God's Faithful Power

These are some of my thoughts on Sunday's epistle sent to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.

First Reading: Acts 2:1-21

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
  ⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
  ¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
 ¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
 that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
  and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
 and your young men shall see visions,
  and your old men shall dream dreams.
 ¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
  in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
   and they shall prophesy.
 ¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above
  and signs on the earth below,
   blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
 ²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness
  and the moon to blood,
   before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
 ²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”

On the Day of Pentecost, we read of the mighty beginning, what some call the “birthday” of the church. The crowd had never experienced anything like this and so they naturally asked, “What does this mean?” (v. 12). What does this mean? Peter tells them that it means that God is fulfilling the promises made long ago through the prophet Joel. In other words, God is faithful.

On the day of Jesus’ ascension, he told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were filled with power from on high (Luke 24:49). He had promised them the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of growing God’s church. And boom—here it is! That word for power in Greek is the word that we get dynamite from in English, dunamis. God gave the disciples the tools, the power to do all that God had asked of them. God is faithful.

On this day, can you think of any time in your own life when you experienced the faithfulness of God? How did it make you feel when you realized God’s nearness and trustworthiness, that God had done exactly what God had promised?

Let us pray.

Faithful God, help us to see you at work in the various circumstances of our lives. May we understand and experience you to be always faithful. Amen.

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