Pentecost Sermon: May 24, 2026

The Feast of Pentecost, Topical Sermon

The Rev'd Cecil Patrick Perkins, The Rector 

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I speak to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Today, churches throughout the world celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Now, many of you already know that the word Pentecost comes from a Greek word that means 50th. And in this case, in our Christian case, it refers to the 50th day after Easter Sunday. But what some of you might not know is that in the Jewish tradition, they all had a Pentecost too. The term Pentecost was used as a designation for the 50th day after Passover, which was a feast in its own right. You might remember that Pentecost in the Old Testament marked the traditional end of the grain harvest. And that's why we see in the story from Acts observant Jews from far and near converging upon Jerusalem, both to rejoice in the Lord's good bounty and to present grain offerings of their own first fruits in the temple. But Pentecost had another theological significance as well, that I think is very important for understanding our passage from Acts, because historically it was the day that the people of Israel celebrated the gift of the Torah, the law, which God gave to Moses on Sinai 50 days after the Exodus. So Pentecost represented for the Jewish people both God's provision of things for their needs, as well as his presence among them in his word and in his law. And I think understanding these things help us to see what's going on in the story. Because it is with this context in mind that we turn to the reading from Acts. Once upon a Pentecost, we find Jesus' weary band of disciples gathered together in one place waiting. They are waiting eagerly and anxiously for a sign from their leader who had just ascended to heaven. As you read this, you have to hear foreshadowings from the Old Testament of Moses. Think about it like this. Just as Moses of old had led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea to the foot of Sinai and told Israel to wait there while he ascended up the mountain to speak to God in the midst of a thick cloud. In the same manner, the disciples' leaders, Jesus, had only just delivered them from their bondage to sin. He had passed safely through the dark waters of death and led them in Exodus out, and then ascending high in a cloud of glory, told them to wait. And like their ancestors before them, they waited expectantly, but they didn't know what to expect. So all of a sudden, what do we see happening? A mighty rushing wind blew into the house where they were waiting. Spectral fire with an appearance like tongues materialized and began to lap over their heads. In a flash, those fiery tongues divided and dispersed, and each came to rest like a mitre upon the heads of the individuals in the room. In fact, you may not know this, that's what a bishop's mitre is. It's a symbol of those flames of fire dancing over the heads of the apostles. Only the apostles knew when to take them off and put them on, and most episcopal bishops don't. That's neither here nor there. And finally, the Holy Spirit that Jesus had breathed on his disciples midst on the evening of the first Easter day while they were huddled in an upper room, paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. That same spirit now baptized them and filled them. And what happened? They began to speak in other languages, languages that they didn't know. Now, this wasn't like the sort of Pentecostal manifestations we see today, which is an unknown language much of the time. These were known languages, but the kicker was these people were speaking in languages they didn't know, and the people who were hearing it were hearing their own languages one way or the other. What happened here is the communication with all the foreigners gathered in Jerusalem for the feast was a major sign. How many of you remember your Old Testament, the story of the Tower of Babel? Do you remember that story? What's happening here is a dramatic reversal of the confusion of languages that occurred at the Tower of Babel when God thwarted humankind's sinful attempts to reach God on their own terms. What God is doing now is descending again to the people, speaking to them in terms that they all could really understand. And what is more, though Christ has now ascended on high, we're seeing now his incarnation continuing powerfully below. Many of you who've read the Bible have heard that line that Jesus said that says, after I go to the Father, you will do greater things than I have done. And that bothers some people because you think, I haven't walked on water lately. I don't think I can do greater things than he has done. But this is the idea. What we see is the incarnation continuing in a greater way. Think about it. Where there was once only a single man embodying God and speaking to people in words that they could understand. Now we see dozens of people embodying Christ and communicating accurately and adequately with people of every tribe, language, people, group, and nation. This is what's happening here. And of course, all of the bystanders witnessing this spectacle were awestricken. In fact, they were indignant. They said, these folks are drunk. They've been drinking new wine, which is the strongest wine that you can find. They said, it's not even nine o'clock in the morning, and these people are schnockered. Personally, I think this is a prophecy that the Episcopal Church would come in time because we always get called whiskey palions. Because where three or four gathered, you'll always find an open fifth. But I digress. What we have here happening in the midst of this confusion, Peter stands up and says, Look, no, that's not what's going on here. Let me tell you. And I'm going to give you this in the New Mississippi translation of the Greek text that I wrote last night. It says, Peter says, folks, those of you here who claim to be Jews should know what's going on. This shouldn't be a surprise, for all of this was foretold by the prophet Joel when God, speaking through him, said, In the last days I will pour my spirit out on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they will prophesy. Then anyone, anyone, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peter is saying, look around. You're not seeing disruptive people, you're seeing prophecy fulfilled in your sight and hearing. Because people understood that this Pentecost, Peter, I should say, understood that this Pentecost was no chance occurrence. Rather, it marked a significant notal event in salvation history. This was the moment in which God would bring to realization his promise of a new covenant with Israel. A covenant that was not like the old covenant that God made with their ancestors when he took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant that they broke, but rather a new sort of covenant that God promised through the prophet Jeremiah that he would make with the house of Israel when he said this. In those days I will take my law and put it within them. I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. This is very, very important. Remember that I said earlier, in the Old Testament, Pentecost represented God's provision for and presence among his people through his divine law, the Torah. But you'll remember the Old Testament, the Torah was an external rule that people had to internalize through study and ritual actions. But on this Pentecost, God was transforming an old covenant observance into a new covenant feast, still celebrating God's provision for and presence among his people, but no longer through a law that remained outside a person and had to be internalized, but rather through a spirit that dwelled within a person, engraving God's law upon that person's heart, so that the truth of God might not just be internalized, but externalized and broadcast to the whole world. You see, my friends, through the Holy Spirit, God's law dwells in us because God dwells in us. No longer is God's law merely written on tablets of stone or scrolls of parchment. It is etched upon human hearts where it speaks to us no longer as an external authority, but from the depths of our sanctified consciences. And what is more, the presence of God's Spirit in both men and women, young and old, slave and free, Jew and Gentile constitutes a new kind of Israel. A community that is no longer comprised mainly of individuals of a particular ethnic heritage, but instead is made up of folks from every tribe, language, people group, and nation. What we see on this Pentecost is God's new covenant being birthed in the church. And what a remarkable thing it is. But you may be asking and thinking, that's wonderful historical, theological, exegetical data. What does it mean for us? What is our takeaway message? Well, there are a few things that I want to tell you, and then I'll sit down before I fall down. The first thing is that we see in this story is God removes all obstacles to communicating with people. The great part of this story is that the apostles are speaking, and the people who look at them say, they're speaking in a Galilean tongue, but I'm hearing it in my own language. And this shows something about what God is doing with the gospel, that somehow or the other, it transcends human language, and God, through his Holy Spirit, makes it communicate. This should be very powerful to us Episcopalians who, when we hear the word evangelism, we start shaking in our boots. We're always worried that we won't say the right thing at the right time or we'll get things a little bit wrong. But here's the case. What this story of Pentecost tells us is that if you will tell the story as best you know how to tell it, the Holy Spirit will do the rest and communicate and make that communication to the hearts of people, even to ears that really can't understand you. What a great thing to remember that it's not all about us. It tells us that we are in sales and not management. The second thing, though, that we need to remember reminds us, as it reminded the people who were there that day, it compels us to believe that God's presence and provision is with us and with our Christian brothers and sisters, even those different from us. Because you see, my friends, Pentecost demands that we acknowledge our own significance to God as well as the holy significance of others. Bishop N. T. Wright correctly observes that you all are called to be truly human, but it's nothing short of the life of God in you, inside you, that enables you to be so, to be remade in God's image. So what the Holy Spirit does, it takes broken people like us and makes us more human and better human than we can ever imagine. And then Wright goes on and says, furthermore, as C.S. Lewis said in a famous lecture, next to the sacrament itself, your Christian neighbor is the holiest object ever presented to your sight because in him or her, the Spirit of Christ is truly present. This also is important because it takes out of our hands the desire to try to decide who's in or out. In American Christianity this day in time, that's all we're worried about. Who's a real Christian and who's not? Who's a fake news Christian and who's not. The idea is God is looking at us and saying, that is none of your business. Because what makes these people Christians is not that they can pass your theological test. It's not the fact that these people are doing the right thing according to you. It's the fact that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in them. And boy, that is both liberating and messy. It's liberating because it means even when I can't pass the test I want to pass, God is still at work in me. But it also follows from that that even when other people can't pass my test, guess what? The Holy Spirit may be working in them, and I may simply have to stand back and say, I don't understand the particular brand of crazy that these people are peddling, but I can sure see the hand of God in it. Friends, the take-home that I want you to have today from this Pentecostal sermon is that God dwells in you. You are a temple of divine significance, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your Baptist friends, not your Catholic friends, not your Nazarene or Tangerine. You Episcopalians can be full of the Holy Spirit, though it may scare you to death. But here's the other ticker. God dwells in others too. Therefore they are temples of divine significance, whether they be Baptist or Methodist or Catholic or Presbyterian, whatever they may be. And don't you ever tell yourself otherwise, because in doing so you run the danger of stifling that same Holy Spirit that on Pentecost spoke to people from every tribe, tongue, people, group, and nation. Don't be surprised when God does something amazing or shocking. The thing for us to do is simply to recognize it, find out where God's going, and be there. Amen.