Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Pentecost Sunday
Mother’s Day
Festival of the Christian Home/Family Week
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
“The Spirit’s Presence”
Acts 2:1-21
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost concludes the Easter season because the resurrection of Jesus Christ has its promise fulfilled in the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church.
The celebration of Pentecost as a Christian feast day is what comes to us from our reading from The Book of Acts. It is an account of the birth and beginning of the church.
Our reading provides us with one of three references to the Jewish feast day of Pentecost (Acts 20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8). It was one of the most important Jewish festivals, along with Passover or the Feast of the Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the Tabernacles.
Pentecost was also known as the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28:2), because it was observed seven weeks after Passover (Leviticus 23:15-21). So it came to be designated Pentecost or fiftieth since it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Sabbath on which Passover began. In Christian practice Pentecost occurred fifty days after Easter.
The Jewish feast day of Pentecost is linked by some scholars with the gift of the Law at Sinai. It was at Sinai that God’s law and covenant became the foundation of the community of Israel.
In our reading this morning the writer of Acts links God’s giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection as the foundation of a new community and a new covenant with God through Body of Christ that has now become the church. The account given of what happened at Sinai is filled with deafening sounds and dazzling sights (Exodus 19:16-24).
The account given of what happened in Jerusalem is an equally dramatic moment – a shattering noise occurs followed by a spectacular vision. Something significant is happening as many gather from many nations.
The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is to all people (Acts 2:5-11). All were amazed and perplexed (Acts 2:12).
How is it that on such a day of celebration all would be amazed and perplexed? Did they forget what Jesus said to them prior to his death: “The Holy Spirit, whom God will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:26-27).
Today is Pentecost Sunday and it is also Mother’s Day.
It may be that many of us would have responded in the same way had we been among those who had gathered in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost after Easter. If the birth of a child is cause for us to be amazed and perplexed, it would seem reasonable to assume that the birth of the church as the Body of Christ would also be cause for the early disciples to be amazed and perplexed.
I can only imagine how my mother must have felt the day I was born. We never talked much about my birth.
Whenever she would say anything to anyone about my birth she would always say in a voice filled with amazement: “He was a big baby! He had one big head.”
I must have made it easier for her because in the years that followed she gave birth to four other children. She never talked about their heads or how big they were at the time they were born.
I grew up in a blended family. There were five of us. My mom and dad never married. Through her first marriage I have two brothers and through her second marriage I have a brother and sister.
There were times when I was growing up that I thought my mom was not a good mom – especially when I wanted something and didn't get it or when I did not have my way. The truth be told, my mom probably thought I was not being a good son.
I know now that there were moments when she was too busy to hear about my latest adventures or how terrible school had been that day or what made me afraid one day and sad the next. But I also know she was there whenever I sat in the doctor's office or got too close to traffic passing by.
When I arrived at church yesterday Auntie Norma Lei Noland was already here getting the roses ready for today. Auntie had four glass vases filled with water. She had already separated and placed about four dozen roses in the vases when I happened by and noticed that the roses had thorns.
I wondered if it would be worth the time to remove the thorns until I calculated in my mind that if there were six or seven thorns to a stem there would be a thousand thorns to remove. I wasn’t about to do that nor was I about to ask Auntie to do that but I could not resist the temptation to say: “Oh, Auntie, get thorns?!?”
“Well,” Auntie replied, “I’m not about to remove them.”
And then she added, “That’s life. You get a little bit of the sweet with the thorns.”
“That’s life. You get a little bit of the sweet with the thorns.”
When I think about my mother and my birth and my family, I know Auntie is right. I did get a little bit of the sweet with the thorns and it’s maika‘i. It’s fine.
When I think about the early disciples being amazed and perplexed at the same time on that Pentecost after Easter, I know Auntie is right. They got a little bit of the sweet with the thorns too and that’s maika‘i too.
We give thanks to God for the Spirit’s presence in our lives and in our world amid the roses and thorns. Happy Mother’s Day to us all! Happy Birthday to us as the Body of Christ, as the church.
Amen.