Trusting the Spirit
Ōtūmoetai – Year A Pentecost Sunday, 2026
Readings:
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
today is Pentecost Sunday
what can you tell me about this Sunday?
discuss
2. Theology not history
Last week we talked about how story of the Ascension is presented differently in the gospels and Book of Acts
same thing going on today
Not in Matthew and Mark
John – wraps resurrection/ascension/giving Spirit all into one event
going to come back to John
Luke in Acts – giving of Spirit separate event
is hinted at in gospel
in Acts - offers this amazing account
heard this morning in all those different languages
what are we supposed to do with these differences
if we read these books as history
- these differences can be a problem
– feel like we should choose
o who is right here
writers of gospels not books history
not trying to answer when things happened
trying to show what these events meant
so their timelines are constructed to show the meaning of these events for each of those writers.
presenting different theologies
we don’t have to choose between them
but embrace them all
offers fuller and richer understanding of work of Spirit
3. Acts and Pentecost
Acts account is most well known
Luke has constructed his version of story very carefully
wants to show what resurrection, ascension, and coming Spirit means
does it by using a lot of symbolism
starts with pushing dates Ascension out by 40 days
è doing so making bold claim those put trust in Jesus are true Israel
o one through whom God will restore humanity and renew creation
o big claim
places Gifting Spirit - feast Pentecost
- harvest festival – time giving thanks God’s provision
- also became festival celebrating gifting of Law on Mount Sinai
Leviticus 23: 15-22 says harvest festival
held on the 7th Sabbath after Passover
(50th day hence Greek name – pente or 50)
passage goes on to describe what is needed for thanksgiving offering
finishes with
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.”
- passage moves directly from thankfulness to justice,
- in celebrating this thanksgiving festival
o people of Israel reminded of ethical demand to
§ not harvest the fields to their fullest extent,
§ but to leave the edges for the poor.
requirement repeated in several places
- because they were once poor and landless and God had given the land to them.
o they were to mirror generosity and compassion that God had showed to them
Pentecost not just thanksgiving festival
those celebrated it were reminded God’s justice and generosity
that at heart of law is God’s justice and generosity
4. Wild Story
Luke offer this wild and dramatic story
- sound like gusting violent wind
- various languages like fire, sitting on each one of them,
- all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
speaking other languages is more than transposing words like google translate
- who grammar structures
- world view or tikanga that provides framework
o and is expressed in the language
- can’t fully learn another language unless you are willing to engage with this.
- Bonnie and I couldn’t learn re reo Māori without learning about Te Ao Māori
o and to be shaped by that in some way
when your dominant language in any situation
easy think that your way of seeing world is normal and right
all other ways inferior
see that playing out here and around world today.
when learn another language – to really learn that language
have to let that go
allow your world view be broadened
know your way seeing world is not only way or best way
which is what is happening to these disciples
not just speaking words
doing so with cultural understanding
in ways that affirm the hearers
- their worldview
- their worth
- their humanity
allows them then to create different kind of community as described at end of this chapter
a new community full of a multitude of cultures, customs, languages, is formed. There are men and women, rich and poor and in between, slave and free.
All that should divide them is broken down.
The hierarchies of deserving and undeserving, most important to least important, crumble.
God’s new inclusive way is lived out in spectacular fashion.
living God’s justice and hope, especially for the poor and outcast.
What do you think this version offers us this Pentecost?
5. John
But wait there is more
The Acts account is not the only version of how the Spirit is given.
John too offers a very different and less dramatic tradition.
This tradition of the coming of the Spirit is situated on Easter Sunday.
Jesus has ascended and returned.
He enters a locked room to be with his grief stricken, terrified, shattered disciples. Yes, we are back where we were seven weeks ago.
As I read this account three words stand out for me: peace, breathe, and rejoice.
6. Peace
The first gift Jesus gave as he entered this room was what they most needed at that moment. Peace.
Their world had ended with his death.
They were stupefied and confused by Mary and the other women’s assertion that Jesus was no longer dead.
- That made no sense.
- They were lost in grief, fear, confusion.
Before anything else could happen, they needed stop the whirring confusion and be at peace.
When they were at peace, then they were able to receive what else Jesus offered them.
But first, peace.
And so twice he gifts peace.
- same peace we offer each other every Sunday
I wonder when has that peace been offered you in times of need?
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| https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/96504348/hongi-our-national-greeting |
7. Breath
second word is Breath
The giving of the Spirit in John is very gentle, very intimate
Jesus gathers his disciples and breathes on them
- up close
- story of peace giving at Maungatapu – hongi and kiss
- this is what going on here
The Hebrew word for Spirit is Ruach which means spirit, breath, wind.
- It is the life force that sustains all living things, human beings included.
In this moment Jesus breathes the life of God into each of his friends.
- That life and love that he spoke of so often,
- that he shared with God the father.
- that he embodied
This is not an external force as depicted in Acts,
- but internal and life sustaining Spirit.
I wonder when have we experienced this life sustaining Ruach or Spirit of God being breathed into us
8. Rejoice
Lastly, the disciples responded to Jesus by rejoicing.
Sometimes we forget to rejoice.
Especially needed when uncertainty is all around
But I wonder, what is it you have rejoiced in?
When has work Spirit led you to joy?
9. Conclusion
One of commentator’s I use reminded us that in John’s gospel at least the Spirit is not something we should seek understand.
- We spend too much time doing that.
- Instead,
The Spirit is to be trusted. And we need this trust now more than ever.
It is this that allowed those disciples to let of their cultural superiority and
become an embodiment of God’s compassion and justice
Luke and John not interested in telling stories sake of information
They wanted to help hearers know
- The creating life giving Spirit is breathed into each of us,
- wanted them to place their trust in the presence of the Spirit at work.
- to know where to look for signs of Spirit at work
I wonder
- What have you heard
- where do you see the extraordinary acts of the Spirit in our lives, in our world?
- what do we trust the Spirit to do?
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