Pentecost is one of those days that almost nobody wants to read for. Nobody wants to get right up in front of everyone and read out the names of the places in that reading. Ordinarily, reading in public isn't on a lot of people's list of things they most want to do, as public speaking, public reading, it's a lot even on a good day. But Pentecost isn't a good day for that. It's one of the worst.
Pentecost isn't a bad day, of course, but the readings are rough. I'll show you what I mean: The reading from Acts about Pentecost has the list of peoples and nations that are hearing the words that disciples speak: "How is it that we hear, each of us in his own language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians - We all hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." This passage alone is the one that strikes fear into the heart of the most well meaning lector. And when you look at this passage, you may very well say 'gosh, wouldn't it be nice if these were all familiar names?' Sure it would. It would be convenient if all those names were to be replaced with 'Paris and Miami, and Estevan and residents of Manhattan, Jersey and Calgary, Peoria and Alabama, Pawtucket and Providence, Esterhazy and the parts of Las Vegas belonging to Colorado, and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes, Canadians and Alaskans - we all hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God!' It would be much easier to read, as well as much easier to understand. After all, which of you, without opening another tab to look, can tell me where Cappadocia is? Who can tell me much about the Elamites, Phrygia? I'd suspect almost none of you. And if you've ever been up in front of a crowd and had to read words that are essentially foreign to you, then you'll understand, and understand a lot, why it is that Pentecost is a big deal.
Pentecost contains within its own readings evidence for why it is necessary. It's necessary because we don't speak all the languages of the world. We don't know all the ins and outs of all the cultures. We are divided, and have been since the tower of Babel, and therefore, by design, have been prevented from hearing or understanding each other. This has been a problem ever since God said to human beings 'if you're only going to work in your own interests, then I'm going to make sure that you can't get the job done.'
Now, when we get to Pentecost, that problem gets largely resolved. Or more accurately, the differences stop being a problem. Part of the great thing about Pentecost, is that it reminds you of why it is necessary itself. That is, when you read through the readings for Pentecost, you get reminded of how strange and foreign the first century disciples would be to you, and hopefully you think about how strange and foreign you would be to them. You think of yourself as not having an accent because the people who live all around you speak in the same way, and essentially conduct themselves in a similar manner. But it's only normal to you because you're used to it, not because it's essentially normal to everyone. Pentecost shocks us out of the idea that middle class English is the inherent language of the Lord. The language that he would have been speaking would have been so foreign to us that we couldn't possibly understand it. And were it not for Pentecost, there would be a good chance that we would forever be facing a certain direction for prayer, dressing a certain way, eating certain foods, and speaking a foreign language. Forever.
What Pentecost did was to blow the doors off of the idea that the faith could ever be a regionally contained thing. The work of the Holy Spirit was to open the church up to all people, to have the words of God known in the language of all the people of earth. The work of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was to fundamentally change the church away from what it was to what it was always destined to be. The disciples had been staying in Jerusalem according to Christ's command, waiting for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and then after that, the doors of the church would be blown wide open to the outside. The insular nature of the Hebrews that had been there to set them apart from their neighbors was to be changed at its very base, into a faith that would reach out into the world to find, seek and save the lost. Jesus made a promise that faith in him would be to go out to the ends of the earth. He told his disciples in the last chapter of Matthew that they should baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If ascension is the fuse being lit on the church, then Pentecost is the explosion, no longer a small insular Jewish sect, the Christian faith was now for everyone.
God "selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was -that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 3)
This does bring some pain to the disciples. It's hard to hear about how you were holy, set apart for thousands of years to all of a sudden be told that the love of God is for everyone, but that's something that Jesus had made clear from the beginning. But it's still something that people find hard to deal with. The idea that the Holy Spirit of God is bestowed in and through baptism, that it provides for our needs, sanctifies us, and makes us holy. But this is the natural extension of the story of the Bible. It is the natural conclusion, the realization of the promises that run right the way through scripture. Everything in the Old Testament points towards the incarnation, the entire nation of Israel was set apart for the arrival of the word made flesh, the coming of the messiah. You had a tiny island of monotheism in the middle of an ocean of polytheism, in order that a space may be prepared for the arrival of the Lord. And once the Lord had arrived to the place that had been prepared for him, had suffered and died for the sins of the world, then the time came for the bestowal of the Holy Spirit on the believers. And this is the natural continuation of everything that the scriptures are all about. The coming of the Lord to his people whom he loves. He created, he came, and now he lives and dwells with us. Not as a means to keep us set apart from the world, but as the means through which we are driven into the world with a message of salvation on our lips. A message of salvation, of good news of great joy that will be for all people. But if you're a bridge builder, you have to go where the rivers are. If you want to reach the world, you have to be in the world. That's hard to do if you're isolated in Israel, set apart from the world. It is much easier if God, the Holy Spirit, goes with you. Which he does, thanks to Pentecost.
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