Spirit
(based on Acts 2:1-21)
This morning I want to talk about the symbols
of Pentecost, Flaming Fire, Rushing Wind, and Descending Dove. But before we get to the symbols we need to
understand what Pentecost is all about.
You probably know Pentecost as the day when the
Holy Spirit of God came down to indwell the followers of Jesus Christ. This is often referred to as the day that the church
was born. On that day, the Spirit of God
descended on the 120 followers of Jesus, not just the eleven disciples, but the
larger group of followers and they started speaking out loud in foreign languages
so that everyone in attendance at the Jewish festival would be able to
understand them. This created such a
commotion that thousands who were in Jerusalem at the time came out to see what
was happening and in front of the gathering crowd, Peter spoke the first gospel
message and Acts records that ‘three thousand were added to their number that
day’ (Acts 2:41).
This happened 50 days after Christ’s
resurrection. On Pentecost Sunday they
went public and history was changed. But
that is not the complete story of Pentecost. Many people yearn for a return to that
Pentecost Sunday to have a similar experience of speaking in languages and
dramatic signs of the Holy Spirit. Since
the first disciples of Jesus had this experience by ‘waiting for the gift of
the Spirit’, today people figure that likewise if we ‘wait’ He will come again
in a similar way. Therefore, many people
wait and implore God for a similar experience. They assume that it was the waiting and
yearning that moved the Spirit of God back then. However, this misses the point and overlooks
the full understanding of Pentecost – because the Pentecost recorded in Acts
Chapter 2 was not the first Pentecost.
In fact, ‘Pentecost’ was a regular Old
Testament festival. In the time of
Moses, several annual festivals were prescribed and celebrated throughout the
year. Passover was the first to be
celebrated in the Jewish year. Christ,
the Lamb of God, was crucified and sacrificed on the same day that all Jewish
people were sacrificing their lambs in memory of their first Passover. And now, exactly 50 days (from which we derive
the word Pente, meaning 50), after Passover the Jews celebrated the
Feast of Pentecost. And they had been
doing so yearly for about 1500 years by the time the events of Acts 2 happened.
In fact, the reason that there were
people from all languages who were in Jerusalem that day to hear Peter’s
message was precisely because they were there to celebrate the Old Testament
Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:16-17 describes how Pentecost was
to be celebrated:
Count off fifty days up to the day after the
seventh sabbath (or Passover), and then present an offering of new grain to the
LORD. From wherever you live, bring two
loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as
a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.
Numbers 28:26 further describes what this day
of firstfruits during the Festival of Weeks was to be like. It reads: On the day of firstfruits, when you
present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks, or
Pentecost, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.
In the Jewish feast of Pentecost the Jews were
to offer up a grain offering along with the regular burnt offerings. The grain
was to be ‘firstfruits’ of new grain harvested from the land.
In this way, the Spirit of God comes to the
people, as a “firstfruits” for the new movement of the relationship God now has
with the people of God. That God not
only moves over the face of the water, as the Spirit of God did from the beginning
of Creation, but now God moves in the hearts and spirits of God’s own people.
During Pentecost, we use a variety of symbols
to celebrate the holiday or festival. We
use the Flaming Fire symbol, as a remembrance of the tongues of fire that
appeared above the heads of all the followers of Christ. We use the Breath of God, or the Rushing Wind,
as a remembrance of the sound that accompanied the tongues of fire at that new
Pentecost event. And finally, we use the
dove, as a sign of the Holy Spirit, recorded in all four gospels when Christ
was baptized, where the Holy Spirit of God “descended like a dove” over him when
the heavens opened up and alighted upon him.
But these symbols; Flaming Fire, Rushing Wind,
Descending Dove, are not easily seen as a symbiotic unity. What do they mean and how do they relate to
one another?
We’ve witnessed, thankfully from afar, the
devasting fires that have ravaged entire cities and towns in the west. And the image that comes to my mind of flaming
fire is consumption and destruction. Flaming
Fire is not a calm, settling image. For
me, it is one that excites anxiety and concern.
And when the Biblical account says that tongues of fire appeared over
the heads of each of the followers that day, I’m not given to thoughts of
calmness and reflection. I’m more inclined
to be concerned and worried.
But fire also purges, cleanses and renews. I remember visiting Mount St. Helens a number
of years ago with my family. We had gone
to see the devastation of the volcano and the fires that destroyed the entire
area in 1980. But just over 25 years
later, there were new forests and new greenery that covered the entire mountain
again. Using that image, I think about
the tongues of fire over the disciples’ heads and I’m wondering if this symbol
of the Holy Spirit is meant not as a consuming fire, but rather as a refreshing
fire, purging the old ways of thinking, in order for the new to come, cleansing
the soul of sin, allowing for the renewal of being one with Christ. That the Spirit moves differently in us in
order for God to set the boundaries, for God to set the course, for God to be
center stage in our lives rather than we, ourselves, being the motivator and
force behind our movements. So, the flames
of fire of the Holy Spirit aren’t bent on destruction, but rather on renewal in
each of us.
The Rushing Wind is yet another symbol that more
often is related to destruction. We’ve
seen the power of the wind coming in forms of hurricanes and tornadoes. Once again, these images don’t lend to calm
and reflection, but rather to chaos and concern. Furthermore, when you think of wind in conjunction
with fire, you think of out of control, ravaging advancement of that fire. Fire fighters working hard to control the
blaze find wind to be their biggest enemy.
It can whip a small flame into a consuming fire in moments and change
the direction of the blaze on a dime.
But, once again, we might have to look for new
images and understanding of this wind, the way we did with fire. I remember being a boy scout and learning how
to make a campfire. You needed a spark
to get the fire going. But once you had
that spark, does anybody know what you needed to do? Yes, you needed to blow on it, to use your
breath to get it going, to build the fire.
Perhaps we can view this Rushing Wind or Breath
of God in this way: It helps fan the
flames of fire or tongues of fire above each of the 120 followers of Jesus to
spread the movement of the Gospel outward.
And the third symbol, the descending dove. Finally, we get a peaceful image of the Holy
Spirit as a comforter and a helper.
The tongues of fire that cleanses us and renews
us, the rushing wind or Breath of God that fans the flames into a spreading
movement, and the descending dove as a comfort in times of stress and concern
about the unknown, a guide to show us the way.
It’s interesting that all three of these symbols
work together as part of the image we now have of the Holy Spirit which we
received on the day of Pentecost, not as some waiting event, but as one that is
ongoing for each of us every day.
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