“Welcome Dear Readers to this Sunday’s edition of Gregory’s Bible Stories. 

Every week, Gregory goes to Sunday school.  Every week his imagination runs wild during the lessons, and every week he comes home with his own version of the story.

Let’s listen in and see what Gregory learned in Sunday School this week shall we?

 

Twist and Shavout

After the ascension of Jesus everybody was waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them which Jesus said was going to happen just before he ascended to heaven on a cloud.

The apostles had tried to pin Jesus down to a time line so they’d know when to clear their calendars, but Jesus was never very forthcoming when it came to exact dates.

Shavout it from the Mountain Tops

Then one day, all the apostles and various believers from all over the biblical world were gathered together for the Jewish festival of Shavout, to commemorate when  God gave Moses the Ten commandments which was celebrated by a lot of yelling and shavouting.

Of course, because everyone was from different ends of the earth (the earth had way more ends in those days than it has now) they were all shavouting in different languages. It really wasn’t a very fun festival.  (They later changed the name of Shavout to “the day of the Pentecost” which means Mardi Gras in Greek but it didn’t help much.)

A Mighty Wind

But then one Shavout, the Holy Spirit came to visit.  Everyone was sitting around resting their vocal chords when suddenly there was a noise from the sky that sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house.

But instead of a strong wind, it turned out to be the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit, which proceeded to touch every person there so that they were filled with the Holy Spirit which enabled them to suddenly speak in another language so that the people from the country of the other language they were speaking could understand every word they said — even though the person listening from the other country knew darn good and well that the person suddenly speaking their language didn’t even know how to ask, “where the restroom?” five minutes earlier!

It was truly a miracle.

But then others started making fun of the believers saying they were drunk.

Finally Peter couldn’t take it any more, he  stood up and took the microphone (hand cranked).

“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.  These people are not drunk as you suppose.  It’s only 9:00 in the morning.”

Random Nazarene Guy has a Question

Then a man from Nazareth raised his hand.

Peter:  Yes, you, random Nazarene guy, you had a question?

Random Nazarene guy:  Yes, I was just wondering if you knew what time the people would be drunk, approximately.

Then Peter tried to get everybody’s mind off drinking by reminding them what the prophet Joel said concerning “the last days” — being sure to include some good news — that everyone will be filled with the holy spirit — and glossing over the bad news about the sun being darkened and the moon turning red as blood and whatnot.

Peter Keeps Talking

Then Peter ended his talk on a good note by telling them that when the last days came all anyone had to do was call out to the Lord, and they would be saved.

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a lot better until Peter had to go and add a  long-winded explanation about how King David had said that the Lord would pile up all his enemies and use them as a footstool and everybody got bummed out again. (Peter never knew when to quit talking.)

Finally, Peter wrapped his speech up by saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!”  Which wasn’t really grammatically correct but Peter had been talking nonstop for so long he just didn’t care anymore and handed his microphone back to the random Nazarene guy.

But then, when Peter saw 3,000 lining up to get baptized, Peter took the microphone again and everyone got glum again.  That is until Peter launched into the very best rendition of Twist and Shavout this side of the River Jordan!

And they worked it on out.

And there you have it, Dear Readers, this week’s edition of Gregory’s Bible Stories.  Please stop by next week to see what Gregory learns in Sunday School.

Until next time . . . I  love you