The Sunday of this weekend will be celebrated as Pentecost Sunday. To this end I re-publish my article on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, (click for article) which seeks to place the narrative of Pentecost within a broader context than that ascribed by a narrow sectarian religious perspective or even as presently understood within the classic Judeo-Christian worldview.
As long as Pentecost is high-jacked by religious fundamentalism, with its petty divisiveness, ideological arrogance, and fundamental denial of the wide span of human experience, then there is no basis upon which to truly accept the testimony of both Joel and Peter about the significance of the day, in their ‘UPON ALL FLESH’ pronouncements. Fundamentalism is incapable of conceiving the pronoun ‘all’. It can only manage ‘us’ and ‘them’ and certainly promotes ‘l’ above all else, hence its natural tendency to produce demagogues.
Unity and prosperity in human society, for which Pentecost at its highest level serves as a symbol, (juxtaposed as it is with the Babel Narrative) cannot be achieved under demagogic leadership which at its best can only promote schism. The current experiment is with democratic leadership, and thus far the results are almost as miserable as its predecessor, which explains the present global political malaise as despots try to make a come-back.
Perhaps it may also serve as a guide or signpost for that growing cross-section of the church now (finally!) haply paying attention to manifestations of supernatural power and transcendent consciousness, and faced with the task of harmoniously integrating these experiences within a community life still, for the most part, shackled not only by old theological wineskins, but also modern and ‘postmodern’ epistemologies and philosophies equally as ill-equipped to contain Joel’s global vision, which Peter instinctively recognized, in spite of all his failings and the rest of church fathers down through the ages after him: – “THIS IS THAT….” Acts 2:16
YeKengalé 