Pentecost Reflecting: This Peter; This Crowd; This Jesus

This Peter 

So unlike the Peter of even yesterday . . . 

Hiding in a room safe from the crowds . . . 

Waiting for he knew not what . . . 

Now filled with such power that the crowd is stilled before his words . . . 

Powerful Peter . . . 

but even Peter does not stand alone . . . 

The eleven are with him . . . at his side . . . 

There are no cowboys in God’s kingdom 

Not even This Peter. . .  quoter of prophets . . . 

Himself now a prophet of the Most High . . . 

This Peter who cowered and ran from the crowds now seeks their attention . .  Demands their listening ears . . . 

And he reminds them of what they already know . . . 

A day will come . . . 

A day when God’s Spirit will be poured out on all flesh . . . 

On everybody . . . 

Even those with umbrellas . . . 

On that day, boys and girls, will be prophets

and teenagers will have visions

and old folks will have dreams

and even the poorest of the poor . . . 

the nothings and nobodies

will have prophecies to tell . . . 

And creation itself will be a prophet of God . . .

Bringing signs and wonders of things to come . . . 

And everybody that calls out to God . . . 

Will . . . be . . . rescued . . . 

What has been promised is no longer a tomorrow-thing . . . 

it’s a here-and-now thing . . . 

And this Peter is the first one to tell of it . . . 

he will not be the last . . . 

But he is the first . . . 

And the crowd listened . . . at least some of them . . . 

This Crowd 

people from all over the known world of the time . . . 

Listened and heard

Each in their own language 

it was impossible 

yet it happened

God’s attention-getters are always humdingers . . . 

Yet understanding the words did not breed true understanding in everyone . . 

For some, it was enough, this hearing in their own language . . .

For others, one suspects, nothing would ever be enough . . .

The old saying, ‘seeing is believing’ gets turned on its head . . . 

And suddenly . . . 

Believing is seeing . . . 

And so we’re left to wonder . . . 

Did those who sneered understand?

Or did they only hear nonsense noise?

This Peter . . . 

This crowd . . . 

This Jesus . . . 

This Jesus 

This Jesus whom you crucified . . . 

He’s the One . . . Messiah . . . Anointed One . . . 

Doer of miracles . . . 

Crucified and killed by his own flesh . . . 

Raised up from the dead by God

Foretold by David and Joel, and people of old . . .

This Jesus . . . 

God’s promise . . . 

Exalted at God’s right hand – the spot of honor . . . 

God has made him Lord and Messiah . . . 

This one you crucified . . . 

This Jesus . . .  He is the One . . . 

The crowd in Peter’s day believed a Messiah would come . . . 

Most just didn’t believe it was Jesus . . . 

In our day it’s the opposite . . . 

Most, even Christians, believe Jesus came . . . 

We just don’t believe much in Messiahs anymore . . . 

I wonder . . . 

Do we know the Messiah when we hear him?

Or do we just think it’s the wind?