Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23
“2:1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
I’ll never forget the first time I heard someone ‘speaking in tongues’ as Luke describes in the Acts of the Apostles. It was at a “Life in the Spirit” series Joann and I attended at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Greene. The culmination of the series was an open prayer time for each of those who had attended the series. Two by two we would come up to the altar, where two groups of people waited to pray for each of us. The prayers were out loud, with laying on of hands, and you didn’t leave the circle until you felt ready to leave.
I was skeptical. Most folks who had gone up before me were pretty calm during the whole process. Two had collapsed at one point or another, especially one person who I thought was always overly dramatic normally, so I wasn’t surprised when they collapsed half-way through their session and were carried back to their pew.
I’d always been a watcher, one who observed a situation before committing to it, one who hated surprises and needed mental preparation before joining in on something. So as I approached the altar to be prayed over, I had my shields up, my senses ready, and my exit strategy in hand.
What happened next I never expected. There were three people ready to pray over me, and as I stood surrounded by them and before they even started to speak, I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck. When their hands touched me I felt myself actually twitch. I felt a little off balance, not dizzy but disoriented somehow. I also felt instantly relaxed and at ease.
And then they began to pray, six hands covering my head and shoulders, three voices all saying different things, one of those voices not even speaking English. The strangest thing was… it didn’t seem strange. All three voices saying different words, one of those voices speaking words that were no language I even knew, but what I heard was loud and clear. Three different voices, two different languages, many different words, but I heard only one message: peace. “Peace, Geoff. My peace I give to you. Your burdens I take from you. Your worries and cares I swallow up, peace is what I give back to you. Feel my touch and be healed, hear my voice and be comforted, abide in my love and I will show you greater things than these. Feel my touch – this gift is for you, but not only for you. Some day you will understand what that means. For now, be still and know that I Am. Let go of your fear, breath me in, Abide in my love. Remember this feeling – you will feel it again. Remember that you are loved – I will remind you. Go now in peace.”
And then I became aware of my standing there again. It was quiet. One by one hands released me. I wondered how long I had been standing there – was it 30 seconds, 30 minutes? Normally I would have been embarrassed – now it didn’t cross my mind; I just didn’t want that feeling to end. I turned to start walking back to my pew and the ground seemed to be shifting under my feet. I felt different. I wondered if I looked different. I sat back down in the pew, dazed.
When the last person had been prayed over the priest invited anyone who wanted to stand and share something that they had experienced, anything they felt compelled to share with the rest of us. Several people stood and spoke words they felt compelled to say. They said a lot of words, but I only heard the same thing over and over: “Peace be with you, my peace I leave with you. Let go of your fear, breath me in, abide in my love, you will see greater things than these.”
And I felt… free. Free from my burdens, free from my worries, free from the cares of this world, free to hear the truth and free to speak the truth. Free to let the Holy Spirit into my heart, and free to let that same Holy Spirit speak out through my voice.
Today we celebrate that first Pentecost, that day when the Holy Spirit finally set all the disciples free. Peter and the eleven had waited, as Jesus had told them, and just as Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit came to them, entered them, and blew through them. And after days and weeks of waiting, days that started out with the disciples hiding in fear then rolling into weeks of the now-transformed disciples awaiting Jesus’ promised gift after his ascension, today the waiting was over. Today the Holy Spirit came as promised, and today that same Holy Spirit set those disciples free. Peter, once the denier, now stood a free man with his fear now gone and his shame now forgiven and ancient history. Today the language barrier was broken for the disciples, that barrier that existed since that day at the tower of Babel, today everyone around the disciples heard the Good News spoken to them personally, no matter what language they spoke and no matter where they came from. On that first Christian Pentecost day the Holy Spirit transcended language, and everyone around heard the Good News in words and ways they could understand. Today Peter stands and prophesies the Good News of the coming of God’s Kingdom and the salvation that it brings… to everyone, and everyone is now able to hear that message because today that message becomes universal.
Jesus speaks of this same coming freedom in John’s Gospel, the freedom we receive as he breathes the Spirit of Truth upon us. Today Jesus gives to his disciples the power to forgive sins or to retain them. Some interpret this as the giving of the power of a priest or bishop alone to forgive sins in what we know as the sacrament of Reconciliation. Others interpret this statement by Jesus as the disciples, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, now being able to successfully preach the Good News because the Spirit will be with them. And when the Good News is successfully preached by the gift of the Holy Spirit the result is that people are set free, free as in salvation is received. If the Gospel through the Spirit is not preached to some by the disciples, they will never be free from slavery to sin. This means that if we don’t try to bring the Good News to others, those others will not be set free. Quite a different twist that actually makes more sense: only God can free souls, but we can have a hand in that freedom by being the instrument that brings God’s Good News to others who have not heard it yet.
The Good News is that today the Holy Spirit blows through us again and reminds us that we have been set free by the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. Today we participate in freeing others from their sins by making that gift of Good News known to them as well. Today we, all of us, can help to set others free from sin and death. Today, in spreading the Good News of the Gospel, we all become one.
The Good News today is that being filled with Grace from the Holy Spirit is not something that we can contain, something we can domesticate, not something we can keep to ourselves. The gifts of the Spirit cannot be contained because a human heart will never be large enough to contain them. Sooner or later that Holy wind overwhelms us. Sooner or later that flame that burns but does not consume bursts forth. Sooner or later the dwelling place of God in our hearts becomes full to overflowing – our cups runneth over. Sooner or later God calls us out from the safety of ourselves, draws us out from the protection and comfort of the walls we build around our faith and around our hearts, and sets us free.
The Good News today is that, no matter what language is used or what words are said, on this Pentecost Sunday the Holy Spirit breathes into our very souls and says: “Let go of your fear, breath me in, abide in my love. Feel my touch and be healed, hear my voice and be comforted, abide in my love and I will show you greater things than these. Remember that you are my beloved, and believe that I will be with you always. Peace be with you, My peace I leave with you – My Peace sets you free.”