Pentecost is the third great Christian festival along with Christmas and Easter. But unlike the latter two festivals, Pentecost has never really caught on in popular imagination. There are no special foods associated with Pentecost, no well recognised music and no extra holidays on offer. So Pentecost is just there for Christians to enjoy.
The story appears only in the book of Acts where it kick starts the witness of Jesus’ followers as commanded by Jesus in the opening chapter of the book (You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth).
The story begins with a violent wind blowing from heaven and fiery flames, both signs of God’s powerful presence. As Jesus’ followers are filled with the Spirit they praise God in multiple languages. All of this attracts a crowd and Peter talks about what has happened (the coming of the Spirit) and at length about Jesus. Many people come to place their faith in Jesus and a thriving new community emerges that is full of joy and generosity.
While it’s easy – and safe – to focus on the wind and flames at the start or the vibrant community that emerges at the end, the heart of the story is about previously afraid people now praising God openly and speaking confidently about Jesus. The Spirit has changed their outlook and given them new boldness.
Here lies one of the real challenges of Pentecost. If every Christian has received this gift of God’s Spirit, why do we find it so difficult and intimidating to speak about our faith and about Jesus? Perhaps it is our historical distance from the extraordinary person of Jesus. Perhaps it’s because our rational and logical ways of being stop us from experiencing God’s spiritual presence. Or perhaps it is that we are afraid of what people may think of us or say about us. The challenge is not just that we’ve lost our nerve to speak about Jesus, but also that we’ve lost much of the joy and generosity of the early Christian community that also derives from the Spirit’s presence. How might we recover our boldness to speak of Jesus and our joy?