Sermon for the Day of Pentecost (May 24, 2026)
Transcript
This transcript was generated by YouTube AI and edited for clarity.
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Please be seated.
We all know the story of Pentecost.
If you didn't know the story of Pentecost before, I feel like you know it better now after hearing that reading.
Maybe you feel the creative power that flows through us when we are doing something new and inspired. The excitement that sort of sweeps you up, maybe makes you feel uncomfortable, makes you wonder what's going on, but also, at least for me, puts a smile on my face.
And it goes really well with the opening celebration, you know, all of this. We talk about Pentecost as being the birthday of the church, when the spirit that Jesus promises his disciples does indeed descend upon them while they're gathered together in one place and fills them with power to tell everybody everywhere that God's love is the power that animates the universe, and that we are full of that power, and it is poured into our hearts and it is given to us who ask.
That is what Peter is trying to say at the end of that reading from Acts where he's quoting the prophet Joel: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Everybody who says God is love will be animated with power to live this life on the 50th day after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the truth that the disciples experienced. And it is the truth that binds the church together, that keeps it going through all the muddle that we make of things, and that brings us here today with hope.
That is the story, the classic story of Pentecost. But the gospel has another.
It is the same story, but it's told in a different way. A story of the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit.
This is John's telling of the Pentecost reality: that God is with us always to the end of the age, and that because God is present, we have the power to live in a broken world.
That evening, on that day, the first day of the week — the day is Easter Day. It's time for Easter dinner. It is the same day that Mary Magdalene went alone to the garden to visit the tomb of her teacher. And when she got there, there was nobody there.
And she fell to her knees and she wept because it was really truly over.
And he was really truly gone and dead. And the power that had been at work within him had really and truly been crushed by the power of sin.
And as she was crying, a gardener came to her and said, “Why are you crying?”
And she said, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
And the gardener said to her, “Mary.”
And then she saw. And she said, “Teacher.”
And he said to her, “Go tell everybody everywhere.”
And she hurried to the disciples.
That evening on the same day, those disciples were locked in a room for fear of the authorities, for fear that what happened to their leader would happen to them.
There they were together. The doors were locked. They were huddling. They were whispering. They were terrified. And they were well aware of how very bad things were, how very broken the world is.
And who came and stood among them?
It was Jesus.
And he said, “Peace be with you who are afraid, who are bewildered and confused, who are brokenhearted.”
And they looked at him, and he showed them his hands and his side.
He said, “It really did happen, and your hearts are really broken. My presence does not deny a world that makes us fearful, confused, and brokenhearted.
And yet, peace be with you because I am here among you.
I am really here among you.”
And then he breathed on them.
[breaths]
And the disciples took a deep breath.
Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
And they were made new and whole and brave again.
And they knew that the power which had brought him back to life from being really dead — the power which brought him back — it was the same power that hovered over the empty water at the very beginning when God said, “Let there be light in the darkness.”
And by the power of the spirit, it was so.
And they knew that the same power, love, which animates the world, which brought the world into being by the word of God, which brought Jesus Christ again from the dead, was now poured into their own hearts to give them wisdom and strength and courage for the living of these days.
Not denying the brokenheartedness that they carried, and not denying the sorrow and the grief and the suffering that they witnessed, but having the power to tell to everybody everywhere that it is still love, often hidden and invisible, which animates the world, which is poured into you with your every breath, and which comes to you most of all in those times when you are weak, when you are sorrowful.
But when you breathe, and when you call upon the name of God, when you breathe, when you pause, I want you to hear Jesus.
[breaths]
“Receive the Holy Spirit and peace which passes all understanding.”
May that peace guard your heart and your mind in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ.
And may it give you the power to live a life such that everybody everywhere knows that God is love.
In the name of God, creator, redeemer, sustainer.
Amen.