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)

The theology and spirituality of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church in India

The Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church or the Syrian Orthodox church in India is a church which is entwined in the spiritual-cultural spectrum of India for centuries now. As churches in India are in the process of understanding and even re-discovering their place in the new India, the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church will also have to travel the same direction at some point of time or the other. The new India is not just the India of progress but also the India of discrepancies and discriminations. As the diverse country tries to understand itself, it will also look at the various religious groups in the hope of learning things from them which will help it evolve towards a common good.

What does the church have to say about the equality of humankind, sexuality, poverty, the environment, rights deprivation and economic disparity? There may be a notion among the people of India that this church is an old, strict, limited and wasted communion of people. But there is also a notion that this very church can offer through its theology, spirituality and practice a different message for an India which wants to go full blast along the high road of development. This variance in opinion may even exist inside the church itself. There are those who say that church tradition means that which is unchanging and those who say that tradition evolves with time and therefore does not stand still in the time gone by.

What could be some of the aspects we could learn from? The church gains understanding from the Trinitarian relationship of God, is energised by the communitarian essence of worship which is an unending spiritual and practical expression of believers, is aware of the unseen and unheard which brings about humility into the essence of living, brings in a special concoction of the body and the being and keeps in living memory the special relationship of God, humans and creation. These cannot be explained by members of the church. They can only be lived out. This brings out the need for the Syrian Orthodox church to live out their faith in India. The actual living will express itself in various ways and it would be dangerous to give a hard and fast ruling on this.

The church will have to include others in India in this living out of its faith. This will bring out the struggle to include others into a so far exclusive circle which we have created by the non-living of our faith. Better still we may have to do away with the circle all together or make it a flexible circle which includes all, in opposition to excluding all. The church thus has to be an inclusive, creative and life affirming community of believers. There has to be a coming together of the old and the new. This is the meeting point which the church has to affirm to the people of India. This could be the development model which seeks to conserve for many, rather than destruct in the pursuit of happiness for the few.