Pentecost All Over Again 5.24.26

Pentecost All Over Again
May 24, 2026

Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles contains the element of complete surprise. As Luke, the
author of Acts, presents it, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the sound of rushing wind, the explosion of
God's word in every language of the known world, almost has the effect of the sudden clap of thunder
breaking the silence of an otherwise quiet night. . But, even though this Pentecostal scene comes as such a
sudden surprise, actually the scene was set days before...ten days, to be exact...on the Mount of Olives,
when Jesus ascended into heaven. Luke tells of it in the previous chapter:
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom
to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own
authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as
they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” And so they waited...and they
waited...and they waited.
As the festival of Pentecost approaches, thousands of Jewish pilgrims began to arrive in Jerusalem—Jews
from all around the world, who would make their way back to Jerusalem to take part in the festivities of
Pentecost. You see, Pentecost is the Greek name for a very special time of the year for Jews. They called it
Shavuat, or the Feast of Weeks. In the 23rd

chapter of Leviticus we read that God commanded the
Israelites to count 7 full weeks plus one day after the Passover sabbath, and on that day they were to bring
loaves of bread made from the grain of the first fruits of their harvest as an offering to the Lord. They
called it the Feast of Shavuot, because Shavuot means “weeks”. So Shavuot in Hebrew refers to the day
after 7 weeks, and Pentecost in Greek refers to the 50th

day after the Passover.

So Shavuot, or Pentecost, was, from its beginning, an agricultural festival... celebrating the offering of the
first fruits of the harvest. But, as time passed, the belief arose that this was also the day that God gave
Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, making Pentecost an even more sacred observance.
Shavuot is still observed by Jews today. If you were the guest in a Jewish home today, your hosts may
take you to their synagogue, where you would hear the readings from the book of Ruth. (If you remember
the story, Boaz fell in love with Ruth after he watched her gleaning in his field after the harvest, so that's

the connection.) And when synagogue service is over, have a piece of the cheesecake and other dairy-
based treats that your hosts would serve, as a reminder that the good land that God set aside for your

people was a land flowing with milk and honey,
So, now we see why on the day of Pentecost the streets of Jerusalem were filled with thousands of visitors
from all corners of the world, bringing their first fruits to offer in the Temple. From the northeast came
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Mesopotamians. From the northwest, come people of Cappadocia,
Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphyia. From the south came Egyptians, Lybians, and devout pilgrims from
Cyrene and Rome, Crete and Arabia.
And, as the old hymn goes, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.” Turn our focus
back to the apostles, gathered inside the house, waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the promised Holy
Spirit. Suddenly the room is filled with the sound from heaven of a rushing wind, I like to think of it as an
amplified version of the old-fashioned coffee cans. Remember when coffee came vacuum packed in a
metal can with a key on the bottom? You'd feed that key onto the metal strip around the top of the can,
turn it just a little, and WHOOSH! You'd hear the air rush into the can and fill the vacuum.
Suddenly the room where they were sitting was filled with the sound of a rushing wind and with fire...a
flame that parted into tongues of fire, resting above their heads. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, and
in the power of the Holy Spirit they are enabled to speak of God's saving power in every language of the
world. It was a power that drove them out of the house, into that great multitude of people, and everyone
of them heard the gospel of salvation proclaimed in their own native tongue,
That's the exciting story of what happened on Pentecost, the birth of the church. But it's not the end of the
story. My friend, it's only the beginning. That same Holy Spirit that drove the apostles out into the world
with the saving power of Jesus Christ is the Spirit entrusted to you. That same Spirit empowers you to

make Christ known to others whose lives you touch. It may not be in such a dramatic way as we find it in
our reading from Acts. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit has the power to change lives through your witness
and your faith.
Are you worried that you might not have the right words to speak? (That's what the devil wants you to
think.) Luke says that the apostles spoke in other languages AS THE SPIRIT GAVE THEM ABILITY.
And when the moment comes for you to be a vessel of God's grace, trust the same spirit to give you the
words.
I love the way Maya Angelou describes how her life was changed with three simple words. She writes:
"In my twenties in San Francisco, I became a sophisticate and an acting agnostic. It wasn't that I stopped
believing in God; it's just that God didn't seem to be around the neighborhoods I frequented. One day my
voice teacher asked me to read a passage from a book, a section which ended with these words: 'God
loves me.' He said, 'Read it again.' "After about the seventh repetition, I began to sense that there might
be truth in the statement, that there was a possibility that God really did love me. Me. Maya Angelou. I
suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all. I knew that if God loved me, then I could do wonderful
things. I could try great things, learn anything, achieve anything. For what could stand against me and
God?"
Three simple words: “Read it again,” And by the power of the Holy Spirit enabling that teacher to say
those three simple words...it's Pentecost all over again. Amen.