Bethany Bullet - May 26, 2015

"These people are drunk!"  This part of the Pentecost account has always confused me.   When was the last time in your experience that inebriation led to clear communication in another's language instead of slurred speech in one’s own language?  If they were talking about the hearers rather than the speakers that Pentecost morn, it doesn't end the confusion does it?  When was the last time inebriation resulted in clear understanding rather than complete misgivings?

"These people aren't drunk as you suppose!"  This is the fulfillment of Jesus' promise to send the Spirit.  The truly staggering part of Pentecost is not the Spirit's manifestation but the Spirit's revelation, "...everyone (which also means anyone) who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  God saves in Christ not because of the kind of people we are but because in the person Christ is; He saves not because of what we do but because of what Jesus did; God saves not because we are good but because He is good." 

The celebration of Pentecost is not only a remembrance of what happened but a celebration of what God continues to do.  The Spirit still falls, not in spark but a splash; in Baptism, the Spirit falls anew and fills again.  One of the gifts He brings is the gift to speak in the One Voice which is Christ.  That voice during confusing days ought not to be a proclamation of panic nor one that is Pietistic, pugnacious or pompous but rather a message of peace, a word of hope, an act of mercy, an expression of love, a declaration of forgiveness and the goodness of God who works in confusing days.

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer