Pentecost

Pentecost 2026

Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the Church, but if we are honest, the Church can occasionally act as though the Holy Spirit retired many years ago and now lives quietly somewhere on the south coast with a cup of tea and the parish magazine. Which is an excellent thing to read, by the way.

We speak often about God the Father – God the creator. We speak lovingly about Jesus the Son – whose example we follow. But the Holy Spirit can become, as one preacher put it, “the shy member of the Trinity.” We mention the Spirit in the creed, but perhaps we are not always sure what difference the Spirit makes in ordinary life. Pentecost is not about vague spirituality or religious enthusiasm. It is about the living presence of God changing people from the inside out.

Richard Rohr writes, “The Spirit is always moving toward love, toward freedom, toward inclusion, toward healing.” That is what we see at Pentecost. The frightened disciples become courageous. The closed room becomes an open street. The Church stops hiding and starts living.

The Holy Spirit is not an optional extra for especially keen Christians. The Spirit is the breath of God within the Church and within each one of us. Without the Spirit, Christianity easily becomes dry duty, stale habit or simply maintaining the institution. With the Spirit, faith becomes alive, joyful and deeply transformative.

We may not mention the Spirit very often, but the Holy Spirit is alive and active in our church. Let’s explore how the Spirit came at Pentecost so we can ask for more…

At Pentecost, the Spirit comes in three signs: wind, fire and language. The wind speaks of God’s power and life. The fire speaks of God’s holy love. The gift of language speaks of God reaching across barriers to draw people together. These are not simply dramatic signs from long ago. They are signs of what the Spirit still longs to do within us today.

  

1. The Spirit Comes as Wind

Acts tells us that “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind.” Wind in scripture is often the sign of God’s power and life. In both Hebrew and Greek, the words for spirit, wind and breath are deeply connected.

Think back to Genesis, where God breathes life into Adam. Or to Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, where the breath of God enters what is dead and raises it into life again. The Spirit creates life where things have become dry, tired or lifeless.

And many people know what spiritual weariness feels like. Faith can slowly become routine. We continue faithfully, but inwardly something feels flat. We say our prayers, sing the hymns, come to church, but the soul can quietly become tired.

If we ask for the Spirit, we can expect new life.

Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “The wind blows where it chooses.” The Spirit cannot be controlled or predicted.

This may make us feel a little out of control – especially if we’re people who like to plan. But when we pray come Holy Spirit we should expect the unexpected in our corporate life and be open to things which are new and possibly uncomfortable. How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb? Change, we don’t do change! With the Holy Spirit we do. How many Charismatics does it take to change a light bulb? Just one – their hands are already in the air!

Let’s be ready.

And perhaps some of us need to hear this personally today: God has not finished with you. The breath of God can still reach the tired places within us.

Where are things routine? Have you stopped feeling God? Have you ever felt God? Are you out of breath in your life? (physically, spiritually, mentally tired and worn?)

So the first sign of Pentecost is wind — the Spirit breathing life into the church in unexpected ways and into weary souls- empowering us, giving new life.

  

2. The Spirit Comes as Fire

Then come the tongues of fire resting upon the disciples.

Throughout scripture, fire is a sign of the holy presence of God. Moses encounters God in the burning bush. Elijah sees fire fall from heaven. The disciples on the road to Emmaus say after meeting the risen Christ, “Were not our hearts burning within us?”

And the fire of the Spirit is the fire of holy love.

Pope Francis once said, “The Holy Spirit liberates us from being closed in on ourselves.” That is what this fire does. It melts frozen hearts. It softens cynicism. It awakens longing for God again.

The danger in religious life is not usually hostility to God. More often it is gradual cooling. We settle for politeness instead of love, routine instead of wonder. Faith becomes respectable but no longer alive.

Who here can say their faith is edgy? Radical?

I once visited a church where nearly everyone was over eighty. They decided to begin a simple lunch each week for lonely people in the community. At first they worried they were too old and too few. One woman laughed and said, “If the Holy Spirit could work through fishermen and tax collectors, perhaps there’s hope for us yet.”

And there was. The hall slowly filled. People stayed long after the meal had ended simply because nobody had listened to them for weeks. Something holy was happening there. Quiet perhaps, but deeply real.

Because when the Spirit burns within people, love begins to overflow outward. Richard Rohr writes, “The Spirit is the divine energy of love shared between God and all things.”

Having a bit more spiritual energy and power, having our batteries recharged is important regularly. Prayer becomes less of a duty and more of a desire. Worship becomes less about attendance and more about encounter. We begin not simply to believe in God, but to hunger for God. And our hearts burn within us with the fire of love with new energy.

So the second sign of Pentecost is fire — the Spirit awakening holy love within human hearts.

Wind, breathing life into us when we’re weary and in a dull routine.

Fire, our hearts burning with love for Jesus and those around us.

 

3. The Spirit Comes Through Language

Finally, the Spirit comes through language.

At Pentecost, people from every nation hear the gospel in their own tongue. The miracle is not merely speaking; it is understanding. Across all the divisions of culture, history and background, people suddenly hear good news meant for them personally.

And perhaps this is one of the most beautiful signs of the Spirit. God speaks personally. The Spirit reaches people uniquely, tenderly, individually.

The Church has not always found this easy. Sometimes we unconsciously expect people to become like us before they belong among us. A younger priest once joked that every church has an invisible sign at the door saying, “Welcome — please don’t sit in my pew.”

Well, we might not have pews, but we do all have unconscious bias and prejudice about how things should and shouldn’t be done.

But Pentecost breaks open that narrowness.

The Spirit is always moving outward, always drawing wider circles.

Think about Jesus himself. To fishermen he spoke about nets. To farmers he spoke about seeds. To the grieving he spoke tenderness. To the frightened he spoke peace. Jesus always met people where they were.

Perhaps we need to learn more of the language of others rather than speak our own. And learning a language is difficult – but less difficult if the spirit is speaking, I suggest.

So the third sign of Pentecost is language — the Spirit breaking through barriers and speaking to all people.

 

Wind. Fire. Language. Here are some questions. Don’t try and remember all of them, see what strikes you, and whether there’s words or a picture, something for just you or something to share associated with it to help us all.

Wind: Are we a bit safe in this church- will be pray for the Spirit to blow and cause movement in unexpected ways? Where are you in need of breath filling you?

Fire: Does your hear need warming, to burn within you during worship, so you have a desire to love like Jesus?

Language: What new language might we need to learn in order to understand those who don’t know Jesus? What or who comes to mind.

Pentecost is not simply the memory of something that happened long ago. It is the promise that God still longs to pour his Spirit into human hearts.

The disciples entered the upper room anxious and hidden away. They left it radiant, courageous and alive.

And perhaps that is the invitation for us too today. For us to leave this place changed.

Come Holy Spirit.