Pentecost 2026

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

 

What an incredible and awe inspiring moment that must have been.  Rushing wind, flickering flames and everyone there filled with the Holy Spirit.  I’ve tried to imagine what that must have been like and perhaps it’s my inner nerd, but the image I conjure is Harry Potter receiving his magical wand.  Or maybe when the Beast in the Disney film turns back into a prince.

It sounds magical…mystical… and frankly unreal.  Like much of the bible…the visionaries, the prophets, the incarnation even all seems to fall in the ‘a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’ category.  It feels like occasions such as Pentecost only happen in biblical times when miracles still occurred and God still spoke to people face to…well flaming bush or such.

Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost.  The coming of the Holy Spirit.  What is often called the birth of the Church.   We celebrate it as a memory, of a miraculous thing that happened back in the days when miraculous things happened.   Because miracles seem thin on the ground these days.  We believe in God, we celebrate the resurrection and the Eucharist, we pray and live our lives as faithful servants of God.  However, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we don’t really think the kingdom will come today…after all it’s been so, so long.

 

“In these days the word of the Lord is rare, there aren’t many visions”  These were the words from Isaiah just before that great Prophet Samuel answered Here I am… and then ran to Eli.   Eli hadn’t taught Samuel to hear God’s voice…after all in those days the word of the Lord was rare…but the ministers still served in the temple.

I wonder if that is us sometimes, fulfilling our duty, celebrating our liturgies…preaching the word, but not expecting the miracles that took place long, long ago.

Yet we call the bible a Living Word…a book that grows to fill the changes of time and place… a series of texts that tell enduring truth to all those who read it.  Chronicling a moment in time, and informing all times and all people. “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

So, if we were all baptised into one body and drink of one Spirit, then the miracle of Pentecost is not confined to that one event. Pentecost in Greek, simply means 50th, as this would be the 50th day after Easter, but we are less concerned about the calendar today and more interested in the events that took place…and I would argue still take place on this 2,026th 50th day. Nor is the Spirit confined to any one day.

 The rushing wind of the Holy Spirit moved over the darkness of Creation.  The Spirit breathed life into the dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision.  She led Jesus into the Wilderness and flowed over each of us in baptism.  The Holy Spirit still manifests among us and enlivens the church to this day, with inspiration and with the miraculous.

In our gospel today we read that despite the many miracles that the disciples had witnessed they were still hiding behind locked doors.  Still gathering together, still faithful, but unable to decide what to do and how to respond to those tumultuous 50 days that had passed since Holy Week.   So, we read their faithful and loving, ever patient rabbi and messiah went to them to teach and empower them once more and to ensure they had everything they needed.

‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ . “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you”  Those words still are true today and they weren’t  meant for the disciples only…nor to the special chosen ones long, long ago.

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Not only jews and Greek, slave and free…but accountants, fisherfolk, political dissidents, scholars, rebels and other every day people…just like those first disciples, and those now.  Jesus said as the Father has sent me, so I send you….and that means us.  All of us.  Now, we all know that the disciples were every day people, BUT you may object Jesus had chosen them personally!  Surely the Spirit doesn’t work in us like it did with them!  After all you don’t expect me to preach in tongues right!

But there is so much more to the Spirit than multi lingual evangelism.  Paul tell us:

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”   We are not all expected to speak in tongues, or in multiple language…or even to do the same work as the disciples long, long ago.  The Spirit is just as alive as in scripture and able to be as relevant and active now, as she was then.  We don’t need to be the same as the disciples, or any others that received the Spirit that Pentecost long ago, we are here to celebrate the Spirit now.

 

To one is given through the Spirit the wisdom coming with age, and to another the knowledge of scholarship and academics according to the same Spirit, 

to another faith to inspire and perseverance in prayer by the same Spirit,

 to another gifts of healing by medicine, by psychiatry, by compassionate listening by the one Spirit, 

to another the working of miracles and the ability to see hope,

to another the courage to speak truth to power,

to another the discernment of good and evil,

to another the gift of languages,

to another the ability to relate to people of all walks of life. 

All these spiritual gifts are activated by one and the same Spirit, who manifests in each individual just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—regardless of race, gender, sexuality, intellectual, mental or physical ability—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

 

That Pentecost was the first 50th day after the resurrection, but we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit each and every day and see her at work in our parish and in ourselves.  The Spirit may not arrive with the flourish of an Ollivander’s wand, but perhaps with a rush of understanding…the feeling of being right at home…the sense that this thing you do is truly your thing.  That can be just as exhilarating.   After all God doesn’t always manifest in the whirl winds and mighty thunder, but sometimes it is a still small voice of encouragement that helps the scared and self doubting disciple open the locked door and step out into the world.

And that is the miracle that inspires me most at Pentecost.  That those disciples who;  despite living with Jesus, even seeing him resurrected were still too scared, too full of self doubt, to unsure of what they had experienced that they were still hiding behind locked doors after 50 days!; then suddenly had the courage, the ability, the confidence to preach to hundreds of strangers in public, defying authority and risking imprisonment to follow God’s will and mission.

Now that is a miracle!  That is the manifestation of the Spirit.  Not only the giving of Spiritual gifts, but the gifting of the confidence to pursue them.

You are each gifted with abilities unique to you, and vital to the building up of the church, integral to the community and world at large.  That is without question.  Peter had always had the gift of preaching, but he had always been a fisherman.  The Holy Spirit empowers us to put God’s gifts to use, activates them in our lives so that we too can be not only disciples, (those who follow God’s word) but apostles (those whom God sends out).

Alive with the Holy Spirit and fulfilling our purpose in the body of Christ for the common good and to God’s glory.

So remember when the liturgy ends and we hear the words ‘go in peace to love and serve the lord’ remember our gospel today

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

Because Pentecost is not a once in history occurrence, it is a daily manifestation of the Holy Spirit alive and active in each of us.

amen