Pentecost Sunday - In Israel

By Charlotte M. Wholters

Text: Acts 2:39 - "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call." 

Last year I attended a United Pentecostal Church service just outside the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Israel. Hundreds of people of every sort of Christian religion were crowded in and around the room. Priests in robes sang songs inside the room in Latin while Africans sang outside the room in a language I couldn't identify. I think I heard Spanish and probably a few other languages too. There was literally "no room in the inn," so our group had to go to the corner of a rooftop for our service. We added our English to the cacophony of voices. You'd expect that my life would have been changed by being in such a holy place at such a holy time, but that's not what I was thinking.

I was thinking that Pentecost Sunday in Jerusalem was no different than Pentecost Sunday anywhere. Despite the privilege of being able to experience so many cultures worshipping God at once, I couldn't help but feel most moved by remembering that the Upper Room in Jerusalem is not the official Upper Room, which no longer exists. In fact, what we call the Upper Room today was probably built by the Crusaders more than a thousand years after the Upper Room experience recorded in the Bible. Furthermore, the lion's share of all the "holy sites" in Israel are not the original buildings from Bible days or verifiable as the exact location of anything.

After living here for a year and a half, I've now been to most of the tourist sites in Israel. I've traipsed through Nazareth, been to Bethlehem, and dunked my feet in the Jordan River. I've been to the Western Wall, (the closest spot to the Holy of Holies that Jews can reach,) more times than I can remember. I've been to the Sea of Galilee, and to Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. I've also been to the tomb where Jesus was reportedly buried. He wasn't there.

The important thing, the holy thing about Pentecost Sunday, Easter, Christmas, or any other holiday is not where it happened, but that it happened. You can experience the same wonder of Pentecost Sunday in your church anywhere in the world, thanks to the power of Jesus that remains longer than any building [made with human hands]. We don't exist to glorify a place, but to glorify a God - THE GOD of the universe! Thanks to His timelessness, His mercy and His death on the cross, the POWER of PENTECOST is available to ALL, no matter where you live!


Editor's Note: Charlotte and James Wholters live in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he serves as a military attache' to the American Embassy. They have three children; Camilla, Joshua, and Grace. They attend UPCI services in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where Charlotte serves as keyboardist and musician.