Well, howdy. We live in strange times. When our
church president was in South Korea, I was able
to text him on my phone, and he could text me
right back as though we were sitting across the
room from each other. We can superimpose someone's
face and body into videos and scenes that they
were never actually stepping foot in. And we
have translation apps where someone can speak
into a microphone and their words instantly appear
on your phone in their own language. We're gonna
even be trying it out later today too. Just clip
that on, grab your phone. You can even hear it
speaking to you through your little Bluetooth
if you want. And, you know, you can wear VR,
virtual reality headsets, and attend meetings,
but you don't have to attend them as yourself.
You can attend them as your favorite cartoon
character. And even find ways to summarize all
the unread messages from people that you forgot
to text back. TLDR, too long didn't read, that's
okay. It'll tell you all the main points. And
honestly, during COVID, How many of us were grateful
that zoom meetings only showed us from the waist
up? Do not pretend it was not you you know who
you are? Shorts were very very nice during many
of those meetings You know humanity has learned
how to teleport digitally and communicate almost
anywhere with anyone But loneliness has quietly
become the true epidemic of the modern world
humanity Our problem is not merely whether we
can talk. The problem is whether we truly understand
one another anymore. And part of that struggle
is that we no longer even know who to trust to
tell us what the world is really like. When we
look at the world, we often interpret it through
the lenses that we've carried over the years.
We search for voices online, on television, throughout
culture that reinforce the lenses. Right back
to us. Some people turn to comedians and comic
relief because the world feels exhausting. And
even if the joke is unfair, well, at least laughter
will help us survive while life keeps kicking
us in the ribs. That's the first few parts on
Facebook is just five little short clips of some
comedian telling us the next big joke. Now...
Others, though, they may gravitate toward outrage
and conflict and constantly being told who the
enemy is and who deserves our anger. But honestly,
some of us are just scrolling through dog videos
and cat memes. We just want the world to feel
a little lighter for 30 seconds. It doesn't matter
how often it is. If it's a tiny little kitten,
I'm going to watch for the next 15 seconds. Okay,
the next three minutes. Okay. But you see, Eventually
though, something begins to happen. Humanity
becomes louder, but still more disconnected.
We speak constantly, but we rarely listen. We
react instantly, but we rarely understand. And
that's why Pentecost matters so much, because
Pentecost is not merely a story about miraculous
speech. It is a story about God breaking into
a fractured world where people can no longer
truly hear one another. And what God gives them
is not merely noise or spectacle. He gives them
a message that they can actually understand.
Into confusion, into fear, into division, into
isolation, God is speaking. The Holy Spirit speaks.
through people who at first may not seem very
much like them at all. But the Holy Spirit did
not merely come for the spectacle. The Holy Spirit
came to bring understanding. That's why Pentecost
is still so important today. Now Pentecost was
originally a Jewish festival held 50 days after
Passover. It celebrated the harvest and Thanksgiving.
It also became connected to remembering when
God had met His people at Mount Sinai and gave
them His law. At Sinai, God descended in fire,
wind, thunder, and holy power. God formed a covenant
people and gave them His word. And now in Acts
2, it happens again. God descends, wind, fire,
divine speech. At Sinai, God wrote His law on
stone tablets. At Pentecost, God writes His truth
on human hearts through the Holy Spirit. At Sinai,
one nation gathered around one mountain. At Pentecost,
many nations gathered around one Savior. And
humanity is brought together around what God
has done in Christ. Because Pentecost is not
primarily about the miraculous speech. It is
about God making sure that people truly hear
the gospel. And that matters because people often
trust voices that they've been trained to trust,
even when those voices may mislead them. We see
it all the time. How often is it that people
lose money to scams because something sounds
believable? A voice that sounds familiar, a promise.
that sounds personal. Somebody sends an email
and we think, oh well, you should ignore the
Nigerian prince with seven million dollars. Well,
yes. But what if they've convinced you that they
are someone who cares for you, who loves you,
who thinks that you matter? And what was false
gets received as truth. We know that people lost
over $1 billion to scammers in the U .S. in 2024
trying to convince them that they had found true
love. We even know that this year two people
lost their lives when someone thought they were
helping Tom Selleck out of a money jam and giving
him away all of their savings. And spiritually
it has been the same. is that people often have
been led by those who merely want to use others
while promising them hope, love, and a future.
The people in Jerusalem, they had been shaped
by expectations about the Messiah. What He should
look like, how He should rule, what power should
be. Jesus had spoken time and time again about
the religious leaders and what it is that they
kept telling them they should expect. and what
they should hold as valuable. And many missed
Jesus because He did not arrive in the form or
with the speech that they expected. So at Pentecost,
God does something stunning. He ensures that
the truth of Christ is heard in the native languages
of the people gathered there. Not because the
message has changed, but because God wants people
to truly understand all that He has done. The
Gospel was never meant for only one group, one
culture, one background, or one kind of people.
It was meant for all people. And that is still
the mission of the Church today. Yes, it is wonderful
for us to have the Gospel in ways that Lutherans
enjoy, along with our bratwurst and our sauerkraut.
But let's be honest. God intended it for many
different peoples. So how do we speak faithfully
to the grieving, the skeptical, the anxious,
the younger generations, the wounded, the spiritually
exhausted? Especially when so many people have
spent years listening to distorted voices about
who God is. People standing from pulpits just
like this, telling them ideas of what truth is.
when they're just wondering whether grace could
be real. Because the Holy Spirit did not merely
come to create spectacle, to have an energetic
voice that just made it sound more appealing.
But rather, the Holy Spirit came to create understanding.
And that is still the mission of the church today.
When we see Pentecost, we see the Parthians,
the Medes, the Egyptians, the Romans, Many peoples
gathered together. Different histories, different
cultures, different assumptions. Yet they're
gathered around one Christ. Because Christian
unity, it's not about being the same. As we mentioned
last week, it's not forcing one culture, one
personality, one emotional expression. The Holy
Spirit speaks in the human experiences itself.
And we're honest, different people often carry
very different burdens and questions through
life. The baby boomers, shaped by building and
preserving institutions yet wondering why it
is that so many of these youngins keep tearing
down what they spent so long building up. Gen
X, shaped by distrust and disillusionment as
they are left at home to watch their television
sets and... wonder who will be there. Millennials
shaped by instability, shame, loneliness, especially
even wondering if this picture on their phone
is what they're actually supposed to look like.
And Gen Z shaped by fractured certainty and insecurity.
And we haven't even gotten to Gen Alpha and trying
to figure out what their issues are. Some generations
carry frustration and exhaustion, wondering what
happened to the world that they were trying to
build while others have the skepticism of watching
it all fall apart with loneliness and shame and
anxiety, not even knowing what their identity
really is, and then being afraid when they're
not sure what that is for themselves or for others.
If the church refuses to acknowledge the realities
of our world, then eventually, we stop speaking
to people and we just start speaking at them.
But Pentecost reminds us that the Gospel was
never meant to stay trapped with just one way
of doing it. The church cannot simply sit comfortably
in one room, speaking one familiar language,
and expect the entire world to somehow find its
way inside to us. Sometimes faithfulness means
learning how to walk toward people with compassion,
even when their experiences are so unfamiliar
to us. Even when it's uncomfortable. Even when
we have to listen longer and we want so bad to
just interrupt all the stupid things we think
they're saying. To be patient. to lay aside the
instincts to win the argument. Because witness
is not about starting with here is my argument.
Witness starts with I see you. I hear you. Let
me walk with you toward Christ so that you're
not just left in all the things I know God never
intended for you. And yes, some mocked the disciples.
They are drunk. Let's be honest. Sometimes we
try to express ourselves and it doesn't come
out that well. And even my own attempts at learning
Spanish are a lot like, yo necesito this and
yo quiero that. Do not tell my dad's family.
They actually do know how to speak it. But even
so, the church was no longer afraid of the misunderstandings.
because the Spirit had come to make them faithful
witnesses. The point of Pentecost was not actually
about the languages by themselves. The languages
were the vehicle. The true power was always the
Word being proclaimed through them. At Mount
Sinai and all throughout the Exodus, God had
gathered the people to Himself. He delivered
them from slavery. He called them out of darkness.
He formed a covenant with them. A promise. The
new land. A new life. A new identity. And He
spoke His Word to them. That was where life was
found. And so now God is gathering people to
Himself. But this time, the gathering centered
upon Christ crucified and risen. There was divine
fire, a holy proclamation, and God forming people
through His Word. But now, instead of gathering
into one nation, instead the promise was meant
to be extended outward to all nations. And that
matters because sometimes we become distracted
wondering whether Pentecost is mainly just chasing
something miraculous in our life. But the church...
has always been grounded in something deeper.
Being grounded in God's Word, what He is doing
inside of us, and making sure that others understand
when we speak it. Earlier this week, I was talking
with Pastor Jose Flores from the Spanish congregation,
and he reminded me of something that Martin Luther
had said. It's always amazing. You spend that
many years away from seminary and you start forgetting
a few things. But Luther had said that the Holy
Spirit does not come merely to make us speak
about Christ, but to make us live in Christ.
It's more than just religious information. It's
spiritual transformation. As Pastor Flores reminded
me, the Spirit is not simply decorating people
with religiosity. The Spirit is about making
dead hearts alive. Even theologians like John
T. Pless reminding the church that the Spirit
always points us back to Christ crucified and
risen. Look at Jesus. And any message that doesn't
communicate that is not the message that the
Spirit intends. Dr. Joel Bierman, one of the...
theologians at Concordia Seminary, a brilliant
man who kept driving me nuts by giving me an
A - instead of an A. Great guy though. Spoke
about the Christian life as a daily dying and
rising with Christ. Perhaps the greatest miracle
of Pentecost was the fact that dead people were
being brought to life through the Word of God.
And every day, we are surrounded by voices calling
us from the darkness that they want us to join
them into. Fear and pride, outrage, despair,
self -centeredness, shame, hopelessness. But
every day, the Word of Christ speaks to our dead
hearts and forgives, calls, restores, makes alive.
And then we become people who carry that Word
to others. Not because we're impressive. Not
because we've mastered every answer. Not because
we've never felt uncomfortable. But because the
Spirit continues to speak life through the Gospel.
And even as Dr. Arthur just had pointed, the
Church brings us back to the Word proclaimed.
To the water to wash us into His body. And to
receive His body and blood as the bread and the
wine. To continue to gather us together. Because
where we are gathered in His name, with His Word
being proclaimed, we have Him with us. Gathering
us, forgiving us, sustaining us, remaking us.
And every time that God's Word has spoken into
human hearts, another miracle happens. And that's
where Peter leads the crowd at Pentecost. Because
the prophets... the promises of God, the words
of Christ Himself, Peter brings us back to seeing
that the prophecies, they're not always meant
to be about the future. Because prophesying is
speaking truth about past, future, or present.
And that's why Peter reminds us what Joel has
to say. that in the last days it shall be, God
declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all
flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your
old men shall dream dreams. My male servants
and female servants, in those days, I will pour
out My Spirit and they shall prophesy." The Spirit
creates the whole people to carry the Word. Not
just the leaders. not just the officials, not
just the visibly religious, but all people. The
Word is going to reach because of what God is
doing. And that's why it is that He says, the
wonders in the heavens above, the signs on the
earth below, blood and fire, vapor of smoke,
the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord shall come. the great
and magnificent day. Because it's not about more
signs to look for some day. It's about announcing
that the world has been changed so much that
everything, even the sun itself, has been flipped
on its head. Because the wonders are invitations.
The day of the Lord is not wondering whether
or not we're going to see an eclipse in the sky.
The point is that God has already acted in a
way that goes beyond anything you could imagine.
And it has already happened today. The language
of the cosmic shaking of the world is to show
that the old way of seeing the world as stable,
closed, self -contained, it's done. The Spirit
has been poured out because Christ is crucified
risen and exalted, and God has already acted.
So what is Pentecost to be? It's not about the
display. It's the proclamation of Christ going
outward into the world. You can see it in Acts
1. You can watch it in Acts 3 -28. Pentecost
is the beginning of a church remembering its
calling to bring the word of God of hope, life,
forgiveness, renewal to all people, all places,
no matter what they expect when they are used
to voices of fear, outrage, exhaustion, ambition,
despair. Telling people who they are, what they
should trust, what they should reject. Because
into that noise, God is sending us as His church.
Into offices and workplaces, homes and friendships,
conversations between co -workers that your pastor
will never have access to, and places where theology
is not debated, but life is lived. The young
people will speak the Gospel simply and clearly
to other young people. They may not get every
moment right, but they will have the Word of
God upon their hearts. And we who are just a
bit older, remind the church not to lose itself
in the novelty, but to take joy that His Word
is present. Because God today, whatever it may
look like, in whichever language we may be using,
is still breathing life into dead and weary hearts,
speaking into confusion, and lighting us with
the holy fire. For the lonely, the skeptical,
the wounded, the exhausted, the guarded, the
ones who say, I cannot risk being hurt again,
and the ones who say, how can I believe anything
I cannot control? And not just for them, but
also for you. Because Christ is crucified and
has been risen for you. So may we remember that
we are not forgotten, that none of us are beyond
His reach. and that Christ has come because this
is Pentecost. Thanks be to God.