Pentecost Christians

Download: Audio

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1–21 (NRSV)

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Read more…

Looking to Sunday

by Elaine Poproski

Sunday is Pentecost. It falls six weeks after Easter and marks the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Christian tradition. On Sunday, many churches around the world will be reading the story of the miraculous and spectacular arrival of the Holy Spirit from Acts 2:1-21. Our church is no different. But did you know there’s another, less flashy story about the arrival of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples? It’s in John 20:19-23. And not only that, but there are numerous references to the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout the Old Testament as well.[1] Clearly, Pentecost doesn’t really mark the arrival of the Holy Spirit, so much as it marks an arrival of the Holy Spirit.

This particular arrival of the Holy Spirit resulted in an amazing, miraculous thing. When we read the Acts 2 story, we assume that thing is the miracle of everyone hearing the disciples’ preaching in their own language. Perhaps we assume it’s the miracle of 3,000 people baptized and added to the disciples’ number. But I suggest that the truly amazing, miraculous thing that resulted from this particular arrival of the Holy Spirit was the birth of the Church.

Yes, you read that correctly. I believe the Church is an amazing and miraculous thing birthed by none other than the Holy Spirit of God out of the friendship-turned-family between Jesus and His disciples. And I believe that amazing, miraculous thing is locally present in our own sometimes faltering, sometimes thriving congregation of believers in Jesus and explorers of faith we call Walmer Road Baptist Church. What this means is that as much as Sunday marks a traditional moment in history, it also marks the core truth – the core reality – out of which our own church has life. And so, as you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to read both the Acts 2 and John 20 stories and consider how they translate for our birthed-by- and sustained-by-the-Holy-Spirit church. What does that reality suggest about your membership in our church (or in any church, really)? What does it have to say to our current reality of being church without being physically together?

[1] For example, check out Isaiah 42:1, which reads, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him…” Also, Numbers 27:18, which reads, “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand upon him…”  And in Genesis 6:3 we read, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years’”, suggesting that the Spirit is life itself, an idea consistent with the interpretation of Genesis 2:7 that the life God breathed into Adam was the Spirit.