The Language of God Is Multi-Ethnic

Jesus has ascended into Heaven and the Holy Spirit enters. Today is Pentecost Sunday, a day that is recognized as the birthday of the church. This day typically gets overshadowed by other significant religious holidays, like Christmas and Easter, but today is a celebration nonetheless.

The last time I gave a sermon at Pacific Beach UMC, I delivered a message titled “The Promise of Baptism,” where I spoke of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. Again, I come to deliver another sermon on baptism, where the prophecy of John has been fulfilled in “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”—referring back to Mark 1:8. I would like to say that this was planned from the start and that, of course, I would have researched far in advance to piece all this together. But alas, all the credit is given to the Holy Spirit.

In our scripture reading from Acts 2:1-21, God sends the Holy Spirit through Jesus, gifting the disciples and everyone around a baptism through the Spirit.  God breaks the binary, otherness, in which language, nationality, gender, sexuality, race, culture, ability no longer hold us back from understanding one another, and unites us so that we can be one in the Holy Spirit. This is the birth of a new church. A celebration in oneness.

Scripture passage:  Acts 2:1-21