In the UK, it used to be a public holiday weekend. Nowadays, the ‘Spring Bank Holiday’ seldom coincides so, despite being second only in importance to the great Festival of Easter itself, Pentecost (or Whitsunday) gets forgotten by the world at large, and even within Christian circles, struggles to be remembered.
Pentecost recalls the foundational event of the Christian church. It is rightly known as the Church’s birthday.
Let us take Whitsunday first. Like Easter, this is a peculiarly English name for the day. Literally, it means ‘White Sunday’, from the custom of using this day as an occasion for baptism, when candidates would appear dressed in white clothes as a symbol of purity. This custom of wearing white has continued until quite recently in the rite of Confirmation, when girls always used to wear white dresses. But Pentecost is the older, and more appropriate name for the day, which takes us right back to its origins. Literally, Pentecost means fifty, reminding us that Pentecost falls fifty days after Easter, or, in the Jewish calendar, fifty days after Passover.
Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem, until the Holy Spirit came upon them. On the feast of Pentecost, we read in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, the Spirit came upon the disciples in miraculous wind, tongues of fire and spiritual language. He affirmed them in their faith, filled them with His presence, and sent them out to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The symbol for Pentecost is fire, representing the tongues of fire that touched the heads of those first disciples as the Spirit came upon them, and symbolic too of the rapid spread of the gospel, like wildfire across the Roman Empire.
Of course, before ever it became a Christian festival, Pentecost was an well-establish Jewish feast, within which a key component was the celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. So it is no coincidence that God should use this day as an occasion on which to give the Spirit to the disciples. The Holy Spirit represents a new kind of law, no longer written on tablets of stone, but on the flesh of the human heart; no longer a series of commandments, but the law of the Spirit – primarily the law of love, which challenges us to consider our attitudes and behaviour. This calls us to a far deeper commitment to God than just a blind obedience to series of laws, and is perhaps best summarised by the phrase – following the Spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law. What really counts is obedience to God, and the extent to which we exhibit the fruit of His Spirit in our lives. Once again we must turn to St Paul to learn precisely what these fruit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These characteristics grow in us when we open ourselves up to the life of the Holy Spirit.
So Pentecost may be a birthday celebration, but it is not just an occasion to look back and count up the years. It is a day to encourage us to deepen our commitment to God, by welcoming the Holy Spirit as ruler and master of our hearts and lives. The gifts that the Holy Spirit confers upon His followers are gifts of service - to be used to build up the Body of Christ and carry forward the work of God's kingdom. The colour of the season is red, as we remember the tongues of fire that came to rest upon the heads of the disciples.
Holy Spirit give us faith
Holy Spirit give us hope
Holy Spirit give us love.
Revive your work in this land beginning with me.
(Unknown)
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