The Day of Pentecost

27 May 2007

The Rev'd Lloyd Prator

New York City

Today we celebrate Pentecost, or as it was called in medieval England, Whitsunday. Pentecost means the “fiftieth day”, and that name was first given to the Jewish Feast of Weeks which fell on the 50thday after Passover, when the first fruits of the corn harvest were collected. Later, the day of Pentecost became associated with the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai, the handing down of the familiar Ten Commandments. When Christianity came along, we adapted that feast to celebrate not the giving of the law, but the giving of the Holy Spirit. On that day, the familiar story, read today as our first reading, tells of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the first apostles gathered in Jerusalem.

The feast became known as Whitsunday, or White Sunday, in England, because Pentecost was one of the great baptismal days. On this day, the candidates for holy baptism were given white garments and that sparkling linen gave rise to the name “White Sunday” or Whitsunday.

In contemporary liturgical tradition, Pentecost is the conclusion of what we call the Great fifty Days of Easter. It is the end of the time during which we read from the Acts of the Apostles, the great unfolding story of the Church in its earliest days. This is the last regular time we will use the paschal candle, the Easter Candle, which is the symbol of the resurrection of Jesus. We may see it from time to time during the year as we celebrate the occasional funeral. For in burying the faithful departed, we celebrate their Passover, their resurrection following the glorious resurrection of Jesus their Lord. From now on, the liturgy will not have quite as many Alleluias, and, after Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi, we will subdue our liturgical color from white and gold down to a more sedate green.

But the main thing we do today is to celebrate God the Holy Spirit.

Each of the readings today makes a single point. In the story from Acts, the disciples become apostles. Disciple means student, apostle means one who is sent; what happens today is that the students graduate and are sent out on missionary work. The whole rest of the book of Acts is about the apostles spreading the Christian story around Jerusalem, around the Judean countryside, and away to the ends of the earth. People get sent.

And in I Corinthians, the apostle makes the point that those who are sent have gifts. In that second lesson, Paul outlines all the gifts that people have been given by the Holy Spirit. There they are: Wisdom, utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. People are given gifts.

And in the Gospel, John the Evangelist reminds us that the Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus is God. Believe in me that I am in the father and the father is in me. Jesus says, “Those who are in me will do what I do.” The spirit of God is the same God as the Father and as Jesus the Son. In a sense, this gospel prepares us for Trinity Sunday next week.

I think that the one thing that Christians need to understand is that all their gifts come from God, that the gifts God gives us come through the Spirit of God and are good for building up the community, the church, and the world in which we live. I am sorry that the list of gifts Paul gives us in I Corinthians seem to all be so “churchy.” Faith, healing miracles, tongues—all of these seem so spiritual—in the narrow way of thinking of them.

Most Christians need to concentrate on thanking God for the gifts of wisdom and knowledge and, perhaps the working of miracles. I would like to see, for example, bankers and investment counselors, understand that their gifts of increasing wealth are in fact examples of something like miracle working. After all, it is investment management, among other things, that has made this nation the one with the smallest incidence of poverty. It is pretty miraculous to observe how investments can yield income, which lifts the burden of the poor.

Certainly scientists who discover ways of fighting disease are engaged in the work of the Holy Spirit as they enable people to live without the plight of constant disease and disability. They are miracle workers.

Sometimes we are reluctant to claim our gifts. I once knew a young man who was a hair stylist, having trained with Vidal Saloon, the famous cosmetician. When asked what he did for a living, he always looked a little ashamed. No reason why he should. There is nothing wrong with helping people to feel better about how they look. I might stop my praise of hair styling somewhere this side of politicians who spend $400 for a haircut, but, for heavens sake, the care of the body and attention to appearance is not a bad thing in proper balance. This young man enabled people to care for creation and to nourish its beuty.

We know the presence and the power of God by knowing and giving thanks for his gifts. Today, give thanks for the gifts that have been poured out upon you. Do pay attention to what builds up the church. But also pay attention to what you do out there in the secular world, too, for everything which brings freedom and dignity, comfort and purpose to human life can be understood as a gift of the spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in them the fire of your love.