It’s important this morning to do some context setting. Why are the disciples gathered together all in one place? Why are there so many people from so many nations gathered in Jerusalem?
In Luke Chapter 24, we are given the story of the 
Risen Christ preparing to leave the disciples while reminding them that God would send them what was promised – the Spirit. They were then told to return to Jerusalem and stay there until they had been furnished with heavenly power (Luke 24:44-53). This is where we find them in this morning’s reading.
But why were all the people in Jerusalem – it wasn’t Passover, rather, it was the celebration of the giving of the Torah which occurred 50 days after Passover, as well as the first fruits giving at the Temple. (You see where we get Pentecost 50 days after Easter…) So many devout Jews and converts have gathered to celebrate, speaking in a variety of languages.
Have you ever been in a place where another language is spoken and you have no idea what is being said? How did that feel? I remember a time in Germany where a group of us on a study abroad trip were at a bus stop. A teenager came up to us and asked us a question in German.
None of us spoke German well enough to understand what he was asking – he immediately switched to English and we discovered it was a question about a bus time. I was so relieved to know what he had said, and throughout the trip, was relieved when I was able to understand what was being said through someone else’s attempt to communicate with me. I was an outsider and people made me feel less so. They didn’t ask me to conform, they listened and worked to help me understand.
Put yourself in this scene as the people – all of the sudden you can hear the message of the Good News of the Gospel, you could experience the story of Jesus, his life, his ministry, his teaching about God’s love, and what his death and resurrection meant in a way you could understand it. It made sense! Do you feel relieved? Excited? Joyful?! A tad confused? How might that experience help birth the church in new and wonderful ways with a variety of people?
Now put yourself in the scene as the disciples who had been waiting around to be gifted by this Holy Spirit power. You’ve been empowered to speak in a way that increases understanding of the people you are speaking to. Does that feel exciting, scary, bewildering, maybe oddly comforting that how you are communicating the story of Jesus and the good news of the Gospel is being heard and understood? Because I wonder if we do a good job of telling the story in ways those outside the church can hear and understand.
How often do we use churchy language that folks who have not grown up in church or in our tradition can’t possibly understand? Do we rely on the Spirit to empower us to switch to a language they can understand or do we get frustrated? Do we even know what language to switch to?
Maybe it isn’t a spoken word, but a piece of music, a painting or other work of art, faith and science, or perhaps a foreign language we speak that lends understanding. Maybe it is simply lending a non-judgmental listening ear. How can we connect with those outside the church as the Spirit has empowered us to do (or do we even believe we have been empowered to do so?).
What can we learn from this church birthing story of ancient times to help us birth this church, this community of faith by connecting with those in our community who don’t know the story, don’t know they are loved by God, who might have been told by a different story that they are unworthy of that love?
As Dr. Amy Oden, Visiting Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology writes: This gift of the Holy Spirit that marks the birth of the church is a gift expressly for those outside the Jesus movement, those who had lived displaced in a language-world not their own. We cannot miss this! It is a spiritual gift given not for the disciples themselves, but for the outsiders listening. God’s gift reaches outward to those outside of this immediate circle of Jesus followers. It seems that one mark of the Holy Spirit’s gifting is that it empowers us to connect to others… The church birthed at Pentecost carries this deep DNA, to make a home in God’s life and invite others, in a way they can understand, to make a home in God’s life, too.[1]
We might get sneered at or told we must be drunk or high on something or told we are too joyful! But so what! It is the Spirit that is empowering us all – all genders, all sexual orientations, all ages, all of us – to convey the Good News of the Gospel to those who so need to hear it! To dream and vision in new ways that birth the church! To turn outward, not worry about inward!
It’s in our DNA – the DNA of this nearly 150-year-old community of faith. Believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to move us outward, to speak in ways that increase understanding, to show people how they belong to God too. Let’s celebrate and communicate with abandon the continual rebirth of the church!
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost-3/commentary-on-acts-21-21-13, accessed 6.4.2025