Love in Every Language
What are the images that come to mind for you when we think about the Holy Spirit?
Fire, wind, a dove, maybe something more abstract—comfort, peace, mystery. These are all biblical images, and each one helps us glimpse something of who and what the Spirit is: which is the presence of God. The Holy Spirit can sometimes feel elusive, a bit hard to define, slightly obscure and strange. But that is what makes Pentecost such a gift—because here the Spirit shows up in a way that is striking and tangible, and certainly memorable!
It’s fifty days after Easter. Jesus has ascended back into heaven, and the disciples are still in Jerusalem, waiting for whatever was coming next, as Jesus told them to do. Meanwhile, the city is full of people gathered from far and wide to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot, a harvest celebration that also remembers God’s gift of the law at Sinai. Celebrated seven weeks after the Passover meal, which we remember on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, Shavuot is a major festival, which is why there were so many people gathered from such a variety of countries, all in Jerusalem.
And this is the moment God chooses to do something new and startling. A sound like a rushing wind fills the house. Flames appear—“tongues of fire”—resting on each disciple. And then suddenly, they begin to speak. But at that moment, they are given the baffling gift of speaking in other languages. If it was just the disciples by themselves shut away in a room talking foreign languages to each other, it would be pure confusion. But in the context of witnessing God’s presence to a city full of gathered visitors, instead it is a miracle of clarity. We will never understand exactly how it worked (another example of mystery!), but each person heard the disciples speak in their own language. An unlooked for moment when every person could feel seen, recognized, and known, in the familiarity of their home tongue.
This moment is like the opposite of the Tower of Babel story in Genesis, where God confuses the common language into many. Here, at Pentecost, we come full circle. People are gathered together despite their differences of language and culture, so the Spirit chooses to speak in many languages to draw them all into the universal message of God’s love, because the Gospel is for every person, no matter who they are or where they are from. So Pentecost becomes a commissioning. A sending of new believers. A moment of mission.
Now here is a question for you. Today we have the joy of welcoming our newest member into the church, as we baptise Henry, and during baptism preparation sessions, I always ask the parents and godparents this: If you could only pick one thing, what is the most important for this child to know about God, faith and the church? I’ll tell you in a minute what the most common answer is, but first I want to hear your thoughts:
- What one thing, do you think, is most important for people to know about God, faith, or church?…
Some great answers. The one that comes up the most in my meetings, in one way or another, is this: to know unconditional love. - That God is always there. That the church is always there. That you are never alone. That you always have a place. It comes down to the same thing: to know the unconditional love of God which you can never lose.
That’s what we celebrate and give thanks for today - that God is not far off. God doesn’t wait for us to learn the right language, or to be in the right place. God comes to us wherever we are, whatever we’re going through, at any age, in any place. And how does this happen? Through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit which is God with us in a new, personal, permanent way.
That’s why Pentecost and baptism go together so well. Because baptism is Pentecost made personal. In baptism, we say: Yes, the Spirit is for me too. It is the moment we are marked as Christ’s own forever and filled with the same Spirit that hovered over creation, that spoke through the prophets, that set fire to the early Church. In baptism, we are not just welcomed—we are called. We promise to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to resist evil, to seek Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace. And we promise to do that not on our own strength, but in the power of the Spirit.
So today, as we celebrate our church’s patronal festival and welcome Henry through baptism, we also remember our own baptismal promises. We will remember them and reaffirm them together, because they are shared, communal, Spirit-empowered vows. Whether your baptism was decades ago or more recent, the Spirit is still active within you, still calling, still sending.
Do you remember the line in our post-communion prayer? Every week we say together, “Send us out to do the work you have given us to do.” But we’re never sent alone. Every week we relive Pentecost, because the Spirit goes with each of us, to set our hearts on fire and to whisper that unconditional love to everyone we interact with. The Spirit communicates today, not only in different tongues, but in the languages of compassion, justice, and joy, wherever we show up to speak them.
Pentecost is a new beginning. Baptism is a new beginning. It calls us to a Spirit-shaped life: to love deeply, serve faithfully, and witness boldly. So may we carry that flame brightly. And may we go out from here ready to speak love in every language the world needs to hear. Happy Pentecost!
Amen.
Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17
