Pentecost unfolded itself in my life years ago in a celebration that was ecumenical and intercultural. It became one of the truest and fullest reflections of the Spirit of Pentecost I’ve ever experienced.
Pentecost 2001 – we gathered in a fantastic Catholic community, St. Margaret Mary, in Louisville, KY. The church has a contemporary sanctuary built in the round. Windows surround the perimeter, open to large lush evergreens. The congregation joined together on long wooden pews. It was June, and the evening sunset beamed upon a group of 165 youth and adults. With their friends and families watching, praying and singing, they were to be commissioned for an international mission trip involving 25 churches and 14 teams.
The group spent 2 years preparing to work simultaneously in areas of Kenya, Brazil and Costa Rica. Projects included working with the deaf, construction projects, medical teams, a water project, hosting sports camps and providing Bibles – 25,000 were shipped to Kenya alone. We were white and black and too many church denominations to count. Because of our deaf team, everything we did was signed – hands always danced with our hearts.
Most everyone on the team was from the Louisville, KY area. As a part of preparing for the trip, each person worked at least 50 hours of community service work with their group to “soften and ready” our hearts for this experience.
St. Margaret Mary is one of my favorite sanctuaries in town. The modern concrete interior is warmed by dark oak woodwork. In celebration of Pentecost, vibrant colors of fire tapestries hung and candles reflected on hundreds of glowing faces. We gathered under a 15 foot bronze statue of the risen Jesus mounted behind the altar. The air was intimate, soul searching, preparatory.
In those moments, I sensed the previous years’ struggle, planning, prayer and hope for the future. Pentecost was blooming into a vivid picture deep within me and I realized this Biblical Story was in front of us. I shared the words below at that commissioning service:
“Imagine having lived in slavery and suddenly set free.
Imagine being forced to express yourself without words and then given a voice.
Imagine having a haunted past and then it erased, while coupled with a people of royalty having power and respect.
Imagine being separated from the world and unexpectedly the world has been informed how valuable YOU are to the God of the Universe.”
If we can imagine transformation like this, we can know more closely how God’s people can get a glimpse of Pentecost and its place in the Faith Story.
Deep in the history of the Hebrew people, a place called Sinai stands as a mile marker 50 days beyond 450 years of enslavement to Egyptians pharaohs. There, God spoke to Moses on a high mountain shelf with promise, hope and direction – a renewed relationship with him far from merciless memory.
Exodus 19:5 – God told them, “…out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Legend has it that the people listened as God’s voice boomed from the cliffs while speaking to Moses. God spoke not only in Hebrew, but mysteriously his voice was split and transformed into 70 voices. Every nation was then heard and understood what God was saying.
Wouldn’t you want to remember that day if you’d been there, if you’d heard the voice, if you’d felt the salve of time healing your wounds? Wouldn’t you want to celebrate it again and again? God took a broken, weary and lost people and gave them bonding that would never end. So, to remember, each year the Israelite nation began to celebrate the 50th day after their release from Egypt. They called it Pentecost.
Uniquely, Pentecost came about the time of the 1st harvest of grains. Therefore, in thanks, each year everyone everywhere, rich and poor, went to Jerusalem to give a portion of the harvest to the Lord. And because of their memories of Egypt and God speaking at Sinai, Pentecost became a time of great unity, of great compassion. The farmers would even leave the edges of their crops untouched so the poor could gather food and have enough to carry a portion of their own to Jerusalem to thank the Lord – fatherless, strangers, widows, servants – all were welcome to gather food in any field they chose.
The Story of the Gospel unfolds throughout time. Exposure to its history enlivens the Church and reflects a light permeating current daily affairs. Watching and listening become practiced intentionality for the Faith Community to sense the evidence and aliveness of the Gospel in this moment.
In the New Testament at the resurrection in Acts, the disciples were gathering to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem. As usual, people came from all around to give to God a portion of their 1st harvest. With so many people there from far away, many different languages were spoken. Like when they were in Sinai so many years before, God wanted all the disciples to hear and understand each other in Jerusalem. Jesus had been talking about the coming of a helper, someone to come along side and participate in life with them. Someone to take Jesus’ place in spirit.
That day, the disciples were gathered talking about Jesus and learning to live in unity together. And then it happened. A strong rush of wind and flames like rain dropping onto people but not burning them. And just like at Sinai, they could all understand the voice. But this time it was the voice in each of them. The helper, the Holy Spirit, had come and they were speaking the same language.
The commissioning service prepared us beyond the diversity of ourselves. We were to move out into the world where diversity would be even more evident. There’s a language even in those places. It looks like tongues of fire and the love that speaks it blows a wild, blazing wind.
We could all be consumed!
Mark Hogg
