THOUGHTS ON PENTECOST

Dear Friends,

The great festival of Pentecost, which we celebrate today, testifies to the universal and inclusive nature of Christianity as a world-wide religion.

It was the coming of the Holy Spirit into the lives of the disheartened and broken community of the followers of Jesus which revived and empowered that community to carry the Good News of hope and wholeness to the world.

The testimony of Holy Scripture as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2: 5) clearly illustrates the nature of the message of universality and inclusiveness. For instance, we read in that text that those listening to the tumult associated with the Pentecost experience heard the declaration of the wonders of God in their own tongues, representing the languages of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Cretans, Arabs, Egyptians, Romans and numerous others—perhaps even in Sanskrit.

Pentecost was a new beginning, the birth of a faith that knew no limits, that ignored the boundaries of political allegiance, economic status, social position and tribal or national affiliation, as well as issues of gender.

In his letter to the Galatians (3: 26), S. Paul attests to this when he writes:

For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Later, action taken at the First Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15: 19) extended the parameters of the Church to include Gentiles as members of God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

In summation, the entire nature of the Christian witness is to convey the Good News of wholeness, oneness, and love to a weary, traumatised world.

That is the Pentecost message!

Fr Bob Peck