Pentecost and Thank You for Waiting
Dear Reader,
Thank you for your patience with me over the last checks calendar four months as I took an unannounced break from this work. It was never my intention to step away, but life is messy, and in many ways, life got in the way of this endeavor these past few months.
It’s been a busy time for me. I married the love of my life on February 15 of this year – just two days after my birthday! My dad had an important heart surgery, which took my attention for quite awhile, and then between learning to be a spouse, re-entering my church life and ministry after the wedding and honeymoon, and moving in a new home, this blog fell off my priority list. My desire to write it, however, never wavered.
Over the past month, I’ve been writing posts for this – enough so that life won’t stop the weekly posts anytime soon. I’ve been preparing to relaunch everything with the coming of Pentecost.
For me, Pentecost is an extra special Holy Day as I was ordained on Pentecost just three years ago today in my home church, Olive Branch Christian Church, in Williamsburg, VA. I chose that day because of the liturgical significance it has for the Church itself, in addition to the spiritual significance it has in my own life. It seemed only fitting that the reintroduction of this Substack occur on my ordination anniversary and in preparation for yet another Pentecost.
I’ll share a bit about Pentecost below in a classic TMD style post, but the point of this little letter is to thank you for bearing with me in my absence, to ensure that you know, Dear Reader, that I did not forget about you, and to tell you: The Modern Disciple is back and – hopefully – even better than before.
Look for exegetical posts (like this one) on Thursdays at 5 pm going forward and devotional posts on Mondays at 7 am.
Joyfully yours,
Rev. Kelsey Sherazi, Your Sister in Christ
Acts 2:1-13 | Like a Wildfire, the Holy Spirit Spread (MSG)
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were blown away. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
“They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”
Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”
Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.” (Acts 2:1-13 MSG)
Commentary
This Sunday is Pentecost.
Most Church-goers know it as the service for which we all show up in red and celebrate the Birthday of the Church, but Pentecost is about much more than the color of fire and a first gathering of Christians. On Pentecost, we celebrate the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the early church. We talk about tongues of fire, people speaking different languages yet being understood, and a moment of such festive, frenzied energy that onlookers thought the group was drunk (at 9 am)!
We find the Disciples gathered, as they so often are, around a table for the ‘Feast of Pentecost’, that is for the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, which occurred 50 days after the Passover. Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah – the books of the law – to Moses at Mt. Sinai. It’s referenced many times throughout the Tenakh (Old Testament) as the Festival of Harvest, the Festival of Ingathering, and the Day of Firstfruits, and more. It’s one of the three major ‘pilgrim’ festivals in the Jewish faith; named such because in Biblical times, all Jewish males were required to observe them at the Temple in Jerusalem.
This context of Shavuot explains why there are so many jewish men from so many places present when the early believers begin to speak in foreign languages. It makes the moment at which the Spirit comes – when Jewish men from Egypt, Rome, Asia, and more hear the gospel preached by strangers in their own tongues – into an intentional choice by the Divine. This moment is not frenzied and powerful simply because the Spirit has come, but because the Spirit chose this moment to come and chose to have such a grand impact.
The rushing winds, the tongues of fire, the babble of countless languages being spoken at once – these were a display of God’s power – yes – but they also connected back through the stories of Moses: to the strong wind which parted the red sea on Moses command making a way to freedom for the Israelites (Exodus 14), to the man who spoke with the burning bush – on fire with God’s spirit, yet it did not burn up (Exodus 3), and to the tower of Babel where God’s spirit gave people language such that they would begin to misunderstand each other (Genesis 11).
Yet in this scripture, we have a rushing wind that does not build a pathway out but rather insulates those within, a fire that alights on each individual yet does not burn anyone, and a sudden diversity of languages, yet everyone is understood.
In this text, we have a powerful image of unity where there once was division, a sanctifying statement about the blazing indwelling of God’s spirit in places once thought unholy, and an undeniable testimony that freedom has already arrived.
Today’s Questions
What is the role of the Holy Spirit in your spiritual life? Do you think about the Spirit often? Do you feel a sense of divine guidance ever – maybe when reading the scriptures or making important decisions?
What might be the significance of God giving us the Holy Spirit on the same holy day where the gift of the Torah – the Jewish laws – is celebrated?
The Torah is a collection of codified laws the Israelites were expected to follow in order to fulfill their covenant with God. Having made a new covenant with all humankind through Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, what significance might this hold for Christians as they seek to fulfill their end of God’s covenant?
Which of these three connections to the Torah means the most to you: freedom, sanctification, or unity? Why? How do you experience them in your faith?
A Blessing for Your Week
Child of God,
May the Spirit come
May the Spirit move
May the Spirit set you free
Amen
Rev. Kelsey Sherazi 