This Sunday marks Pentecost. People like to wear red on this day, and I am anxious to see how many are wearing red masks as we listen to Acts 2:1-21.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea 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. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“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. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”That is an amazing story, but it doesn't make me want to join a modern Pentecostal church. I just think that most of the time when people start "speaking in tongues" it is not a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but instead a manifestation of emotional over excitement.
The Holy Spirit is not something we can conjure up when we want it to act. Identifying works of the Holy Spirit requires the work of serious Bible study, reflection, and prayer with the help of fellow Christians.
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Interesting that so many wear red on Whitsunday. Times change.
ReplyDeleteWe have a relative who belongs to a Pentecostal church. They insist that people aren't fully Christian unless they are overcome by the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, St. Paul to the contrary. "Tongues" which nobody else can understand are not the gift that was given to the apostles. They went out and preached to the crowds in languages the foreigners could understand.
Yes, on the first Christian Pentecost the languages were understood by foreign people, but by the time St. Paul wrote his letter, had things changed?
DeleteSt. Paul did warn against speaking in tongues where it was not instructive for the congregation. Apparently enthusiastic emotion had already begun to swamp the gift of tongues. At Pentecost, the gift was focused outward, in the ability to preach Christ to others. The emotional response is focused on an inward experience. Not the same thing.
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