Drunk?

Sunday is the day we celebrate the disciples of Jesus being accused of being drunk at 9:00 in the morning. That’s not exactly what we celebrate, but it does come up in the story reported in Acts.

The disciples are together again in someone’s home. The whole place is filled with the sound of a “violent wind” and apparently in response to this wind, they rush out into the city. As they rush around, they are talking and each is able to speak a language different from his own so they are understood by people from all over the region. And that means there will be a lot of people who can’t understand what is being said—it will sound like gibberish. Therefore, those speaking must be drunk.

In the parish where I spent the last 22 years, it was the practice to try to replicate this by having the lesson from Acts where this is reported, read by people in a variety of languages all at the same time. To call it distracting doesn’t begin to describe it, and frankly, I never found it more than that. It was jarring and, for me, off-putting. The practice manages to draw attention away from the Acts story itself and to a gimmick. While I’m not alone in thinking this, many each year are taken with the experience. Whatever floats your boat.

But, I choose to write about Pentecost not to complain about a practice in a parish I no longer am involved with, but to focus on the disciples’ reaction to the coming of the Spirit. Once touched by the Spirit, these men—and perhaps and probably women too—can’t contain themselves. They not only rush out into the community that day to share exciting news with others [as indicated by Peter’s “sermon”]but they don’t stop rushing. From that beginning, the good news of God’s saving love spreads all over the known world during their life time!

Years later when Paul enters the story, he is writing to churches he founded, but he is also writing to communities of Christians in cities to which he never went. The excitement of this new revelation of God’s love was such that many began to tell others immediately. And more than that, left home and hearth to tell others in strange cities and strange countries. Like people who’ve drunk too much wine, they lost their inhibitions and began doing a “foolish” thing.

So, here’s what I’ve been thinking about. What happened? Where’s that same enthusiasm today? As attendance at Christian worship is falling all over the world (with a very few exceptions), where is the drive to share the good news?
Peace,

Jerry+