The Day of Pentecost, Sunday May 24th, 2026

Readings: Act 2:1 -21, John 20:19-23

Wind, Fire, and the Holy Spirit.  

How do you think of the spirit? Is it a force to be reckoned with as such, or one that is empowering in dramatic form as it was in the reading from Acts, felt as a violent rushing wind, tongues of fire resting on people ? Or is it perhaps a more subtle, gentle, flowing presence that you know the spirit, perhaps as we hear in the gospel with Jesus breathing on the disciples, saying “receive the Holy Spirit”? 

The disciples a bewildered and frightened group after Jesus death and resurrection, in the gospel were found locked behind closed doors unable to move forward, afraid of what might happen should they be identified as Jesus closest followers.  Jesus comes to them in that locked up space, and with a word of peace, “Peace be with you” assures them not only of his presence but that they had no need to fear. “Peace be with you” he says again, and then breathing on them, says, “receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father as sent me so I send you.” He commissions them to go out as his apostles in the world. (John 20: 19-23)

We know however it is not until 50 days later, on Pentecost after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the disciples are finally ready to move forward.  Jesus before he ascended “ordered the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father…for John baptized with water, he says, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  (Acts 1: 4-5)

Pentecost is the fulfilment of that promise; no longer bound by fear but emboldened through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the disciples gifted with the ability to speak in tongues of the many peoples gathered in Jerusalem for the festival, from all nations of the world, speaking of God’s deeds of power, all heard and understood them in their own language. (Acts 2: 5-11)

On Pentecost the spirits power was revealed in the dramatic expression of wind, and fire.  But Also in understanding and wisdom, with the word being heard and understood by all who were present. If you have been present in a large gathering of people, with all talking at the same time, you know how chaotic or noisy it can be; we can only imagine how chaotic it must have sounded on Pentecost with the intermingling of the many languages of the peoples there from all the nations of the world, yet all heard and understood.  In that we know the gift of the Holy Spirit was intended not only for some, but for all peoples, as represented in the nations gathered and witnessing the spirit present on Pentecost. 

Many there were astonished asking, “what does this mean?” Because this was not learned intellectuals, fluent in a number of languages and cultures speaking, but the disciples, simple Galileans, ordinary individuals, making it all the more extraordinary, and these people knew that and recognize it as God’s power made present in them. 

However there were some others there who sneered saying, “they are filled with new wine.” There are always a few pessimists amongst us for sure, and it was no different there, likely because they could not understand what was happening themselves, so they shrug it off as simply some late night carousing of the disciples. 

Pentecost calls us to think about how we might recognize or feel the power of the Spirit with us today, do we even think about it, or might we be like the disputers reluctant to believe, simply because perhaps, we might not understand, or we can’t explain it. 

God calls us to be open to the Spirit’s movement in our lives, in the church and in the world; that we too might know and feel its presence with us, enabling us to be his people, his church as is needed in the world today.  Confident, hopeful, assuring and purposeful, in midst of the challenges of our own day.  

The disciples who until Pentecost bound by fear were unable to move forward. On Pentecost Peter, with the other eleven standing alongside him, stood confidently and boldly saying.  “I tell you, “they are indeed not drunk.   No, this is what was spoken, he says, through the prophet Joel: In the last days, it will be, God declares, that I will pour our my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and daughter shall prophesy, …….then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:16-21) 

Peter you might say, came into his own, as a leader of the church here, standing up, speaking boldly truth to power, rebuking the naysayers as he did, but also in linking what was happening  on Pentecost to what had been revealed through the prophets he locates it in time, as a part of the redemptive work of God.

So while much of the focus of Pentecost is on the images of the tongues of fire, and the rushing violent wind, the Phenomena, or spiritual high as one might experience through the power of the Holy Spirit; perhaps its greatest power however is visible when it takes on life in the hearts of the people, as it did for the disciples. It was boots on the ground for them you might say, from then on, empowered by the spirit they went out to proclaim the good news of the gospel, and many were added to their numbers that very day, with 3000 being baptized. Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. (Acts 2:40-43)

The gift of the Spirit given on Pentecost is a gift not only for those who were present then, but is a gift to all believers for all time; and We know the spirits power present, not only in times of spiritual highs, as one might experience in life or in the church, as the spirit’s power to move them to exaltation; but in all the ways it moves us to respond, to act in service in Christ’s name;   moving us outward, to share his promise in the renewing power of his spirit, to give hope, instil peace, restore, and give life, in the midst of an all too fractured and divided world as our’s is today.

May we always look to the Holy Spirit for the empowerment we need as believers in Christ, that we might serve him ever more faithfully in our world today. 

“Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me…”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gipC9UQ0p5o

Amen, God Bless

Hannah+