If there is one thing in the Church that I have always just taken for granted, it is that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.
Just recently, as I was preparing my sermon for Pentecost, I came across a Bible Commentary that completely challenged the notion that Pentecost is really a birthday. I glossed over it at first, but as I continued to think, pray, and reflect on the concept of Pentecost as a birthday, I became more and more uncomfortable with it.
Recently, I came to a prayerful realization. Pentecost was more of a graduation than a birthday.
In order to understand this better, it is helpful to reflect on some basic definitions that we also take for granted. What is the definition of a Church? What is the definition of a birthday?
The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which means, in Biblical terms, a group of people gathered for a specific purpose. A birthday is the day that something comes into being. Therefore, the birthday of the church would mean “the day that the group of people gathered for a specific purpose came into being.”
I am not comfortable with that day being Pentecost. If we say that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, then that carries with it the implicit assumption that the Church did not exist before Pentecost. In other words, the Church ceased to exist during the time that Jesus was on this earth. I don’t believe that the witness of Holy Scripture supports this. There was a gathering of disciples, called and trained by Jesus Himself, and they were sent forth to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, several years before the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.
My purpose in writing this is not to demean what happened in Pentecost – not at all. Jesus spent His time on earth teaching, training up the disciples in the way that they would go. He also made it very clear that the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to give us another Counselor who would be Immanuel – God with us – when Jesus was gone. In effect, Jesus would assume a new role (our Counselor in Heaven), get out of the way and the Church would go to work, ushering in the Kingdom of God on this earth.
There are striking similarities between Pentecost and that time when a parent let’s go of their children and sends them out on their own. That time is graduation.
We will still continue to celebrate heartily at St. Michael’s on the Feast of Pentecost, and I intend to keep the tradition of decorating the church with balloons in celebration. For me, though, the celebration will be a graduation celebration rather than a birthday. Please join me in celebrating this day in which the church was empowered by God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the world.
