On Sunday, May 19, fifty days after Easter, we will celebrate Pentecost. Our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate Pentecost, also known as Shavout or “The Feast of Weeks.” Shavuot has long been identified with the giving of the Torah by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.
While our Jewish friends commemorate receiving the first part of the Jewish Bible, we celebrate Pentecost as the “birthday” of the church. Celebrated fifty days after Passover, the followers of Jesus would have been gathered, along with Jews from many other regions, in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. One would have heard many different languages being spoken in the city. The Holy Spirit filled those gathered, and allowed each speaking their own language to understand each other. Peter preached his first homily, explaining that those gathered were not drunk but filled with the spirit and fulfilling the prophecy from Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…”
English is the first language of many Trinity members. And yet sometimes we don’t always “speak the same language.” Too often differences in opinions, work styles, and visions, or lack thereof, for Trinity’s future have held us back from any forward motion. Wonderfully, I feel we are like those early Christians on the day of Pentecost – we are “drunk” with Holy Spirit, which has filled us, is burning within us, giving us a new birth, and enlivening us to dream and prophesy for the future of our congregation as we continue and expand our ministry in the city of Reading.