As Pentecost approaches, more than one person is struck by the question – what kind of feast is this, really? At Christmas there is a variety of gifts, at Easter there are eggs and rabbits, but what is characteristic of Pentecost? What do we receive, touch and taste at this feast? What pours in the joy of the feast, to rejoice over and then say – we have celebrated Pentecost?
Have you ever had a slightly embarrassing experience where you receive a gift from someone, open it, and have not the faintest idea what to do with it? Imagine you are at your birthday party and someone hands you a brightly wrapped package. Slowly you untie the ribbon from the beautiful bow, and meanwhile everyone’s eyes are fixed intently in your direction. You open the box, and in it is…
What is this … a pencil sharpener or a coffee grinder? … a scarf or a bread napkin? … earrings or fishhooks?
Well, of course, the giver looks at you with enormous eagerness, as if saying: “Well, do you like it?” And out of politeness you simply have to say something, don’t you? And you say: “Oh, how did you know? Thank you so much! A car tire pressure gauge will really come in handy for me.” And immediately you hear an offended voice saying: “Actually, it’s a meat thermometer”…
On my 18th birthday, among the gifts I received a woven woolen … something. As I opened the wrapping, the givers expected from me great joy and delight at such a beautiful work of art. My joy would have been genuine, if only it had not been a folk-patterned, woven, black woolen … coffin cover. I could not even admit that I would gladly use it before long!
You see, a similar uncertainty and confusion as with birthday gifts, only in a far deeper sense, exists with Pentecost as well. The leaders of the early church had gathered in one place, when suddenly a strange sound came, as if a whirlwind had arisen, then suddenly tongues of fire flashed above everyone’s heads and each began to speak the gospel in another language. Their own. Here at Pentecost, in a rather dramatic style, something is given to the church. But when we open it, we ask, what kind of gift is this? Who is it for? What does one do with it?
The gift, of course, is the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost God gave the Holy Spirit to his church. And to belong to the church is like saying: “We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.” But when you take that gift out of its wrapping, what exactly is this gift of the Holy Spirit? Is it a pencil sharpener or a coffee grinder? A tire pressure gauge or a meat thermometer? A decorative blanket or a coffin cover?
Some, under the influence of this story, are quite delighted. The force of the wind, which moved like an express train through the whole congregation of that time, and the tongues of fire that blazed above the heads of the churchgoers, was a rather impressive sight, evoking sensations worthy of an action film. And they said: “Oh, I know what kind of gift it is! The gift of Pentecost is the gift of energy and enthusiasm in the church.” Pentecost is God’s tune-up of the church, an attempt to scrape off the moss that has grown over the church’s traditions, to blow the cobwebs out of the house of God, and to let electricity and enthusiasm energize the church. Well, if that is the gift, then God knows we need it. Perhaps in our churches, too, something has become overgrown with moss, stuffy, moldy or rusty.
But perhaps the gift we receive today at Pentecost is the gift of power. After all, Jesus told the disciples: “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power.” And if it is power that we receive today, then evidently God knows that we need it.
So perhaps, quite possibly, Pentecost is the gift of power, and God knows that we need it. Did you notice what the world did when the church displayed its Pentecost gift? People nudged one another in the side and said: “I don’t know about you, but it seems to me they’re drunk!” Now, that is a strange kind of power!
When all is said and done, the gift we receive at Pentecost is not a supernatural gift of energy and enthusiasm or an artificial injection of adrenaline. And it is not the kind of power the world imagines. The gift we receive at Pentecost is what we, and the world too, most desperately need. As strange as it may seem, the gift of Pentecost is the gift of words, the gift of being able to say something; a word to speak into the brokenness and tragedy of the world. Have you noticed what happened to the congregation when it was given the Holy Spirit? The churchgoers stood up and spoke. The congregation changed from silence to speech. The congregation spoke, and the whole world heard the Message of the Word, each in their own language. It was a Word about how life is stronger than death, hope deeper than despair, that every tear will be wiped away, and that in the power of Christ’s resurrection there will no longer be death or pain. That Word is our gift, which we are to pass on further.
Perhaps that is why our churches are half-empty at Pentecost, because many do not know what to do with this gift of the feast once it is unwrapped? Some think that Pentecost gives no gifts to use in practice: no little candles to light, no little eggs to roll.
So, when we open the gift of Pentecost today, do we still ask, what is it? Who is it for? What does one do with it? I hope that such questions will no longer arise for you, because Pentecost comes to give us a great and serious, useful and even spiritually practical gift: a Word to speak into the brokenness and tragedy of the world, into its heaviness and hardship, into problems and troubles – a word of Good News and a word of hope, which is altogether different from all other words in this world.
A blessed Pentecost! Amen!
Rev. Gundega Puidza