The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John has structured his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Pentecost Sunday (B)
ACTS 2:1-21. Pentecost celebrates the climax of the Gospel. On this day
all the benefits of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ rush into our
lives and into the church through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The coming of
the Spirit makes this Good News available to the whole world.
Note how this turbulent account differs from the quiet breathing of the Holy
Spirit upon the disciples in John 20:22. The early church also experienced
many other ways in which the Holy Spirit came to the gathered community.
All descriptions of the coming of the Spirit tell us of the special
relationship God establishes through Jesus Christ with all of humanity. This
is the true definition of the third person of the Trinity: God with us and at
work in the world right now.
PSALM 104:24-34. The work of Spirit of God in creation and providence
through the Spirit is celebrated in this psalm. There is a possibility that
this hymn had a parallel in an ancient Egyptian hymn to the sun.
ROMANS 8:22-27. Paul clarifies some of the distinctive work of the Spirit in
us. By entering into our deepest longings, the Spirit serves as intercessor
for us and the whole creation.
Note the emphasis on the Spirit as "helper," the same function brought out in
our Gospel lesson. Paul's understanding of the work of the Spirit arose out
of his own personal experience, not theoretical analysis.
JOHN 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. In his table talk at the last supper, Jesus
promised to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The Spirit would carry on
Jesus' work and constitute his continuing presence in the world.
Many different names have been given to the Spirit, each one defining a
different role. In each case, the work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus,
i.e. to make him known as the Son of God, the One who reveals God completely
and so shares God's glory.
************
ACTS 2:1-21. For Christians, Pentecost celebrates the climax of the Gospel.
On this day all the benefits of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
rush into our lives and into the church through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The coming of the Spirit makes this Good News available to the whole world.
This was not what Pentecost meant to Jews before and after the time of Jesus.
Originally, it was the harvest festival (Exod. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:17;
Jer. 5:24) recognizing Yahweh as the source of rain and agricultural
fertility. Greek-speaking Jews gave it the name of Pentecost referring to the
seven week period of the harvest. It was also known as the Feast of First
Fruits (Num. 28:26) and the Feast of Weeks. In his article in *The
Interpreter's Bible* (vol. 4, 828) J.D. Rylaarsdam comments: "The day of the
feast was one of solemn joy and thanksgiving that God's protection had
watched over and brought to a successful completion the activities of the
cereal harvest season begun seven weeks before. It was a day of 'holy
convocation' (Lev. 23:21). Work was to cease; through its male
representatives, and, especially in later periods, through the temple
priesthood, the whole community of Israel presented itself before the Lord."
Following the destruction of the temple in 586 BCE, a gradual transformation
took place into a feast commemorating the gift of the law. But it was not
until after 200 CE that this became fixed in the Jewish religious tradition.
Rylaarsdam regards it as "historically incorrect to describe Weeks as a
'feast of revelation' at the time of Jesus ... and consequently misleading to
attempt an interpretation of Acts 2 and the meaning of Pentecost in the
Christian church on the assumption that it constitutes a literal displacement
of, or substitution for, a feast of the law." He claims that there is no
evidence of this in the NT.
This view, however, does not take into account the possibility that Acts 2 is
a midrash on the celebration of the Jewish festival of the first fruits.
There are compelling elements of the Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 that it is
such a midrash: The assembled pilgrims from many lands in Jerusalem (vs. 5);
the assembled twelve representative of the New Israel (vs. 1); the witnessing
to "God's deeds of power;" the festive atmosphere in which some were thought
to be inebriated (vs. 13).
Note how this turbulent account differs from the quiet breathing of the Holy
Spirit upon the disciples in John 20:22. Paul also wrote of what many assume
was the Pentecost experience in 1 Cor. 15:6 when Jesus appeared "to more than
five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive."
Paul would have known those living witnesses and may have heard the story
directly from them, possibly even during his persecution of the apostolic
community. His account may be from the earliest tradition and the version in
Acts 2 a more formal reflection on its meaning.
The early church experienced many other ways in which the Holy Spirit came to
the gathered community. All descriptions of the coming of the Spirit tell us
of the special relationship God establishes through Jesus Christ with all of
humanity, not one exclusive group of believers. This is the true definition
of the third person of the Trinity: God with us and at work in the world
right now. None of us can claim to have exclusive control of the countless
ways the Spirit of God works to bring the whole world to faith.
PSALM 104:24-34. For many Christians, it is anathema to suggest that any
part of the Bible could have been influenced by literature from another
culture. This attitude ignores the obvious historical reality that ancient
Israel lay on the main route along which nearly all commerce and military
action of the ancient Middle East occurred. Theologically, the Israelites
may have been a special people, but racially and culturally they were part of
the same milieu as their neighbours around the Fertile Crescent from the Nile
to the Tigris-Euphrates valleys. Like all ancient and modern peoples, they
were also wholly dependent on the fruitfulness of nature. This psalm reflects
careful observations of nature's wonders. Unlike other observers of the same
natural environment, as a devout Yahwist, the psalmist celebrates these as
the creativity and providence of Yahweh.
The viewpoint of the psalmist is similar to that of the Priestly document's
hymn of creation in Genesis 1. There is a strong possibility that it also had
a parallel in an earlier Egyptian hymn to the sun. Keen observer that he was,
the psalmist knew that everything that grew depended on the sun. Unlike the
Egyptians millennia earlier, however, he did not worship the sun. It too he
saw as part of creation obedient to the divine will (vs. 19).
The psalm has many similarities to the Hymn to the Aton dating from the time
of Akhenaton in the 14th century BCE. That pharaoh was unique among Egyptian
monarchs in that he disavowed the ancient polytheistic tradition and adopted
a new religious system based on the worship of the sun as the sole deity.
Preoccupation with building a new capital, the arts, literature and his new
religious system proved disastrous to Akhenaton's Asian empire which
included Palestine. Hittites from Asia Minor seized most of those
territories. During the reign of his son-in-law, the famous Tutankhamon, the
movement was branded as heresy, but it left lasting results. However tempting
it may be to speculate, no evidence has ever been found to show that the
monotheism of Moses or later Israelites was influenced by this Egyptian
heresy.
References to Leviathan, (vs. 26) may seem unusual for a Hebrew. They were
not known as a sea-going people. This was likely an accretion from Canaanite
traditions in which the myth of Baal defeating Lothan (a variation of
Leviathan) had a significant role in creation. The mythical creature was
described as a seven-headed serpent. Others have proposed that the crocodile
is intended. It also appeared in Ps. 74:14, Job 3:8, 41:1, and in later
apocalyptic literature.
However dependent it may be on foreign sources, the point of the psalm cannot
be mistaken. Everything that lives is dependent on Yahweh whom the psalmist
vows to praise "as long as I live" (vs. 33).
ROMANS 8:22-27. "The Holy Spirit is what the Holy Spirit does," wrote a
senior theological student in an essay on the work of the Spirit. It might
have been better for him to have said, "The Holy Spirit is what God does."
Trinitarian theologians name "God the Spirit" what they understand this
mysterious spiritual phenomenon to be. Language fails us when we try to
describe more specifically the experience to which countless Christians have
witnessed with their lives since the day of Pentecost.
Paul's understanding of the work of the Spirit arose out of his own personal
experience, not theoretical analysis. In this brief excerpt from one of his
most significant passages about the Spirit, Paul clarifies some of the
distinctive work of the Spirit in us. Note the emphasis on the Spirit as
"helper," the same function brought out in our Gospel lesson.
By entering into our deepest longings, the Spirit serves as intercessor for
us and the whole of creation. As often in his letters, Paul's metaphors are
vivid, if somewhat contorted. The whole creation groans as a woman in labor
(vs. 23). Then focusing on Christians ourselves, he identified us as those
"who have the first fruits of the Spirit." The phrase was one he had written
in Galatians 5:22-23, one of his earliest letters. One can assume that this
must represent a favorite way he lifted up the ethical aspects of Christian
spirituality.
Suddenly the metaphor changes; the groaning has a new cause, not the pains of
childbirth, but waiting for adoption. That referred to the anticipated
physical resurrection at the Messiah's coming in which all the faithful,
living and deceased, would be included. As a Pharisee, Paul had believed in
resurrection long before he became a believer in the risen Christ. Now, after
he had come face to face with Christ himself, he had all the more reason to
believe in life beyond death; but now the general resurrection would occur
at the return of Christ. That miracle must wait for some future time, so it
becomes the object of hope. If it had already been realized, it could not be
still anticipated. Waiting in hope engenders patience, one of the fruits of
the Spirit he had named in Galatians 5:22-23.
Paul knew that from long experience that patience is a gift, not something
achieved or developed. The vigorous drive with which he pursued in his
apostolic mission stands out in his letters. They consistently voice
impatience, a failing he may well have regarded as his "thorn in the flesh."
He proclaimed his message so persistently and argued his interpretations of
the gospel so vehemently that he may well have driven some people away. Was
this the "weakness" of vs. 26? Yet when his most fervent prayers went
unanswered how did he react? When he could no longer rattle the gates of
heaven with his prayers, he found an alternative for the silence in the
intercession of the Spirit.
In vs. 27, we find an interesting identification of both God and the Spirit
as distinct personalities.
No easy, mysterious monism here. God and the Spirit are two very unique
entities, each with a mind of its own. Nonetheless, there also is a
commonality of purpose and will. "The Spirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God." This is not a case of either/or, but of
both/and. The Spirit, however distinct it may be in some respects, is still
the Spirit of the living God.
JOHN 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. In his table talk at the last supper, Jesus
promised to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The Spirit would carry on
Jesus' work and constitute his continuing presence in the world. Again in
this passage, the distinctiveness of the personalities stands out; but the
persons are not the same as in the Romans passage. Here it is Jesus and the
Spirit whoa re distinguished one from the other. One can quickly see how the
eminent bishops of the 4th and 5th centuries felt it absolutely essential to
express this spiritual reality in the Trinitarian formulae. In particular,
the Chalcedonian phrases of "homousios" ("of the same substance") and
"proceeding from the Father and the Son" became the *sine quae non* of the
doctrine of the Spirit.
Many different names have been given to the Spirit,each one defining a
different function. In each case, the work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus
by what the Spirit does, i.e. to make Jesus known as Christ, the Son of God,
the one who reveals God completely and so shares God's glory. Here the name
given to the Spirit is Advocate or Helper (vs. 26) "who comes from the
Father" and "will testify on my behalf." The name in Greek (*parakleptos*)
has quasi-legal meaning, as in "one who is called to the side of," denoting
one who pleads for another in judicial court, like a modern defense witness
or attorney. 1 John 2:1 applies the term to Christ himself. Hebrews 7:25-27
also regards Christ's high priestly role in the same way. William Barclay has
an enlightening comment on the word in his *Daily Bible Readings: The Gospel
of John* (vol.2, 219):
"When the story of Jesus is told to us, when the picture of Jesus is set
before us, when the teaching of Jesus is unfolded to us, what makes us feel
that this picture is none other than the picture of the Son of God, what
makes us feel - as we say, instinctively, - that here is wisdom that is
divine? That reaction of the human mind, that answer of the human heart is
the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit within us that moves us to
respond to Jesus Christ."
It should be noted, however, that the Spirit cannot come to the disciples
while Jesus is still with them (16:4b-7). The Spirit could come to reveal
Christ to them only after the resurrection. Then, as vss. 12-13 emphasizes,
the Spirit will also have a teaching and interpretative role. But it will be
the things of Christ which he will teach and interpret (vss. 15-16). As
G.W.H. Lampe wrote in *The Interpreter's Bible Dictionary,* (vol. 3, 655) "It
is the Paraclete who will inspire the preaching of Christ's disciples and
enable them to testify to him; and their testimony, which is that of the
Paraclete himself, is directly related to martyrdom and the confession of
Christ under persecution."
Vss. 8-10 contains a somewhat complex description of yet another function of
the Spirit: convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The sin
was the lack of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a challenge John had Jesus
utter through the whole of the gospel. The righteousness of which John spoke
referred the total reversal of the shame and curse of the crucifixion. As
Paul noted in Galatians 3:13, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23, the law of Moses
regarded anyone hung on a tree as especially cursed by God. According to this
law, the crucifixion placed Jesus under just such a curse. The judgment came
about through the resurrection which revealed that the powers of evil in the
world had done their worst in crucifying the Lord of glory; but the
resurrection had totally defeated them
This theological reflection may say as much about the Christian confession of
John's era at the end of the 1st century as on the night before the
crucifixion, sixty or more years earlier. It may have been directed in
particular at the Jewish element in John's community. By the last decade of
the century, Christians of Jewish origin had been banished from their
synagogues for their confession that Jesus, crucified and risen, is the
Messiah/Christ. Jewish families no longer acknowledged their members who had
accepted to the new messianic tradition. In essence, therefore, this somewhat
cryptic statement is an almost complete confession of faith designed to
encourage those who had already sacrificed much for their conversion.
copyright - Comments by Rev. John Shearman and page by Richard J. Fairchild, 2006
please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.
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