Sermon - 5/24/26

Year A – Pentecost – May 24, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd Acts 2:1-21 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 John 20:19-23 Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our redeemer, who poured out their Spirit upon all flesh, blessing us to the end of days. Amen. *** Yes, Pentecost …is the birthday of the Church! Happy Birthday, Church! For our Jewish ancestors and siblings, Pentecost was part of the Festival of Weeks, or Shavuot… it was celebrated 50 days after Passover. This is why there were so many pilgrims in Jerusalem on that day… the day the Spirit blew through town. These pilgrims were there for this harvest festival, and it was during this time that they celebrated God's gift of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. It's not the whole Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament… It's just the first five books, also called the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Torah contains the historical narrative of what God had done for God's people… it holds the stories of creation… and the stories of the matriarchs and patriarchs, and of the Exodus from Egypt. The Torah also contains the law… the holy teaching… 613 commandments given by God at Mount Sinai… the divine instructions for how to live according to God's will for humanity. And so then… on this festival day celebrating God's gift of the law to God's people, God gave another gift of blessing… God poured out God's Spirit upon them, inaugurating a new era! On this day, the same Spirit that rested on Jesus at the Jordan River was poured out on them… and that same Spirit… has been poured out upon you. Yes, this is the Church's birthday! It is OUR birthday! And in thinking about this celebration today, it is worth considering what it means to be the Church… and what it means to be the Church together. In what ways are we still shaped by that first community of believers… and how have we grown in the Spirit since then? Because Pentecost was only the beginning… a great reversal of the ancient story of the Tower of Babel… when humanity, in their arrogance, wanted to reach God, and so they began building a tower so great that they might ascend to heaven from earth. And God scattered them by diversifying their language. …but on this day, God's Spirit graciously descended to the earth, to us… to swirl through and around God's people… bringing them together… not by reintegrating the language, but by preserving that diversity and instead giving each the ability to share the good news of Jesus in as many different languages and cultures as there are. The Holy Spirit blew through and moved those frightened disciples out of the locked, upper room… moved them outside and into the crowd… into their community. The Spirit gathers people… gathers us… across difference and across fear… it does not gather us into sameness, but rather… into beloved community… into the living body of Christ. The Spirit gathers us in… and… the Spirit also sends us out… out to continue Jesus' mission and ministry… out into the world… to be church together… to be the whole body of Christ. And this is where we are today… a diverse and beautiful tapestry of humanity. We don't all worship the same… or sing and pray the same… and we may disagree on theological points, but… if we are following Jesus's mission and ministry, and loving the way Christ taught us to love, then… we are still… one body. I was blessed this week with the perfect example of this diversity in the body of Christ… Mike Nussdofer introduced me to Shari Montgomery, the founder of The House of Promise in Lansing, which helps women escape trafficking and rebuild their lives. I had a lovely morning with her as she showed me around the campus… it was beautiful and peaceful… and I couldn't imagine a more loving way to care for these women who have been so brutally harmed. And yet, throughout the morning, I gathered from our conversation that she and I likely have some pronounced theological differences. And yet, as I took in the larger context of her work… the fruits of her labor… I saw that it was good… and full of love… and there was no doubt in my mind that the fire of this woman's passion to serve others came from the Holy Spirit. And so, I give thanks for her… for her passion and her ministry to care for the most broken and abused among us … and for being part of this body that is… the Church. And I give thanks for the Holy Spirit for giving us each different passions… different gifts and abilities, so that together, we can address the needs of all. And I give thanks that God continues to guide us… continues to show up for us, sometimes as a rushing wind, or a fire that burns and does not consume… or sometimes… as still, small voice… God's Holy Spirit is still with us. And because we still have God's Holy Spirit… we still have the Church… a community of believers who come together to discern what this voice of God is calling us to do… …and how this Spirit is calling us to move and act in the world… guiding us to those who need us and our particular gifts, the most. I give thanks that the Holy Spirit still strengthens weary hearts… still illuminates difficult decisions… and still gives courage when faith feels costly. I give thanks… thanks for God's Holy Spirit… and how it called me into pastoral ministry… and brought me to you! Pentecost is not merely the story of what happened long ago in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit is still blowing through this place… still gathering us in… still creating faith… and still ushering in new life out of death. The Holy Spirit is still breathing peace into troubled hearts... and I for that I give thanks. And so, on this day of Pentecost… we celebrate with our Jewish ancestors that God's law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai…  But God does not discard the first gift in order to give the second. God who gave the Torah at Sinai is the same God who pours out the Spirit at Pentecost. Just as Jesus did not abolish God's law, neither does the Holy Spirit… but instead… the Spirit writes God's love upon human hearts and empowers us to live it. So, we now also celebrate our Advocate in the Holy Spirit, who guides us always in the way of love and grace and gives us the power and strength to share the good news of God's forgiveness and salvation through Jesus… This is a celebration, indeed! Therefore, on this day, I pray… may the Spirit transform the way we love across difference… transform the way we forgive those who have hurt us… and guide us to seek reconciliation when we have caused the hurt. May the Spirit light a fire in us that sends us to serve and live according to the will of Christ. …and may we carry this fire of Pentecost into our homes… into our workplaces, our families, and into our communities… so that the world may encounter, through us, the living and enduring presence of God. This day, and always. Amen.