Acts 2:1-21: "More Than a Birthday Party"

As a child, I was taught that the main thing about Pentecost was that it was the church's birthday. I know now that it was and is a whole lot more. In fact, I believe that rediscovering Pentecost for our own day and time is as important as rediscovering the cross and the empty tomb. Theologians like to talk about Good Friday and Easter as "the Christ event," but Pentecost is what completed the Christ event, as the Christ who died and rose again became the Christ indwelling the people of faith with his presence and power. Before Pentecost the people who followed Jesus were a scared to death group of disciples (were they next to die?) who were gathering together in hope that they would receive what Jesus promised. After Pentecost they are a movement that changes the world. It's worth asking whether the present United Methodist Church looks more like the church pre-Pentecost than post-Pentecost.

It had only been six weeks since the death and Resurrection of Christ. The people gathered to do as Jesus instructed in Acts 1, to wait until they were filled with God's power. Then the Holy Spirit comes upon them like "tongues of fire." John the Baptist said Jesus was the one who would "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John Wesley said of his preaching, "I just want people to come and watch me burn." It is out of that experience of being set ablaze by God's Spirit that the "scared to death" disciples became disciples who boldly proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ.

As they step out in that boldness, they are given the ability to speak in other languages by the Spirit. In this instance, they are given the ability to communicate with others in their native tongue. There has been debate about whether they were speaking in different tongues or the people heard it that way. In others words, was the miracle in the speaking or in the hearing? Did they speak in ecstatic utterance, much like we hear in charismatic or Pentecostal worship today, and it was heard in native languages? Did they speak in Aramaic (the language of the disciples) and it was heard in native languages? Or did they speak literally in the home languages of the people who heard them? I'm opting for the third. Furthermore, I think it is important that we today learn to speak by the power of the Spirit in the native tongue of 21st century USAmericans in Arlington, Texas. Too often, even in this blog, I write in "church-ese," in a code that only church people can understand. For a bible study like this, it may be acceptable, but not in our witness. We sing hymns in a language and style few people still understand (have you found out what "raising your Ebenezer" is yet?)and even if they understand the English, they don't talk that way anymore. Even the bible was originally written in "koine" Greek (the language of the common people) not classical Greek (the language of the scholars). Most Christian witness is seen and heard by those outside the church as a foreign tongue.

The disciples are accused of being drunk. The translation of the Greek is kind of fun at this point. It can be translated like your Bible, "these men are not drunk as you suppose." The passage can also be translated, "these men are drunk, but not as you suppose." In other words, they are filled with a different kind of wine, the wine of God's Spirit. As we make our witness for Christ it is important that we update our language, make new connections with people and become more culturally relevant. But it is even more important that we be filled afresh with God with God's Spirit. It is God at work in and through us, not just us at work in the name of God.

The disciples then tell the people that what they are seeing is the fulfillment of the prophet Joel. My guess is that the disciples had seen and heard that prophecy hundreds of times before and it meant very little. Now it is life-giving. He then invites the hearers to call on the LORD and be saved. I still am amazed every time I read this passage. And each time I read it, I continue to ask, "What would happen if the United Methodist Church (and other church movements for that matter) experienced a new Pentecost?" How might it be the same and how might it be different?