It’s a big day! Pentecost is the day we commemorate the disciples’ receiving the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus right before He ascended into Heaven. The altar at your church will probably be dressed in red, a color that usually represents the Holy Spirit. This week I’m going to start with the first reading, the account of the first Christian Pentecost, instead of the Gospel reading, because all the readings point to that event today.

First Reading: Acts 2:1-21

Last week we left the disciples staring up at the sky following Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven. In the verses following that reading, the disciples, together with about 110 other believers, made their way to the upper room where they had eaten the last supper with Jesus. They had drawn lots to choose a new disciple in Judas’ place, and Matthias had gotten the nod. And the group watched Jerusalem fill up with visitors from all over the world, there to mark the harvest in a celebration that took place fifty days after Passover: Pentecost.

The reading opens with Luke telling us that “they were all together in one place.” “They” refers to the whole group of believers, all 120 or so. Later Luke mentions the crowd that hears them (more than three thousand!), so it’s likely that now they were at the Temple.

I wish we could see a video of what happened next. A sound “like a mighty rushing wind,” but without the wind, and something “as of fire” rested on the heads of all the believers. These are images associated with God in the Old Testament, too. God spoke to Job out of the wind, for example (Job 38:1), and Ezekiel saw God coming out of a whirlwind with flames (Ezekiel 1:4).

Have you ever been in a city where no one speaks your native language? How awesome is it to hear someone speak to you in words you don’t have to pause to understand! That’s what many of the crowd of people at the Temple that day experienced. In a sea of noise, they heard words that felt like home, words telling them about Jesus. Of course they were “amazed and perplexed!” And of course some people thought they were drunk.

Peter jumps up and gives his first sermon. “We aren’t drunk–it’s only nine in the morning!” And then he goes on to quote the Old Testament prophet Joel. Since they are at the Temple, there are only Jews and Jewish converts there. It makes a lot of sense that Peter would jump right into the Old Testament prophets to tell these people about Jesus.

The passage Peter chose, from Joel, talks about how the Spirit will be “poured out on all flesh.” All. Men and women, slaves and free people, rich and poor, young and old. The Spirit doesn’t discriminate. Everyone–every single person–who calls on the name of the Lord is saved.

Do you remember what Jesus prayed for last week? He asked that we believers would be united, just as He is united with God the Father. How awesome that Jesus’ prayer is answered by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit like this.

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Personally I love Psalms that talk about God’s handiwork in Creation. They are always the words I think about when I’m lucky enough to find myself on a mountain peak or in a harbor, or even lately just sitting in the backyard enjoying the sunrise. All of Psalm 104 is a retelling of Genesis’ creation story. We pick up the verses that talk about the creation of animals and sea life.

I think one link to our Pentecost observance today is in v. 30: “When You send forth Your Spirit, they (all the creatures of the earth) are created…” The Psalmist knows that the Holy Spirit is instrumental in all the creative activity in our world.

And then, let’s make a note about the piece of v. 35 that got left out. This Psalm is a song about how God is making all of creation in his image, how he is making it new and perfect. Not everything will stay. Verse 35, in its entirety: “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!”

Not everything or everyone gets to be a part of the new creation. The wicked give up their place. Sinners, by choosing to sin, choose something different than the perfect creation of God. I wonder at the first part of that verse being left out of today’s reading.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit, but what exactly does that mean? Here, Paul lays out more insight into what it means to receive the Holy Spirit.

A little bit about the book of First Corinthians: This was a church on the Greek peninsula, really at the narrowest part of land between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas. It was truly a crossroads of culture and commerce. It was also a crossroad of religious beliefs. The Corinthian congregation was just as varied as the city: Jews and Gentiles, slaves and upper-class citizens and tradesmen. Paul wrote this letter to help them to understand how their divisions were hurting them, and to point out that in every way the divisions were not what Christ was pointing them toward.

Earlier in this letter he has talked about divisions over dress and food, division over sexual immorality, and even over who baptized whom! Here at Chapter 12 he gets to the action the Holy Spirit has on each believer. Go ahead and start your reading at v. 1. Paul is crystal clear about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and what they can and can’t do.

Next he moves on to a list of some spiritual gifts. Think back to the account of the first Christian Pentecost, when the believers were suddenly gifted with the ability to communicate in a variety of languages. One person didn’t get all the languages while everyone else watched. Neither did all of the people get the same second language. Each person was given one of an incredible variety of languages, and apparently ALL of those languages were necessary to speak to the crowd. God gave tools so that the whole crowd could be reached, even though not every person had the same tool. Do you think the person who was able to speak to ONE other person felt any less bad about his gift than the person who was able to speak to fifty? Honestly, I don’t. I think that the one hearer and the one speaker may have felt even more in awe of the complete provision of the Holy Spirit. Not only were the many covered, but not one was left out.

Now think about Paul’s words here. He lists a variety of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. (By the way, I’m sure it’s not a complete list, but it’s a pretty good sampling.) The Corinthians had been fighting amongst themselves about whose gift was better or even legitimate. Paul points out that they are all necessary, all from the same giver, and all useful. And they are to be used to draw the body of Christ together, not to pull it apart or to make one person superior to another.

Often it is easy to see how other people have certain gifts. Maybe it leads to envy. Sometimes it leads to sloth. It’s easy to say that you feel left out because you didn’t get someone else’s gift. But that isn’t the purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at all! Everyone has a gift and they are, each and every one, important to the body of Christ.

What do you think your gifts are in this season? Are you doing anything about them? What’s one thing you could do about your gifts this week? I’ll give you a start: be grateful and ask God to show you one small way that your gift can glorify him this week.

Gospel Reading: John 20:19-23

Today’s Gospel Reading finds us on Easter evening with the disciples locked in a location together, fearful of arrest or worse. Jesus has already appeared to Mary Magdalene, who has reported what she saw to the disciples. I would imagine that they are pretty uneasy at this moment: an empty tomb, visions of angels at that tomb, a completely unexplainable report from one of their trusted inner circle.

That’s the set-up for our reading today. They are together in the room when Jesus arrives, showing his hands and feet and proving that it is, indeed, Him. Then Jesus breathes on them, one more way to prove that he is real flesh-and-blood, not a vision, and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of John is the gospel most concerned with the action of the Holy Spirit. All the way back in John 1:33, Jesus is introduced as the one who “baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” So this passage is really the culmination of that action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is handing over the Spirit, and handing over the responsibility to tell the world about Him.

In v. 23, the word “forgive” can also be translated as “set free.” By telling the world about Jesus, the disciples have both the authority and responsibility of setting the whole world free from sin, one believer at a time. What a responsibility! And that brings us back to today’s first reading, when the believers learned in no uncertain terms that they would be equipped by the Holy Spirit to reach anyone, anywhere.

I hope you find this helpful this week! Remember to wear red on Sunday, if your church observes Pentecost. Today’s picture is a detail from the Cathedral of St. Domnius in Split, Croatia.