Pentecost (Year A), May 15, 2005
BCP: Acts 2:1-11 or Ezek. 11:17-20; Psalm 104:25-37 or 104:25-32 or 33:12-15,18-22; 1 Cor. 12:4-13 or Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23 or John 14:8-17
RCL: Acts 2:1-21 or Num. 11:24-30; Psalm 104:25-35, 37b; 1 Cor. 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39
Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit, is the 50th and last day of the liturgical season of Easter, the Great Fifty Days. It is the season’s exclamation point. The season that began with the proclamation that Christ has been raised from the dead culminates with the proclamation that those who believe in him are made new — radically, incredibly new, as if also raised from the dead.
Paul taught, "For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see" (2 Cor. 5:17), and "You must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11). This is the crowning, climactic work of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, by whose power all that lives came to be, acts mightily again on the Feast of Pentecost.
The many options for readings given for this great feast of Pentecost are evidence of the complexity of the person of the Holy Spirit and his action in the life of the world and the lives of the faithful, but all have to do with giving life. He is first mentioned in the Bible in its second verse: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2). The image is one of primeval darkness and chaos brooded over by the Holy Spirit as a mother bird nurturing newly hatched chicks in a nest. All the other readings for today expand on and extend this image of the One described in the Nicene Creed as "the Lord, the Giver of Life."
In the beginning of creation, this Lord brings life into existence. When the world had fallen into sin, the same Lord brings new life to those who are redeemed by the Son. Jesus, who tells Philip, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me," says further, "I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth" (John 14:11,16-17a). In words that echo the image in Genesis, in Ezekiel the Lord says, "I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11:19). In all the lessons for Pentecost we see the theme that "things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new."
Look It Up
Read the lessons appointed for the early or vigil service and see how each supports the theme of "the Lord, the Giver of Life."
Think About It
Christians continue to sin. How does this lamentable but indisputable reality square with the assurance that we are "dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus"?
Next Sunday
Trinity Sunday (Year A), May 22, 2005
BCP: Gen. 1:1-2:3; Psalm 150 or Canticle 2 or 13; 2 Cor. 13:(5-10)11-14; Matt. 28:16-20
RCL: Gen. 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8 or Canticle 2 or 13; 2 Cor. 13:11-13; Matt. 28:16-20
