Acts 2:14, 36-41 Commentary

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I was, it may surprise some of you to learn, a theatre geek in high school. Of course I loved to be on stage performing for an audience (I know, right? Shocker.) But I also helped with costumes, did some stage managing and student directing.  But my favorite part wasn’t the flush of pride, taking a final bow as the curtain dropped. In some ways, that was my least favorite part because it meant the show was over.  And tomorrow I was going to wake up and go back to life as usual.  The adrenaline, late nights, inside jokes would be memories and real life felt like a real let down.

We love the heady, emotion-filled moments, the spotlight, the spectacular. And when all of that is done, it can be easy to overlook the spectacular display of the extraordinary amid the everyday. I wonder whether we sometimes read Acts 2 that way. . .

Commentary:

The beginning of the book of Acts tells the story of how the church began. Talk about heady, emotion-filled moments.  The disciples are waiting in the wings when, suddenly, a blowing from Heaven filled the whole house. Tongues of fire descended to rest on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They rush on stage in order to take their part. Each is empowered to speak in languages they had never spoken before.

So they go out into the city and begin to speak about Jesus. Peter preaches a sermon that would have brought the house down if they hadn’t already been outside in the streets. And it all ends like this, Acts 2:38-41 “Peter replied, ‘Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the LORD our God will call.”

As a result of the disciple’s ministry and Peter’s sermon, verse 41 tells us “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Holy Smokes! Holy Tongues of Fire at Pentecost! Isn’t that amazing? Don’t you long for that? For that kind of revival to break out at this church? Wouldn’t that have been one of those heady, emotion-filled moments? Spectacular. I mean, to see something like THAT happen HERE? THEN we would know the Holy Spirit’s power and God’s presence among us, right?

We see the witness of the early church – 3,000 baptized in one day! In verse 47 we are told that the church was receiving more in their ranks every day! And we think: how can we get some of that action?!?

It is easy to see and covet the work of the Spirit shown on the day of Pentecost. But then, here’s the thing: The miraculous presence of the Spirit doesn’t disappear between the disciples going to sleep after the busy-ness of Acts 2:41 and their waking up to a new day in Acts 2:42. This isn’t just the day after the Holy Spirit Hoopla. This is the on-going day of the Holy Spirit’s power and enabling.

In this regard, perhaps a scripted theatre performance is not the right analogy to use.  As the disciples ask in verse 37, “What should we do?” Maybe what we are witnessing is a kind of improv performance.  The basic rule of improv is that, whatever your scene partner hands you, your response—in word and deed—must be “yes, and,” which is precisely what we see on display here.  There is a coherence between what is being asked now and what the gathered Jewish people already know and understand of faith.  As Willie James Jennings writes in his commentary, “Repentance, forgiveness, and gift are all themes that flow through the streams of Israel’s historical consciousness.” That is the Divine “Yes!” But the stream is taking a new direction at Pentecost. In the question, “what should we do?” Jennings argues that we must hear “the astounding work of the living God who will not be relegated to Israel’s past but will reveal divine faithfulness to ancient promises in the present moment.”   Not just “yes” but “yes, and…”

We hear it in the testimony of Peter’s sermon but we also see it in the earliest witness of the church. In next week’s Lectionary text, we are told that the early church PRAYED together and saw evidence of the Spirit’s ongoing empowering through signs and wonders. But there is also the spectacular ordinary that this morning’s spectacular extraordinary establishes: a group of people faithful to Scripture, sharing everything with one another, committed to sharing their life, as in they “broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Now if that isn’t a little bit of a Holy Spirit miracle, I’m not sure what else could be. The church isn’t what happens after the Holy Spirit has shown up. The church is the place where the Holy Spirit still shows up.

You want in on this action? Well, according to your baptism, you already are. According to your baptism, this is fundamentally who you all are and who you all are meant to become. Baptism, itself, is a symbol of the Eternal God’s capacity for improv: taking the “yes” and adding the “and.” Again from Jennings, “Indeed Jesus has seized baptism in Israel and merged it with the divine life. Just as he turned water into wine, he will now bring water into service to the Holy Spirit…The story of Israel has opened up, and God’s body has been joined to Israel’s body and will be joined to all who will come to the water.”

The invitation of Pentecost is to remember the “yes, and…” of your baptism, which unites you to Christ, fills you with God’s Spirit and places you in the church, which is the place where the Holy Spirit is still showing up.  Maybe even through you.

[Here would be a good chance to take stock of places where you see your congregation alive with the work of the Holy Spirit.]

It isn’t wrong to want more for the church. It isn’t wrong to hold out hope for revival and amazing manifestations of the Spirit’s power among us. It isn’t wrong unless it causes us to overlook the obvious – that this church already has the Holy Spirit written all over it. “Yes, and…”