A Brief Reflection on Pentecost Sunday
It is no news to you that we live in times of confusion and chaos. We live in an age where we have more means of connectivity to one another than ever before, yet we are more lonely than ever before. We live in a time when we have more linguistic tools at our disposal than ever before, yet we communicate less clearly than ever before. We live in a time when there are more people seeking to understand the depths of our thoughts, patterns, and habits than ever before, yet the world and even our very own lives make less sense to many of us than ever before. To agree with my wife’s most favorite band of all time, we indeed live in a land of confusion.
And what do we think is the solution to this chaos and confusion? We are much like the proverbial lady in that most famous of songs; we are all seeking to buy a stairway to heaven. We are so sure that all that glitters is gold. And we know for certain that with a word we can get what we came for. We see the sign on the wall indicating that we are sorely mistaken, but we know that sometimes words can have two meanings.
Pentecost Sunday reminds us that the solution to our problem is not the humanistic thinking of Genesis (the band), nor the pagan background of Zeppelin (also a band, in case you young whipper-snappers didn’t know), nor any other solution provided by the world’s poets of today. Rather, the solution is found in the proclamation of the mighty works of the God who spoke order into chaos from the very beginning; the God who once baptized the nations for judgment; the God who so long ago confused the languages of the people whenever they refused to obey the first great commission to “be fruitful and multiply.”
God’s people had long been placed under the curse of Babel. But, God had come and provided a New Exodus out of the Egypt of sin in the death of Jesus Christ. He had shown his approval of the sacrifice of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world in Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the third day. And the resurrected Christ “presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” Luke records in Acts 1:3. And on the day of Pentecost (which means on the 50th day; the day culminating the Feast of Weeks), Christ fulfilled his promise to his disciples that he would ask the Father and that he would send them a Helper; that he would not leave them as orphans, but rather would send to them the Spirit of Adoption by whom they would cry “Abba! Father!” That through this Spirit, they would do even GREATER works than their Lord did while he was on this earth.
This day, we walk in that same Spirit, refusing to disobey as the people did long ago, but rather seeking to obey all that our Lord has commanded us. We go to the nations in the power of the Spirit, proclaiming the mighty works of God. We go to them with the authority of Christ in the power of the Spirit, calling them to repent and believe the Gospel. We bring them to the waters of holy baptism in the power of the Spirit, no longer for judgment, but now for grace and salvation. And we teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded in the power of the Spirit, that God would continue to make all things new, to create a New Heavens and a New Earth, to bring the Heavenly Jerusalem down to earth from God for man.