One amazing aspect of the Pentecost story is how the apostle Peter interprets it as he is experiencing it. When Jesus’ followers get slam-dunked by the Holy Spirit and begin to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in languages they don’t even know, some observers scoff, "They must be drunk on new wine.” But Peter begins to preach to the whole crowd, saying, “We’re not drunk; it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, folks! God is up to something – and it’s something God has been promising for a very long time.”
“…this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
God’s Spirit poured out on all of humanity? Really? What about being holy enough? What about being part of the tribe? What about correct understanding of theology? What about free will? All flesh? Everybody?
That’s the vision the prophet Joel had spoken of old, and that’s where Peter found the scriptural basis to anchor this bizarre turn of events. It would be some years before he finally grasped just how radical God’s welcome to people outside the House of Israel truly was, but even here, at the beginning, he understands that this outpouring of God-Life is not to be reserved to a chosen few. God wants to give his Spirit to everyone God has created.
So, does one have to be a Christian to receive the Holy Spirit? Don't we need to have the Spirit of Christ to recognize the Spirit of Christ? Or might the Spirit also fill people who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, but revere his spirit, as do Muslims and many Jewish, Buddhist and Baha'i people? I’ve known many non-Christians who seem Spirit-filled, even manifesting gifts of the Spirit. Perhaps God’s Spirit is poured out upon everyone who recognizes the power of sacrificial love. After all, the water in a pool gets everybody in it wet, no distinctions. Is the same true of our Living Water, by which John said Jesus meant the Spirit?
My prayer is that those of us who do know Jesus as Lord, and worship him, might desire the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can more actively share that Spirit outside our communities. Three years ago my church in Stamford did a “Pop-Up Pentecost” service in a downtown park. This Sunday, the two churches I serve in Southern Maryland will gather for worship at the historic site where one parish began its life in 1683, by the banks of the Port Tobacco River. I don’t know how the Spirit will bless and empower us – but I believe that if we show up and say, “Fill me,” the Spirit will show up too. What happens next, is anyone’s guess!
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