Pentecost, Kindness and the Spirit

from http://umbrellahealth.wordpress.com

Whenever I teach world religions, I’m inspired by Buddhists’ emphasis upon kindness----and I wish kindness was emphasized more in Christian faith. After all, kindness and gentleness are esteemed in the New Testament as essential qualities (Romans 3:12, 2 Cor. 6:6, Gal. 5:22-23, 6:1, Eph. 2:7, 4:2, Col. 3:12, 1 Tim. 6:11, 2 Tim. 2:25, Titus 3:4, James 3:13, 1 Peter 3:16), and these are the qualities of God and Christ, too (Romans 11:22, 2 Cor. 10:1, Titus 3:4)! One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 4:21, where Paul sarcastically says, “What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”

When I say “emphasized,” I mean I wish it was preached more as an essential quality of a Christian. I wish it was esteemed more among church folk as a biblical, non-negotiable teaching, and I wish church leaders were chosen on this basis in addition to other talents they may have. We’ve all met (and some of us are) churchgoers who are blunt, my-way-or-the-highway, insensitive, scheming, full of advice instead of willing to listen, happy to catch others in mistakes, and so on---but meanwhile they have significant roles in the congregation and community. Paul writes in Philippians, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone” (4:5), but we don’t think enough about why that should be the case, and whether or not we ourselves are kind and gentle----and if we’re not kind and gentle, are other aspects of our Christian witness cheapened?

So it’s good to ask ourselves: Do we show display kindness and gentleness? How do we display them if our jobs are such that we can't always be kind?  Whatever are our political and social views, do we also express kindheartedness? Do we support people who are struggling (as opposed to telling them to “get over it”)? Do we gossip about people and feel good about it? Do we praise the Lord in some conversations, and in others repeat the mean-spirited rhetoric and opinions of certain media commentators?

Not that I’ve been uniformly kind and considerate over the years, far from it. But my own failures taught me that we often have only one chance to make an impression of kindness to people. I’ve met plenty of pastors and Christian teachers who failed miserably in being kind, and I’ve thought: What the hell are you thinking? Don’t you realize your words are going to linger in other people’s hearts? Don’t you realize this is the only impression you’ll have on those people? You may be able to tell that I’ve had my feelings hurt in this regard a few times, and have soul-searched myself, and that I’ve now taken this on as a strong reminder.

I’m working my way here toward Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the church. The gift was understood as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-29, where God’s spirit would be poured out to all people; the gift also fulfilled Christ’s promise in Acts 1:8.

The spiritual gift of glossalalia, speaking in languages, was the first evidence of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2. But that gift quickly began to take precedence in people’s minds over other gifts---and this was a tendency Paul addressed, especially in 1 Corinthians. People at that church boasted in this ability, but Paul reminded them that there are many spiritual gifts, and he actually places tongues-speaking at the end of his list of gifts. He tried to get the Corinthians to be kinder, more loving people, not so status-conscious and elitist.

Today, Paul would address other issues in our contemporary congregations, but he would probably remind us of the same things as he did in Galatians 5:19-25: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.”

Any of us could recognize one or more “works of the flesh” in our lives, and as we grow in the Lord, we can also rejoice when we see degrees of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control being evidenced in our daily routine.

If we connect the Pentecost gift of the Spirit in Acts 2, with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-26 (including the admonition to avoid envy, unhealthy competition, and conceit among ourselves).... and if we toss in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 for good measure, then we have powerful reasons to say that Pentecost is a holiday about kindness and gentleness, patience and love and peace.

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I found some old research I did for an issue of FaithLink a while ago. According to The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the Greek word pentecoste means “fiftieth” and refers to the Jewish festival Shavu’ot (“weeks”), which follows the Passover by seven complete weeks. That holiday is described in, among other places, Exodus 23:14-17 and Deut. 16:16-17, and is referenced in 1 Cor. 16:8 and Acts 20:16. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ. Another name is “Whitsunday” because persons baptized on that day wore white.