Sermon for May 24, 2026: The Words You Know, Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21 The Coming of the Holy Spirit (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Peter Addresses the Crowd
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

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     I have wondered for a while now if the movie LA Story has a sneaky, discrete reference to the Holy Spirit in it. Steve Martin is the main character. He’s unhappy in his work and dating life and searching for meaning, creativity, magic, and beauty. One night, he’s driving with his girlfriend, and the car breaks down on the interstate, right in front of one of those big flashing signs that the DOT uses to warn people about road conditions. While he’s forlornly poking around the engine, the wind kicks up and the words “FREEWAY CLEAR” on the sign click off. He looks around at the sign, and it suddenly reads “HIYA,” which he thinks is strange. He goes back to poking at his engine.

     The moment his back is to the sign, a big flash, like from a broken bulb, shoots off and crackles, getting his attention. When he turns back towards it, the sign read “I SAID... HIYA.” It dawns on him that the sign is addressing him, much to his consternation. He looks around, trying to figure out what is going on. He, with no small measure of disbelief, says “Hi.” The sign then flashes these letters: R U O K? He reads them aloud as one word roo-ock. This is the part that got my attention the first time I saw it, because ruach is the Hebrew word for spirit.

     The reasons I think this might be intentional is 1) there’s wind blowing through this whole scene and the word for spirit is related to the word for wind and the word breath and 2) this sign becomes a guide for Steve Martin’s character throughout the movie. You know how some people ask for signs to help guide them? Well, Martin gets one, a literal signpost, that helps him find the meaning, beauty, and connection that he was missing in his life. He has no idea how it works. He describes it as one of the magical, unexplainable things that have happened in his life. It showed up in his life when he needed it but didn’t expect it. And, it changed him. That sure sounds like the Holy Spirit to me.

     Wind is powerful. A snowstorm becomes a blizzard because of the wind. When I think of the storms in the last few years that have done the most damage to the land and home where I live and the places I drive, it was the heavy wind that gave the rain the power to squeeze through gaps in the chimney. It was the wind that picked up the woodshed and broke it off its posts. The wind knocked down some big trees, too. On my drive to work, on my road, I still see downed trees from the January storms from a couple years ago and the windstorm from October of 2018. Wind is powerful.

     Across the Arab-speaking world, particularly in windy places that are hot and dry or hot and humid places, there is a traditional kind of architecture called a wind catcher. An article that I read described them as being kind of like large chimneys visible on a city’s skyline. There are vents in the tallest parts of the chimney shaft. They capture that powerful wind, directing it down into the lower areas where people and animals live. They may be on private homes or public buildings, like mosques, or utilities, like water cisterns. There are different ways to build these towers depending on your needs. You can create ones for more cross ventilation or ones with a bit of a vacuum effect that draws overly-warm air out of a building.  In places where you need to increase indoor humidity, the wind may even be directed over a fountain before going into the rest of a building. Wind is powerful. But, we can harness it for good, too. This also sounds like the Holy Spirit.

     A bunch of my preacher colleagues were talking about what they were reading in anticipation of Pentecost, and they mentioned a scholar named Kate Bowler’s most recent blog where she talks about having a porous sense of self. She has adapted this idea from a philosopher named Charles Taylor, who says that a porous self has a permeable boundary between their inner life and the outside world. She says, “Meaning, grace, beauty, the divine, even sorrow can cross into you from elsewhere.” This is a sense of self that is capable of being moved by forces beyond the individual person. Joy and suffering alike will enter into this vulnerable self. Bowler argues that “The porous self is the soul, open to God, to others, to feeling fed by the world and everything in it.” It is not a soul that is self-made by your own will to create it. This is self as a posture of connection and receptivity that allows you to receive a gift when it comes your way unexpectedly.

     It is also a posture that allows you to be affected by the good and the bad you witness. It is building a tower to harness the wind. It is gathering with your friends in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. In her commentary on this text, Dr. Wil Gafney reminds us that Pentecost is an ancient Jewish holiday marking the end of the 50-day Festival of Weeks (Shavuoth). By the time of Jesus and his friends’ ministry, this festival had shifted from mostly being a harvest festival to also being a celebration of God revealing the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. When you are gathered in the wake of resurrection and ascension, among your most trusted compatriots, during the festival celebration the gift of the covenant of God, open to the holiness happening all around you, you just might receive more than you bargained for. The Spirit cannot help but move when the conditions are right.

     Thank goodness Peter is there to try to make sense of things. Did you know that rocks can be porous? Peter, whose name meant the rock, certainly seems porous but also seems ready to pour into others. He says, “my friends are not drunk. Something amazing is happening here.” And, then he quotes the promises of communal, national salvation found in the book of Joel:

In the last days it will be, God declares,
That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your elders shall dream dreams,
Even up on my slaves, both men and women,
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
And they shall prophesy.
​
     That’s the part about who will share the information from the Spirit that we need to be open for. This is a vision of the Spirit moving through a diverse group of people to work in the world. And, what they share will be a sign for those who are willing to pick it up when it passes by. It will be even more obvious than a DOT sign on the interstate: portents in heaven, signs on the earth below, blood, fire, and smoky mist. The signs will include witnessing forces that you considered immutable and unchangeable actually changing in front of you.

     The signpost in LA Story goes on to explain that it is the embodiment of the spirit of Los Angeles that sees people in trouble and stops them, a potent metaphor for a city known for traffic. Don’t many of us want a sign to show us that we’re going the wrong way... and probably the right way, too! Like the Holy Spirit giving the disciples the power to speak languages they don’t know, the DOT sign uses familiarity to inspire. May we, too, hear words that we know that have the power to move us.

     In her essay, Kate Bowler invites readers to work on cultivating some porosity as a kind of summer homework. The challenge of this particular moment in history is that there is much floating around in the world that hurts when we take it in. I will add the image of the wind tower to accompany the idea of the porous self. There are powerful forces coming at us whether we are prepared to receive them or not. It is, therefore, a spiritual practice to find ways to harness and redirect what we receive for the good. Jesus’ followers heard Joel’s promise for communal salvation from war, occupation, and natural disasters, and turned into inspiration for continuing Jesus’ mission. May the Spirit move through you, changing you in ways that serve your neighbor, and creating an environment where life can flourish, even in the most challenging environments.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Here's the clip from LA Story: https://vimeo.com/20401910
Thomas R.W. Longstaff's entry on the Holy Spirit in the Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul Achetemeier, ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1996)
Wind tower/windcatcher: https://www.melkart.net/p/the-wind-catcher-lessons-from-traditional
Kate Bowler's essay: https://katebowler.substack.com/p/joyful-porous
Wilda C. Gafney, A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church Year A (New York: Church Publishing, 2021)