The questions we were considering were considering were about the experience of the Holy Spirit that apostles had at the Festival of Weeks meeting they had 50 days after the death and resurrection of Christ. It was a traditional gathering of Jews called "shavu'ot" or the Festival of Weeks, a harvest festival and celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses. When they gather in the upper room of a house, they experience a powerful wind from heaven that is reminiscent of Ezekiel's vision. As in Ezekiel's vision, they too experience tongues of fire that emanate from the wind above them and they seem to be speaking in every known language, so that everyone in Jerusalem can hear them speaking in their own tongue. We talked about this "speaking in tongues" story and wondered if it was perhaps different from what today's Evangelicals mean when they talk about it. It may have meant to the writer - Luke - that the message they were receiving from the Spirit of God was one that was meant to go out to all and that it was understandable to all. We liked that approach better, but it is clear from other letters of Paul that the early Christian community did have "glossolalia" in their meetings and he was concerned that it not be overemphasized or done without translation.
The next question had to do with the core elements of Peter's message, the first public teaching of the apostles about Jesus:
- The "glossolalia" was seen as a sign that the words of the prophet Joel were being fulfilled and that the Spirit of God was now being "poured out on ALL" - make, female, Jew, Gentile, slave and free.
- The miracles Jesus performed were signs that God was working through him.
- God raised Jesus to life because he could not be held by the power of death.
- God's oath to King David, that one of his descendants would head God's kingdom is made good in Christ's resurrection; this "risen Christ" is meant to be both Lord and King.
- All who enter the community must be baptized - a sign of repentance - in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We talked about this baptism - whether it really needed to be a physical baptism. While we agreed that it probably was for early Christians, the key thing was the repentance and intention to be part of the community.
- The essentials mentioned by the author were to be faithful to the teaching of the apostles, faithfulness to the "brotherhood" - care of others in the community - and faithfulness to the practices of breaking bread together and praying constantly.
We will probably go on to Chapter 3 and 4 next time and we'll look again at the details of what the early apostles thought was KEY in the building of the community, and the beginnings of the time of trials they had to endure.
The following quote from William Penn's No Cross, No Crown is very pertinent to the spirit of repentance early Friends shared with early Christians:
“ . .
.we were made to see him whom we
had pierced, and to mourn for it. A day of humiliation overtook us, and we
fainted to that pleasure and delight we once loved. Now our works went
beforehand to judgment, a thorough search was made, and the words of the
prophet became well understood by us; ‘Who
can abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears. . . . .
.the terrors of the Lord took such hold upon us, because we had long, under a
profession of religion, grieved God’s Holy Spirit, which reproved us in
secret for our disobedience; that as we abhorred to think of continuing in our
old sins, so we feared to use lawful things, lest we should use them
unlawfully” (Penn 104-105)
