By Revd Richard Brooks
“When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability”. Acts 2.1-4
At Pentecost we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which birthed the church. The image of people of every nation hearing the disciples speaking in their own language alludes to a reversal of the Tower of Babel; the story from Genesis where human rejection of God culminates in their attempt to build a tower to the heavens, to make a name for themselves without Him. God’s response is to scatter the people and use their languages so that they can’t understand one another, to create a new sort of chaos. At Pentecost we see something of a reversal where, even though there are many languages, the message of God can be heard by everyone in their own languages. Chaos and confusion are brought into differentiated order. People of all nations are drawn by the Spirit into a wonderful, differentiated unity, a community, a family; the church is born.
What does this mean for us as we seek and pray for the renewing of the Spirit this Pentecost? What does it mean to be renewed, re-filled with the Spirit? Many things but at least this – to be drawn into a transformed community of God’s love and presence, and to be sent, impelled, towards others. Pentecost enlivens a spirituality of community, not individuality. This doesn’t mean homogeneity; the Spirit speaks to all in their own language. But the coming of the Spirit gives life to a community, a “Pentecostal” spirituality finds its home and manifestation in and through the church. St. Paul famously describes the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The Pauline scholar John Barclay highlights that, whilst these are often read as a list of individual virtues, they are perhaps better understood as the characteristics of a transformed community. Where have we slipped into an individualistic spirituality?
The spread of individualism in society is well-rehearsed and the church is not immune. We feel the allure of a spirituality focused around me, my needs, my preferences and experiences, a spirituality that “works for me”, a spirituality turned in on itself. By contrast, Pentecost indicates a spirituality turned outwards to the ever-renewing work of the Holy Spirit, to the other and to the community which God enlivens.
As we pray for the gift of the Spirit to renew us, may we find ourselves formed and transformed into that community of God’s love and presence and sent out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to his praise and glory.