“Pentecostal Prophecy”
Genesis 1:1-5 and Acts 2:1-18
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
5/28/23
When God began to create the heavens and the earth— 2 the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. 4 God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night.
There was evening and there was morning: the first day. (CEB)
When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them.4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages.7 They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? 8 How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language?
9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”
12 They were all surprised and bewildered. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?”
13 Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”
14 Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this! Listen carefully to my words!15 These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning! 16 Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 “In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
18 Even upon my servants, men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.” (CEB)
Pentecost. The spring harvest festival fifty days after Passover. What appears to be “individual flames of fire.” The litany of toungue-twisting names. The scoffing cynics saying, Who let Drunk Uncle in?
No one’s drunk, says Peter. It’s only 9am. Then he quotes the prophet Joel who speaks of “the last days,” days when the gift of prophecy will enjoy a new beginning.
And now, says Peter, God is revealing those last days.
The thing about those last days, though, is that they aren’t really last at all. They are, as with all “last things,” brand-new first days, a fresh start marked by a revitalizing re-emergence of God’s Spirit. And as that Spirit permeates the Creation—the same Creation over which it once merely hovered (Genesis 1:2)—prophecy breaks free from old confines. It’s no longer a rare gift. It’s a new way of life for “all flesh,” a new reality for sons and daughters, young and old, male and female.
Pentecost, then, marks not so much the arrival of something brand new, but of humankind’s re-awakening to the eternal mystery called the Holy Spirit. And we discover, sometimes to our chagrin, that the Spirit is slave to no one—not to any nation, or language, or even theology.
“I will pour out my Spirit,” says God, “and they shall [all] prophesy.”
My southern upbringing in church left with me with a rather cartoonish image of prophets—guys walking around in dark robes tied with rope, their heads hidden inside deep, drooping hoods, and each arm stuffed up the wide sleeve covering the opposite arm. These prophets knew God’s mind. They could read our minds, too. Obviously appalled at their reading material, they shouted judgment and hellfire to scare people into righteousness. All-in-all they seemed to have more in common with teachers of the dark arts at Hogwarts than anything that looked like Jesus. Since scripture describes prophecy as a gift given generally, generously, and graciously in the Creation, I have to wonder where all that fiction came from.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary defines a prophet as “a person who serves as a channel of communication between the human and divine worlds.”1 In terms of potential, that leaves no one out.
If we are the Church, and if Pentecost is in some way the birthday of the Church, then Pentecost must reveal something of our call to—and new birth into—a prophetic life. Remember Paul’s words to the Romans: “We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains…And it’s not only the creation. We ourselves who have the Spirit as the first crop of the harvest also groan inside as we wait to be adopted…” (Romans 8:22-23) And to the Galatians Paul wrote, “God sent his Son…so that we could be adopted. Because [we] are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:4ff)
Now THAT is prophecy!
Selfish and idolatrous motives often corrupt our intentions and turn us toward domination and self-aggrandizement rather than service. Still, if we’re called and equipped to serve as “channel[s] of communication,” then in some way God is choosing to see, to listen, to speak, and to act through us on behalf of the created order. And THAT, too, makes us prophets.
I think that the big difference in this new, Pentecostal prophecy lies in what we look for and what we find at the very core of ourselves and others.
For millennia, the church has taught that sin is the core reality of each of us and of all of us together. Sin is real, of course, and we need to name it and resist it, because it not only excuses but justifies violence, racism, sexism, materialism, and schism. I do, however, take issue with manipulating people by telling them that they were born depraved, that their fundamental identity is one of guilt before God. It also seems to me that this shame-fed understanding of self and of God almost always creates more sin. It creates communities of fear and enmity rather than faith. It also strips faith communities of their trust and vision and leads them to do more to try to maintain a status quo and guard material assets than to follow Jesus in transforming ministry. And while part of me understands that, especially in our increasingly unpredictable world, it’s still sin, or as the Greeks said, hamartia, which means missing the mark.
Listen, we are people of Incarnation, Resurrection, and Pentecost. So, we are being led by God’s transforming Holy Spirit which is always in the process of creating and re-creating the world and our places in it. And as the story in Acts reveals, that re-creation is always toward wider inclusion and more far-reaching ministry.
Because the essence of God is holy, dynamic, and creative relationship, and because God made us in God’s image, humankinds’ own fundamental essence is holy, dynamic, and creative relationship. Being created by relationship, for relationship, community is our true home. And a Christ-following community is one of trust, openness, and self-emptying discipleship.
On top of all that is the gloriously complicating wonder of our own uniqueness, our own gifts, capabilities, incompletions, and vulnerabilities. We bring all of these things to every relationship. So, just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as an inseparable whole, we need each other. We find our wholeness, our true selfhood when we enter relationships that nurture us by asking as much of us as they offer to us.
A distinction may be helpful here. I define individualism as the depleting and destructive belief that I am absolute, whole, and complete in and of myself. And that is true of no one. Even the most isolated hermits need the earth, don’t they?
Individuality is much different. True individuals express their individuality by recognizing, celebrating, and developing their unique set of gifts and experiences so that they might enjoy them and share them with others. True individuals also express their individuality by welcoming the gifts and experiences of others so that everyone might know a new depth of wholeness and joy.
Pentecost reveals that, through holy and spirited relationship, we draw closer to God even as we draw closer our neighbors and the earth. In relationship, we claim our blessedness. In relationship, we claim ourselves and one another as blessings. And in Christ-like relationship, we become prophets—“channels of communication between the human and divine worlds.”
The point of the prophecy unleashed at Pentecost transcends any personal salvation that merely makes the individual feel safe from hell.
The point of the prophecy unleashed at Pentecost is a life of Holy-Spiritedfullness, mystery, and love. And this life is for everyone, of every language, everywhere, and all the time.
1Robert. R. Wilson, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Paul J. Achtemeier, General Editor. Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1985, p. 826.
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