“If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached.”

-Jimmy Buffett

Pentecost is here, my friends! In the Christian faith, Pentecost is the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Found in Acts 2, we see the moment where the disciples move from fearful and bumbling to confident and articulate. The Apostle Peter delivers the first Gospel sermon to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for Shavuot (Pentecost in Greek), the Festival of Weeks where the Jewish people celebrate the giving of Torah. Peter begins his sermon with a quote from the prophet Joel, which he uses to explain that he and his friends are not drunk, but that God was doing something new:

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
Even upon my servants, men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will cause wonders to occur in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.
The sun will be changed into darkness,
and the moon will be changed into blood,
before the great and spectacular day of the Lord comes.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Peter’s message was that this Jesus of Nazareth, who many had seen crucified just weeks prior, was indeed alive again, and had initiated these “last days” where God’s Spirit was being poured out before their eyes on common people. Peter’s sermon is astonishing, if for no other reason than it’s doubtful this hard-headed fisherman had ever memorized a lick of scripture or taken any public speaking lessons. The crowd present was moved by what they saw and heard…moved enough to believe that God really was up to something new, and they didn’t want to be left out. When they asked what they must do, Peter replied:

“Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away—as many as the Lord our God invites.”

Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on this moment in her book Bread of Angels, “I do not believe he [Peter] gave them a three-step prescription to fill. I believe he told them how to prepare for a holy hurricane. “Reorient your lives.” That is the truth of what he told them, knowing full well that was what would happen the moment Jesus came to live in them. Forget everything you ever thought you knew about who is in charge in this world. Get ready to revise all your notions about what makes someone great, or right, or worthy of your attention. If you think you know which way is up, think again.”

The story goes that 3,000 people joined in that Pentecost moment, reorienting their lives and receiving the Holy Spirit in a new and powerful way. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit has meant many things to many people: the ability to speak in tongues, to prophecy, to heal. But perhaps the Apostle Paul says it best: “faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). For Paul, the Holy Spirit gives us the faith, hope, and love to say “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3) and then love God and neighbor accordingly. This is meant to be the basis for the church community – a people reoriented to the holy hurricane of God’s loving presence alive and active in this world.

This week, Wesleyan Christians also remember Aldersgate Day, when Methodist founder John Wesley felt his “heart strangely warmed” by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Wesley wrote in his journal, “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” For Wesley, this sense of assurance was very important. Not an assurance that he was always right. Not an assurance that he could do no wrong. But an assurance that God’s salvation was real, and that he was forever held by it.

Now that we’ve got all the thoughtful stuff out of the way, this week’s comic is very, very dumb, and solely triggered by the accusation in scripture that the disciples must be drunk at 9am. Panel two is inspired by this gorgeous painting by Jen Norton.  Enjoy.