Pentecost Sunday, 2022
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Luke’s Pentecost narrative [Acts chapter 2] challenges
the church today to find even more effective ways of communicating the gospel
to peoples in every land on earth. … Just as the early Christians moved beyond
the land of Israel and the Jewish people, so we must help all the peoples in
our world hear and express the gospel in their own languages and according to
their own cultural patterns. - Daniel J. Harrington, “The Challenge of Pentecost,” America (May 5,
2008)
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Many peoples, one God
The sign over the classroom door encouraged students’
eagerness: “Enter with an open mind.” Inside, though, an open-minded approach
was not consistently encouraged. In this elementary classroom at a Christian school,
religious lessons for the month were focused on the practices of other groups,
organizations, and faiths (different from the affiliation of the parochial
school). The children would come home and tell their parents, “Do you
know what this (or that) group believes? They’re so weird!” The lessons were
teaching young denomination members to judge others. One of the assignments,
mislabeled as an “evangelism exercise,” asked the children to compose a letter
that they would send to Tom Cruise, trying to convince him of the dangers and evils
of Scientology.
Certainly, God tells us to be wary of temptations and to
steer clear of false teachings. Yet our call as evangelists (proclaimers of
good news) is to be warm and winsome in our witness to others, to be models and
messengers of the character of Christ. It is an unhappy consequence if education
efforts lead us to become insular and narrow and focused on our own ways and
practices. Our discipleship goal in the body of Christ is not to close minds
and hearts or isolate ourselves from others in our communities. Rather, we seek
to expand and enrich our own understanding and reach out to others with the
truths we have come to know in Christ.
The apostle Paul advised us, “From now on … regard no one
from a human point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16). We don't calculate who might
be more inclined to agree with us or who seems too different from us. We take a
view that is open to the wide variety of persons in our world–all of whom are
people for whom Jesus died and rose again. We don’t close ourselves off from
the world around us or avoid those who seem "weird" to us.
[Truthfully, we likely seem "weird" to them too.] Our aim is to
live in the world and impact the world by the testimony of lives in Jesus. We
want to be seasoned by the Spirit to serve as the salt of the earth, to walk as
children of the light to give off light to the world (cf. John 13:35-36). May
we see ourselves (and teach our children to see themselves) as
ambassadors for Christ, imploring other’s on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled
to God (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:20). That will be our way of "praising
God and having the goodwill of all the people" (Acts 2:47).
A Pentecost prayer:
God of all the nations, we pray for your one, holy, catholic
and apostolic church. Praise to you for the great diversity present in the
peoples, languages, rituals and practices of all people who follow you in the
name of Jesus Christ. Turn us from fear of difference toward celebration. We
pray for all people globally. Through the Spirit, grant us the power to be your
disciples in the world. In our worship and in our work in the world, guide us
to be good neighbors to our neighbors near and far. Free us from prejudice,
that we may see your face in people around the world, through Jesus Christ, our
Savior, and share his peace with all. (Adapted from Celebrate Global Ministries, Pentecost Sunday, 2017)
—
Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are
from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.
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