When the Spirit calls, duty calls

 Reflection on the Word for the Pentecost Sunday of 2022
When the Spirit calls, duty calls – ACTS 2 :
41 Then those who gladly received Peter’s word were baptized. There were added that day of the Pentecost about three thousand souls. 42 They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. 43 Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were together, and had all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. 46 Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 praising God, and having favor with all the people.
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With the Pentecost there are a couple of misunderstandings, which keep lingering among church-goers even today. Like for example the Pentecost Sunday for some people is like the very birthday of the Holy Spirit or at least the very first day in the early church life when the Holy Spirit presented itself either in visible form or in any other forms.

However, the very first book in the Bible, the Genesis, says in the very first chapter that “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

Thus, the Spirit of God had been already present at the very beginnings, and beside its omnipresence, it was particularly also present in the people God chosen throughout the whole human history to represent him as envoys and ambassadors, as we know them as patriarchs and prophets, men and women of God, as the Spirit compelled them to speak and act on behalf of God.

Many of them became a part of our immediate spiritual family, like Noah and Enoch,  Abraham and Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist, of course the Apostles and many more, even Jesus himself, our teacher and brother or as the Apostle Paul says, that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ .”

Also there is some confusion around the Pentecost event regarding a New Testament phenomenon or gift of the so called speaking of languages. Some think that the phenomenon in the New Testament Era began with the speech Peter gave in Jerusalem on Pentecost Sunday, as it is written in the Book of the Acts, chapter two, that “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!””

From this account it is clear that some miracle happened here, Peter was talking probably in Aramaic, the common language of that time, still the very broad audience, speaking at least a dozen of different languages as their mother tongue, they all heard Peter speaking on their mother tongue in the same momentary time.
It was a language miracle, but not in the manner of the particular gift of speaking of the tongues, because whatever language was heard, it was like a parallel translation, it was intelligible and understood respectively by the multilateral audience.

The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 14 clarifies, giving a definition, what is the gift of the speaking of the tongues, as he wrote that “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.”  

According to Paul, speaking of the tongues is unintelligible for human ears, it is kind of the language of the angels. This was not what happened on Pentecost Sunday, because everybody understood, what Peter said, each in their own language.

Spiritual gifts are desirable, they are better than gold and silver, and speaking of the tongues were surely among them, however Paul warned the Corinthians that “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.”

Some people said that speaking of the tongues are so important as a visible or rather audible sign of the Holy Spirit, that it is not only an indispensable part of the salvation offered in Christ, but it might be a requirement to be a part of it. We can see it from the New Testament, that it is not so, speaking of the tongue is not a requirement for salvation.

Moreover Paul adds that “ I thank my God, I speak in tongue more than you all. However in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

So, then, what about the Holy Spirit?

The Presence of Holy Spirit is present everywhere and in everyone. And the Spirit talks all the time, calling us to love God for the sake of God, to be good and to love the neighbor, to be godly in everything what we do, to keep all the commandments of God, to make peace wherever it is possible to make peace, to stand our ground against the wicked, to share the bread and the resources with all, to aim Heaven in our visions and in our speeches and in our actions.

The Spirit may have special occasions that we might think that the voice of the Spirit is or should be louder than usual, in our prayers, in our meditations, in the time of sorrow and of need, in the time of joy and of gratitude. However, it should be grasped that the Spirit calls us and talks to us in every moment, “needed or not”. As just Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, that “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

One of the main astonishing aspect of the Spirit might be that the Spirit talks to the godly and to the wicked almost in equal intensity, as it is written in the Sermon of the Mount, that “you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”

The volume of the voice is the same, even the love is the same toward the just and the unjust. However, to listen to the inner voice of the Spirit depends on our readiness, willingness and openness to really listen to it, as it is also written in the letter to the Hebrews that “while it is said, "Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion."  

Not only the Spirit calls everyone, good and wicked, reaching out with the same intensity, but it does it without a pause. No one can say, that I will do some good, when the Spirit will call me, maybe next year, because it occurs every day and even by night. Thus, we are on duty 24/7, as the first congregation heard and answered the Spirit every day, as it is written: “ Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 praising God, and having favor with all the people.”  May we do the same, for the sake  of God, by the merit of Jesus, that we do answer the voice of the Holy Spirit,

AMEN.

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