Further Pentecost Reflections

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. If you are aware of what Pentecost is, then like me, you probably know Pentecost as the day which God gave the Holy Spirit to the church. The account of this event is recorded in the first two chapters of the New Testament book of Acts. Beyond that basic information, however, often not much more is known.  

We took the opportunity on Sunday to dig a little deeper, to explore the Old Testament roots of Pentecost, the festival that is celebrated fifty days following Passover. In preparing for the message I learned quite a bit about what Pentecost both celebrates and commemorates: it is a agricultural festival that is celebrated at the beginning of the wheat harvest, and it also commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. After the Jews escaped Egypt following the Passover (where Jews were spared God's judgment on Egypt by marking their doorposts with lamb's blood), they passed through the Red Sea, entered the Sinai desert, and then 50 days later came to the mountain where, in the midst of a storm, God gave the Torah to his people. In the same way, after the Passover (where humans were spared God's judgment by being marked with the Lamb of God's blood), 50 days later God gives his Spirit to his people in the midst of a storm - fire and a violent wind. In the same way that the giving of the Law birthed Israel and marked them as God's covenant people, so the giving of the Spirit births the church and marks this new community as God's new covenant people.

There is a lot more to be said about this, but not here. If you want to learn more you can listen to the message here: A New Body and A New Spirit.

The reason I am rehashing this is to set up an email I received in response to the message from a woman in our community who is a self-confessed math-nerd. She had some cool reflections that I received her permission to share. I love it when people's imaginations get cut loose by the wonder of God's Word and Spirit.

"DUDE. I did not have a chance to tell you how much I was affected by the scripture, by the message, by the Spirit today. When you set the scene, talking about how the disciples were celebrating the feast of Pentecost and remembering Moses receiving God's law, I could see where we were going a little bit and I almost couldn't stand how cool it was. How we have this "amazing" God who speaks to us in stories that have rhyme, events that resonate with each other. So here's my math-nerdy thought..

- X = The first chosen few individuals, hearing God, following him.

- X^2 (X-squared) = The Exodus, receiving the law on Sinai - God taking things up to another level exponentially, forming His chosen people, giving physical freedom and giving His law.

- X^3 (X-cubed) = Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection, and the indwelling of the Spirit - Again, God takes things up exponentially, expanding his chosen people to encompass all peoples, giving spiritual freedom, and law written in our hearts.

- X^4 = .........? That's the next step, I think. Whatever heaven is, maybe it will be God adding another dimension to the stories we already know, bringing us up to a whole new level of freedom and law that we can't even fathom right now. I love the thought that we are like the disciples - faithful to the religion that has been handed down to us, celebrating feasts & fasts every year - with the knowledge that someday, sometime, when we don't expect it, God is going to take us, creation, everything, up to the next level. And then again and again, and that's eternity. I think God just has to be eternal because He's just thought of too many cool riffs on His stories to fit them into a finite universe.

So good. Thanks for sharing your math-nerdiness, Katie. And yes, come, Holy Spirit. Come quickly.

Comments

[Jodi]

That's awesome.

[Corrin]

If this is the same Katie Kendle I know, she was my roommate my freshman year of college at Southwestern University in TX. Can you pass along my email address to her. I have been trying to get in touch again, but haven't found her on FaceBook yet.

Thanks,
Corrin Schlecht