NL 440: Pentecost and Rejoice
image: “Happy Pentecost” by Eustaquio Santimano (Flickr)
Philippians 4:4-7
Initial Thoughts
Rejoice. Be Glad. Show gentleness. Do not be anxious. Pray.
“Difficult words to hear, especially in light of recent conversations about “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of _________.” Given that by the time we air this podcast, there might be a different city to place in that blank.” - This was from Dec. 15, 2015
Bible Study
Context of Letter:
Author of the letter is in jail
Readers of the letter going through persecution.
“Jerked out of their context, the exhortations connote an unrealistic attitude toward life, a Pollyanna religion that ignores the harsh tragedies and calls for a stoic like serenity… But they emerge from and are directed to what some would call the dark side of human experience.” (Charles Cousar,Texts for Preaching, Year C, p. 24)
“Gentleness” or forbearance
Do not fall into anger, vengeance, quarreling, hatred, bitterness, parking lot conversations
Forbearance - self-control, tolerance, restraint
Be bold in forbearance- not certitude, not righteousness, but in tolerance
Remember that God is near to give strength (and perhaps to judge)
Non-anxious prayerfulness
Remembering, affirming, believing: God is near
Being “right” will not protect us, the peace of God will guard your heart and mind to focus on self-giving love.
Not a disregard of anxiety but an invitation to bring your anxieties to God
Not about disregarding mental health concerns or praying mental illness away
Rejoice
Not ignoring the problems and divisions: Paul is headed to his death, the church in Philippi is waning
Problems are real, but will not have the final word
Struggles are not an excuse to stop trusting in God, to stop caring for one another, to backslide into division and attacks
Are we willing to take time for prayer, for reflection, to listen to God speaking through us?
Thoughts and Questions
Questions to ask of the text:
How is the Lord near? Spatial, temporal? Is the Lord coming soon, or is he already present - or both?
How can we possibly not worry? Is prayer the antidote to worry?
A stress-free life is hardly a life worth living. Yet that is easy to say in a relatively comfortable place.
For what am I supposed to be glad?
Was Paul glad that he was in jail?
What does it mean to have our hearts and minds safe?
Notice that the prayers do not guarantee physical safety or mental safety
In the midst of disagreement, where does your mind go? Most of the time we fall to despair, anger, outrage, frustration and retort. (There is scientific evidence for this: Oatmeal Comic, Backfire Effect). Instead of falling victim to “the backfire” effect”, practice forbearance, listen and focus on v.8: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Acts 2:1-21
Listener Comment from 2014: “The problem with Pentecost is not that it's a busy time of the year, but that it so unambiguously requires of us that we carry the gospel out into the world, and blow our own covers. It is one thing to adore the infant Jesus, another to mourn the death of Jesus in our insular communities. It is something else, VERY else, and to many, VERY scary, to proclaim the gospel in every action we take, and to publicly proclaim ourselves to be THOSE people, those [insert negative adjective here] Christians. Pentecost gives us marching orders. Christmas is so much easier…”
Initial Thoughts
Acts 2 according to The Twible, by Jana Riess: “Product launch: Holy Ghost language course. Better than Berlitz! [Warning: User may seem inebriated. Tongue may catch fire.]
Every year- same passage- make it new!
Bible Study
Pentecost - fifty days or seven weeks after Passover (Lev. 23:15-22)
Giving of law at Mount Sinai
End of the Spring Harvest
All were included in the celebration: Deut. 16:11 “you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites who live in your cities, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows”
“Pentecost, the fiftieth day, marks the end of the Festival of Weeks, Shavuot (from the Hebrew for ‘weeks’), originally named the festival of “Harvest,” see Exodus 23:16, Leviticus 23:15-16. The seven weeks follow from Passover and the festivals are entwined. By the time of the New Testament, it was also understood to be the anniversary of the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. These traditions underlie the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the self same day. The Christian observance is inexorably linked to its ancestral Jewish heritage.”(Wilda Gafney, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W, p. 196)
“Pentecost is the moment when gestation ceases and birthing occurs. Thus, it is both an end and a beginning, the leaving behind of that which is past, the launching forth into that which is only now beginning to be. Pentecost therefore is not a time of completion. It is moving forward into new dimensions of being, whose basic forms are clear, but whose fulfillment has yet to be realized.” (Walter Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 347)
Double Celebration:
End of the Spring Harvest (we aren’t in Illinois anymore)- connections to Peter’s Sermon (Joel 2:24a "the threshing floors shall be full of grain” and Luke 10:2 “The harvest is great, but the laborers are few”)
God gives the Hebrews the Torah - not explicit in the Hebrew Bible, but traditionally celebrated.
Gift of the Torah - which unites a people as a holy nation and priestly kingdom
Gift of the Spirit - which unites all people
Both are inclusive celebrations to be blessings to all people
Who is they? (David Bender, Feasting on the Word, Year B, volume 3)
The 11 (Acts 1:13)?
Has Matthias been added (Acts 1:26)?
Have the women been added (Acts 1:14)?
Do we allow the gift of the Spirit to flow through our congregations or only our seminaries and adjudicatories?
Baptism of the Spirit- see Luke 3:16, Acts 1:5
Images of the Spirit
Rush of wind, tongues of fire, community gathered
Freedom of the Spirit
Not limited by language
Perhaps the semi-collapse of Enlightenment orthodoxy, with its elevation of reason and science as the only paths to true knowledge of the world, has opened the door to a recovery of a kind of pre-/post-Enlightenment religiosity in which once again people are open to, and therefore experience, "signs and wonders." - David Gushee
Not limited by different languages or even needing to be explained - “What does this mean?” They cannot explain it and still today we try and answer this question
“The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost marks the dawn of the Church, but it is not the dawn of the Holy Spirit; she births creation, hovering over her newly hatched brood in Genesis, and breathes through the scriptures, celebrated in the final verse of the Psalm (Psalm 14:30)” (Wilda Gafney, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W, p. 202)
Spirit of Liberation
Liberation from Chaos - Genesis 1-2
Liberation from Babylon - Isaiah 11:2
Liberation from Rome - Luke 3:16, Acts 1:5
What do we need to be liberated from?
The church?
Consumerism?
Self-importance? Self-delusion? Self-disregard?
Reversal of Babel (Gen. 11)?
The lectionary seems to think so (Babel’s only use in the Lectionary is Pentecost C)
Genesis - One language = building a tower to the heavens to “make a name for ourselves”
Acts - “One language” = sharing God’s great deeds of power
Not about making the people great- about making God great
Community for its own sake is not always a good thing- but a Spirit-filled community working for God is world changing
Not necessarily:
The reversal of Babel would have been uniting all people under one language- not what happens here
About Evangelism- not about undoing Babel
Couldn’t it be both?
The reversal of the self-centeredness of Babel and the focus on declaring the Good News of God’s great deeds of power in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to all the ends of the Earth (Acts 1:8)
Joel 2:28-29
Joel background - not much is known about Joel or historical context.
Possibly post-exilic, living in Jerusalem (Common English Study Bible notes, p. 1445 OT)
“The book shows a blend of judgment and deliverance.” Subheadings in order:
Lament
Mourning
Suffering
Prophet’s Prayer
Alarm and Peril
Change your hearts
Compassion and promise
Judgment on nations
Coming war
Salvation
2:28-29 is within the Compassion and Promise section.
“For Joel the outpouring of the Spirit are a prelude to disaster, but for Peter these wonders have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ… and their purpose… is nothing less than the redemption of humankind.” (Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 349)
Spirit of inclusivity
Age, gender, ethnically (all persons)
Signs and Wonders - theme throughout the first half of Acts - performed by Jesus, the Spirit, Stephen, (Moses), Philip, Paul and Barnabas
The word of the Spirit is something which has happened, did happen (on Pentecost) and continues
“Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams.” Is it just me, or does that seem to be a reversal? I think of older people have mystical visions, and younger people as dreaming dreams. Yet here it is, the young are given visions usually reserved the old and wise, and dreams are given to those who may not live them out.
All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved
What does salvation mean?
What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord?
If all can call on the name of the Lord, then do we still need priests?
Response: They are drunk
Going the wrong way and dismissing the warnings: Planes Trains and Automobiles clip
Only here they are going the right way and being warned against it
Do we really want the gift of the Spirit? It will be violent. It may burn us. It may push us to places where we do not wish to go. Perhaps it is easier to dismiss
They are intoxicated with the Spirit which will lead them to do foolish things - like follow a crucified Lord
Thoughts and Questions
From the Lit Liturgy Podcast: “Christmas is stupid without Easter. Easter is pointless without Pentecost.”
Is the current church as flexible as the ancient church to adapt to where the spirit is calling or do we insist on the Spirit working within our institutional and/or traditional methods?
Do we truly allow the spirit to guide us or is the Spirit in the backseat?
Are we willing to be led by the spirit without knowing the destination?
Local churches struggling week to week
Denominations struggling year to year
Pastors struggling with calls
Can we be led out of the temple and into the wilderness?
What do we need to be liberated from?
The church?
Consumerism?
Self-importance? Self-delusion? Self-disregard?
“Without Pentecost, we’d just be people who tell Jesus’ story. With Pentecost, we’re people who live into Jesus’ story” (Danielle Shroyer, The Hardest Question blog)
Is the current church as flexible as the ancient church to adapt to where the spirit is calling or do we insist on the Spirit working within our institutional and/or traditional methods?
Do we truly allow the spirit to guide us or is the Spirit in the backseat?
Are we willing to be led by the spirit without knowing the destination?
Local churches struggling week to week
Denominations struggling year to year
Pastors struggling with calls
Can we be led out of the temple and into the wilderness?
It is easy to slip into an us and them mentality- the Spirit breaks through those barriers. Who are the “they” in your community who the Spirit is pushing you (and your church) toward?
What noise is your church making? It is drawing people together or keeping them apart?
How are you proclaiming God’s great deeds of power? Are you working to make a name for yourself/church/family/country or a name for God?
What does it mean to be saved? (also something not often talked about)
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen