Pentecost, Again?
For those of you who grew up in church, I’m sure you’ve sat through many Pentecost services. So have I, so when Pentecost came around each year and I heard the story from Acts again, for whatever reason there was a disconnect or a lack of interest. Maybe I was just young, or young in my faith, but I’m sure many of us have wondered why such a fuss is made about Pentecost? It’s a strange name for something that we celebrate, but it’s something that we as a church should know about because it marks the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. It’s the moment the Holy Spirit lit a spiritual fire in the followers of Jesus that changed the world forever.
Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter and marks the day that the Spirit descended on the apostles like fire, catapulting the Church into the missio Dei (mission of God). But what does this event mean for us today? We’ll explore why Pentecost still matters for us and we’ll try to address some of the questions that this raises for us the Church. But can you imagine the event itself, 2000 years ago, the apostles, ordinary folks, fisherman, suddenly being able to speak every foreign language, preaching boldly and winning over 3,000 souls for Jesus (Acts 2:41). The Holy Spirit empowered a movement that has rippled forward through time and continues to influence and shape the world even now.
It's funny, because for us today, we are on the precipice of a technological change allowing us to understand any foreign language almost immediately. But does that mean that we can throw out the Holy Spirit for Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Well if we thought Pentecost was just about speaking and understanding different languages, that’s probably another example of our (NS) Natural Stupidity. We are so prone to finding ways to replace the true and living God for false idols.
We're still left with lots of questions and although we can't explore them all, we might explore how Pentecost fits into God’s sovereign plan and our part in it. The Holy Spirit calls us and equips us to share the good news of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit helps us recognise what God has done for us through Jesus. It's amazing news!
Take some time to read our lectionary passage this week (Acts 2:1-21) and we’ll explore this further with what I hope are some simple, practical ideas. God bless you and may the Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds as we meditate on this passage.
Josh
Image Source: Kraut, Ronald. Pentecost, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56950 [retrieved June 6, 2025]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0329jfOur_Lady_of_Pentecost_Parish_Church_Quezon_City_Loyola_Heightsfvf_25.jpg.
