June 8 | Pentecost, Year C
Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
Wind, fire, water, and transformation are the material of divine power. Wind comes from who-knows-where, is manifested as power, and then is gone. Like the bre ath of God, it is raw power. It can propel large ships and turbines, or as destroy forests and the things we humans have built. Like the breath of God, wind is symbolic of the breath of all living beings.
Fire is the source of heat and light, and as we know, the power behind motors and rockets. It is also the element that refines precious metals and anneals structural steel. But it too can destroy, as in bullets, bombs, and holocausts.
Transformation is the power to utterly change an object, situation, or person. It is the power sought by the alchemist. It is the power that can make the weak strong, the poor rich, and the dead alive.
Wind, fire, and transformation is the Holy Spirit. Not only is the Holy Spirit the power of life, refinement, and absolute change for the Church, beginning with the disciples, but he is also the power to redirect the mission of God’s people. The first act of the Holy Spirit in the Church was to give all the disciples the power to preach the good news of God through Jesus Christ to the whole world. Although the original audience was composed of Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, their speaking in the various languages symbolized the universal nature of the mission of the Church. “Yes, you foreigners, people from ‘Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome … Cretans and Arabs … Parthians, Medes and Elamites,’ God is speaking to you.”
Another transformative element in the Divine arsenal is water. The ultimate solvent for the stain of sin is the blood of Jesus, but the power for healing comes through the Holy Spirit and washing with water. Therefore, in every baptism we bring persons into contact with water. In baptism the water is applied to the person in the manner that we apply water to a soiled garment, as a cleaning rather than a wetting. We are cleansed and made new by proclaiming our faith in God. It is the cascade of Jesus’ blood shed on the cross that washes us of sin and gives us new life.
Although we drip water on the heads of those being baptized, the effect of those drops in baptism is more like that of a waterfall than a sprinkle. It is a deluge that is continuous and powerful enough to thoroughly cleanse us. What image of refreshment is stronger than that of an isolated waterfall in the wilderness, especially in contrast to a puddle in the road?
A waterfall has an endless character about it. The water just keeps coming and coming—cresting the ledge and falling to the bottom in a mass of foam and mist. Like the waters of a cascade, our baptism continues to subject us to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit throughout our lives. Within that wild and whirling dance of the Spirit comes a cascade of changes in our lives as we are remade by God.
As the Church was born, so it must live today. It was not just select disciples who preached the Gospel on that Pentecost morning in Jerusalem, it was “all of them.” That same Spirit is the power behind the Church and its proclamation today. Our call is to preach the Gospel indiscriminately to the world, in a language that all can understand—a life lived in divine obedience to God.
Look It Up: Romans 8:14-17
Think About It: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (8:14).
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
