Ponderings on Pentecost
By Janine C. Hagan
Janine is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of EcuMiniNet™ Online! and Spiritual Systems, Inc. at www.faithshapes.com. She sings in the choir, teaches an International Bible Study, and is a member of Edgewood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

I can identify with the excitement of Pentecost more than any other time in the church year. By just reading the words in the second chapter of Acts, I can feel the atmosphere in that upper room. I can sense the “wow” factor of the apostles as they were filled with a force that was totally foreign to their understanding and their experience. And, I can understand their confusion. What does all this strange behavior mean? Where would it take them? These are questions that I ask about myself, my ministry, my life, and my relationship with God. I have had enough encounters with The Spirit for me to seek some answers from tradition and the authority of scripture from the Bible.

Pentecost. Where did it come from?

Harper’s Bible Dictionary tells us about the meaning of the word “Pentecost.” It comes from the Greek language and means “fiftieth.” Pentecost originally referred to the Festival of Weeks (now Shavuot) a Hebrew/Jewish agricultural celebration of the first gleanings of the harvest. Later, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. Shavuot came to be connected with the Torah (or God’s teachings/laws) and reminded the Jewish people of the fifty days between the Passover and coming to Mt.Sinai and receiving those laws.

Shavuot continued to be celebrated in the New Testament times (40’s -90’s AD). But by that time, the meaning began to be changed for those first century Christians.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” ( Acts 2:1-4, The Quest Study Bible, New International Version)

Today, for Christians, Pentecost stands for fifty but it refers to the fifty days including and between Easter and Pentecost Sunday. It refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit into the lives of the apostles. In the tradition, life and practice of Christian faith, we claim Pentecost as the beginning of the passion and mission of sharing a new faith, a new way of understanding God; through the life, ministry, death, resurrection, healing and unconditional love of Jesus Christ. Some name Pentecost as the “birthday of the church” that we remember and celebrate every year at this time. (This year, Pentecost is celebrated on Sunday, May 30.)

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