabas plan out the details of the trip, they get into an argument about whether John “Mark” should go with them. Paul, who had had a dramatic conversion experience on the Road to Damascus to persecute Christians, now doesn’t think Mark should be given a second chance. Here’s the passage….
36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.”
Barnabas was the first to believe in Paul, when the other followers of Christ still saw him as Saul, the persecutor of Christians. Barnabas was one of his closest friends and you could even say his mentor. How was Paul able to continue in ministry, though his heart must have been breaking? And yet we see that Paul and Silas’s ministry WAS made fruitful by the Spirit when we read in verse 41, “And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”
So, I got to thinking… What we perceive as painful divisions or simply long separations are only temporary in the eternal scheme of things. Today, we grieve loved ones, some who have gone home to be with the Lord, already. But one day, we will all be gathered for the heavenly banquet, when worshipers will come from east and west and north and south to sit at table in in the Kingdom of God. Nothing will separate us from God or one another—not then! We will experience the fullness of the Power of LOVE; now, we only experience it in part.
I told my son that I wasn’t going to call and bother him. That lasted a few hours. I did call him last night, when he had waited about 6 hours at JFK for his flight. I had something important to ask him. I had just washed his quilt. Did he want me to mail it to him? He paused and said, “I guess you could do that.” The conversation lasted about 2 minutes. The loudspeaker booming at the gate kept interrupting. But it was nice to hear his voice—and to tell him, once again, that I love him. And to hear him say, “I love you” back.
I don’t know how I will get through this new season of my life. Right now, I feel shaken to the core. But my faith tells me to trust the Spirit that is already in the place where my son is going. Psalm 139 tells us that there’s nowhere we can go on earth to escape the Lord! God is already there! All that’s left is trust in the good plan that our Loving Lord has for him and for all of us.
And that feeling of being shaken to the core—that’s how we are reminded that the Holy Spirit is doing its work in and with us. It doesn’t always feel comfortable! Think of Pentecost—that wasn’t comfortable—with a rush of violent wind and tongues of fire! Sometimes, the Spirit’s work in us is, well, scary! That’s how we are reminded, dear friends, that the Holy Spirit has come!
Will you pray with me?
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Holy Spirit on Pentecost to give birth to and empower the Church. Thank you that your Spirit is still with us, working in our hearts and lives, in ways that are sometimes imperceptible, and other times, we are shaken to the core. Thank you for having a plan for every one of us and reminding us, with every sunrise and sunset, of your love and faithfulness. Be with our loved ones, Lord, from whom we are separated. Comfort our grieving hearts. By your Spirit, fill up any empty spaces in us, left by personal losses. Let us be filled to overflowing with the Power of Your Love to do your will. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.
Sharing God's Love and Grace 