The End of Divisions? Not yet!
Pentecost is a great and holy day of the Christian faith, equal in importance to Easter! Pentecost was the day that brought the Holy Spirit into our lives, as Jesus promised: to complete the work of Christ and to bring the reality of Christ into our daily lives; to teach us and to form us as a people of God, a people of promise, and a people to make God’s love visible and real. This is our calling! Not to be an institution like other institutions; not to be an elite, exclusive gathering, like a country club; not to be messengers of gloom and doom; not to play politics with the common good, but to promote the common good in every way available to us. This and so much more is the message of Pentecost and the reason why Jesus did not ascend to leave us alone to our own devices and policies. He ascended in order that the Holy Spirit will illumine our path and show us the ways that God desires. And what does God desire? “He has told you what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God!” (see Micah 6:8)
The venerable old translation known as the King James Version of the Bible gives Proverbs 29:18 this way: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Modern translations render it differently. I like the old version better. I also like Joel 2:28. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” That is the meaning of Pentecost!
Note what the prophet Joel said: “your sons and daughters shall prophesy”. Men and women will have an equal place in the new era inaugurated by the descent of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost brought to an end the thinking that divides people according to gender or race or ethnicity or economic class. Or did it? No, not yet! Why, two thousand years later, has the message of Pentecost not broken through even in churches that call themselves Christian, or Orthodox, or Catholic? Why do we still divide among ourselves? And why do we continue to support divisions in society? Look at the icon below.
The image is from a Coptic icon of Pentecost. Note the presence of women – not just Mary the Theotokos in the blue garment, but other women as well, together with the male disciples. This is in sharp contrast to Greek and Russian icons which usually show only men. (Mary is sometimes included in Byzantine icons; but never any other women!) And yet, in chapter 1, verse 14, of the Book of Acts we read: “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” As a matter of fact, there were about 120 of them gathered together! (See Acts 1:15) They were “constantly in prayer”. This was the prelude to the descent of the Holy Spirit in chapter 2. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). Can “all together” possibly mean the exclusion of the women clearly indicated in chapter 1? So why aren’t women included in Byzantine and Russian iconography of Pentecost? If we can’t overcome gender divisions and male exclusivity in our churches, what hope is there for society at large? Or maybe that’s part of the reason why churches are emptying and more and more people are calling themselves “nones” – as they reply with “none” to questions about what religion or church they adhere to. When will Pentecost really impact the life of the Church?