Pentecost: Harvest of the Spirit of God

"To the Pentecost" Sergey Alekseevich Korovin, (1858-1908)
"К Троице"

Pentecost means "fifty" and it celebrates fifty days after Passover as the culmination of the "Feast of Weeks."  This feast originally commemorated the giving of the Torah to the nation of Israel at Mt Sinai but later when Israel became an agrarian society it increasingly became associated with the harvest and worshippers presented offerings from the first fruits of their crops in the temple.  Life in an agrarian society can be stressful in that so much is riding on a good harvest, it can mean the difference between life and death, plenty or want.  A bad harvest could mean devastating consequences for a community.  People hoped for a harvest of plenty.  The Christian celebration of Pentecost commemorates the coming of the Spirit of God on the early community of Jewish Christians who were witnesses to a new breath of God's Spirit in the nation's spiritual life.

In time, Christians have come to celebrate Pentecost and Trinity Sunday around the world.  The Russian painting translated "to the Pentecost" depicts Russian peasants on their way to the "Troitsa" or The Day of Holy Trinity.  There is much to see in this painting, yet do we dare see ourselves?  Isn't it also true that too often we feel the spiritual hunger pains of a spiritual drought?  We sense the meaninglessness of life, the isolation, deadness, hopelessness, and loneliness of existence.  We hunger for joy, life purpose, growth, something that we too often try to find in the wrong places.  We are spiritually hungry because we hunger for the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.  In communion with God, the Spirit unites us to God and to all the saints that have gone on before us.  We recall in the celebration of Holy Communion that we are united in one body with Christ and all the saints.

Pentecost celebrates the coming of God's Spirit to do something new. Waiting and praying after the ascension of Jesus, the apostles had gathered and waited until the miracle happened.  On the feast of Pentecost a sound came from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and they began to speak about the acts of God in different languages and were understood by those in Jerusalem from all over the empire.  The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead now comes to give us life where there was once only death, where there is sin, the Spirit brings forgiveness and hope, where there is confusion, the Spirit gives us guidance and wisdom, where we had no purpose, the Spirit calls us and gifts us, allows us to break from our old ways of thinking and acting and into a new reality.  The Spirit enables us to be united to God in Christ.  The Spirit enlivened a community committed to living and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The 3,000 that respond and are baptized that day become a worshipping community called and empowered by the Spirit of God, the "first fruits" of the harvest.  In what ever place we live and worship, it is the Spirit of God that must come to give new life to our spiritual communities of worship.  Around the world we often sense a spiritual drought that only God's spirit may quench.  Wars, destruction, fear, and genocide have been perpetuated on people of different faith's by people of different faith's.  In a world still filled with divisions and violence, and often no easy answers to our social and political conflicts, can we look to God for help?  Can we reap in our lives a real spiritual harvest of love for God and neighbor?  Those that look for a spiritual harvest of renewal that will enliven us again with a flame of love for others and for God will cry Come! Holy Spirit!  Come!