My Account

Pondering the Word

Celebrating the resurrection, anticipating the Spirit

by Jacob W. Elias

When I was a child, we gathered as an extended family at Easter and Pentecost. I had some awareness of what these days meant in the story of Jesus and the early church. However, my main point of connection was that on these holy days I played with my cousins and ate a festive meal with the whole clan.

Later I learned more of the earlier story of Easter and Pentecost, a story that also included intergenerational gatherings for special times of remembrance. Easter comes during the season of Passover, the annual pilgrimage festival when Jewish people commemorate God's dramatic rescue of the Hebrew people from their enslavement in Egypt. The second annual Jewish pilgrimage festival, called Shavuoth (in the Greek: Pentecost), recalls the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. In the Law God graciously provided guidance for how the people rescued from their slavery are invited to live in grateful obedience. These Jewish festivals also featured God's work as Creator, attested in the annual agricultural cycle of the beginning and completion of the grain harvest.

I continue to reflect on how these several stories intertwine: the church's celebration of Easter and Pentecost; the roots of these festivals in the history of Israel, the life of Jesus, and the emergence of the church; and the ways that children, youth, and adults experience the God whose saving activity we rehearse in these narratives. I also ponder how these times of solemn and celebrative remembering can help us glimpse the open-ended plot of the grand story: God's ongoing creative and restorative work among and through the covenant people.

The challenge in planning for worship during the season from Easter to Pentecost is to invite people of all generations and backgrounds to an inclusive and joyful participation with God and with each other. The plot of God's story continues to unfold, even though its anticipated outcome has already been announced. People of every generation are invited to participate in God's mission toward that outcome, which has the earth and all its people in view.

Pastor and scholar N. T. Wright describes the biblical narrative plot of God's mission in terms of a drama with five acts. Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat develop Wright's analysis further, suggesting a six-act drama: creation, revolt, the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of the church, and the consummation when Christ returns to complete God's mission. The story of Jesus climaxes with his resurrection, celebrated at Easter. From Pentecost to the present, the church finds itself in the fifth act, whose plot continues to develop with the empowerment and guidance of the Holy Spirit. That story is still being written, and God's people participate with God in that ongoing story!

The plot of God's story continues to unfold, even though its anticipated outcome has already been announced.

How do these bible texts demonstrate this communal process of remembering? Gospel texts taken from John and from Luke rehearse the appearances of the risen Christ but they also reassure his followers about his ongoing presence with them. Texts from the Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament, plus some from Acts, paint the big picture within which the significance of Jesus' resurrection can be understood. The selected Epistle texts ground our theological reflections on Jesus' resurrection appearances and the groaning of all creation for the redemption yet to be revealed, and then invite focus on how 1 John encourages the community of faith in their relationships with one another and with God.

Many of the texts from the Psalms selected for this season feature both cries of distress and expressions of confidence in God's deliverance. These are often the voices of individuals, but they cry out and they offer testimony and praise in the context of the worshipping community as they recall God's creating and restoring activity in the past. As 21st-century believers we can often identify with the cries of despair and prayers for deliverance in the Psalms. These Psalms also elicit our confident trust in God.

Psalm 118 (Easter 1) is one of the psalms traditionally recited during Passover. When Jesus entered Jerusalem for that festival, the crowds shouted, "Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Ps. 118:26). This Psalm also supplies an architectural image to portray the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection: The rejected stone has become the headstone (118:22). This is the Good News of Easter! In the midst of distress comes assurance of God's victory; a recital of pain gives way to a litany of praise!

Psalm 104 (Pentecost Sunday) is a glorious song of praise to God, the Creator and Sustainer. The first part of this psalm in many ways echoes the Genesis creation account. God rides on the wind (same word as "breath" or "spirit"), bringing order out of chaos (104:2, 3). God provides food and supplies breath (again, "spirit"); and when God removes breath/spirit, humans expire (104:27-30). This psalm helps worshippers to glimpse God's creative, restorative and sustaining work from the broadest possible perspective. The celebration of Pentecost elicits that kind of big-picture view of God's agenda and goal. God's mission encompasses the whole of creation, and all peoples!

Normally the lectionary identifies Old Testament texts for each Sunday. For the Easter to Pentecost season in this cycle, there are only two: the vision of a celebrative feast from Isaiah 25 on Easter Sunday; and on Pentecost Sunday the Ezekiel 37 vision of the dry bones in the valley coming back to life. In the six Sundays between Easter and Pentecost there are excerpts from Luke's account of the emergence and growth of the church. Central for worship on Pentecost is the Acts 2 account of the Jerusalem festival when the Spirit dramatically came, the apostles declared the mighty acts of God, and diaspora Jews and proselytes heard the Good News in their own native languages.

The Epistle passages at the beginning and the end of this lectionary sequence come from Paul's letters. The Easter Sunday reading from 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 features a recital of the climax of the story of Jesus: Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised on the third day, and he appeared. The first and the third of these plot lines are accentuated by a general reminder of the continuity of these events with the earlier story of Israel: "according to the Scriptures." The words "he appeared" occur repeatedly, emphasizing that God's self-revelation in Christ continued in a way that also included this letter's writer, Paul: "Last of all, he appeared also to me" (15:8). The Pentecost Sunday reading comes from Romans 8:22-27, a reflection on how the groaning of creation resonates with the groaning of the Spirit within and among God's people. On the six other Sundays of this season all the epistle texts come from 1 John, thereby rooting the narrative of lived witness in a particular firstcentury congregation with its joys and struggles.

The Gospel texts, with one exception, are taken from John. The exception is Luke 24:36b-48 (Easter 3), a story of the appearances of the risen Christ to his followers. Easter Sunday features John 20, which includes the story of Mary Magdalene’s early-morning discovery that Jesus’ tomb was empty (20:1), subsequent verification of this fact by Peter and the beloved disciple (20:2-10), and the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene (20:11-18). One week later (Easter 2), the initial focus falls on events unfolding that same evening: Jesus’ appearance to his disciples huddling behind locked doors (20:19-23) and their report to Thomas (20:20-25), who later also comes to believe (20:26-29). With the themes of sending, the gift of the Spirit, and the message of forgiveness (20:21-23), this passage also has Pentecost overtones. The other Gospel texts in this lectionary sequence come from a variety of places in the fourth Gospel. These texts put the accent on the presence of Christ among his followers: as the Good Shepherd (10:11-18), the True Vine (15;1-8, 9-17), the intercessor who prays for present and future followers (17:6-19), and finally, on Pentecost Sunday, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth (15:26-27; 16:4-15).

Jacob W. Elias, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and co-pastor of Parkview Mennonite Church, Kokomo, Indiana.