Reflection -- Filled With New Wine

We come to the end of the church's celebration of the Easter season with the remembrance of the gift of the Holy Spirit to early Christians assembled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.  “Pentecost” (meaning “fiftieth”), a Jewish religious observance, occurred 50 days after Passover.  People from everywhere, speaking many different languages, gathered in Jerusalem for the celebration.

The events of this particular Pentecost, the one that followed Jesus' death and resurrection at the time of the Passover, must have been very dramatic.  Jesus' followers were filled with God's gift of the Holy Spirit, an event accompanied by wind and fire.  This was a gift that Jesus had promised (see Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-5, 8). 

With this wondrous gift, these Christians suddenly found themselves speaking in languages they did not previously know.  This in turn enabled others who spoke those languages to hear the good news of God's message; a message for everyone everywhere.  It was the birth of the Christian church.  The people gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration would return to their own countries and spread this new message to others, who told others, and on and on.

This gift of the Spirit affected Jesus' followers so dramatically that some bystanders thought that they were drunk, " filled with new wine."  Peter quickly assured them that was not the case.

God's gracious gift of the Spirit can be heady stuff.  Many have experienced the special warmth and wonder that can occur during those “mountain top” moments when God makes God’s presence known in our midst.  These manifestations of the Holy Spirit can be tremendously reassuring and restorative.

Although the presence of the Sprit can be like some new and wondrously exhilarating wine, it would be a major mistake to just cherish it as some kind of "feel good" vintage.  The wine of the Holy Spirit poured out for God's people is not a spirit of self indulgence.  This new wine is a Spirit of empowerment for service. 

The Pentecost story points up the primary work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people; empowerment to continue Jesus’ ministry and to spread the word of God's redeeming love for everyone everywhere.  It is not a wine to be locked away in some cellar, or to be brought out and sipped on special occasions because it makes us feel good.  It is the fuel God provides to us to change the world.

revclay

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Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs -- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.”  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”  But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

"'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.  And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”