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This past Sunday (June 8, 2014) was Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is the celebration of the coming gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Christ. It gains the title of Pentecost because it was a Jewish celebration of the fifty days after the Passover fest. So, it was fifty days since the death and Resurrection of Jesus and just days after His ascension into Heaven on the Mt. Olive. There are some traditional passages preachers read on this Pentecost Sunday. The most obvious is from the book Acts of the Apostles. It tells of what occurred on that day to the disciples when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 2: 1-13). The other traditional passage is a prophecy from the Old Testament about the coming of the Holy Spirit on all people (Joel 2:28-32). But I did not preach on either of these passages. For there was great power unveiled on the disciples and the followers of Christ that day, but is was not in the signs and wonders that were seen and spoken about by the authors of Acts and the prophet Joel.

The gift granted on Pentecost was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was and is a great gift to the people. The result of that gift is not great and powerful "tricks" or "powers" that we witness in the telling to the story of Pentecost. The greatest gift was unity of people. In the old covenant made between God and Abraham, the unity was maintained by inheritance. Unity was that you were a decedent of Abraham. In the new covenant, God needed a way to unify His people. They would no longer just be relatives who are being brought into the kingdom. The spirit offers that unity. This is what I see as the great gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds of the unity we have:

Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

We are unified though the Holy Spirit to the followers around the world and next door in our neighborhood. It will be once we demonstrate the unity we poses through the gift of the Holy Spirit that I believe the world will once again take seriously the Christian faith. Followers of Christ were not meant to fight and be divided, we are called and pulled towards one another through and by the Holy Spirit. As the old hymn is sung, may it be our prayer:

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me; 

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. 

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. 

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. 

Spirit of the living God, move among us all; 

make us one in heart and mind, make us one in love: 

humble, caring, selfless, sharing. 

Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love. 

(http://www.hymnary.org/text/spirit_of_the_living_god_fall_fresh)