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Celebrating Pentecost
Although
I am now an Anglican priest, I was not raised in the Anglican tradition. I was brought up in a very conservative
branch of the Pentecostal tradition. Having the name “Pentecost” or “Pentecostal”
as a prominent feature within the church name one would suppose that the season of Pentecost would feature very prominently. However,
most were not even aware that there was such a season and thought that the Feast or Day of Pentecost was a Jewish holiday
that really had no significance to us as Christians. This was no doubt because of deep roots within the
protestant reformation. As an adult, and now being within a liturgical tradition, I believe that a great
blessing was missed by ignoring this special time.
We
celebrate the birth of Christ recognizing His incarnation for us. We recognize the passion of Christ in
thanksgiving in what he did for us. We rejoice in Easter as we recognize His rising for us. Should
we not then celebrate Pentecost with the same awe, wonder and thanksgiving as we recognize His choosing of us to be his earthly
body?
In
the Jewish list of feasts Pentecost came fifty days after Passover. It was on this day, as recorded in Acts
2, that Christ chose to birth His Church on earth; the same Church through and with which we come to be members of His Body
on earth. Believers are His Church because “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4)
and because “by grace (we) have been saved through faith, and this is not (our) own doing; it is the gift of God”
(Eph. 2:8). What a thing to celebrate!
For classical Pentecostals/Charismatics, while they do not specifically celebrate the
day or season, they do celebrate the gifts that God gave to His Church, using as their reference point the phenomena that
accompanied that first out-pouring of the Spirit, especially “speaking in tongues”. I certainly
believe all the gifts are operative today. However, to emphasize the outward manifestation of these to the
exclusion of the larger picture that Pentecost paints is akin to only eating dessert and ignoring the feast.
On the other hand, those who would recognize the day and the season of the churches birth
and infusion with the Holy Spirit and then deny the validity of the Spirit’s gifts within the church are in error as
well. The power and gifts that God placed within His Church through the Holy Spirit are valid (when correctly
used) and even needed as long as this present church age exists.
So
what should we do during this season of Pentecost? Here are my suggestions.
1) Take time to thank Him for the gift of His Church; His vehicle for
salvation here on earth. After all, if we are Christians, we are members of that mystical Body of Christ,
the Church.
2) Pray for Christ’s Church on earth that it will truly be all He desires it to be. Pray
and work towards its unity in true holiness and individually seek to be an instrument whereby revival and peace will come
to it.
3) In seeking for its unity, revival and peace, pray
for, and be open to, the fullness of His Holy Spirit. Actively seek to be vessels through which the Holy Spirit may use His
gifts to the glory of God, the building of the Church and the salvation of the world.
Have a Blessed Pentecost
Fr. David A. Barrett
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