The service of Pentecost as renewal and hope for a spirited tomorrow

Come Holy Spirit, dwell inside us
Come Holy Spirit, renew us
Come Holy Spirit, make us a channel for your grace
Come Holy Spirit, may we accomplish the unthinkable

The service of Pentecost gives us the opportunity to renew the power of the Holy Spirit inside us. We have gained the Holy Spirit through the commitment of baptism. The bending of our knees is an acknowledge of our short comings and sinful nature and an invitation to God through the Holy Spirit to work inside us. Such opportunities are less in life.

The sprinkling of water is a cool breeze and energy of faith that splashes onto us the commitment to work hard for God and be blessed by God in return. The fact is that God never forsakes us. Jesus tells his disciples that when he leaves them, the Holy Spirit will come to guide and lead them. As the father God inspired him, he will inspire the Holy Spirit to guide us. He informs the disciples in St. John 14:1-3 that he will ensure a space for them in his father’s house. The one who works for God will never be let alone to wither away but will be send springs of grace to grow and become whole. No matter what, I am there for you, says the Lord God!

Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit also reminds us from St. John 15:15 that Jesus comes to the point of accepting his disciples and followers as his friends and as his equals in ministry. It is a call to them of their responsibility rather than a feeling of accomplishment of their elevation. He tells them that him calling them his friends also means that from now on they share the responsibility of working for the kingdom of God. Jesus says that this kingdom cares for the poor, nourishes the sick, looks after the elderly, accepts the outcasts, stands with the wrongly accused, and offers good governance for all which leads to just and equal prosperity for all. Jesus just does not elevate them but puts the glorious burden of ministerial responsibility on them. In St. John 15:13 Jesus says that no one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. Ministry is a calling to see others as our friends and to go the extra mile for them, unto the point of even laying down our life for them.

Pentecost reminds us of team work and unity. There obviously cannot be various Holy Spirits and various views of the one Holy Spirit. What that means is that any difference of opinion of or about the Holy Spirit means a difference of opinion of people on how they see and experience the Holy Spirit and one another. So the service of Pentecost reminds us that we have to work together overcoming our differences. This cannot happen overnight but this is also not impossible. Responsibilities should be equally divided and given in a way that no one feels left out and the gifts of all are used. A call for unity is not to crush the spirit of diversity but to say that God in the form of the trinity is united and it is humans who bring about division. God cannot be divided from God’s own front but is divided by the narrow understanding of human beings.

The bending of knees and prostration during the service is an act of humility and repentance. It is to say that we are willing to unite under the wings of God. It is painful and difficult but it leads eventually to a wonderful unity which will do away with the pain and difficulties involved in kneeling. Accepting our differences and the fact that our difference of opinion is also a difference in understanding of one true reality is indeed painful but not wrong. The kneeling process makes us accept the pain and the knowledge that the pain will become happiness soon. It is indeed happiness that makes us arise in one accord and receive the droplets of water symbolizing the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is a great happiness of having being accepted into a single fold of children, women and men. In St. Mark 1:40 a leper comes, kneels before Jesus and says that “if you choose, you can make me clean.” Kneeling is a very inherent act of accepting from our very high positions that we are after all children of God and not beyond God.

The incident at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 were confusion springs upon an over confident people, and the occasion of the Pentecost in Acts 2 when each understood in their own language what the disciples spoke, are contrasting in their approach. In the first case the people have figured out everything and they forget that an ambition of a few does not stand for the many. In the second instance the people do not know each other but are brought together by the Holy Spirit. One does not know where the spirit goes and how it leads. We bow before the Holy Spirit to be blessed with showers of blessing which become legible and understood by multiple sections of people.

The Pentecost is thus a time of renewal of our commitment to be filled by the Holy Spirit, to stir us to action always making us bow before God. Being accountable to no one and living a life beyond and above everything cannot make us members of a community who cares for one another. The Holy Spirit gives peace, assurance, guidance and happiness. The Holy Spirit also gives the strength to bow down and rise in expectation and hope that God is present inside us and whenever we bow before God, we will be raised from the ashes.

The service of Pentecost thus becomes a cool wind in the midst of testing times, problems, expectations, doubts and half truths. It is a washing of the body and soul. A sign that whatever has happened in our lives, we have God in the presence of the Holy Spirit to carry on with strength and hope. When the representative of God announces “Stand up by the power of God”, it is a nudge and a help to now get up and be assured that God is with us.

As is said in one of the prayers during the service of Pentecost “We pray You, 0 God, the comforter Spirit, by this sweet incense, beseeching the abundance of Your incomprehensible richness, that even now You be pleased to renew unto us Your divine gifts, and to rest upon us as You did upon the holy disciples in the Upper Room, divide among us Your heavenly presents, fill us with Your divine wisdom and with the doctrines of Your divine mysteries, make us temples for the dwelling of Your glory, grant us to drink to the full of the abundance of Your grace, satisfy us with the sublime richness of Your bright light, grant to us that we live to You and yield ourselves to You that we may, in purity and holiness, worship You, 0 God, the Comforter Spirit. Through You and by You we worship the hidden God, from whom You proceed, and the Son of Whom You take, now and forever. Amen”

Experiencing Pentecost: Go where the spirit leads and build relationships

Acts 2: 1-13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

The true experience of Pentecost in the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church is one of renewal and re commitment. It is knowing that God is reality in the trinity and the speciality of the trinity is being in relationship with one another. It is also knowing that the Holy Spirit will lead and that true discernment comes from feeling, listening and going along with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ advises his disciples that the way to the Father is through him and now that he has ascended the Holy Spirit will be there to guide and empower. But he tells his disciples that the best way to know God is to love each other just like the love of the father for the son, the son for the father and the spirit for the father and son. In essence it is saying that no one is great or greater but all are equal and all bring true value to the relationship.

The Jacobite church has a detailed and long service for Pentecost which is divided into three parts. The essence of the Holy Spirit is explained and the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is expounded. This brings about a clear picture of what and how things should be. The Father has no qualms in sending the son into the world and he believes that the son will do the job. The son on the other hand keeps promoting the father and in the end paves the way for the spirit. There is no staying back and saying that the son is capable by himself of doing what is needed. Jesus understands it is time to move away and make way for the spirit and in all humbleness and without any qualms or regrets he does just that. There is a special collegiality being expressed here. It is a special relationship of believing and trusting in the other person. This is not easy but we are shown that it is not impossible.

We are shown that relationships are not planned and have no emphasis on one person. Rather, relationships come across as something which celebrate each other and use the opportunity to work on what one is given but at the same time share the accolades that come along.

This being the case one needs to come to terms with the experience of Pentecost. What happened when the apostles received the spirit? They started speaking in tongues and others assembled there understood what was being spoken as each of the assembled one’s language. The relationship that Christ had with his disciples extended through his admission to the relationship Christ had with the Father and therefore the disciples were initiated into that relationship. The relationship Christ had with his disciples was then opened up to include the spirit in the relationship. This does not end here but rather becomes the extending of this openness and relationship to all people whereby the experience of the indwelling of the spirit during Pentecost leads to the opening up of the relationship to all.

The experience of Pentecost calls upon us to open up. It asks us to include, accept, celebrate and be free. There is no road map and there is no plan. The map and the plan are where the spirit leads us and frankly we don’t know where that could be. One should use this opportunity of the Pentecost to follow the spirit, open ourselves up to the liberation offered by relationships and have the courage to follow God even when we actually are uncomfortable with the initial paths that the spirit is taking us through.


(Picture courtesy http://www.thebridgeonline.co.uk/1840/pentecost-sunday)