Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday, Year A

It’s Nine O’Clock Somewhere

Isn’t it interesting the conclusions that people jump to when they can’t make sense of a situation or of the manner in which someone is behaving? And it’s apparent in the Whitsunday story of Acts that the common denominator for unusual behavior has for ages been alcohol. Somebody starts acting peculiar…yep, they’re probably drunk!

So, even if the time is nonsensical, even if it’s nine o’clock in the morning…people will still choose drunk over an acumen that stands to challenge their intellect or, worse yet, their article of faith. We are collectively, and I think by nature, a great big group of doubting Thomas’s. If I should begin to speak in tongues, I have received a divine experience; if you should begin to speak in tongues…yep, you must be drunk! We only tend to believe the supernatural aspects of our faith through our own experience.

It’s one thing for us to read about what happened to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost and believe by faith, but it would be entirely different if the Holy Spirit made a special visit to your next door neighbors house, wouldn’t it? Hearing a violent wind engulf their house, watching tongues of flame light upon their heads, listening as they began speaking unintelligible languages…do you think you would fall on your knees and praise God? I doubt I would be so inclined. I imagine that I would not only believe them to be drunk, I would believe they owned were operating an errant still. Occurring in my house—divine; their house—drunk!

As we approach Whitsunday, on the Day of Pentecost, let’s try and remember that our faith is a supernatural faith. Living our faith is us opening ourselves daily to a supernatural communion with a Trinitarian God whose Holy Spirit lives and dwells within us. One God, creator of the heavens and the earth; creator of you and me. And if, in that knowledge, you make a bit of a stir and someone suggests that you must be drunk…just smile and say, “Out of the believers heart shall flow rivers of living water. Drink with me…it’s nine o’clock somewhere!”