05/22/2026
Greetings church! It is Pentecost Sunday coming up, also often called the "Birthday of the Church." We'll continue to put emphasis on how the movement of God on Pentecost soon after Jesus' Ascension connects to important models of the atonement during the sermon, but there are some key background ideas related to Pentecost that can sometimes get missed in our most familiar retellings in church that could be good reflection for all of us in our broader faith this weekend if you'd like to read and consider:
- Pentecost was already a holiday that Jesus' disciples and all the other people in the story were gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate, even though we sometimes might think it started as a Christian holiday about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, Pentecost is also called Shavuot, but the "Pentecost" name works for either the Christian or Jewish conception because it comes 50 days after the Passover (which remember was the holiday being celebrated when Jesus was arrested and crucified).
- Shavuot was originally a harvest festival where the first wheat crop was celebrated and brought to God as an offering. Jewish people often read the Book of Ruth as part of the celebration because of the emphasis on harvest in that story, with Ruth being welcomed into the Jewish people, and she and Naomi cared for through the practice of gleaning the harvest.
Understanding this can give us extra insight into the meaning of Pentecost in Christian celebration as the gift of the Spirit produced a first fruits of faithfulness in the early church, and continues to do so in our lives today. Similarly, the connection to Ruth, who was from Moab, reminds us how the Spirit affirmed the inclusion of people from all nations in God's Kingdom in that first Christian Pentecost and drawing in presumed outsiders is still close to the heart of God, too.
- Shavuot has another really vital role in Judaism, too, though, as tradition holds that the law was given on Mt. Sinai 50 days after the Passover, early when the freed slaves were navigating the desert in the Exodus. This is obviously a formational moment in the identity of the Jewish people, just as Pentecost as described in Acts is formation in the identity of the church as an extension of God's people. Hopefully we can again see parallels in how God graciously gave what affirms our relationship to God, empowers the practice of our salvation, and binds us together as a community of faith.
- Also, many people make connections between Pentecost and the story of the Tower of Babel in the Hebrew Bible, when early people aspired to build a tower to heaven to show their greatness (and many scholars believe the language of "making bricks" to do this that echoed the language of what the slaves in Egypt were later made to do exposes this as a project of some consolidating power and forcing and exploiting others for this project of human grandiosity), but God came and confused their speech so they couldn't coordinate, which allowed people to spread to care for the whole earth (and following the interpretation above, to interrupt the too common practice of power consolidation in communities and have a time of people re-valuing cooperation in more balanced communities).
So, Pentecost having people of different languages miraculously being able to understand one another (without losing the uniqueness of their languages, interestingly) shows a reversal and reconciliation of the resulting division and often competitiveness that came from the different languages and nationalities from Babel. And, in this reconvening, the people put all their efforts into sharing and mutual care, not in exploitation of some or in monuments to themselves of empty meaning.
I think each of these being seen as part of the foundation of the full meaning of Pentecost as we celebrate it today, and the formation of the Church on particular Godly values, can really help us deepen our faith and live in faithful ways together. Hopefully we all find ways to hold onto the generosity of God in giving us what has the power to save us and transform us in how we live... to remember how other people are gifts to us from God, even and especially when we have trouble connecting with them on our own, God wants to help us connect... and that all of what God does is meant to make the world more just and thriving for everyone, on earth as it is in heaven, and we get to be a part of both working with God towards that and benefitting from it with all the rest of creation because of God's gracious generosity. May that help you feel full of the Spirit this weekend!
