Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens
The Jewish feast of Shavuot is the day when the first fruits of the land were offered in the Temple. On this day the Book of Ruth is read in synagogues, telling how the Moabite widow called Ruth, and her mother-in law, Naomi, meet the owner of the land, Boaz, while they were out gleaning in the fields. Ruth later married Boaz.
Shavuot is also the day when, just seven weeks after the Hebrew people departed from Egypt on their 40 year long journey in the wilderness, recorded in the Book of Exodus, Moses receives the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. Sinai was observed to be covered in smoke, because God had descended upon it like fire. Thunder and lightning filled the air.
It was on this Jewish feast, according to St. Luke’s account in the Acts of the Apostles, that the followers of Jesus, all Jewish, gathered in one place. The experience that follows is replete with graphic details.
Sound, like a violent storm wind; tongues of fire leaping about. The wind-like sound fills the room, and the flames perch on each of them. This describes the Holy Spirit – this is the first experience for followers of Jesus of the Holy Spirit. This is the Christian Shavuot – not the law being given, but grace; grace upon grace. This is the Christian Shavuot – not the first fruits from the harvest being presented, but the first fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Rooted in tradition, rich with bright images, resonant with the scriptures of the old dispensation, this is Christian Pentecost.
What we are told next is an extraordinary scene of diversity in unity. Oh how our world cries out in anguish for this experience! So many nationalities, and ethnic differences finding one voice, but not losing their own distinct language. The one voice of God in the Holy Spirit is being received and replicated in global diversity. Here we have the reverse of the Tower of Babel, the story that tells of the division that comes as a result of human pride and arrogance, and a rejection for the need of God in human life.
Babel feels a bit like living in our world right now, doesn’t it! Pentecost is a restoration of humanity in all its glorious difference – unity in diversity; not some sort of false friendship or artificial bon-homie, because the scriptures tell us the disciples haven’t even been to the pub, local bar, or ouzeri.
This feast of Pentecost is the birth of something new. A new creation is brought forth – St. Paul speaks of the groaning of the world, in birth pangs, waiting for new birth in the Holy Spirit. This is a neo-natal moment in the history of cosmic events.
‘Our Father, who art in heaven…’ we all know the rest of it. It is of course, the first few words of our Lord’s Prayer. Few things give me greater joy in church life than when a congregation of diverse nationalities and ethnicities prays this prayer each one in her or his first tongue. In this simple example we get a glimpse into that first Pentecost – many languages, but one voice, many different nationalities, but one God and Father. We each say it in our own tongue, but we each know what it is we are doing, and to whom we are speaking – ‘Our Father, who art in heaven…’
It is St. Peter who seeks to make some sense of what has occurred at Pentecost. It is not a drunken babble, though they are all soaked in Spirit, but rather the fulfilment of promise, a new dispensation, a new covenant.
St. Peter (Acts 2, 17-18) refers to the prophet Joel, to beautiful words that have always had great meaning to me from my first experiences of working with the Anglican church of Cameroon: ‘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. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days, I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy’. (Joel 2, 28-29).
I well remember on one of my visits to the Anglican Church in Cameroon, that I went to a very remote village, to meet with a young Anglican evangelist. The village was in a small Muslim dominated area in the South West region – one of the regions of Cameroon currently overwhelmed by a civil war. The church was just a small hall, and in one corner there was a little room. This was the living quarters of the young pastor, who faithfully led a small but committed congregation there. The community was poor, and he had only a suitcase with some clothes, a mattress, and a bible.
He asked me to read from the bible for him, and I chose that passage from the book of Joel. It made a lasting impression on me. Here was one of God’s faithful servants filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and a burning passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He seemed to be a living example of one of the young men who saw the vision promised by God in a congregation with a number of old men who had dreamt their dreams.
This envisioning of individuals and whole Christian communities is the gifting of God’s Holy Spirit, freely and graciously poured out, just tipped out of the bucket of God’s love for humanity.
The experience of that first Christian Pentecost on the feast of Shuavat, vividly exposes the sheer lack of ability on God’s part to differentiate – dare I say that – yes! for in God there is no partiality (Romans 2, 11). So, that list of different nationalities who understood their unity in diversity, and those referred to in Joel’s prophecy, underpins the universality of this event that we celebrate today. And we celebrate not just an event, but truth itself. Not your truth, nor my truth, nor any political hijacking of truth, but absolute and empirical truth.
We are told in St. John’s gospel (John 14, 16) about the sending of the Advocate – the Paraclete – the Spirit that will lead us into all truth, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. (John 17, 17)
Our Lord, before his glorification on the cross, speaks of the coming of this Spirit, the Spirit that will be sent by God as the evidence of his universal presence in his Creation. We use in our liturgy the Greek originated word ‘epiklisis’ for such sacred moments. This word shares a root with the word ‘paraclete’ which can be translated into the Latin form of ‘advocate’. At the ‘epiklisis’ we cry out with tongue and heart for God’s Holy Spirit to consecrate, to enable holiness to become visible and incarnate in things – things that after we have called for the Holy Spirit become ‘holy things for God’s holy people.’
Send the Holy Spirit on this water for sanctifying someone in baptism; send the Holy Spirit on this bread and wine that they become the holy gifts of Christ’s holy meal; send the Holy Spirit, Lord, on your people. Consecrate us in the truth!
This is the truth that we all need to be truly human, to reach our maximum potential, and to aspire to become everything in completeness that God wills us to be. This is the truthfulness that we need to see glimmering shards of in our politicians as they lead our public, national and international life together.
‘When the Spirit comes he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement; about sin because they do not believe in me, about righteousness because I am going to the Father, and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned’. (John 16, 8-11).
Today we are reminded that God’s Holy Spirit leads us into all truth: truth about God the Father, maker of heaven and earth, of things seen and unseen; truth about his Christ whom he sent into the world who died for all of us; and the truth that God poured out on the world his Holy Spirit and renews the face of the earth. Today is not just a day when the disciples received a gift – it is a cosmic event, for every tribe and nation and language, testifying to the cosmic Christ, the ruler of all, of everything.
This is the spirit-filled truth that we celebrate today. If it is truth, then it is non-negotiable. This belief cannot be compromised, or nibbled at to make it more palatable in our multi-faith world and society. Either this is the truth into which the Holy Spirit leads us, or it is not.
If this feels absolutist in a world where everything is relative, where beliefs are diluted to make them more popular, where the attitude of ‘that is your truth, this is my truth’ prevails – let us remind ourselves as individuals, as the Church, as this church congregation right here and now, you and me together, what the fruits of this Spirit are: ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.’ (Galatians 5, 22-23).
How can any one of these be considered undesirable to the human condition? How can they be considered in any way characteristics that are not of universal blessing. If we could only be converted a little to all or some of these gifts we would all know what it is to be more authentically real, more genuinely human.
The only problem is that all too often we do not nurture these gifts personally, and exhibit them generally. It can be just as bad in church life as it is more generally. This is a profound barrier to our life together in the Trinity. ‘Lord, send your Holy Spirit that we might be consecrated in the truth and send us to be consecrators of your creation.’
Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire;
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
Teach us to know, the Father, Son,
And thee, of Both, to be but One;
That through the ages all along
This may be our endless song,
Praise to thy eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. (NEH 138, vs 4)
