Pentecost is not a One Hit Wonder.  But I don’t want to underplay the power of a One Hit Wonder.  Can you think of famous One Hit Wonder?  Let’s do some market research…  I’ll sing a bit: and you sing the rest…

• I heard you on the wireless back in ’52… Video Killed the Radio Star…
• Won’t you take me to, Funkytown
• What about me… it isn’t fair, I’ve had enough and I want my share… can’t you see?…I wanna live, but you just take more than you give…
• It’s been 7 hours and 15 days, since you took your love away…
• Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart… nothing I can do, a Total Eclipse of the Heart
• Absolutely everybody, everybody, everybody… Absolutely everybody in the whole wide world…

A One-Hit-Wonder is usually a song from an artist or band, who achieves mainstream popularity, for only that one song and is known among the general public ONLY for that momentary success.  But strangely, a ‘One Hit Wonder’ can often have a lasting influence in our living.  We can know all the words: emotions, actions…

But Pentecost is no One Hit Wonder.   So much so, that in our revised common lectionary, the season that follows on from today, used to be called Ordinary Time; but is now referred to as The Season of Pentecost.  A season for all of us to pay attention to actions of the Spirit in our daily living: and in the lives of those we share life with.

You will recall that the word Pentecost comes from the Greek ‘pente’,  meaning 50 .

Leviticus 23:15-22 reads: “And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation-offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord. ”

In current Jewish traditions, it is the celebration of Shavuot: now a celebration of the giving on the Law on Mount Sinai.  You may also see it in the Old Testament referred to as the Festival of Weeks. 

Curiously the Leviticus passage moves directly from what to present to God in thankfulness, to justice for the community.  It required that the harvest fields NOT to be stripped to their fullest, but to leave the edges for the poor.  “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.”  Lev 19:9  The land owners were to consider their land, their trees, and their vineyards as a means of providing for the poor.

This origin story of Pentecost gets lost in the New Testament accounts: and perhaps in post-modern Christianity.  We tend to focus on the WONDER or the RUSH of Spirit: the focus is on ENCOUNTER, EXPERIENCE and AWE that leaves us as the One Hit Wonder of Pentecost.

In today’s story the ONLY discipline I can see is turning up.

“And in the fulfilling the day of the Pentecost, all were together at the same [place].  And there began/came suddenly out of the heaven a sound like a gusting, violent wind (or windy violence)and filled all the house where they were seating themselves.” Acts 2: 1-2

Turning up and being together. Turning up and being there with each other.  Turning up and being there for each other.  And the story tells us it was both the Disciples and the wider community.  Spirituality as an individual, esoteric experience, unanchored from Community is not Christianity.  Christian Spirituality is found in Community.  We are shaped more effectively by growing in Spirit: understanding how the Spirit is moving in our lives: in our lives together. enables us to recognise Spirit in, between and around us.  And keeps us accountable to one another too.  And that’s TOTALLY out of bounds in our individualist society.

Theologian Brian McLaren shares the power of allowing ourselves to be ever drawn by the Holy Spirit: and in that drawing, finding our vocation in service and action.  He says…

‘The Spirit leads us downward. To the bottom, to the place of humility, to the position and posture of service . . . that’s where the Spirit, like water, flows. . . .”  He then goes on to summarise some situations that help us recognise Spirit in our living.

You’re at a function and you’ll see someone if left out: the Spirit will draw you to them. You may become the bridge that connects the outsider to the insiders—and in that connection, both will be better off

You’ll realise that someone is angry at you, or resentful toward you: maybe they will have worked behind your back to do you harm.  You to write them off or get them back, but the Spirit will draw you toward them in love and humility.

If there is a person or a group being vilified or scapegoated: the Spirit will draw you to work for justice and equity.

If you listen to the Spirit, you will be drawn toward an opportunity to serve.

So, Pentecost is something more than a past event, or One-Hit-Wonder.  Pentecost is the very story of God’s continuing present-ness with us.   Or as Michael Morwood says of Pentecost, that it is “…the amazing story of people coming to awareness through reflection on the life of Jesus that the same Spirit that moved in him moved in them.”

As people who dream dreams and see a vision of a world of justice and compassion Pentecost Sunday is a reminder of the connection of Spirit filled living and saving one another.  We remember the origins of the festival: that Pentecost is essentially a celebration to remember God’s grace and abundance, and the call to us to serve those who continue to live in poverty and injustice.