Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 23, 2021

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

It is Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter. The apostles have endured Jesus’ death, encountered him in mysterious resurrection appearances, then watched him taken up into the clouds.

Pentecost (1545), painting by Titian (c.1488-1576). Santa Maria della Salute, Venice. (Click image to enlarge.)

They must have faced the future with wary uncertainty … and then the Spirit, the Advocate whom Jesus had promised would come, fills the room with noise and wind and fire, and everything changes! Speaking fluently in many languages, the apostles face a startled crowd and, quoting the Prophet Joel, declare the coming of God and our hope for salvation.

First Reading (alternate): Ezekiel 37:1-14

In these poetic verses, the prophet Ezekiel imagines an eerie, deathly valley filled with dry bones. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and as he does so, the dry bones become connected, covered with skin, and then breathed into life as a vast multitude. In this vision the prophet unveils God’s promise to restore Israel from exile. In the context of this week’s Lectionary readings, we might imagine it as the work of the Spirit bringing forth life and a multitude of witnesses from the dust and dry bones of death.

Psalm: Psalm 104:25-35,37

This joyful Psalm celebrates the diversity of God’s creation, which fills earth and sea with too many amazing creatures to count. Evoking the story of creation in Genesis, the Psalmist reminds us that just as God’s spirit – “breath” or “wind” in Hebrew – was at work in creating the Earth, God’s spirit remains active in making creation new again The loss of breath ends life; new breath restores it.

Second Reading: Romans 8:22-27

Paul’s metaphor in this passage may feel strange at first: He imagines all creation groaning like a mother giving birth, and the Holy Spirit joining in “with sighs too deep for words.” But this imaginative leap prompts us to deep reflection that yields insight. Like a mother eager to hold her new infant, we live in hope of the new life that God has in store for us. We wait patiently for something that we desire but cannot yet see.

Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

We have spent much of Eastertide hearing portions of John’s long account of Jesus’ final conversation with his apostles at the Last Supper. Now, nearing the end of this farewell discourse, Jesus speaks of an Advocate – the Holy Spirit – who may seem as mysterious as Paul’s sighing spirit in Romans. The apostles have been with Jesus since his public ministry began, yet there is still much that they don’t understand, and much that Jesus has not explained. When the Advocate comes bearing Jesus’ words, John writes, much more will be revealed and they will understand.