When I said something about this on Facebook, a friend noted that "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." is probably a good summation of the book of Acts. At which point I realized three things. One, she was right. Two, it is especially fitting for Pentecost. And three, I was scheduled to preach on Pentecost.
So I offered my reflections on Jesus recognizing the danger of the disciples trying to go it alone and offering them something to help them on the way.
* * *
Can you imagine what that first Pentecost must have been like for the disciples?
After the trauma of the Crucifixion, Jesus had returned and appeared to them and continued to teach them for a time. But that time was too short and then a few days ago, they watched him rise up to heaven.
Now the disciples have returned to Jerusalem, and it is time for the Feast of Weeks, the harvest festival that falls fifty days after Passover. Jerusalem is teeming with people.
Suddenly there is a violent wind in the house and tongues like fire fall onto each of the disciples. They must have been terrified. A loud noise and tongues of fire settling on each of them! I am pretty sure if it were me that my first reaction would have been to look for the nearest exit.
As they start babbling trying to figure out what is going on, a crowd gathers due to the noise. There are Jews from all over the Empire and yet each hears their own language being spoken. People start asking questions and making guesses.
“What does this mean?”
“How do we understand them in our own languages?”
“They must be drunk.”
I can certainly see how it might look that way to some. Here is this group of people who are probably already looked at with a little suspicion. After all, most of those in the area probably know by now that they were Jesus’ followers. Though things have likely settled down some since Jesus was executed almost two months before, people have started to hear the stories circulating that his followers claim he came back from the dead. It makes sense they would hear the babbling and the excitement and just assume they were a bunch of drunks.
But then Peter finally gets it. He remembers what Jesus had told them. Just before he left, Jesus had said something about sending the Holy Spirit to them. As Peter thinks back, he remembers that Jesus had said something before about sending an Advocate to be with them after he is gone. The disciples never quite understood what he meant.
Until now.
You see, Jesus had spent time with his disciples. He knew how well they would (or would not) understand his teachings and be able to share (or not) those teachings with others. He knew how hard it would be for them to do the task he was setting before them, how easy it would be to simply give up. So, like a wizard in a video game, he offered them something to help them on the way.
Before ascending to heaven, he said to them “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.
Even before the crucifixion, Jesus had tried to prepare them. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his followers that he will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with them after he is gone. He knows that his time with them is short and that they will need continued strength and knowledge after he is gone.
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.
Throughout the Gospels we see further evidence of the Holy Spirit as one that will strengthen and guide us on our journey. We hear of the Holy Spirit in the birth narratives, at Jesus’ baptism, and when Jesus wanders in the wilderness. We hear John the Baptizer refer to Jesus as the one that will baptize his followers with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus even tells his disciples that when they are surely arrested by the authorities that they should trust whatever the Holy Spirit prompts them to say.
It is dangerous to go alone! Take this.
When we see the Holy Spirit at work, it is truly amazing. We see Jesus led and prepared in the wilderness following his baptism. We see Jesus instruct the disciples not only to trust the Holy Spirit, but to teach others what the Holy Spirit shows them.
And then on Pentecost, just a few days after they watched Jesus rise up to heaven, the Holy Spirit comes upon them. There is the sound of a violent wind, which calls to mind Elijah on the mountain top when he sees God’s glory. There are tongues of fire, which call to mind the pillar of fire that led the Israelites in the desert. And then there is the fact that others are able to hear and understand everything the disciples are saying in their own languages. This calls to mind another story from Hebrew scripture.
Some may recall the story of the tower of Babel from Genesis. That story is an attempt to help explain the multitude of languages in the world. It starts with humanity’s arrogance. The people sought their own glory, and so they started to build a tower that would reach into the sky. They wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to show the world what they could do. They wanted to be great.
Instead, God came down and saw what they were doing. Instead of letting them revel in their own arrogance, God mixed up their languages and scattered them around the globe.
But here in Acts, we see the final step in the reversal of the story. In the Genesis story about the tower of Babel, the people sought to reach up to heaven and make themselves great. In Jesus, God descended to Earth and became humble.
In Genesis, the people’s languages are mixed up and they are scattered around the Earth. In Acts, people from all over the Earth are gathered in one place and the Holy Spirit empowers them to hear their own languages being spoken.
Over and over, the Holy Spirit is promised as the one that comes to guide and to strengthen. And the stories we have show this to be true. From the birth of Jesus to the birth of the Church, the Holy Spirit is present as a guiding influence.
The good news about this is that we, too, are inheritors of that same Holy Spirit. We, too, are gifted with the Holy Spirit. Through baptism, we inherit that same gift and that same calling to share all that Jesus taught. Jesus came as the culmination of the Law and the Prophets. He summed up all that had come before in two lines – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the heart of the message that Jesus taught. When Jesus speaks of sending the Holy Spirit, when he speaks of the message that the Spirit will help them tell, this is what Jesus is speaking of. This same message that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread.
And love is the key to recognizing the Spirit’s promptings within us.Peter quotes Joel to say that the Holy Spirit will empower sons and daughter, both men and women, to prophesy, to speak the truth in the face of power. Jesus tells his disciples that they will be known as his followers by their love. He tells them that the Holy Spirit will teach them what to say. But this does not mean that whatever we say is holy. It does not mean that whatever pops into our heads is the word of God.
Rather the proof of the Holy Spirit is love – love of God and love of others.
If our words, no matter how “correct,” are not guided by love of God and love of others, they are not the word of the Holy Spirit.
If our actions, no matter how noble, are not guided by love of God and love of others, then they are not the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
When we rely only on ourselves, on our own logic, our own abilities, our own thoughts and desires, we may wind up doing the right thing. But we can just as easily cause pain.
When we love only certain groups of people but not others, we cause pain in the world.
When we look out only for our own interests, it causes pain in the world.
When we care only about what profits ourselves, it causes pain in the world.
When we deny God’s love for all of creation, for all the peoples of the Earth, we cause pain in the world.
When we rely only on ourselves, when we think we can do it all on our own, when we think we don’t need any help, we have left God out of it.
It’s dangerous to go alone!
That’s why Jesus steps forward with the gift of the Spirit and says, take this.