“Why Do We Need Pentecost?”
Acts 2: 1-21
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, May 24, 2026
Presbyterians are timid about celebrating Pentecost. When I was a kid, I don’t think we celebrated it at all. Gradually the tradition of wearing red for Pentecost has spread throughout the PCUSA, and some churches have even gone so far as festooning the cross with a red drape (pause – look over at cross) - or even decorating the sanctuary with red balloons – we haven’t gone quite that far yet! But that’s about as far as we’ll go. If someone were to suggest that we start shouting or dancing wildly or – heaven forbid – raising our arms and waving them around in praise, it would just be too much. Presbyterians generally don’t go in for emotional displays in worship.
Yet, in this scripture that describes the birth of the church, a rushing wind, tongues of fire, and a babble of languages fill the space, and onlookers are so confused that they think the disciples are drunk – although it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning! In our culture we associate speaking in tongues with an excess of religious emotion;
it’s not dignified. And, of course, Presbyterians like doing things “decently and in order.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but apparently those early Christians in Acts lacked our sophistication. We tend to think Pentecost was just a one-time event that occurred in the distant past. So why do we need to celebrate Pentecost in these more enlightened times?
Despite such thoughts, we need Pentecost today more than ever. First, Pentecost reminds us that God still does the unexpected. The first Pentecost occurred while the disciples were in an upper room, minding their own business, quietly praying, when – bam! The Holy Spirit descended upon them. The last thing the disciples expected that day was a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire, and speaking in languages they had never learned, but that is what God sent them. That is how the Holy Spirit appeared.
The Holy Spirit is always doing something unexpected, something we could not predict, drawing us out of our comfort zones, into the mystery of the Holy, challenging us to deepen our faith and to open our hearts ever wider to God and to all that God loves.
It’s human nature to want to be in control, but we cannot control God. We want to put God in a box – to say what God will or won’t do. Yet, it is not up to us to dictate what God is or does. One thing for sure – God is beyond our imagination. The Prophet Isaiah declared:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
God is like the ocean, with its immeasurable depths, its unknown currents, sometimes calm and placid, sometimes rough and stormy, yet always the same. We think we know God, but that’s like saying that we know what the ocean is, just because we have gotten our toes wet in the waves lapping at the shore. Even those of us who have swum in deep water, or gone overboard and thought we would drown, then have been rescued by loving arms – we think we know what the ocean is like, but we don’t. We only know a little bit of the ocean’s vast immensity.
God is like that. God is much bigger than our human minds can contain. As the Apostle Paul wrote:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— [these are] the things God has prepared for those who love him.
We need Pentecost to remind us that God is always doing the unexpected. God is always creating something new. God is always upsetting our preconceived notions of what God is like, who God accepts and who God rejects. Then suddenly God breaks in to disrupt the rules we think God follows, but which are actually based on our own preferences and prejudices.
For example, in the first few years of the church, everyone who claimed the name of Jesus was Jewish. Suddenly in Acts Chapter 8 an Ethiopian eunuch is baptized. Then in Chapter 10 a Roman centurion and his family come to faith in Christ. No one was expecting that! Peter had to go back to the elders in Jerusalem and explain how a non-Jewish Roman had become a Christian. After hearing his story, they admitted, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” – “Even to the Gentiles” – people who were not Jews.
Today we take that for granted, but for the early church it was totally unexpected! But Holy Spirit led them there. Throughout the Book of Acts, the church slowly realizes just how many cultural bridges they must cross, just how far Jesus’ love extends – even to an Ethiopian eunuch and a Roman centurion, even to the ends of the earth.
In our day something similar has happened with the church’s relationship with the LGBTQ community. In my lifetime, the church has moved from ostracizing them to gradually realizing that God loves and accepts everyone – no one is excluded. That is also a work of the Holy Spirit. Years ago, I had a friend who was gay and who was also an extremely gifted pastor. As I got to know him, I began to realize, “If God has called someone, who am I to say no? Who am I to go against the work of the Holy Spirit?”
A second reason we need Pentecost is that it reminds us that we are, indeed, all one in the Spirit. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, 12:12-13: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” The long list of nationalities present that first Pentecost reaffirms this principle: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, “and all the other -ites” as my husband Joe once said. These people represented most of the Roman Empire at that time – what is now modern day Iran, Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, Turkey, North Africa, Crete, and Italy – people with vastly different cultures and customs, who spoke many different languages. Somehow the Holy Spirit enabled them all to understand the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We don’t know how this happened, except to say that it was a miracle. Just as at the Tower of Babel, the nations were divided, becoming “us” and “them,” “friend” and “foe,” at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit made it possible for us to be one in Christ Jesus.
A side note: in our unity in Christ with believers of every tongue and nation, there is no room for so-called “Christian nationalism” which lifts up one nation above others as the chosen Christian nation.
Yes, Christianity is part of our history, but it is not biblical to claim that the United States is somehow special or chosen. In the Bible, only the Jews are presented as God’s chosen people. Believers in every nation have a part to play in God’s Kingdom. As the Apostle Paul said, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20) Our first allegiance is to Christ, not to any nation, leader, or party.
Teri Ott, editor of Presbyterian Outlook, writes, [ Pentecost] “is a beautiful reminder of God’s desire for us to be a people connected, to strengthen our sense of community, to understand and empathize with one another. My favorite part of the Pentecost narrative is how the people were given the ability to both speak and listen to those of different languages, cultures and customs. Conflict and disconnection often boil down to a lack of communication, or misunderstanding. Pentecost is the church’s annual reminder that the Holy Spirit not only calls us together but equips us to listen and learn from one another, to grow in understanding and empathy, to be God’s people and Christ’s church together.” That is definitely a reason we still need Pentecost.
So Pentecost reminds us that God is always doing something new, and unexpected. Pentecost reminds us that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Pentecost also reminds us that the Holy Spirit is present with us to help and guide us every day, not just on Pentecost Sunday. As Jesus promised his disciples in John 14:15-17: 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Advocate can also be translated “Helper,” or “Comforter.” It describes someone who comes alongside you to help you. The Spirit is there to guide us, to teach us, and to comfort us. This promise was not just for those first disciples. It is for us, too. Whether or not we sense the Holy Spirit’s presence, we can trust that the Spirit is with us, because Jesus promised us that it is so.
There’s a little story about two young fish swimming along. An elder fish greets them and asks “How’s the water?” They reply, “Fine.” After the elder fish has gone, one of them turns to the other and asks, “What’s water?” The Holy Spirit is like that – all around us, all the time, but sometimes we just don’t perceive the Spirit’s presence. Let’s pray that God will give us the ability to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So, why do we need Pentecost? To remind us that God’s Spirit is still at work in the world, sometimes in surprising ways; to remind us to love and accept one another, that we are one in Christ and are called to share Christ’s love with all, even with people who are very different from us. Finally, we need Pentecost to remind us of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives – a source of infinite love, wisdom, and strength, as close to us as our own breath: a helper, guide, and friend. Amen.
Let’s conclude by singing a Hymn to the Holy Spirit, #286, “Breathe on Me, Breath of God.”
Sermon @Deborah Troester, 2026