Last Sunday, the Church celebrated the Pentecost Sunday thereby bringing the Eastertide to a close. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is often celebrated as the “birthday of the Church”. Recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we are presented with the gathering of the early disciples hiding and scrambling in a room, uncertain and anxious about their future after the departure of their master; but then all of a sudden with the sound of rushing wind and tongues of fires, the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon them. As we are told, from this moment onwards, the community of believers took a different turn, the disciples stepped out with courage to face the hostile world that once persecuted their master and was now doing the same to them.

         Generally, while reflecting on the Pentecost experience, preachers and Christians seem to focus more their attention on the “aesthetics” of the tongues of fire and the fact that the believers, who for the most part were not very much educated nor widely travelled, could speak in foreign languages. In the events of the Pentecost, beyond the admiration of gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit experienced, I believe the more important question we must ask and reflect upon should be that of understanding the purpose of the gifts received. The descent of the Holy Spirit brought about two important gifts for the disciples: courage and tongues. The particular detail sometimes sidelined and less emphasized in the whole picture of the Pentecost event is that these gifts of the Holy Spirit were disruptive gifts. But one may wonder, why did the Spirit not manifest Himself through the gift of healing or intercession? Well, this is because the Holy Spirit gives us His gifts according to our situation and context, and moreover to resolve issues and serve in our immediate community and environment. This brings me to the Christian community of our time and in a particular way our country Nigeria.

        As Christians, we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give us His gifts and manifest Himself in our lives, and sometimes we even go as far as asking for a particular gift or conditioning the Holy Spirit on how He should manifest Himself in our lives. But what we fail to do is to ask whether that particular gift is what we need in that our present situation and context. For the early disciples, the gift of courage helped them to step out of their shells and fears to begin the new vibrant and dynamic community of believers amidst the persecutions and hatred, meanwhile the gift of tongues drew the attention of the foreigners and bystanders to hear what the disciples had to say.

Therefore, what service or solution will your gift bring to your community, family, society and country? In the present predicament of your family, do you sincerely believe that the gift of prophesy you have been asking for is what your family needs? With the present situation of injustice and deterioration of morals in our Nigerian society, do you think you would be able to contribute much with the gift of healing which you have asked from the Holy Spirit?

        The gifts of the Holy Spirit are means to an end and not ends in themselves. In themselves, they are beautiful and are to be nurtured and cherished if given, but the essence of these gifts is service and transformation of the person who receives them and the community where they are manifested. This is what we see in the newly birthed community after Pentecost. The disciples did not just host weekly meetings to gist and flex their different gifts; they actively reordered their whole lives and their experience with the world. With the early disciples, the Pentecost experience did not just end or remain in the Christian community. It went far and beyond into their daily lives as they engaged with the socio-economic and political aspects of their society; in fact, that was the very reason they were given a new name at Antioch: “Christians”.

        Pentecost reminds us that human progress cannot be leveraged or achieved simply through technological advancements or political enactments. Without a true and deep structural change in the human heart, our political and technological enhancements risk becoming tools of subjugation in the hands of tyrants. Whether viewed through the lens of faith or as a profound sociological experience, the Pentecost experience challenges us to trade our passive cynicism for an active collaborative engagement of life and society.

The rushing wind of Pentecost is ultimately the disruptive force that blows away the dust of complacency and forces us out of our safe locked rooms into a complex world that awaits to hear a message of hope, delivered in a language it can finally understand. Therefore, you, as a Christian today, how far are you willing to take the Pentecost experience? And what difference do you intend to make in your community with the gift you have received?