Reflections for Pentecost

This year, as I was looking at the Pentecost reading from Acts 2, I was struck with the strangeness of it all. Far from the picture-perfect little scene I usually imagine, this time it struck me as rather chaotic and even a little frightening.

If you just take verses 2 and 3, you get:

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

Sounds kind of scary, doesn't it? Can you imagine being there, and experiencing that? Today we might suppose a bomb had gone off. But of course we know what is happening:

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

But what if we didn't know what was happening?

How many times does the work of the Spirit in our lives look like this? At first, it seems disruptive and even frightening. Perhaps all we can see is the noise and confusion. Only later, or perhaps with someone else's help, can we tell that God was doing something amazing.

~Pastor Sarah