Do you know what May 31st is?
Let’s see, the last day of May? Your anniversary? The 151st day of the year? It’s the fiftieth day past Easter? Bingo! Figured out where I am going yet?
Sunday May 31, 2009 is Pentecost Sunday. The biggest day in the celebration and practice of Christianity. Without it Christmas and Easter would not even exist. Seriously! Pentecost Sunday is the most important day of all the events of Christianity.
Were it not for the Day of Pentecost the story of Jesus would have disappeared like the story of Theudas. Who is Theudas…exactly.
It all builds upon the next…Christmas became significant because of Good Friday. Good Friday became significant because of Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection Sunday became significant because of Pentecost Sunday!
You want to know why we don’t celebrate it? Embarrassment! We are ashamed of it. Rather we are made ashamed by it! We are ashamed because we cannot speak in tongues. We are ashamed because we cannot heal, and cast out demons, and raise the dead.
We are ashamed because our lives are not marked by power and anointing and change! We are ashamed because the most Christian country in the world has legalized abortion. The most Christian country in the world cannot pray in public and will not pray in private. The most Christian country in the world is on the verge of embracing homosexuality as legitimate marriage. The most Christian country in the world is the most spiritually anemic country in the world.
Let’s face it, we can handle a baby in a manger, and a man on the cross, but enough wind and fire to change our lives and the world we live in is too much of a good thing!
After all how do you decorate a tree with tongues of fire? How do you make jewelry that looks like a roaring wind?
We refuse to celebrate it because the only way to celebrate Pentecost is by experiencing it and expressing it. Why would anyone want to celebrate their most glaring failure and shortcoming!
Christianity does not need more education, or elucidation, or indoctrination. We do not need more symbolism or relativism or modernism. We do not need more style or studies or shtick.
We need, as Jim Cymbala wrote about it is, ”fresh wind and fresh fire.” What every Christian and every church and every community in the country needs is “fresh power.”
Maybe we should stop worrying about whether or not we can put a manger in front of the court house or whether we should call it Easter holidays or Spring break. And start seeking God for the outpouring of His Spirit before the whole world goes to hell.
Happy Pentecost!
