During the Children's Moment in worship this morning, I gave a brief history of Pentecost and it was requested of me that I try to make that available in writing. I'm hoping this doesn't read too much like a wikipedia page, but here's the brief history of Pentecost as I explained to the kids this morning in worship:
Once a year, we put a bunch of red stuff in our sanctuary. We wear red to church. It made sense to wear red this weekend because Memorial Day is tomorrow, but we also wear red for a different reason (a reason that doesn't always line up with Memorial Day). Today is Pentecost! How many of you know what Pentecost is?
One of my four-year-olds said, "It's like having a birthday!"
That's a perfect answer! It is like having a birthday. We call Pentecost the birthday of the church. But it wasn't always celebrated as the birthday of the church. Pentecost actually started in the Old Testament with a guy named Moses.
The kids had a hard time saying who Moses was, which honestly made me a little worried. So I very briefly talked about how Pharaoh had God's people in slavery and wasn't very nice to them, so God told Moses to go and tell Pharaoh to let the people go. The kids sort of remembered that story and I could see some of the adults nodded, so I started to feel a little better.
Not much. But a little.
So Moses led the people out of Egypt on Passover. Fifty days later, Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and God gave him ten of something. I asked the kids if they remembered what God gave Moses ten of.
"The Ten Commandments!"
Now I felt a little more better (that's a terribly grammatically incorrect statement, but you get my point).
Fifty days after the exodus out of Egypt, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, rules for how to live in relationship with God and in relationship with each other. Pentecost means, "Fifty Days."
So fast-forward to the New Testament. Every year, people would celebrate the passover and pentecost by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where the temple was. Pentecost was a day to celebrate God giving his people the Torah. People would decorate with green things, like flowers and fruit, and they would eat dairy products (I don't know why. I need to ask a Jewish friend what the signficance of dairy is). But in today's world, people eat dairy and some people even build a big cake to represent how big Mt. Sinai was. Now how many people like cake? How many people want ice cream with their cake, especially when it's 96 degrees outside like it is today?
Yeah. Me too. (as I point out that I'm wearing a robe in the sanctuary and I'm HOT)
Jewish kids today still celebrate pentecost as the giving of the law from God to the people. Some people even celebrate graduations on pentecost because learning the Torah is a really big deal. Like, a REALLY big deal.
So a group of disciples and a whole lot of other people who had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the law, or Pentecost, or the "Festival of Weeks" as it was also called, were all gathered together in the synagogue. They were worshipping and singing and it was 50 days after the passover. Suddenly there was this wind in the synagogue and everyone wondered what was going on. Suddenly, in the midst of this wind, tongues of fire appeared on people's shoulders. How many of you have ever had tongues of fire on your shoulders? Yeah, me either. Imagine how crazy that would be! Imagine how scared or confused you might be. The people in the synagogue were scared and confused and they wondered what the heck was happening. The disciples were speaking and everyone could understand them in their native tongue!
What does that mean? Well, remember people were there from all over the known world. If you came to Jerusalem from Italy, you heard the disciples speaking Italian! If you came from France (I know this time line is wrong, but bear with me), you heard the disciples speaking in French! Everyone heard their own language so they understood. They thought the disciples were crazy, and a lot of them said so out loud!
But then Peter got up. Remember who Peter was? He was one of Jesus' disciples. He got up and he said the people weren't crazy, but God had sent His Holy Spirit among them. He reminded the people that Jesus loved them and wanted His Spirit to dwell inside of them so they could go out and tell everyone about Jesus. And that's what we celebrate in Pentecost today. Fifty days after Easter Sunday, we celebrate God's Holy Spirit dwelling among us and we remember to tell everyone how much Jesus loves us and loves them, too. Pentecost reminds us that we are a new creation. Jesus loves us so much, that He sent His Spirit to stay with us and guide us and take care of us. So let's say a prayer.
Dear Lord, thank you for sending us your Spirit to live inside of us and teach us which way to go. Help us to be a new creation as we celebrate the birthday of your church. Happy birthday, church! We love you. Amen.
So that was my children's moment this morning, my brief history of Pentecost. It's not comprehensive, but it's a good reminder of how connected we really are to our Jewish roots. It certainly makes me want to keep learning about the grandfather of our Christian faith. It's good to remember that we come from some place and Christianity didn't just pop out of nowhere. I hope this encourages you, too, to learn more about the roots of your faith. May you feel the Holy Spirit dwelling within you this day of Pentecost and always.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
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