When the day of Pentecost had come, they 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?” 

³But 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.’” Acts 2:1-21

“Note that Peter is not primarily an interpreter of scripture. First and foremost he is an interpreter of the present time and the gospel. Scripture becomes helpful as a means by which he makes sense of those things. Peter also refers to a community full of visionaries and dreamers. He is not the only one equipped to make meaning. That work belongs to all who receive the Spirit, both then and now. Our churchly Pentecost observances fail if they create nostalgia instead of equipping interpreters or prophets. This passage and its wider context challenge us in a variety of ways. The Spirit impels its prophets outdoors. Pentecost begins in indoor seclusion and moves to public proclamation.² Christians give theological meaning to things not for their own sake, but for the world’s. It is too easy to view Peter as the resident expert, the one who makes sense of things so others can watch from the sidelines. However, Peter insists that God’s Spirit is poured out widely, across social boundaries. The Spirit empowers interpretation that happens corporately. Also, Peter and other luminaries in Acts do not receive all the answers along with the Spirit. Throughout the narrative they must live into God’s future, themselves susceptible to error and reliant on others to make sense of God’s ways. This is the choppy work, the inspired work, of all God’s people. Acts does not regard Pentecost as an entirely singular occurrence. This scene introduces a sequence of occasions in which the Spirit mobilizes Jesus’ followers and inaugurates new directions for ministry and community. See the Spirit at work in Acts 4:23-37; 8:14-17; 10:1-11:18; 13:1-4; 15:1-35; 19:1-7. The Spirit continues to nudge believers toward new horizons. Also, Pentecost hardly describes the church’s work in total. For one thing, in Acts 2 no Gentiles are on the scene or clearly envisioned as part of the gospel’s future. Not yet. When that time for radical inclusion comes, the new stage of the church’s existence will need a little prophecy to make sense of it, too.” (Matt Skinner, workingpreacher.org, Commentary on Acts 2, May 15, 2016)

The people ask, in a way, “Hey, are all of the disciples drunk, Peter?”  And Peter says, “No, these men are not drunk.  This is what the prophet Joel spoke about….In the last days…G-d declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy….the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.” Can you imagine the people standing around and looking at each other and thinking “What the heck does that have to do with all of this?” The people think the disciples are filled with spirits, of some kind, and Peter is telling them in a not-so-direct way that they are in fact filled with the Holy Spirit, which no one there would have had any idea what he was getting at. Peter does the pivot from “they are not drunk from spirits” to “they are filled with the holy spirit.”

Did you ever wonder why alcohol was ever called “Spirits”? And why do we often associate seeing people filled with the Holy Spirit looking as if they are drunk? I could find a few reasons why alcohol is called spirits. The first and best is that drinking alcohol lifts your “Spirits” and so alcohol was associated with the word “Spirits”. And yet, I have known too many mean drunks in my life, I don’t necessarily like that explanation. The second explanation I found is that the word “Alcohol” comes from the Arabic word “Al-kuhul” – a very fine powder sulfide Sb2S3 used as an antiseptic and eyeliner – derived in a distilling process, and so was soon used to describe all distilling in general. The third explanation is that the Arabic word for our English word “Ghoul” is “Al-Ghwal” – which also means spirit or demon. And so we have our word Alcohol that comes from words that sound like words that mean Spirit, or words used for distillation. It is no surprise, I guess, that we have often heard people at a Pentecostal meeting being referred to as “Drunk with the Spirit”. So maybe we can understand why Peter pivots so quickly – he doesn’t want the disciples to be accused with being drunk. No one likes being accused of being drunk.

But, it does give the implication of being “Drunk with the Spirit” the edge I think the word needs – because the Holy Spirit is a dangerous thing. There are different terms for the Holy Spirit in the Gospels, it is called the “Comforter” and the “Advocate” and the “Paraklete”. Those are comforting thoughts – oh the Holy Spirit comes to comfort us – and the Holy Spirit comes to advise us. And when we call it the Paraklete it sounds so much like a Parakeet –or a pair of cleats. And yes, the Holy Spirit can do those things: it can comfort us and it can guide us and advise us – and reminds us that Jesus is with us in our times of trouble.

Pastor Dave