“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”
Today’s readings, taken together, give us a sense of the character of the Spirit of God, who is always on the move.
In Numbers, she rests gently, like a butterfly, on the heads of elders surrounding Moses, as God prepares the tired and hungry Israelites to receive a feast in the wilderness. In the Psalm, she is sent out, like a dove, to create new life, adding to the number of varied and marvelous creatures of the earth. In John, she flows out, like water, from the hearts of Jesus’ followers, providing refreshment to those without hope. In Acts, she erupts – like gale-force winds and rampaging wildfire – causing the disciples to tumble out of the isolation of their gathering place.
And, of course, she speaks – in dead languages and living ones – uniting the people in Jerusalem, not in a common language, but in common understanding. Flowing and flying and rushing and disrupting – the Spirit is not the gentle presence we might imagine. To paraphrase theologian Will Willimon: where the Spirit is, something is coming to life (Acts: Interpretation, 30).
(Just so you know, I am using feminine pronouns for the Holy Spirit today because the Hebrew word is in a feminine form. That doesn’t mean that the Spirit is a woman – it just means that the Spirit is not an “it.”)
Our scriptures make clear that the Spirit of God has been present since the beginning of time: The Spirit is where God is. But until this day in the Book of Acts – which we call Pentecost – the Spirit was thought to be something that might land on you for a little while, and then depart. And, if the Spirit of God was “on you,” you would almost certainly begin to prophesy.
We see it in our Numbers reading: “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.”
But what does it mean to prophesy?
First, let’s define some terms. To prophesy is to proclaim a message from God. The person who prophesies is called a prophet. And what the prophet proclaims is called a prophecy.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel says that:
“The prophet is no hireling who performs his duty in the employ of the Lord…The fundamental experience of the prophet is a fellowship with the feelings of God, a sympathy with divine pathos, a communion with the divine consciousness which comes about through the prophet’s reflection of, or participation in, divine pathos” (The Prophets, 31).
What he means by this is that the prophet is so close to God that it is as if they share the mind and heart of God. They become more than a messenger or mouthpiece for God – because the Spirit resting on them connects them to God’s reality.
In other words, the Spirit enables them to look at the world with the vision of God – and this new vision reveals the smallness of their human point-of-view: the pride, competition, and needless division that leads to conflict on the ground.
This new vision forces the prophet to “tell it like it is” with divine clarity. It compels them to tell the truth. And from this truth-telling, an opening is made for something new.
…
When the Spirit of God arrives like a storm at Pentecost, she lands on the disciples – not as a butterfly – but as fire. Hot, burning, and wild – the disciples move like sparks, tumbling out into the street where they start to speak at least 15 languages. They surprise themselves before shocking the crowds.
It is the Jewish Festival of Weeks in Jerusalem, and a jumble of people from many places are in the street to celebrate God’s gift of the law to Moses.
When the disciples speak, the chaos of their outburst has the surprising effect of unifying the crowd. Because, suddenly, everyone can understand what the disciples are saying. In fact, the disciples are even speaking dead languages – almost as if the Spirit is calling all of history to attention.
And then, from the chatter, one clear voice rings out. It is Peter! Jesus’ friend who put on a brave face when Jesus was with him, but denied him three times as soon as he was alone. This man Willimon calls “cowardly” is now speaking boldly in the public square – the Spirit has gotten ahold of him!
He uses the words of the prophet Joel to frame this event as evidence of the old prophecies coming true. “Don’t you see?” He says: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”
He also uses Joel to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near, through the person of Jesus Christ: and “all who call on his name will be saved.”
The Spirit of God is on the move once again – connecting humanity to the heart of God. And now, she is available to all, without reservation or limitation, and without an expiration date.
As Willimon puts it: “…in Jesus the Christ, there is a power loose in the world which is power for them.” (36).
This miracle of many languages proves Peter’s proclamation. The people in the crowd are from different places, have different concerns, and speak different languages. But all of them understand God calling to them, because the Spirit uses the language of their hearts to bring them into the very heart of God.
And there, they are brought into the unity of the Body of Christ.
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We are blessed beyond measure to be a congregation that relives the miracle of Pentecost every time we get together.
On any given Sunday, we worship together in two or three languages: English, ASL, and even Spanish. With the help of our human interpreters – and the Spirit of God – we are able to participate, together, in the life and love of God.
And because of this, we know that barriers don’t have to be burdens. We know that the Spirit doesn’t privilege some languages, people, and cultures over others: She will always speak in a way we understand – even when her call is beyond words.
We know that Jesus made a Way for us to join in the hard and joyful work of his kingdom. And we know that, in our own ways, we are called to prophesy.
Drawn into the heart and vision of God, we are called to tell the truth about what we have seen in this place, even and especially when it defies the world’s tired old stories. So that an opening is made for new life to grow amid the world’s decay.
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No matter what brought you here today, know that you are unconditionally and endlessly loved by the God who existed before the world began, and you are held by the Spirit who rushed in like the wind to get to you.
And no matter what anyone says, you are called to participate in God’s own life. You are called to give water to those who thirst, in body and soul. And to follow the Spirit, who is always on the move.
But you are not called alone. Above all, you are called to participate the Body of Christ – which is to say, the church. Here in the church, we are delighted to discover surprising unity in our differences, and reassurances that these differences are not insurmountable.
Our differences are a gift of the Spirit. By softening the barriers between us, they make us brave like Peter. They allow us to speak in the multi-lingual voice of God, which transcends the smallness of our individual points-of-view, a nd beckons us back to the heart of God: to the source of Love that will be our salvation.
Amen.
Leah Wise 