Pentecost Day. May 28, 2023.

Acts 2,1-21 & John 20,19-23.

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

Shavuot “The Feast of Weeks” is one of the three major festivals celebrated in the Jewish tradition since the time of the Old Testament, and like Passover, it was part of the cycle of agricultural celebrations. It marked the beginning of the wheat harvest and was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover; hence its name “The Feast of Weeks”. On this day, people brought the first fruits of the harvest to the temple and offered two loaves of bread made from the new wheat. Shavuot is also associated with the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. According to the account of Exodus, the Israelites were liberated from Egypt on Passover, so it is believed that seven weeks later, on the fiftieth day, they were given the Law and committed themselves to serve God.

In the New Testament, Shavuot is called “Pentecost” – a Greek term for “fifty” – and this word is first used by Luke in the book of Acts (Chapter 2). Luke tells us that when the day of Pentecost arrived, Jesus’ disciples, who numbered about one hundred and twenty (1,15), were all gathered in one place in Jerusalem (2,1) as Jesus had commanded them. There, they experienced “a sound from heaven as that of a rushing, mighty wind that filled all the house”. Also “divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them” and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them, then, were filled with the Holy Spirit who inspired them to speak in different languages about God’s deeds of power. So, all the people in Jerusalem who had come from different nations to celebrate Pentecost heard the disciples’ proclamation in their own native languages. On earth, there is not just one language but many, and God speaks all of them. So, all can hear the voice of God!

Pentecost celebration was then the great scenario in Jerusalem where the first community of disciples received the promise of the Father, the power of the Holy Spirit who enabled them to begin their witnessing of Jesus in the world. So, the first community, like in the original celebration of Shavuot, presented themselves as the first fruits of harvest and the loaves of bread made from the new wheat.  They, and those who joined them on that day, were the first fruits of the new creation initiated by Jesus on Easter day.

So, dear sisters and brothers, during Easter season we experience the new creation of God.  Jesus’ resurrection announces a new beginning and makes us participants of the new humanity. On Easter day, Jesus comes to us and proclaims, “Peace be with you” and breathing on us, he says “Receive the Holy Spirt”. So, on Easter day, like in the first creation, we receive the breath of Life and become new living beings.

Today, on the fiftieth day, Pentecost, we present ourselves to God as the first fruits of the new creation, as the new bread made with new wheat, as the bread, the word of God that feeds the world.  Today, we gather together like the first community in Jerusalem and experience the rushing and mighty wind coming from heaven, tongues of fire on us, and the filling of the Holy Spirit who gives us power to speak of God in the different languages of God: the language of the needy, the poor, the sick, the migrants, the hungry, the despised…

 Can you feel the mighty wind coming from God? Can you feel the fire of God resting on you?

Brothers and sisters, today, as we celebrate Pentecost, God breathes the breath of Life on this community and makes us proclaimers of life to the world. Receive the Holy Spirit! Amen.