At Pentecost the church welcomes and celebrates the return of Christ in His Holy Spirit and His gifts into the life of the early church.
In the days following the Resurrection and the Ascension, the disciples took heart as they remembered Jesus's assuring words: "If you, for all your faults, know how to give good things to your children, how much more likely is it that your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask". As they waited in Jerusalem they were filled with a longing for His return that could only be a heartfelt asking for it to happen. They prayed earnestly: "When the actual Day of Pentecost came they were all assembled together. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were seated . . . They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages as the Spirit gave them power to proclaim His Message".
Pentecost has been called "The Birthday of The Church". For the disciples it was not an end to the beginning of sharing with their Master's mission for the world. Immediately what had become "the be-all and end-all" of their lives was restored. They were given power to proclaim The Message. We think about the 2,000 years of Christ's mission on earth and of the thousands of occasions when the doomsayers declared the church to be a myth nearing its end. We do well to recall the hope of Pentecost and the renewed church's firm declaration in the Creed: "His kingdom will have no end". Within our life-time in some areas, the church seemed to be dead. Now, in the same places, it is very much alive.
After long and careful study of the young church in action, J. B. Phillips is convinced: "One can hardly avoid concluding, since God's Holy Spirit cannot conceivably have changed one iota through the centuries, that He is perfectly prepared to short-circuit, by an inflow of love, wisdom, and understanding, many human problems of today".
The disciples, rather than dwelling on academic theories about their problem, waited in earnest prayer for Pentecost. How often even believers, in facing a problem, admit they did everything else first before they resorted to praying. Having thought and done everything in my power to solve a long-standing persisting bitterness in a relationship, I felt it should not be allowed to continue. Before our next meeting, I spent a good while in earnest prayer for God's guidance. The Holy Spirit took over, the bitterness was dispelled, and sensible love took control.
A well-known hymn for Whitsuntide expresses the personal, powerful, practical and comforting qualities available to us. Temples of the Holy Spirit:
Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed
His tender last farewell,
A guide, a Comforter, bequeathed
With us to dwell.
He came, sweet influence to impart,
A gracious, willing guest,
While he can find one humble heart
Wherein to rest.
And his that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each fault, that calms each fear,
And speaks of heaven.
And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are his alone.
Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness, pitying see;
O make our hearts thy dwelling-place,
And worthier thee.
W.W.