Pentecost: Where is My Tongue of Fire?

 Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost

May 24, 2026

 

Pentecost is a Greek word and it means 50^th.

Because it’s the 50^th day after Easter.

I counted, it’s true, but you have to

count Easter as day one got get there.

 

But the name actually comes from another Jewish

festival called Shavuot, which Greek Jews would call Pentecost.

Shavuot is the festival of the weeks,

because they count seven weeks after Passover

7 weeks times seven days is 49 which is close

enough for religious math.

 

Shavuot is a Spring harvest festival.
But it’s also celebrated as the day

that God gave the Torah – the first five books,

the most holy of the books - to the people.

And a tradition is that devout Jewish people have an overnight vigil,

reading the Torah –or for some reason, the book of Ruth

which is not in the Torah – out loud on Shavuot or Pentecost.

 

So this is what people were doing on that day.

That’s why all those Jewish people who spoke

different languages were gathered together in Jerusalem.

And that’s why all those people knew that

they could not previously understand the disciples.

 

All this is encapsulated in the line,

“when the day of Pentecost had come” in Acts 2

Because all Luke’s original readers would have gotten all that.

 

And right in the middle of that gathering together for the

overnight reading for the festival of Shavuot (or Pentecost in Greek),

a violent wind comes over the 12 disciples

(they had replaced Judas with Matthias in chapter 1 of Acts)

and a flame lands over each of the disciples heads,

that makes all of the people there gather around the disciples

and these 12 disciples from the Hicksville town of Galilee

are suddenly able to read the Torah-- or the book of Ruth --

in languages that all those Jewish people

from different countries could understand.

 

Which causes the people around them to ask

if the disciples are drunk because that seems like a reasonable

explanation for the phenomenon even though

it was all the other people who would have been

feeling the effects and experiencing the hallucinations.

 

And having all their attention, Peter takes this opportunity

- to tell the crowds that no one is drunk cause it’s too early

(suggesting they might have been drunk later)

- and to quote the prophet Joel and the Psalms –

neither one of which is not in the Torah –

- And to tell them about Jesus of Nazareth a man

from the same backwoods town in Galilee

- and that Jesus is the Messiah that King David

foretold and that they had all been waiting for

 

And at this, the people who are listening

are “cut to the heart” and they want to know

what they can do and Peter tells them

that they should repent and be baptized

and join the way of life and justice

and community that Jesus had shown them.

 

And it said that 3000 people had joined the

apostles in teaching and fellowship that day,

and this action-packed chapter 2 of Acts ends:

 

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; 

 they would sell their possessions and

goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple,

they broke bread at home and

ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.

And day by day the Lord added to their number

those who were being saved.”

 

This wild and willy story of Pentecost

is what most people call the birthday of the church.

And it’s true.

It’s the moment that the disciples stopped just listening to Jesus

and started telling other people about him.

It’s the moment that they started to

build a community around Jesus and his ways.

 

It’s the birthday of the church,

this church and all churches.

 

Honestly, very little of what we see here

in this story is visible in the church these days,

And this hasn’t been visible in the church at almost any time during

its more than 2000 year history.

I mean we have some of the bare bones:

the reading of scripture,  

the praying we still talk about Jesus in a gathering.

 

But what about the wind, the flame and the languages?

 

I mean, we light candles in church.

I’ve set the baptismal font on fire in one church,

(it all worked out).

And I’ve been to churches where people

were speaking in tongues,

Church revivals were big in the early 20^th century,

with thousands of people attending.

Some churches have smoke machines.

I was part of a church with no air conditioning

and we’d run an industrial fan,

so we did have a rush of a violent wind.

But none of that is the same at all is it?

 

And this story in Acts paints a picture of

diversity in our worship. Of people

of many cultures gathering to work

tougher in God’s name.

 

But that’s not been the truth of churches has it?

Martin Luther King called 11am on Sunday morning

the most segregated hour in America.

And that still stands 60 years later.

We have black churches

and we have white churches

And in the ELCA, we have 

Scandinavian churches and German churches

on the same square mile that still can’t figure out

how to talk to one another or work together.

 

Some churches are able to establish a

diversity of cultures, but those are the exception.

 

And then there’s the behavior of the community.

Distributing proceeds and having the

good will of all people as a priority.

 

And many churches like ours have made a good go at the

distributing goods to any who has needs.

But we’re the exception for the most part,

and I think even we could more of that.

 

But the community sharing all things in common,

and selling everything they have for the community

THAT is not very common in churches at all.

And there are very few examples in history

where this community sharing has gone well,

where it wasn’t a cult with someone

taking advantage of other people.

And I don’t think I could do it now, but I really long for a place

where that kind of trust and sharing could happen.

 

So where did all this stuff in Acts 2 go?

 

I love this story in Acts of the birthday of the church,

but I also can’t help feeling let down by it.

Did we grow away from this? Did we change?

I feel kind of embarrassed and sad.

Did we let Peter and the rest of the disciples down?

Have we let Jesus down?

Have we lost the church they created on that first day?

Have we failed?

 

I don’t think so, the truth is, the rest of the

story of Acts tells us they actually lost it early on.

  

For example that bit about sharing all things in common.

Right away in Acts 5, it goes off the rails.

A couple defies that community covenant and

keeps the proceeds of a land sale for themselves

and when confronted about it, they literally drop dead.

And “great fear seized the whole church.”

And that’s the end of it. No more talk about

sharing things in common.

 

Then the persecution starts and their community

breaks apart and moves away from Jerusalem.

Then Paul converts and joins them and becomes a leader

and he and Peter don’t see eye to eye on most things,

even though they’re both Jews and speak the same language.

 

And in Acts 15, Paul and his traveling companion Mark

have an intense disagreement and they part ways.

 

And all of Paul’s letters, it’s apparent the churches

he started have serious trouble with diversity,

and with sharing, and with remaining faithful

to the way of Jesus.

 

Even before the end of Acts, this church that

was born on Pentecost with wind and fire,

is a fractured church that doesn’t ever seem to

live up to it’s birthright and wonderful beginning.

 

And yet God’s Spirit is still with them,

every step of the way,

adjusting  to their stupidity and stubbornness

and other people’s stupidity and stubbornness,

and pushing them to the next challenge

and opportunity to make Christ known.

We didn’t fail. We haven’t failed.

We’re still doing it. The Church is a work in progress.

 

This birthday story in Acts 2 is a vision for what the church can be.

What a community in Jesus can be. It’s a vision.

Like Jesus first sermon in the synagogue,

Like the Beatitudes and the sermon on the mount,

like the feeding of the 5000 is.

 

We are given a vision of a community

that is devoted to teaching, fellowship,

and the breaking of bread,

that gathers all people, that loves and

celebrates all cultures, that feeds

and cares for all those in need,

that shares what it has without fear

of corruption or greed.

 

It’s not something that was handed to us

fully formed and then we lost it somewhere.

It’s something that we constantly work for, strive for,

it’s something that we set our sights on,

that guides our mission and actions and behavior,

 

It’s something we figure out and then reality interrupts

and our shortcomings get in the way,

and all the gory and practical, and seemingly

non-spiritual details happen in real time,

with real blood, and real broken hearts

and real broken relationships.’

 

And yet God’s Spirit is still with us

every step of the way, adjusting

to our stupidity and stubbornness

and pushing us to the next challenge

and opportunity to make Christ known.

 

Our work is not in vain.

We’re not a failure.

One day we’ll get there.

 

The spirit works more gently now than it did in Acts 2.

No rushing winds or tongues of fire.

 

But still with burning hearts and

visions and dreams

of a better church

and a better world.

A Home For Us

 John 14: 1-14  Easter 5 May 3, 2026

 

Over the next three weeks, we will be reading

a portion of John’s Gospel that is called the Farewell Discourse.

This is the last discussion, sermon, monologue, that Jesus

shares with his disciples.  This is what he says at his last supper.

 

He has already washed their feet, and Judas 

has gone out to betray Jesus to the religious leaders. He told them that he was

going away, and Jesus just told Peter that he would deny him

three times before the cock crowed.

This would be the last time he and his disciples would talk.

 

And then Jesus starts his farewell discourse in Chapter 14.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

 

This has been read countless times at funerals.

It’s used as a metaphor for heaven.

Basically telling people there is plenty of room for their

loved ones in God’s house. I have used it many times.

I believe that fact. It’s very comforting.

 

But is that what Jesus is actually telling them with this?

Is this what the disciples were worried about?

Were they worried about going to heaven?

Or were they worried about more immediate things?

 

They have left their own families and followed Jesus.

The disciples had made their home in Jesus, following

him around and doing ministry with him

and now he was talking about leaving them and going

where they couldn’t follow any more.

It seems like they were more worried about their

present life than their eventual death.

After Jesus left them, where would they find home again?

I think that longing to go back home is true for

a lot of people. A place where you belong and are comfortable.

That home with a capital “H”.

 

I found a lot of profound quotes about Home 

while I was writing this, some by Maya Angelou, 

William Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson. 

But the best one for me was from one of the series

of the children’s book that came out about 20 years ago

by an author who called himself Lemony Snickett. He wrote:

 

“One's home is like a delicious piece of pie you order

in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening –

the best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life –

and you can never find again. “

 

I’ve had that longing for home. Especially when I was young.

I think that’s true for a lot of people at that age.

I was born in Queens New York in a town

called Woodhaven. It was where my great grandparents

settled after they moved from Eastern Europe.

When I was a kid, milk was still delivered to people’s porches

there were parks and libraries and stores.

One of my second cousins owned the bar around the corner.

My great uncle lived a few streets over, our church was on the corner.

Walking along the street we would always

see at least one old friend or family member.

 

That was home to me. The elevated trains

the graffiti, the stores, the people, the whole thing.

 

But when I was eight, my father was transferred

and I was wrenched out of New York and moved

to Houston and I hated it.

I promised at eight years old while sitting on the

swings at our new apartment complex in Houston

that I would live in New York again one day.

  

I spent the next 20 years feeling out of place and not fitting in,

wherever my family was, Houston, then San Francisco,

and then 20 years later, I finally did it.

I moved back to New York.

And one of the first things I did was go back to Woodhaven.

 

It pretty much looked the same.

There were all of the same buildings, restaurants,

some of the same graffiti was there,

my elementary school, the five and dime store was still there.

The house was still there.--There were some changes,

but it mostly looked like the same place I had grown up in.

But it wasn’t the same at all.

 

And I went our family’s favorite pizza place

that we had eaten in 20 years ago,

and as I was sitting there eating this great pizza,

I realized that Woodhaven was not my home anymore.

The people I knew had moved on and I had moved on.

It just wasn’t the same.

It was not the enchanted place I remembered

The best I could do was visit and be a visitor.

 

It was not my home anymore.

But if Woodhaven was not my home, then where was my home?

For a while after that I was feeling really lost.

 

Maybe some of you can relate to that

A lot of people have longings to go home.

Whether it is a place, or a time, or a sensibility.

We have the need to go back to a place that we can call home.

 

This was probably more the fear of the disciples,

not dying, not going to heaven.

They had left their homes and found their home in Jesus.

and now that home was being wretched out of their hands.

Where were they supposed to go?

 

Sensing this, Jesus tells them that line. About Home.

Now the translations says: “In my Father’s

house there are many dwelling places (monai).”

Some translate that as many rooms,

the King James translates it as many mansions.  

 

The word is not a common word, when it’s used again,

it’s in the same chapter in verse 23 where Jesus says:

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my 

Father will love them, and we will come to them 

and make our home (monen) with them.”

So a better translation of our passage today might be:

“My Father’s house has many places to call home.”

 

Jesus is telling his disciples that their home

is not just one place, or one person, or situation

The home that they found in Jesus could be found elsewhere too.

And then Phillip asks Jesus to tell them how to get

to this new place of Home.

 

And Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life”

The Way of living that Jesus showed them when he was with them.

(Did you know that in the first century,  

In My Father's House
There are Many Mansions
Irving Amen

Christianity was called “the Way”) and Jesus said, if we follow that way,

we can find that Home again.

So if they were feeling lost they should do the things

that Jesus taught them: 

Grace, love, sacrifice, forgiveness,

healing, feeding, caring, 

that’s where they would find Home.

 

In the second reading from Peter’s first letter that we heard today,

he makes all kinds of metaphors about stones.

Which is appropriate, because Peter means rock or stone,

He says we should live like Jesus lived,

as “living stones” and he goes on to say,

“Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”

 

Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,

We ourselves – the living stones – make the house

all put together, the people of the church

make the dwelling place of God.

 

With Jesus as our cornerstone,

we follow the path and way of Jesus,

we share the welcome that he did.

And we become that Home for each other.

 

Soon after I moved back to New York,

and figured out that my childhood home

would not be my home anymore,

I found Trinity Lutheran Church of upper Manhattan

a place where I heard for the first time out loud

about God’s unconditional love and grace for us,

and where I saw people try to live it out in their lives.

And since then, I have considered the ELCA –

this denomination, with all its joys, faults and issues –

to be the place that I have called home.

 

And I know wherever I can find a place

where people follow Jesus call and way,

I know I can always find Home again.

 

Christ Lutheran Church is not a building,

it is not made of wood, and sheet rock, and stucco.

it’s not even just the people that gather here.

It’s more than that.

It is a community made of living stones.

God has gathered us into a spiritual Home.

 

Jesus promised the disciples that he wouldn’t

abandon them. Even though he was leaving,

he wouldn’t leave them alone.

And that promise is for us too.

 

Do not let your hearts be troubled,

believe in God and also believe in me.

In my Father’s house there are many Homes.

And there is a Home for all of us.