One of the remarkable things about the Pentecost story is the way the Holy Spirit gives Peter and the apostles the ability to speak in other languages. This gift of tongues is not just a sort of “divine parlor trick”: it isn’t a gratuitous display of power, but like all miracles in the Scriptures, it has a purpose, and that purpose is to make the Good News about New Life in Jesus readily accessible and easily understandable to everyone who could hear. The way Luke tells the story, there were devout Jews gathered in Jerusalem from all parts of the Eastern Roman Empire, come there to celebrate the Feast of Shavuot. As travelers in Roman culture, they all would have spoken enough Greek to get by on the roads; as devout Jews, they all would have spoken enough Hebrew to participate in the Temple ritual; but as members of many different

sub-cultures, they would each have spoken their own languages, and would have been most comfortable listening to their own recognizable words. When the apostles praised God and preached Jesus in those very words, they reached the people in a way that touched them deeply and gave them their own inner taste of the Spirit’s power. That deep communication was the real miracle of Pentecost.

And that is still the miracle of Pentecost today. The Holy Spirit still empowers us to proclaim Good News of New Life, not only in the technical jargon of theology, not only in the aesthetic language of the Prayer Book, but also in the language of the street, the language of music, the language of science, the language of athletics, the language of canoe trips, the language of stargazing on a summer night, the language of visiting places we’ve never visited before and seeing God’s beauty of Creation in a new way, the language of community picnics, the language of neighborly parties—more languages for more times and more places than we could count. As for the apostles, so for us: the Holy Spirit empowers us to be Good News, not only in words, but in actions and experiences and expressions and activities that communicate the touch of New Life in Christ in the deepest and most joyous ways.

May the celebration of Pentecost be for you a sending-forth into summer, a sending-forth to communicate Good News of New Life in all sorts of new ways and new forms and new experiences. May the celebration of Pentecost be a sending-forth for our whole St George’s household for new initiatives in evangelism and outreach and being Good News for our community. Amen to that!