On this day, the disciples, who were confused and fearful, who continuously misunderstood and questioned the resurrection, are now made bold by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them “as tongues of fire.” In an instant, all is changed: the disciples speak with boldness—the Holy Spirit has come upon them and replaced their heart of fear with God’s love and power from on high.
No longer are the disciples huddled together in an upper room for fear of the Jewish authorities, as they were when Jesus visited them after His resurrection. Now, we see them in the streets, preaching to the people with one voice and great courage the truth of new life in Christ Jesus, the fulfillment of all that God had promised Israel and the world in His great love and mercy.
Mankind’s efforts at unity were prideful, seeking to take the place of God, as manifested in the Tower of Babel. To humble man and teach Him to fear God and follow Him so man could live and thirst after salvation in Him, God divided the tongues. But now, at Pentecost, God calls all mankind back to communion with Him. This communion is manifested not in man’s efforts at unity, but by the gift of God, the seal of the Holy Spirit, given to each of us at our Chrismation.
The Holy Spirit leads us to unity in the faith of Christ’s holy Church and to understanding of God’s truth, just as Christ promised before His holy ascension: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you… when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:7, 13).
By the Holy Spirit we are indeed led “into all truth.’”. And what is truth? Jesus Christ says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except by Me” (John 14:6). Indeed, this is what it means to be an Orthodox Christian: We receive Him who is the Truth by being “born again,” as Christ says to Nicodemus, through ‘water and the spirit’ without which, Christ says, we may not enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5).
St. John the Baptist prepares the way, saying, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I…. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). This is the baptism and chrismation, i.e., ‘the sealing,’ of which St. Paul speaks and which he himself received from Ananias, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13).
For this reason, we sing today in place of the usual Trisagion, “As many as have been baptized, have put on Christ,” (Gal. 3:27). Pentecost is for us our own personal renewal of our own baptism into Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit. On this day, all is renewed; we are refreshed and empowered to struggle through repentance, to thirst more after God, making spiritual progress by the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us, to advance in God’s Kingdom.
And so today, at the end of the service, we’ll pray the prayers of repentance, return to kneeling and prostrating, and enjoin our bodies with our souls, bending both before the Lord and receive healing for our sin-sickness, resulting in salvation and strengthening our witness.
Pentecost is then the reversal of Babel and the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel to “pour out His Spirit on all flesh.” Salvation from here on out will no longer be solely the gift of the Jews; through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Gentiles will respond to the Gospel message of new life in Christ, participation in the Life of the one God in Three Persons.
Those present at Pentecost from all nations hear the good news of salvation in their own tongue: They all hear in their own language, the one thing that can unite all mankind together in a community, not based on prideful human ambitions, but on communion with God, Life itself.
Life in the Spirit after Pentecost is manifested then not in chaos, confusion, but always in order, as St. Luke relates in Acts 2, “… they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of the (Eucharistic) bread, and in the prayers” (as it is written in the original Greek). This same order continues to be at the heart of Orthodox worship to this day! And despite the differences in language, culture, background, geography, time, the same message of healing and salvation, of life in communion with God and in accordance with His commandments, is proclaimed with the same unity of message.
This life in unity, in the Spirit, is depicted in the traditional icon of Pentecost we have here before us. We don’t see the descent of the Holy Spirit through the eyes of the unbelievers gathered in Jerusalem, who, St. Luke relates, mock the Apostles in their exuberance, saying they’re “full of new wine” (Acts 2:12). Instead, we see the heavenly reality of the descent, what it means for us, for the faithful in the Church.
The unity of common Orthodox (i.e., ‘right-believing’) faith is seen in the Apostles’ communal gathering. The diversity of gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, teaching, prophecy, language (I Cor. 12), are depicted in their differing gestures, the Gospel writers are shown Gospel in hand, others with scrolls, showing their gift of teaching. The space at the top is left vacant, signifying that Christ has ascended and is now invisibly present with us through the Holy Spirit, whom God the Father has sent to empower them to minister in Christ’s name, in His stead, to be “everywhere present and filling all things” (Hymn of the Holy Spirit).
The Holy Spirit is here represented by tongues of fire. Why tongues, why fire? Because God spoke creation and life into being by His Word and became incarnate to redeem our human nature. God has sent us His Holy Spirit just so—to give us new life in Him and empower our speech and actions to proclaim to the world around us the Good News of salvation in Him. Today, God is proclaimed and manifested as Holy Trinity, a communion, a relationship of truth and love that you and I are invited to join in. The fire testifies to the truth that God is “a consuming fire,” who offers us healing by “burning up all the thorns of our offenses,” (Post-Communion prayer of St. Simeon) our passions, by growing in us as the “new man” He has given us by virtue of our Baptism and Chrismation.
To all of us wearied by sin, grudges, lack of faith, whatever passions, here represented in the holy icon as the old man, ‘the cosmos,’ ruled by sin and darkness, Christ proclaims today in His Gospel, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). The Apostles and their successors in Christ’s holy Church today, proclaim this same truth: there’s freedom from enslavement to this world, there’s fulfillment and enlightenment in Christ, there’s healing from sin-sickness, there’s new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us.
In this way, the prayer to the Holy Spirit becomes personal, our own Pentecost this day. There’s no where He is not or cannot be. He is stronger than whatever weakness we possess. He empowers you and I that we too, however simple we may be, can find our courage and the love of God we need to proclaim and live the Good News of salvation and new life in Christ Jesus: Today we pray, beseeching God the Holy Spirit, “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere and fillest all things, treasury of blessings and giver of life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us of every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One!”
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Pentecost/Trinity Sunday
June 23, 2013
