Adding the readings assigned for the Vigil of Pentecost to our Pentecost readings for today creates an interesting juxtaposition of God, three in one. On Pentecost, we celebrate the festival that marks the Holy Spirit’s entrance into each and every one of us, a glorious moment where every oppressed person in Jerusalem could understand each other in their mother tongue. The readings from the Pentecost Vigil start with the story from Genesis 11, where God scattered the people, and made everyone babble in different languages. In Genesis we are reminded of Parent-God’s all-powerfulness, through causing confusion, and then in Acts, of the Holy-Spirit-God’s all-powerfulness through causing deep understanding. To acknowledge that each of the groups named in Acts 2:9-11 heard of the wonders of God in their own tongues, regardless of who was speaking, is to acknowledge that there is something immensely holy in hearing in our native tongues. Maybe even that the Holy Spirit is in the business of showing Herself, first and foremost, near and within the oppressed people under empirical rule – both of which must cause a few raised eyebrows at the ways the Church has often functioned. 

It could also be fruitful to read the Pentecost Vigil Gospel (John 7:37-39) alongside the reading from Acts. We are able to see two symbols of the Holy Spirit, both in fire and water (if we add the Gospel from today, we can see the symbol of breath in John 20:22-23). Within the greater tradition of Christianity, the Holy Spirit’s water and fire hold significance, and should both be acknowledged and celebrated. But for the moment, we will celebrate the flame that sets and does not burn, that mesmerizes in a similar way to water. 

For those of us who struggle with our place in the Church and calling ourselves “Christians,” in her book Wholehearted Faith, Rachel Held Evans, who was a Christian writer, explored how water is the source of our communion with God and each other, both in baptism and in this “living water”: 

“Only later did I realize that perhaps [it] was the baptism of real life that followed and fulfilled my baptism in water… Perhaps this is the cleansing and the washing that had to happen, once through Christ and again and again through my experiences with God’s people…

Water is a force that does its steady work on even the hardest rock – reshaping it, eroding it, marking it. Even impermeable rock can be stained by the minerals water carries. Over time, one way or another, you’ll be able to see souvenirs of its presence, evidence that it has left behind to say, ‘Water was here’ (113-114). 

As the disciples were baptized in water as well as Spirit, it seems to not be too far out to say that we too are baptized in Spirit, especially when immersed (or sprinkled) with community, who have rivers of flowing living water. Holy Spirit in this understanding is one who is steadily persistent, always leaving a trace of Her presence. To be alive is to change, so with life within us and around us, we are shaped, eroded, and marked.

In John 7, this living water that Jesus declares will come to all of us is the same spirit that Paul says makes us one body of many parts, and the same spirit that allows all the people to hear of God’s wonders. Holy Spirit contains multitudes, as do we as image bearers of God. So, to acknowledge the way we are intertwined, that when one part of the body hurts, the rest of the body reacts, is to recognize God more fully. To hold the tension that Holy Spirit is both living water and fire is to hold the tension that we are called to live into both water and fire. Maybe even to begin to wonder about the mystery of an ever-present God who exists as both the power that brings life and as the power that brings great change, that can look to us like endings.

A Prayer For Oneness

I rest in you, Spirit of Life.

I place in you my feet, my legs, my torso, my arms, my shoulders, my head and allow you to support all that I am.

I rest in you, Spirit of Life, and give to you my worries, my fears, my doubts, my hopes, my joys, my pains, my anger, my love, my hate, and allow you to take in all that I am.

And as I give all that I am, I find the place of truth, stillness, still, eternal where you and I are one.

I breathe in, deep, deeply, down, up, all that we are, as I stand on my toe at the edge of the universe, in oneness.

And all that we are expands, until forever.

– Karem Barratt

Pentecost

Pentecost is coming.
It will be an end and a beginning.
It will bewilder and confuse.
Though some will fight it,
the aching world calls it forth with urgency.
Come, Spirit, come.
The Spirit who moves like “a rush of violent wind…”
Who appears like fire…
Who is the breath of God…
She comes to us unconcerned with order,
wild with freedom,
turning over anything and everything that stands in Her way.
Let Her come and fill our mouths with words we didn’t know we could speak.
Let Her come and help us hear in languages we once could not understand.
She is being poured out.
The people will prophesy.
The heavens will draw near.
The chorus of voices-past will join in
and proclaim the truth of God.
Justice will come.
Do not be like the ones who sneer and ask, “are they drunk?”
Do not be surprised by what’s happening as if
the scriptures and history and the prophets have not foretold…
You’ve heard it said –
The sun will burn out and the moon turn to blood
before the day of Justice arrives.
Instead, open your hearts
and pray that God’s grace
may carry you into the Kindom.
Let courage rise up.
Let passion enflame.
Let love transform.
Let weeping fill the land.
There will be no peace until there is justice.
No healing until wrongs are made right.
Come, Spirit, Come.
And turn the world of evil upside-down.

As the earth groans for restoration, the Spirit comes to rouse the people. Her chaos births new worlds. Her fires spark movements. She comforts those troubled by evil and agitates the apathetic. Come and disturb our complacency. Come and inspire our courage. Come and enliven all the lifeless places, tired with grief, frustrated with struggle. In community, make us a passionate people with a wild and unruly practice of hope.

– rev. m jade kaiser, enfleshed

At the time this is being written, there are Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments on every continent. For people all over the world to be groaning the same truth – that Palestine will be free – seems to be a beautiful example of a Pentecostal experience for all of us: no matter where we are from, someone is saying “Free Palestine.” No matter what our native tongue is, another hears the message in theirs. We are blatantly seeing the ways our struggles are intertwined with each other’s, and discovering the sacred and ancient truth that we must groan if we are to hope.