Pentecost Sunday - 2025c
First Lesson – Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Second Lesson – Acts 2:1-21
Coming Through
INTRODUCTION: As many of you probably know, during World War II assorted Indigenous American peoples played a huge role in allowing U.S. forces in the Pacific arena to communicate secretly.
Known as Code Talkers, the Hopi, Navajo, Camanche, and others, all used codes based on their respective languages to pass along messages. Using a specific word for each letter of the alphabet, the encoded messages were impossible for the Japanese to decipher. Working sort of like Morris Code, each message would be spelled out by speaking the word in, say, Navajo that corresponded to the letter a, or b, or c, and so on.
But sometimes the Code Talkers wouldn’t even bother with using the elaborate, secret system to communicate. Instead, they would just speak in simple, clear phrases in their native tongue. After all, it was a safe bet there weren't many Japanese soldiers who knew how to speak Navajo.
And when they didn’t have a word in their own language for a particular English word, they would make one up. The Navajo, understandably so, didn’t have a word for submarine. So when sending a message in Navajo, they would call a submarine an “iron fish.”
Today, there are only two surviving Code Talkers. The first is named Thomas H. Begay and the second Peter MacDonald. So Indigenous Amercians played their own important role in II. Without them, who knows if we would have been able to communicate so secretly.
ONE: Of course, on the day of Pentecost all those years ago there were plenty of other people who were also speaking in secretive and hidden languages.
You see, Pentecost, or the Festival of Weeks, was one of the three major festivals celebrated in Jerusalem at the time. Set to occur fifty days after Passover, Pentecost marked the end of the grain harvest. So pilgrims from around the ancient world would annually flood into Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost and to give thanks to God for the latest harvest.
Or as Acts likes to describe the makeup of those in attendance, there were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, and even Cretans and Arabs. And all of them speaking in their own language and tongue.
Well, what a train wreck that must have been! With Jerusalem packed with so many different people speaking in so many different languages, confusion must have reigned supreme as one language after another floated through the air in the markets in and around the Temple. To a passerby, the area would have been full with a cacophony of unintelligible sounds and noises.
TWO: So perhaps that helps explain why those early followers of Jesus’ have crammed themselves into a house to get away from it all.
The streets of Jerusalem are full of foreign faces and languages and the disciples, understandably so, are a bit anxious. After all, in chapter 1 of Acts we are told the faith at that point only numbers about 120 people in total. Put ‘em this sanctuary for a worship service and we’d still have plenty of room for more.
Besides, the wounds over what happened to their leader less than two months ago haven’t even begun to heal yet. Yes, some of them have seen the resurrected Christ, but the cross he was hung from is also still fresh in their minds as well. Jesus might be risen, but his tiny group of followers also know they could be wiped out by a handful of Roman soldiers in a heartbeat, if they’re not careful.
And on top of all that, Jesus has just recently ascended into the heavens leaving his little band of scared followers totally on their own in the world. In chapter 1 of Acts, we get to read about the resurrected Jesus being lifted up by a cloud into the sky leaving Peter, John, James, and the rest of the disciples standing around scratching their heads as they try to figure out what has just happened.
So the disciples and their small flock of believers have had enough. Jerusalem is buzzing with strange talk, and Jesus has just ascended leaving them alone and behind. No wonder they’re hiding out in a house. Things have simply gotten too crazy.
THREE: And yet, despite such an uncertain and crazy environment, Jesus’ disciples are still sent out into the world by the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses nonetheless.
Understandably so, those 120 followers just want to lay low and stay out of trouble. Unfortunately for them, though, the Holy Spirit shows up and before anyone knows it, half of Jerusalem is outside that house wanting to know just what in the world is happening.
So on Pentecost those early disciples were pushed out into the world by the Holy Spirit so they might provide bold testimony to God’s new world begun in Jesus Christ. Filled with their own glimpse of God’s new day, those first followers, rather than be allowed to reside safely in their house, were commissioned on Pentecost by the Holy Spirit to be heralds of the good news.
With conviction and courage, the disciples were to speak of God’s vision for the world - even when the gap between the way the world actually existed and the way God wished for it to exist seemed insurmountable. With a portion of the Holy Spirit resting on each one of them, they moved into a disconcerting world to speak of God’s unfolding kingdom.
No wonder during the Middle Ages churches were often built with an odd architectural feature known as a Holy Ghost Hole. A small hole placed in the ceiling of sanctuaries, Holy Ghost Holes were meant to symbolize Pentecost Sunday and the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the sanctuary.
And likewise, is it any wonder that in Italy even today there are churches on Pentecost Sunday that shower rose petals on people in attendance from the galleries above them to symbolize all those little flames?
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” says Jesus in chapter 1 of Acts, “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
FOUR: Several years ago, when I had a subscription to Newsweek magazine, each issue had a little segment toward the back called “A Life in Books.”
Every week they would ask some famous writer or other prominent figure to list their favorite and least favorite works of literature, along with a brief explanation.
Well, back in December of 2007 Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame was asked to offer up his thoughts on what he considered the best and worst books of all time. And it turns out, for Keillor, one of the best books of all time is “The Acts of the Apostles” from the New Testament.
When asked to explain why he considered the Book of Acts to be so important, Keillor offered these words, “The flames lit on [the disciples] little heads and bravely and dangerously went they onward.”
So on Pentecost the Spirit was more than just a Counselor and a Comforter. It also challenged and pushed the frightened disciples to enter the world around them so they might be heralds of the Good News.
FIVE: So do you see our high calling? Do you see how we’ve been charged with the tough job of being Jesus Christ’s representatives here on earth?
On Pentecost, we were formed into the church by the Spirit and commissioned to serve as ambassadors for the Prince of Peace. The life and ministry of Jesus Christ led to the birth of the church, and now it’s our job to see that its mission and purpose are being carried out.
A Bishop named Ernest Fitzgerald tells the story of a little boy left at a church one December night in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
According to Bishop Fitzgerald, several hundred people had gathered in a large downtown church one evening to celebrate the Christmas season. Stumbling upon a little boy about two years old who was hysterically crying while also trying to open some heavy oak doors that led outside, the Bishop just assumed the toddler was with one of the families at the event.
So scooping him up, he went in search of the boy’s parents. But eventually it became clear the little boy’s parents weren’t at the event, and what’s more, no one had a clue who the child was. Putting two and two together, it suddenly dawned on the Bishop the boy had been left at the church like an infant left at the front steps of an orphanage.
Well, over the next few days, both the church and the city of Winston-Salem were busy trying to discover the identity of the boy. The local TV stations ran pictures of him asking if anyone knew him, and the city newspaper even ran an article detailing the events.
And what caught the Bishop’s attention about the newspaper article was the way the reporter began the story: “Someone trusted the church last night,” wrote the reporter, “and the church came through!”
In response to the reporter’s opening lines Bishop Fitzgerald had these words to offer: “It will be a long, long time before I can forget that newspaper headline. So much of the world's future depends on the faithfulness of the ‘People of God’ to the ‘Great Commission.’
There is a deep hunger across our land as countless people grope for answers to the deepest questions of the human spirit. The message of Christ speaks to these questions, bringing hope and light…Evangelism is no longer an option for the church. It is essential to the survival of our world.”
The Bishop then closed his remarks with these words, “The line in that Winston-Salem newspaper is a haunting reminder of what the world expects of the church. ‘Someone trusted the church last night, and the church came through!’ May that always be true!”
CONCLUSION: Well, the bishop is right, isn’t he? Those who would follow Jesus Christ really do have a pretty big job to tackle.
After all, we sometimes live in a world that can be a cold, dark place for a whole lot of people. And often what people are looking for more than anything is a place that will come through for them. A place they can trust and that they can call home and that will give them hope and light for the road ahead.
It’s a high calling, no doubt about it. But surely with God’s Spirit showing us the way and pushing us ever onward, we too can be the kind of home that knows how to come through.
And now to the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.