A Disruptive, Fire-filled Conversation ~ Acts 2:1-13 (A vision for Trinity, 2025-2026)

1.    We need a disruptive blow-the-church-down kind of miracle

Perhaps the most important words in our passage are “filled” and “enabled” – the two active verbs and the church isn’t the subject of either. God is the subject, the Holy Spirit. The energy, the source, the effectiveness of our missional work is dependent upon God empowering us in the present by the Spirit. Our mission is not first and foremost dependent upon our sacrifices, our money, or even our culturally relevant cleverness. Our mission is a Spirit-fueled, God-driven activity. Friends, make no mistake. We’ve built an amazing boat – first class. You are an amazing crew – top notch. We hold an amazing legacy. But sail boats don’t move because of any of those things. Wind is the only requirement. 

 

Vs. 2 speaks of a sound like the blowing of a violent wind. Pentecost is the reminder of a God who blows the doors off of your expectations and the source of our movement. God is the first missionary and sends God’s self to be the energizing source of what we are called to do. And we don’t control this God any more than we control the wind. The story of Pentecost is God coming, blowing, and setting us on fire – not in some cute, campfire sort of way but in a scary, burn-the-house-down-hair-on-fire sort of way. The Holy Spirit is not about making you warm and fuzzy, not merely about some inner working, but empowering a people to move in step with God. Are we willing to move?

The song writer Jason Isbell captures the God of Acts 2: You thought God was an architect, now you know / He's something like a pipe bomb ready to blow / And everything you built that's all for show goes up in flames.

This God is wild and wooly, messy and maddening. Every time I read this story, I find myself thinking of the sea shanty: “Come all ye young hardies who follow the sea / Yo ho! Blow the man the down! / The wind that’s a blowin’ will soon set you free. / Give me some time to blow the man down.” There are arguments about the meaning of the song. Some say it’s about a fist fight – “blow the man down” and others about a powerful wind – since ships were called “man o’war.” But in our case – both interpretations work. Our prayer must be that God will strike us to move us out of our duldrums and into motion. If God is both the energy and activity then our first response is surrender and prayer. Let’s raise the sail and pray. 

2.    We need a fire-filled, Jesus-speaking conversation.

 

The first movement of the Spirit-blown church was that their mouths miraculously moved. We need a mouth-moved-miracle and “grace-filled” conversation. I want to invite you to join me praying for the Spirit to anoint our words and enable us to speak like Jesus. And while I understand that the languages being spoken at Pentecost – the glossalia – were actual languages miraculously and prophetically given (Isaiah 66:18), right now we need a different sort of tongue, a different sort of speech. We need Spirit-blown languages of prophetic-kindness, truth-telling, advocacy, praise-giving, and friendship that mimic Jesus. 

 

We need a Spirit-filled way of communicating belonging that expresses the good news of the love of God that also honors the diversity of others in their own tongue: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, poor, rich, Republicans, Democrats, Refugees, Citizens, Believers and Atheists. We need language that creates wonder and bewilderment, and fosters deep questions like “What does this mean?”

We need the Spirit so that we can speak like Jesus – who loved God and others by challenging behavior that harmed the poor and marginal, who loved God and others by inviting the wealthy and disenfranchised to a seat at a kingdom table of belonging. We need a Pentecost miracle that has us lovingly warning about the way of death and lovingly celebrating the way of life. And this will require prayer and discernment, and curiosity and friendship. Some of you want more political discussion, others want less. I want Spirit-filled wherever that may lead. I want Jesus-like conversation – and if that gives you comfort, you may want to get to know Jesus a little better. So we’re going to be curating spaces for us to wait and witness the Spirit using our tongues to speak prophetically and priestly – with justice, humility, and love – to each other. We will be exploring opportunities for each of us to share our thoughts and listen. And friends, like Pentecost, it will bring astonishment and confusion but also worship and praise. This next year join us as we practice a miracle, prayerfully attempt Spirit-filled speech that has us joyfully walking hand-in-hand even when we don’t see eye-to-eye. Let’s be together in such a way that they actually accuse us, like the early church, of being drunk.