Pentecost + Year A + 5.24.26

 

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Numbers 11:24-30; Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; John 7:37-39)

 

There's a sweet, sweet, spirit in this place
And I know that it's the spirit of the Lord
There are sweet expressions on each face
And I know you feel the presence of the Lord

(From “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” By Doris Akers)

Good morning, church!
Do you ever feel like you are in a place where the Spirit is just singing? I always hope we feel like that on Sunday morning here, but sometimes we feel it in other places, too. I had such an experience Saturday before last at my graduation from Berkeley School of Theology. It was the graduation not only of BST but also of the Leadership Institute of Allen Temple, an esteemed Black Baptist institution, and, as such, there was so much joy in the church where we held the ceremony. We truly felt the Spirit.
When we were processing in, a great cry came up of congratulations for one of my fellow graduates, and without missing a beat, my advisor, who was in line, reached over to my father and said, “They’re cheering for you!” It was a sweet moment because our joy for each individual became communal, and the Spirit was there in all of that!

Well, today our readings are all about feeling the Spirit as we celebrate the day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit showed up in a new and powerful way in our midst. We also call this day the church's birthday!

Back to the graduation. One of the things that was so joyful was that we were lifting up several leaders who were not on the traditional ordination track. This relates to the passage from Numbers today. To give a bit of background, Moses has been grinding too long and is about at burnout. He is an excellent leader, but taking on the full mantle of leadership for all the Israelites is just too much. So, God suggests that the Spirit be shared with this group of 70 elders. These elders are among the precursors to the long tradition of lay leadership in Judaism and later in our church traditions, as well as a recognition that all leadership, ordained or lay, needs to be shared. It is not good to lead alone.
So, of course, what happens when these 70 receive God’s spirit? But they start to prophesy!  But they don’t do so again. But the Spirit is contagious. So another pair who weren’t even in the tent begin to prophesy. And how do the people react? Do they like it?

No, they are worried that somehow these leaders will encroach on Moses’ authority. But he is not that insecure. He knows that God will provide enough authority to go around. And so, all these leaders are empowered, and he gets the occasional break. In the church, we do this too. I may be the “mera mera” around here, as one of my colleagues jokingly said the other week, but there are plenty around who can lead and will do well, especially when I am on sabbatical in late June through mid-August. I am not worried about that, but in fact grateful that the mantle will be temporarily shared, and then I can come back and take on my responsibilities from a more rested place.

We all have gifts to share, and this is also clear in Jesus’ words in what may be one of the briefest gospel readings today: Jesus says of the Spirit: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Here, it is clear that all can receive the Spirit. That the Spirit can come into all believers. Yes, some are anointed to lead in particular ways, but all have gifts to share.

Another aspect of the Spirit in today’s scriptures is something I have heard theologian Eric Law describe as the miracle of tongues and ears. In today’s reading from Acts, chapter 2, the core text that we read every Pentecost Sunday, we hear that the Spirit touched the people and that they understood each other, each in their own languages. Law points out that we don’t know exactly how this miracle worked. Did God help each hearer understand in their own language? Or did God help each speaker begin to speak in the language of another? When I watched “The Testament of Ann Lee,” at one point in the movie, she spoke in tongues, and it was stated that, in her moment of prophecy, she spoke in many different languages to which she may not have had access as a relatively uneducated woman. This is what some call the gift of tongues. In other cases, the gift of tongues is the utterance of another language that is believed to be of the angels. But all this being said, the miracle here isn’t just in being able to speak different languages. It is to be understood.

I heard something very fun this week. Apparently, there was a missionary in Australia who, upon trying to describe what happened at Pentecost in the native Aboriginal tongue, informed the crowd that the Spirit came through a “deluge of wallabies” rather than tongues of fire![1] It is so true that, so often, when we try to communicate across cultures and languages, we laughably say the wrong thing. But saying the wrong thing can also be offensive or disruptive to sharing the gospel and building community together. I think it is miraculous when God helps us, through the gifts of shared language skills and the goodwill that always seeks the best possible understanding of the situation, actually to communicate the good news to each other.

This is something we attempt to do, in our own human, imperfect way, at All Santos. Yes, I am bilingual, but this gift is not just mine; it is one that many people here have. And those who are not multi-lingual, but have the gift of perseverance in hanging in there, seeking to love and understand even when communication is imperfect. And then there are the funny ones who keep us joking through it all, the dreamers and the musical ones, and more.

Speaking of imperfect communication, did you notice that there are always haters? I noticed that in the passage from Acts, there are those who, rather than perceiving a miracle at work and a lot of people who are literally drunk on the Spirit in a good way, choose to see evil in something they don’t understand. They write everyone off in this scene as a bunch of drunks. Like those who would protect Moses’ role by squelching others’ prophetic gifts in the Numbers passage, these folks are the haters. Don’t let them get you down.
Because there will always be some who are not yet ready for the power of the Spirit, but they don’t get to decide what is happening for everyone else. They can’t squelch the Spirit. They may see those who wish to help lead as usurpers. They may perceive those who express their connection with God in a new way or through a new cultural or linguistic lens, or who simply live differently, as deadbeat drunks. But we know the truth. When we feel the Spirit, we know. We know that she moves in mysterious ways. She cannot be contained.
Let us be ready. Let us remember that we each have a gift to share, and let us continue to be open to the miracle of ear and tongue, of mutual understanding, in our community, and, by extension, spread this miracle throughout our community and the world! Because just like the Acts passage today happened in the upper room and spread to the area, in the same way, the Spirit, acting through us, will inspire others! Better get ready, church!  Because there’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place. And without a doubt, we’ll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place! Amen.

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[1] Richard Guilliatt, “How a Bible Translation Is Preserving the Pitjantjatjara Language,” accessed March 5, 2026, https://ourlanguages.org.au/how-a-bible-translation-is-preserving-the-pitjantjatjara-language-2/. (from Working Preacher Commentary.)