Pentecost: Religion's Eden

Pentecost – Religion’s Eden          

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, May 23, 2021

Acts 2 (selected); reading from Garth House, Litanies for All Occasions

Today is Pentecost Sunday; hence, the liturgical color red, signifying the fire of the Spirit.  I would have to say that Pentecost Sunday is probably the most mysterious Holy Day on the Church calendar.  Luke, the one who left us the only account of the day of Pentecost, was looking back some four or five decades, telling a story, and trying to describe an indescribable event.  Whereas Christmas is a celebration of Jesus, a baby born in a manger, Pentecost is a celebration of the invisible Spirit that “blows where it will” (John 3:8) and defies description or human understanding.

As a historical sidenote, “Pentecost” is the Greek name for the Jewish Festival of Weeks celebration.  The Festival of Weeks was the second of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals.  It took place seven weeks (hence, Pent, 50 days) after the Jewish Passover.  Pentecost, or the Festival of Weeks, also marked and celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest.  Pentecost drew large numbers of Jews from many parts of the world to Jerusalem for this pilgrimage festival.  Such explains why, as Luke tells his story, that “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven,” representing several different languages, were present on the day of Pentecost.

Many have looked upon the day of Pentecost as the “birthday of the Christian Church;” the day or time that ignited the movement that would lead to the establishment of the Christian Church as a separate entity from Judaism.  Luke’s story of Pentecost includes mysterious elements like a “mighty rushing wind” inside the house where believers were gathered, and “what seemed to be tongues of fire” that rested upon them, and the ability to “speak in other tongues” so that those of different cultures and languages could understand everything that was being said.  How much of Luke’s description is to be taken literally and how much is to be interpreted as figurative imagery, employed to present deeper truths?  Well, that is the question.

But Luke’s story also includes practical descriptions and the after-effects of the day of Pentecost; things like unity, charity, generosity, passion, and dedication to the growth of this new movement.

Now, I have preached a lot of Pentecost sermons over the years, but this year I saw the story of Pentecost in a new light and decided to approach it from a different angle.  This year I have looked at Pentecost through the lens of religion’s Eden.  Let me try to explain that.

The Garden of Eden has long been looked upon as that perfect, golden time when everything was the way it should be.  The original Eden, as the book of Genesis relates that story, was paradise.  There was no sin, sickness, discord, or death.  Man and woman’s existence in the Garden of Eden was beautiful and bright.  They ate, they lounged, they enjoyed – life was wonderful.  And for thousands of years, humankind has longed to return to Eden, longed to return to Paradise.  Eden is the ideal of creation and life on earth as we envision it should be.

Well, this year I see Pentecost to religion what Eden is to creation.  In other words, the Christian Pentecost was that stellar event and golden age when things of religion were the way they should be.  Pentecost was religious paradise.  At Pentecost, instead of discord there was complete unity.  Instead of selfishness and greed, there was generosity and charity.  Instead of divisions, they “had everything in common.”  Instead of social and ethnic barriers, there was a spirit of belonging.

Think about that: unity, charity, generosity, and openness; social, ethnic, cultural, and economic barriers erased.  That would be social and religious paradise, would it not?  As Imaging the Word puts it, “The church began in the passionate blaze of the Spirit, when boundaries of languages and cultures were transcended for a time and all heard the good news in their own language” (Imaging the Word, Vol. 2, p. 209).

But then fast forward 2000 years.  What do we see nationally and globally today?  When we turn our thoughts to different Christian denominations and different religions; when we think about the vastly different ideologies of what it means to be American; when we think about American politics; when we think about the vast divide between the wealthy and poor of our nation and our world; we find that unity, charity, and openness are woefully lacking.  Instead, we see social, ethnic, cultural, economic, and religious barriers all around.  We have to admit that we have drifted far away from that day of Pentecost and the ideals that Pentecost held out to the Christian movement when it began.

Perhaps one of the reasons to celebrate Pentecost each year is that we might be reminded of the “Pentecost ideal” and how things in the Church and the world could be and should be.  Now, we also realize that Luke’s story of the day of Pentecost was itself likely idealized somewhat.  Society, culture, and the Church are all made up of imperfect people.  All of us are flawed, make mistakes, have our biases, want to have our own way, are sometimes short-sighted and selfish, and so on. So there will never be a perfect Church, just as there will never be a perfect society.

But the other side of that is there is always room for improvement; we can all do better than we have done in the past; and we can take steps to better ourselves, our Church, our society, and our world.  And Pentecost – as the ideal, as the religious Eden – can serve as the encouragement to be so and do so. When it comes to attributes like unity, charity, generosity, openness, and belonging, Pentecost is the example, the gold standard.

As Garth House put it in our second reading for today, we realize that the purpose of Pentecost 

is not to catch us up in some type of mysterious religious ecstasy, 

“but to guide us down the dusty roads of this world 

so that we may lift up the downcast, heal the broken, 

reconcile what is lost, and bring peace amidst unrest.”  

Such is exactly what our world today needs!  And so, in the spirit of Pentecost, 

we commit ourselves to reaching out to others (especially those different from us) in unity; 

we commit ourselves to greater charity and more generosity with those in need; 

we commit ourselves to more openness to those who hold different religious and political views; 

we commit ourselves to doing away with boundaries and barriers that divide and separate people.  

If the message of Pentecost has anything to say to us, it is that.  May it be so.  Amen.