Pentecost Sunday
May 27, 2012
The Lord be with you
Today is Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter. Below is
the Icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit and an explanation drawn from For All the Saints.
Icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit
The first representations of the icon of the Descent of the
Holy Spirit had Mary, the mother of God, in the center of the apostles as the
biblical record suggests (Acts 1:14).
However, with the gradual unfolding of the understanding of the significance of
Pentecost, Mary was removed from the icon for theological reasons, just as
Mary, not present at the Ascension according to the biblical record, was placed
in the center of the apostles in the icon of the Ascension. Theologically Mary
symbolizes the church as the bearer of Christ who received the promise of the
Holy Spirit. Here in the icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit that promise is
fulfilled, and the emphasis is placed on the multiplicity of the church’s
members and their gifts united in one mission.
Looking at the icon one first notices a semi-circular bench
around which the twelve apostles sit in perfect harmony, reminding the viewer
of the icon of the Holy Trinity and the circle of love and oneness between the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here that unity is found in the circle
(mandorla) at the top of the icon, symbolic of God the Father, with twelve rays
descending, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, toward the head of each apostle. The
rays then terminate in the tongues or flames of fire (which cannot be seen in
this icon) resting on each of them, reminding us of the words of John the
Baptist, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). Below the circle is an empty,
unoccupied place at the head of the semi-circular bench between Peter on the
left and Paul on the right, the place occupied by the invisible head of the
church, Christ, who through the Holy Spirit, in the words of Luther, “calls,
gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and
preserves it in unity with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”
The icon appears at first to contradict the biblical record
in Acts 2:1-21, since the external account of what the uninitiated saw was
chaos—people were drunk with wine—but what is revealed in the icon is the inner
experience of peace and calm of people of all nations united in the Spirit. The
fathers of the church saw in the Pentecost event the restoration of what was
lost at the time of the building of the earthly tower at Babel where humankind
wanted to usurp the place of God and numerous languages were given so they
could no longer communicate with one another (Genesis 11:1 -9). At Pentecost
people of diverse languages were reunited in that all understood the promises
of God in their own languages and were drawn back into oneness.
The diversity of gifts that the Spirit gives to each while
uniting them is expressed in the individuality of each apostle. As they speak
with one another each one’s face looks in a slightly different direction and no
two of them have their hands or feet in the same position. Paul would later
say, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are
varieties of service, but the same Lord; there are varieties of working, but it
is the same God who inspires them all in every one” (1 Corinthians 12:4-13).
The inverse perspective of the icon—the apostles grow larger in size as they
recede to the background, making them all appear the same—shows that they are
equal in honor and dignity.
Tradition says that, to fulfill the prophecy of Joel (2:28-29 and Acts 2:17-21), the Spirit descended not only on the twelve
apostles but on all who were “together in one place” (Acts 2:1), that is, on
the whole church. The icon also expresses this by showing apostles not
belonging to the twelve. We have already mentioned Paul who sits opposite
Peter, but others also appear who were not among the twelve such as Luke (third
from the top on the left) and Mark (third from the top on the right).
Collectively the twelve represent the fact that the work of the Holy Spirit is
ongoing, and embraces the whole church of which they are a part. The
evangelists each hold bibles in their hands and the rest hold scrolls, both
being symbols of the apostolic message.
As the upper part of the semi-circular bench of apostles was
opened to the heavens and the source of their unity in the Triune God, the
bottom part of the semicircular bench opens on the world. In the oldest icons
of the Descent of the Spirit the multitude mentioned as being baptized in Acts
2:41 were depicted by small figures in different costumes representing the
people of the world. These were later replaced with the figure of a prince or
king (as in this icon) whose name is “Cosmos,” a personification of the
universe in captivity to the prince of death. But Cosmos holds in his hands a
napkin or towel (expressive of reverence or respect) containing the twelve
scrolls of the apostles, symbolic of the apostolic proclamation of the church
and the promise of salvation to all who through the Spirit confess Jesus as
Lord.
[For All the Saints: A Prayer Book For and By the Church, volume IV
(The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, NY, 1996) 7-11]
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
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