Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 9 June 2019, is the Day of Pentecost, also known as Whit Sunday.
The Book of Common Prayer (2004) says Christmas Day, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost are the three Principal Holy Days on which ‘the Holy Communion is celebrated in every cathedral and parish church unless the ordinary shall otherwise direct’ (p 18).
The Readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The Readings:
Acts 2: 1-21 or Genesis 11: 1-9; Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b; Romans 8: 14-17 or Acts 2: 1-21; and John 14: 8-17 (25-27).
There is a link to the readings HERE.
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles must be read, either as the first or the second reading, and must not be omitted.
Introducing the readings
Some years ago, I spent time after Easter in Cappadocia in south central Turkey.
Although it was April, it snowed. Yet, I did all the normal tourist things, including a hot-air balloon trip, visiting the shrine of Rumi, seeing the dancing rituals of the ‘Whirling Dervishes,’ and visiting the ‘fairy chimneys,’ the cave dwellings and the troglodyte underground cities.
But my first reason for going there was because of my interests in Patristic studies: this is the region that has given the Church the Cappadocian Fathers – the great writers, theologians and thinkers in the fourth century that included Saint Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea; his younger brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa; and their friend, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, who became Patriarch of Constantinople.
It was exciting to visit places linked with the Cappadocian Fathers who advanced the development of theology, especially our Creeds and our doctrine of the Trinity.
With the conflicts in Anatolia, Turkey and throughout the Middle East, Christians in the region are an ever-dwindling minority and their cultural contributions to life in the East Mediterranean and neighbouring regions is not just being forgotten, but in many cases are being deliberately wiped out and obliterated.
Early one morning, we descended into the depths of Derinkuyu or Anakou, the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. This multi-level city goes down 85 metres underground. It is large enough to have sheltered 20,000 people, along with their livestock and food, with churches, chapels, schools, wine presses, wells, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories and even a burial chamber. At the fifth or lowest level, I found myself in a cruciform church.
When I came up and emerged into the daylight, brushing my eyes, I was facing a stark reminder that until 1923 Derinkuyu was known to its Cappadocian Greek residents as Malakopea. Across the square from the entrance to the underground city stands the lonely and forlorn Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Theodoros Trion, like a sad scene in an Angelopoulos movie.
This once elegant church stands forlorn and abandoned for almost a century. Its walls have started to collapse, the frescoes are crumbling, and the restoration promised by the government has been abandoned.
The Greek-speaking people who lived in Cappadocia for thousands of years were forced in fatal swoop, like all Greek-speakers in Anatolia, to abandon their homes in 1923 and to go into exile. They had been there before the days of Alexander the Great. But they are there no more. Because of their language and religion, they were forcibly scattered abroad.
They were there in Biblical times. We read about them next Sunday (Acts 2: 1-21). On the first day of Pentecost, we are told, the good news is heard by Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs – each in their own languages.
The very people who are counted out in the East Mediterranean and the Middle East – then and today – the ethnic and linguistic minorities, the religious curiosities and the perceived oddities, those who dress, and appear, and sound and look different, whose foods and perfume and bodily odours are marked by variety, are counted as God’s own people on the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 2: 1-21:
The Jewish Festival of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, was known in Greek as Pentecost (Πεντηκοστή). It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, and this year falls from sunset on 8 June to nightfall on 10 June 2019.
Shavuot has a double significance. It marks the wheat harvest in Israel (Exodus 34: 22), and also commemorates the anniversary of the day when God gave the Torah to the people assembled at Mount Sinai.
This holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim or three Biblical pilgrimage festivals – the other two are Pesach or Passover, and Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths).
The date of Shavuot is directly linked to the date of Passover, just as the date of Pentecost is directly linked to Easter. At Passover, the people were freed from slavery in Egypt; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and the 12 tribes and their followers become became a nation committed to serving God.
There are obvious parallels for Christians with the links between Easter and Pentecost: at Easter we are freed from slavery and find salvation; and at Passover, we celebrate the birth of the Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit, when the 12 Disciples and their followers become God’s people, the Church.
According to the reading from the Acts of the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-21), Jews from ‘every nation under heaven’ in Jerusalem, possibly visiting the city as pilgrims during Pentecost.
They included visitors from Rome, as well as Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, Cretans and Arabs.
This account of the first Day of Pentecost is a sharp reminder that Pentecost is for all. The Holy Spirit is not an exclusive gift for the 12, for the inner circle, for the believers, or even for the Church.
We should notice how many times the words all and every are used in this story:
● they are all together (verse 1);
● the tongues of fire rest on each or every one of them (verse 3);
● all of them are filled with the Holy Spirit (verse 4);
● the people in Jerusalem are from every nation (verse 5);
● each or everyone hears in his or her own language (verse 6);
● so that all are amazed and perplexed (verse 12);
● Saint Peter addresses all (verse 14);
● he promises that God will pour out his Spirit on all (verse 17);
● this promise is for allwithout regard to gender, age or social background (verses 17-21);
● and the promise of God’s salvation is for everyone (verse 21).
God’s generosity at Pentecost is lavish, risky and abundant, overflowing to the point of over-abundant generosity. The Holy Spirit is not measured out in tiny drops, like some prescribed medicine poured out gently and carefully, drop by drop. It is not even like the gentle measure used for pouring out a glass of wine
The Holy Spirit gushes out and spills out all over the place, in a way that is beyond the control of the 12, like champagne fizzing out after the cork has been popped at a celebration, sparkling all over the room, champagne that can never be put back, unlike wine that can be decanted and poured out once more in polite and controlled measures.
The gift of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning, the birthday, of the Church, so perhaps champagne is the right image as we celebrate the birthday of the Church next Sunday. But this is a gift that does not cease being given after Pentecost.
The gift of the Holy Spirit remains with the Church – for all times. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for all who are baptised, who are invited to continue daily to hear the word, to join in fellowship, to break the bread, to pray – just as we do when we celebrate the Eucharist (see Acts 2: 42-47).
Because of this gift, the Church is brought together in diversity and sustained in unity. The Orthodox Church speaks of the Church as the realised or the lived Pentecost.
At times, our thinking about the Holy Spirit is made difficult by traditional images of a dove that looks more like a homing pigeon; or tongues of fire dancing around meekly-bowed heads of people cowering and hiding in the upper room in Jerusalem, rather than a room that is bursting at the seams and ready to overflow.
But the Holy Spirit is not something added on as an extra course, as an after-thought after the Resurrection and the Ascension.
As we affirm our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, shaped to a profound degree by those Cappadocian Fathers, as we say ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit,’ do we really believe in the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ in the Holy Spirit as the way in which God ‘has spoken through the prophets’?
The gift of the Holy Spirit does not stop being effective the day after Confirmation, the day after ordination, the day after hearing someone speaking in tongues, or the day after this Day of Pentecost.
God never leaves us alone. This is what Christ promises the disciples, the whole Church, in the Gospel reading, as he breaks through the locked doors and breaks through all their fears (John 20: 19-23).
We need have no fears, for the Resurrection breaks through all the barriers of time and space, of gender and race, of language and colour.
Pentecost includes all – even those we do not like. Who do you not want in the Kingdom of God? Who do I find it easy to think of excluding from the demands the Holy Spirit makes on me and on the Church?
Pentecost promises hope. But hope is not certainty, manipulating the future for our own ends, it is trusting in God’s purpose.
Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSVA):
1 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.’
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 “In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Genesis 11: 1-9:
In the first creation story, God tells us, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’ (Genesis 1: 28). The people have multiplied, but they have yet to ‘fill the earth.’ However, they have disobeyed God’s plans to disperse across the earth and instead have settled in one place.
They still speak the one language, and they now plan to build one city with a tower or ziggurat that reaches to the heavens. In their plans, they intend to imitate and challenge God and ensure their work endures. But God confounds their plans, confuses their language and causes them to be scattered across the earth.
Pentecost is the undoing of Babel. The barriers we have built in the past, the walls we use to separate ourselves from each other, are torn apart by the Holy Spirit who rushes in and breaks down all the walls that separate us from those we think are different because of how they sound, look and smell.
Pentecost celebrates the over-abundant generosity of God. This is generosity is beyond measure, to the point that it challenges us, surprises us, startles us.
So often we want to box-in, contain or marginalise the Holy Spirit. For most traditional Anglicans, the Holy Spirit is relegated to, confined to, occasions such as Confirmation or to prayers at the ordination of bishops, priests and deacons. After that, the Holy Spirit has little or nothing to do with us.
Pentecost challenges us when we say the Holy Spirit is for Charismatics, and for people who pray and sing with their hands in the air and bounce on their feet as they sing and dance, but not for staid, traditional, middle-of-the-road Anglicans like you and me, and challenges us when we become too smug about our need for reconciliation and when we stand back from breaking down the walls that separate us from the love of God and the love of others.
Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b:
Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise to God as creator. Earlier verses in this psalm praise God for creating the heavens and the earth, for overcoming chaos, for caring for the earth and all who live in it.
God is so great that even uncontrollable great sea monsters like Leviathan become harmless and sportive. All living things depend on God at all times, for their food, for their breath, for their very life. Through the Spirit, creation is renewed continually. God’s power is seen too in the earth and the mountains, the earthquakes and volcanoes. For this, we should praise God throughout our lives.
Romans 8: 14-17:
This reading is used as the second reading only if the reading from the Acts of the Apostles has been read as the first reading. However, if the reading from the Book Genesis has been the first reading, then the reading from the Acts of the Apostles is the second reading.
Saint Paul has told us that Christian life means the Spirit of dwells in us, and puts to death ‘the deeds of the body’ (verses 9, 14).
While we remain vulnerable to suffering, we do not need to fall back into slavery and fear, for we are the Spirit has made us the children of God. When we acknowledge God as ‘Abba! Father!’, we speak in the power of the Spirit. We are joint heirs with and if we share in his sufferings we shall also share in his glory.
John 14: 8-17 (25-27):
This Gospel reading is part of the account in Saint John’s Gospel of Christ’s Great Discourse at the Last Supper. Judas Iscariot has left, and Christ is now preparing his disciples for his departure, after his Resurrection and Ascension, when he goes to the Father to prepare a place for them.
Philip shows by his question at the opening of this reading that he still does not fully know or understand Christ.
Jesus replies with a number of rhetorical questions, and he tells us that to believe in him and to trust him is to continue his work in his name.
To do this is to keep his commandments, and as he said a few verses earlier this is that we love one another as he loves us (see John 13: 34-35). In a Trinitarian disclosure, Christ will ask the Father to send the Advocate, who is the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, who will teach us everything, give us peace, and leave us with no reason to fear.
John 14: 8-17 (25-27), NRSVA:
8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
[25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.]
Liturgical resources:
Liturgical Colour: Red
The Greeting (until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
The Penitential Kyries:
Great and wonderful are your deeds,
Lord God the Almighty
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
You are the King of glory, O Christ.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
By the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction to the Peace:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.
If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5: 22)
The Preface:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
according to whose promise
the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us,
making us your children,
and giving us power to proclaim the gospel throughout the world:
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Faithful God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal:
Open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Blessing:
The Spirit of truth lead you into all truth,
give you grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
and to proclaim the words and works of God:
The Dismissal (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
Acts 2: 1-21:
296, Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
318, Father, Lord of all creation
298, Filled with the Spirit’s power, with one accord
312, Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost
301, Let every Christian pray
302, Lord God the Holy Ghost
303, Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
306, O Spirit of the living God
639, O thou who camest from above
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
308, Revive your Church, O Lord
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
386, Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
310, Spirit of the living God
313, The Spirit came, as promised
491, We have a gospel to proclaim
309, When God the Spirit came
204, When Jesus came to Jordan
395, When Jesus taught by Galilee
Genesis 11: 1-9:
10, All my hope on God is founded
Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b:
346, Angel voices ever singing
42, Good is the Lord, our heavenly King
356, I will sing, I will sing a song unto the Lord
357, I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
34, O worship the King all–glorious above
Romans 8: 14-17:
558, Abba, Father, let me be
387, Thanks to God, whose Word was spoken
285, The head that once was crowned with thorns
John 14: 8-17 (25-27):
398, Alleluia! sing to Jesus
87, Christ is the world’s light, he and none other
294, Come down, O Love divine
295, Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove
297, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
324, God, whose almighty word
299, Holy Spirit, come, confirm us
300, Holy Spirit, truth divine
270, I know that my Redeemer lives
422, In the quiet consecration
505, Peace be to this congregation 675, Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
626, ‘Set your troubled hearts at rest’
310, Spirit of the living God
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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