05/24/2026 - Acts 2:1-9, 12-21, Pentecost Sunday
This week we are taking a bit of a break from our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer in order to recognize important days in the life of UCLB and in the church at large.
On Sunday we blessed and celebrated our graduating seniors as we prepare to send them forth into the world. But Sunday we also remembered a different sending forth. Because the Church around the world celebrated Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to earth as many things - a comforter, a teacher, a counselor, but above all else, a spirit that empowers all of us to go forth into the world.
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Scripture: Acts 2:1-9, 12-21
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
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Traditionally, this watershed moment in Christianity is thought to have occurred ten days after Jesus returned to heaven, meaning about fifty days after his resurrection. And right before Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised the disciples that he would send a helper, a spirit, somebody who would always be with them. Specifically, he said in Luke 24:49, “Look, I’m sending to you what my Father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power.”
This was hopefully a comfort to the disciples who’d already lost Jesus once, and were about to lose him again.
So once Jesus was gone, the disciples had done what Jesus told them to do, waiting and praying and living together for the past ten days. But now that the Spirit is here, they’re no longer confined to Jerusalem. They have been empowered to go out into the world and share God’s love with everyone they meet.
And if there was any doubt that they should, well, being able to be understood in every language simultaneously might give us a hint that they were never meant to stay in one place.
There was no missing the Holy Spirit once she arrived. She blew in like the rush of an exhaled breath, kissing each and every person present with a tongue of fire - not just the twelve apostles, and not just the men.
Every. Single. Person.
And this isn’t the first time that God and the Spirit has shown up in the form of fire. In Exodus God spoke to Moses from a burning bush, a fire that didn’t harm the bush, but yet still cast its light and warmth in the cold night of the desert. Then when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God showed up in a pillar of fire to guide the Israelites to safety and freedom. Generations later Elijah called down fire from heaven to burn up the altars of false priests and prophets who were working more for the benefit of the corrupt king and queen rather than God and the people.
But the Pentecost fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit, is different from any of these. Peter doesn’t mention any of these stories, instead he reaches for the prophecy from Joel about fire and blood and red moons. And that can be somewhat terrifying to read - it’s very apocalyptic, even though we know it’s referring to an even that already happened two thousand years ago.
For me, having grown up in Oregon, this apocalyptic feel reminds me of the wildfires that would tear through the forests every summer. And the most destructive season occurred just six years ago in 2020, burning over a million acres of land. I clearly remember FaceTiming my parents one evening that summer, who lived hundreds of miles from the closest wildfire. I asked my mom if her phone was broken, because her picture was this dark, monochrome red. She laughed and shook her head, turning her camera to point it out the window. And the sky was completely blood red due to the wildfire smoke that filled the air.
Had I not known any better, I would’ve thought the world was ending.
But even though there was plenty of good forest being burned away in these wildfires, not everything was lost. Wildfires are a part of the life cycle of the Pacific Northwest forests, and often there are controlled burns that helped regenerate the forest. These burns clean out old growth that chokes out the potential for new trees, while helping pine cones open up to release their seeds to plant new, healthy trees.
The wildfires don’t come just to destroy. At their best, they come to renew and bring new life to the forests.
Just like the Holy Spirit, God, coming to earth like a renewing wildfire.
But the Holy Spirit was - and is - different from the other times God had come to earth.
She would not allow herself to be separate from us, like Jesus when he came to dwell with us. Instead, she came to dwell within us.
And the result, at least at first, is that everyone thought the disciples were drunk at nine in the morning.
This isn’t the only time that speaking in tongues is mentioned in Scripture, but it is one of the only times where it happens “on page,” if you will. Even though the disciples are speaking in their own native language, Aramaic, the Jews who have come from other areas of the Roman Empire for Shavout, or the Feast of Weeks, are hearing them in their native language.
Which had to have been really confusing! They would’ve expected the disciples to be speaking in a language they didn’t know, just like they’d heard every time they’d been to Jerusalem. When they’d realized what they were actually hearing, it probably stopped them in their tracks. And then they would’ve seen that other people who didn’t look like them, didn’t dress like them, who spoke a different native language had also frozen in place. Also staring at the strange people who are celebrating the arrival of some sort of Spirit, some sort of new breath filling their lungs.
Who was the first person to realize that everyone could hear the disciples in their own native language? Who was the first person to look to a stranger and ask them what they heard?
Because in order for us to know now what had happened, the crowd hearing the disciples speak in tongues had to have confirmed with each other that they were hearing the disciples speak in different languages at the same time. Which means that they would’ve had to reach out to a stranger from a different group, who was from a different country, and ask them what they heard.
And they probably asked in Greek - like English today, most people spoke at least some Greek because most business was conducted in it. And if the disciples had preached in Greek, most people would’ve probably gotten the gist of what they were saying. But there are nuances to language that can be difficult to translate. A word or concept that exists in one language may not exist in another, so you have to try and describe it when translating.
And that wasn’t enough for the Spirit. She wanted everyone to understand exactly what the disciples were saying, with all of the nuance and comprehension they needed.
The first act of the Holy Spirit when she came to earth was to show that anyone and everyone was welcome into the kingdom of God, and that they were welcome exactly as they are - no matter where we are from or what language we speak.
The message of God’s love and redemption is for everyone.
Those who were willing to reach outside of their bubbles, their groups, and talk with people who weren’t like them were the ones to recognize the miracle for what it was. Those who didn’t might’ve been the ones who accused the disciples of being drunk, because they were speaking in a language other than the Aramaic they were supposed to be speaking. Or maybe it was because they couldn’t comprehend a group of people being so happy and boisterous without being drunk. It is the Feast of Weeks after all, a joyous celebration of the harvest in which wine would’ve been drunk.
But as Peter’s quick to point out, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, how in the world would they have had enough time to drink enough wine to get drunk?
No, this is a miracle. It’s the miracle of the Holy Spirit breaking down barriers between people to bring them together in life, in faith, and in love.
It’s just as much of a miracle as tongues of fire coming down from heaven to dance with us.
Pentecost is the day that we celebrate the Spirit coming to earth to empower us to be God’s hands and feet to everyone in the world - no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what language they speak.
It’s the day we remember that God could work through anyone, because God’s hands and feet are not confined to one skin color, or one location.
Most of all, it’s the day that we remember that we are all one in Christ Jesus through the Spirit, no matter who we are, where we’re from, or where we go.
For the Spirit is always with us, bringing us to where we need to be, with the people we need to be with, and dancing with joy at what we do together.