Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for June 9, 2019

First Reading or alternate Second Reading: Acts 2:1-21

Come, Holy Spirit! It is Pentecost, and we hear the breath of the Holy Spirit – the Advocate that Jesus had promised that God would send to the apostles in his name – through all our readings.

Pentecôte (1732), painting by Jean Restout II (1692-1768), Musée du Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Sunday’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples are gathered for Shavuot, the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Pentecost in Greek), which celebrates the gift of knowledge through Torah. While they are gathered, the Spirit comes down to them in a mighty wind and tongues of fire, bringing them the gift of many tongues. The Spirit sends the apostles out to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all the people of the earth.

Alternate First Reading: Genesis 11:1-9

The story of the Tower of Babel is another of the ancestral legends in Genesis that children and adults alike enjoy hearing re-told. It follows immediately after the stories of Noah and his family, and it clearly hadn’t taken long for humanity to get into trouble again. Now they are building a huge city and a mighty tower that can reach the heavens, a development that troubles their creator. A careful reading shows us that God wasn’t angry that they tried to reach heaven, but rather worried that – echoing Adam and Eve’s desire to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil – they would learn too much and become too wise. By causing this prideful people to speak different languages that others could not understand, God encouraged them to scatter out and fill the earth.

Psalm: Psalm 104:25-35

This lovely hymn of praise begins with images that must surely bring pleasure in anyone who loves ships, the sea and the whales who do indeed seem to “sport” in it as they leap and spout under God’s blue skies and brilliant sunlight. And then, over the waters, we see the breath of God that brings us life, just as in the first moments of creation when God’s spirit-breath blew over the waters like a mighty wind separating land from sea, night from day.

Second Reading: Romans 8:14-17

In this short passage from his letter to the early church in Rome, Paul quickly sketches an idea that the early church would work out as Trinity over the centuries that followed. God the Creator inspires us – literally, breathes belief into us – through the Holy Spirit. This redeems us from the slavery of fear, making us adopted children of God, sharing our heritage with Jesus, the son of God, with whom we suffer and through whom we are glorified.

Gospel: John 14:8-17, 25-27

If the closing verses of Sunday’s Gospel seem familiar, they should: We heard those same lines just three weeks ago, when Jesus assured the apostles that God would send the Advocate – the Holy Spirit – in Jesus’ name, to guide them and remind them of all that Jesus taught. Now we go back and hear the words that led up to that promise: Jesus assures the apostles that Jesus dwells in God and God in Jesus. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” he says. God has done God’s works through Jesus, showing us the face of the Father in the acts of the Son. Now, through the power of the Spirit, we are reminded of all that Jesus taught.