The Spirit Fills, the Church Speaks: Pentecost (June 8, 2025)

They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

The Feast of Pentecost is often called the birthday of the Church. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the Apostles and Mary spent time on a prayer retreat waiting for the Advocate that Christ promised them. The events of Acts 2 happened on the Jewish feast of Pentecost which occurred 50 Days after the Passover. The Feast of Pentecost was a time to celebrate the harvest and, Jewish tradition said that this was the anniversary of God giving the Law to Israel at Mt. Sinai which established them as a nation. This was a big feast to the Israelites and many would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On the feast day that Acts describes, there was a sound like a violent wind and then tongues of fire came above the Apostles and they began to speak in other languages so that all who were in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast could understand them and hear the Gospel in their own languages. We call this the birth of the Church because this event marks the coming of the Holy Spirit and it’s the first time the Church converts souls: 3,000 are baptized into the burgeoning Christian faith. The past few weeks, we’ve been preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit; now he’s here so let’s take a closer look at why this is monumental for the Church and what it means for us today.

To better understand what happened on that day of Pentecost, I want to turn our attention to 1 Kings 8. The First Temple has been built and the Israelites have come to have it dedicated by King Solomon: “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” This is a parallel to Pentecost. God’s is made visibly present here because the cloud of his glory fills the Temple; at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit’s presence is made visible as a mighty wind and fire. In both stories, God dwells among the people: all of Israel came together for the dedication of the Temple (8:2, 65) while in Acts, the Jews are gathered from all the nations. But there’s a key difference between these two passages: in Kings, God dwells among the people in the Temple building; however, in Acts, the focus moves away from a physical structure and focuses on the visible Church: it is here in the Apostolic ministry that the Holy Spirit dwells. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Christ present in the Eucharist, who binds the Church together in love, and who sends us out from teh altar to proclaim the Kingdom with boldness and joy. There is a New Temple and it doesn’t have four walls; it’s made up of “all the company of faithful people.” As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16–17, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

One other major difference between the Church and Israel revolves around proselytizing. Judaism isn’t really known for being a religion of proselytizers. In fact, the Old Testament is replete with laws against intermingling with the nations. Of course, Israel wasn’t entirely isolated, but they weren’t “evangelistic” either. The Church, however, has always been animated by a divine mission.

In John 20:21 “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the centrality of their mission: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

Christianity has always been an active religion, looking to incorporate people into the life of Christ and teaching them to be disciples. The book of Acts shows the unfolding of this mission. You can think of the book of Acts like concentric circles: first, the Apostles focus their mission on Jerusalem; then, they begin ministering to the region of Judea; then the action moves out to all of Samaria; and eventually, to the whole world. The second-half of the book zooms in on the ministry of our patron, St. Paul, whose charism was ministry to the Gentiles, the people who were far outside the circles that most Jewish people would have been comfortable with. And Acts follows Paul as he travels from Gentile region to Gentile region to build churches and spread the faith. This missionary zeal has always driven the Church forward. As Anglicans, we can appreciate that Christianity was brought to England by St. Augustine of Canterbury who was sent as a missionary bishop to England by Pope Gregory the Great. Many of the great saints of the Church were missionaries, either to their home countries or abroad. They are saints because they gave their life to promulgate the Gospel.

Let’s pause here and address a part of this passage that has long puzzled and fascinated the Church: speaking in tongues. What is speaking in tongues? Perhaps you’ve heard of Christians who do this in their private prayer lives or maybe even whole denominations that devote their Sunday worship to it. In the early 20th century, it became popular to say that tongues is a private prayer language, something only known to God. Many good Christians hold that position, but I would argue that this is not what’s going on in Acts or in other parts of Scripture that discuss the gift of tongues. In Acts 2, tongues are a miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers those who preach to be understood by hearers in their own language: the Apostles were enabled to speak to the people from all over the world despite the language barriers. Those who had been separated by linguistic differences based on the events at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 are now brought together in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit who cannot be contained by the constraints of language. Now tongues are mentioned in one other part of Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12-14. There, St. Paul discourages the use of tongues in Church and mandates that whenever they are used, they be interpreted because, he says, “In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.” Paul tells us that tongues aren’t really for the Christians because we already know the Gospel; it is a tool for evangelization to reach non-Christians. If I preached the rest of this sermon in Romanian, who here would understand me? It would be pointless for me to speak a whole sermon in Romanian because everyone here speaks English. But if I found myself in a place filled with Romanians and God chose me to preach the Gospel to those people, he could give me the gift of tongues so that I could reach them. Perhaps this is why we don’t see the gift very often: at this point, most countries have some sort of Church established in it and most languages have the Scriptures translated into them. It’s not a gift that we need to rely on as much in our day. But Scripturally, the use of tongues is for evangelism and, like the other spiritual gifts, tongues reminds us that the Holy Spirit is with the Church, pushing us to realize our mission.

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s pledge, his promise, and the way he is perpetually present in the Church. Just like the Holy Spirit brought a beautiful harmony out of the discordant mixture of languages on the day of Pentecost, he moves through the chambers of our hearts—convicting, converting, cleansing—until our lives reflect the beauty of holiness instead of the disfigurement of sin. What’s more, the Holy Spirit reminds us that the world, the Church, and ourselves are the dwelling places of God. The Spirit reminds us of who we are—temples, bearers of light, vessels of grace—and calls us to live as his temple. Each vocation you occupy becomes a backdrop on which the Holy Spirit can work. And that culminates in the fact that we are called to carry the Gospel where we go and we can trust that the Holy Spirit equips us to whatever he calls us to do. And maybe you feel ordinary. The work he’s calling you to may not result in 3,000 souls being converted in one fell swoop. But the same Spirit that was given to the Apostles on that first Christian Pentecost was given to you at your baptism and still works in you today.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.