Loving God, we give you thanks this day for the gift of your Spirit, who both empowers us and intercedes for us.  Open our hearts this day to the Spirit of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

           The day of Pentecost was part of the Feast of Weeks – one of the three annual festivals where all able-bodied Jewish men were required to travel to Jerusalem.  It was an agricultural festival, held on the fiftieth day after the waving of the sheaf of first-ripe barley.  And so, people who shared the Jewish faith came from all of the different places to which they had been scattered, gathering in Jerusalem in order to celebrate the harvest.  Hence, the beginning of today’s reading from Acts: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place” (2:1).  What a marvelous opportunity to share the good news about Jesus!

         And so, God gets to work in order to get everybody’s attention.  There is “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” and what looks like tongues of fire resting on those who are followers of Jesus (Acts 2:2-3).  The crowd, it seems, has also heard this sound, and soon people have gathered around the house in order to find out what is going on.  As they do so, they are astounded, for each one hears the disciples speaking about Jesus and about God’s deeds of power through him – not just in Hebrew or Aramaic, but in their own native languages.  They cannot understand how this can be so, for those who are speaking are obviously from Galilee.

         This, then, is the occasion for Peter’s first sermon.  He gets to speak about Jesus to a crowd of people that includes “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5).  He uses the prophet Joel and some Psalms of David as the basis for his message, having been given the words by that same Holy Spirit who had provided the ability to speak in other languages.

         This is the Advocate (or Helper, or Counsellor, or Paraclete) who had been promised by Jesus – the one who would help them to testify, and who would guide them into all the truth (Jn. 15:27; 16:13).  This is also the one who would not come unless Jesus were to leave them – dying, rising, and ascending bodily into heaven.  Can you imagine how difficult that must have been for those who had been with Jesus for the past three years?  Not only were they grieving the loss of their friend and teacher, but now they were being asked to step way out of their comfort zones in order to continue his ministry!

         Really, this shouldn’t be surprising, as God has a history of asking people to do seemingly impossible things that are way beyond their comfort zone.  All we need to do is to look at Moses, or any of the prophets, to see how God has done great things through people who would rather have done anything else.  The Holy Spirit, it seems, thrives on empowering people like you and me to do uncomfortable things.

         For example, how comfortable would you be sharing with somebody the good news about Jesus – especially somebody who doesn’t really know anything about him?  How comfortable would you be if you were asked to pray on the spot, in front of others?  How comfortable would you be, not only writing a sermon, but preaching it?  How comfortable would you be speaking in tongues or prophesying?

         All of these are things that the Holy Spirit is quite capable of doing through any one of us – provided, of course, that we are willing participants.  The Spirit also equips us with whatever gifts are needed for whatever God has called us to do.  However, perhaps the best news that we hear today comes from Romans, which was written after the followers of Jesus had a little more experience with the Holy Spirit.  The thing is that, even those who have the Spirit of Jesus experience weakness at times.  Paul writes, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26).

         This is just one example of how the Spirit helps us.  Especially at those times when we don’t even know what to pray for any more, the Holy Spirit prays for us, just as Jesus prays for us, interceding according to the will of God.  At other times, the Holy Spirit prays through us, giving us the words that are needed in order to intercede for ourselves and others, according to the will of God.

         As you may have noticed, there is still suffering and pain during our lives on this earth, which produces lots of groaning, both in us humans and in the whole creation (Rom. 8:22-23).  However, in the midst of this groaning, we live in hope – hope in the resurrection and eternal life; hope in the new creation that is possible in Christ; hope in Christ’s ultimate victory over sin and death; hope that is a gift of the Holy Spirit, growing with faith and love.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Day of Pentecost(B)                        Acts 2:1-21

May 19, 2024                                   John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church  Romans 8:22-27

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2024 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved