Day of Pentecost (Year C, RCL)

Divisions mark our society—and our churches. What could possibly bring us together?

Forget the tower. The problem is that everyone "had the same words."

How can we overcome our anxiety? And should we even try?

I've experienced Pentecost as sweet, serious, or neither.

“According to Islam, Jesus always speaks the truth. The question is how we understand it.”

John 14:15–21

I see the people I'm protesting against when I get my mail, or sort my laundry.

Lutherans are trained to hear the scriptures as proclaiming either law or gospel. By "law" they mean not passages from the Old Testament but all of the Bible's bad news: the sins we commit, the misery we experience, the sorrows we inflict on one another, the death we anticipate, the distance from God that diminishes our lives. By "gospel" they mean not the final reading on Sunday morning but the good news of the mercy given by a loving God, wherever in the Bible it is proclaimed.

Those who heard the disciples preach on Pentecost comprehended the message in their own language. But that was only the beginning.

In Acts comes Luke’s imaginative way to build upon ancient stories. The tongues of fire are no longer seen from afar on top of God’s mountain. And the multiplicity of languages becomes God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to the entire world.

Pentecost offers a vision for Europe: not one megastate or one system for everything, but a model of diversity as peace.

It’s common to confuse ministry leaders with Jesus. We can see ourselves in Judas’s question to Jesus, “How is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Why do we have to carry the message?

And what would happen if we didn't?

Learning a language requires us to focus our attention on something outside ourselves. It's a lot like learning to pray.

California is in a severe drought. Normally it rains in the time from mid-October to March, but for the past few years it has been bone dry. Some say we may only have a year of water left. We are thirsty.

It is clear in Acts 2 that a party is taking place—that dreams and visions are not meant to be dreamt alone.