"The Gift of Understanding"~Acts 2:1-21~Pentecost Sunday~June 9th, 2019

It is the glorious day of Pentecost - what some consider the birthday of the church.  It's the fulfillment of a promise that the Holy Spirit of God would infiltrate the lives of God's people.  I simply cannot wrap my head around how chaotic it must have been, at least as it is described by Luke in the book of Acts (2:1-21).  Emotions were certainly running high that day: amazement, bewilderment, astonishment.  I would imagine there was confusion and perhaps even some fear.  There was certainly skepticism and cynicism (v.13).

I believe the most significant part of Pentecost Day was in the ability for each person to understand one another despite different backgrounds, experiences, and languages.  The most significant gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the gift of understanding.

What a glorious and amazing gift that is - the ability to understand one another regardless of the barrier of language and experience.  This is to be done through the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.  Is there a message for the church in the midst of this some 2000 years later?  Do you think Pentecost provides for us a teaching moment about how people with different experiences or who speak different languages - say, for example, communities of faith/congregations and the communities/neighborhoods/population they are located - understand one another?  We church folk tend to believe or expect everyone to speak our language - to know the codewords or passwords that we often use internally - and we then get frustrated when people do not respond in the ways we want or expect.  Maybe we should not expect everyone to speak or understand our language, rather perhaps we should rely upon the Holy Spirit to help us gain understanding of the language being spoken around us.