Pentecost: Wind, Fire, and Every Language

The disciples are all together in one place on the day of Pentecost — the Jewish feast of Shavuot, fifty days after Passover, when Jews from every nation have gathered in Jerusalem. Suddenly a sound comes from heaven like a rushing violent wind, filling the entire house. Divided tongues as of fire appear and rest on each of them. All of them are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in other languages as the Spirit gives them ability.

The crowd that gathers outside is bewildered. Devout Jews from every nation under heaven hear them — Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, Arabia — each hearing the disciples speak in their own native language. Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? In our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.

Some mock: they are drunk on new wine. Peter stands up and addresses the crowd. It is nine in the morning — they are not drunk. This is what the prophet Joel foretold: In the last days, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy. The speech continues into a proclamation about Jesus.

The early church read Pentecost as the reversal of Babel: where Babel scattered the one language into many and divided humanity, Pentecost allows one message to be heard in every language simultaneously, gathering the scattered nations back into a new unity. The fire of Sinai — where God spoke to Israel from fire — reappears as distributed flames resting on each individual. The community on whom the Spirit falls becomes a new kind of covenant people.