“A New Day”
May 24, 2026
Rev. Rebecca Migliore
Pentecost. Yes, it is all about the tongues of Fire! Yes, it is all about the rush of wind. And yes, it is all about the almost unbelievable spectacle of Jesus’ disciples speaking about Jesus and the glory of God in all the languages of people present in Jerusalem in that time. And so we wear bright fire colors. We sing songs about wind and Spirit. We marvel at what happened on that first Pentecost.
It was a new day! Those who had secreted themselves behind closed doors became very visible. Those who had denied knowing Jesus preached him to the world. Those who had been followers became leaders. The world changed, at least for those who were gathered together on that day. The world changed, they changed. It truly was a new day!
And why was that? How was that? How did confused, terrified disciples become energized, eloquent preachers? How did those who had tried to stay in the background become the forefront of a religious craze that would sweep across the globe? It seems almost impossible. But with God all things are possible. With God. All is possible. And that is what Pentecost is all about. God. Remembering that God is right here, in this very room. Being open to what being in the presence of God might do to our lives. Allowing the Spirit to show us our very own gifts.
Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the church. Because Pentecost is seen as the filling up, and spilling over of God’s Spirit on those first disciples, which quickly became many more. On our birthdays, we decorate! We celebrate! We eat cake! We get gifts! And today we decorate (thank you Kitt). We celebrate. Sorry there’s no cake today. And as far as gifts! Well, that is where the new day really begins.
Pentecost is a day where we remember that the Spirit has gifts for the church, for us—each of us, all of us.
Now on the first day of Pentecost, those gifts were fairly spectacular. I mean can you imagine being so swept up in the noise and the tongues of fire and the feeling of Spirit that you started talking in a language that you didn’t know? They may not even have known what they were saying? But they were heard talking about God’s great deeds of power by all those around. Strangers heard in their own languages what it was that these Galileans were saying. How did that work? Was it like a big Google translate moment? Did you think you were speaking in your native language and some other language came out of your mouth? Or did you just bubble over with the elation of God being with you and allowed your tongue to move in whatever way it wanted to?
It was a startling scene. Many were amazed. Many thought these disciples were crazy. Some thought “they have to be drunk!” The gifts of the Spirit on this first Pentecost certainly got a lot of attention. It almost looked like these people from a backwater place were highly educated linguists, or maybe they were possessed! It was a mind-blowing experience. And it made an impression on those present. So much so, that we still celebrate Pentecost today.
But sometimes I think we forget that Pentecost isn’t ancient history. It isn’t something that just happened long ago, to some other people, at some other time. Pentecost continues to happen, because the Spirit is with us always. And the Spirit continues to present us with gifts for our lives. Now I don’t want to cause a rush to the exits with you thinking that we are going to check and make sure that you are a REAL Christian with Pentecostal powers. We won’t be requiring anyone to speak in languages that they don’t know—that wouldn’t be very Presbyterian of us, would it? But today, I would like us to consider what Pentecost means for us.
The story as we have it is kind of a “shock and awe” type of story. I’m not saying that it didn’t happen. But it feels more sci-fi or X-files than our standard Sunday sermon fare. It feels so different from our own experience. We haven’t heard a rush of wind. We haven’t seen tongues of fire resting on each of us. We haven’t gone rushing out into the streets to speak in the languages of the globe. But that isn’t what Pentecost is at its core. Pentecost is about God being with us, and how that presence changes our lives.
It struck me as I was musing about our texts that Pentecost is similar to the Incarnation. At Christmas, we talk about God being with us in Jesus, Immanuel. And we have been listening to Jesus talk A LOT in the gospel of John about what will happen when he isn’t present (in the flesh) with them. Jesus says that God’s presence with us doesn’t disappear after the Crucifixion, or the Ascension. And so that we believe God is still with us, close to us, walking beside us, guiding us, Jesus says that God will send an Advocate, the Spirit, to be that presence of God with us right now.
That is a great gift all in itself. A gift to us, all of us, to know, to feel, that we are in the presence (a close proximity) to God, in our own time, in our own lives. But I think there is more than that. Pentecost and all the fireworks, all the bells and whistles, the glamor of that first Pentecost, shouldn’t overshadow the fact that this is a story for us. Pentecost means God is hovering over us, like the Breath of God hovered over the waters in the beginning. Pentecost means God is putting God’s tongues of fire over our heads too—like that children’s game, “Duck, Duck, Duck, GOOSE”—you are touched, you are chosen, you are called, you are IT.
But pastor, you say, God hasn’t given me stupendous gifts! I don’t feel like I want to speak in different languages. I’m not going to rush out to the street corner to babble. Please don’t say that’s what God wants me to do! The good news is that no one is forcing anyone to do anything.
But, the Spirit comes anyway. The Spirit gives us gifts anyway. The Spirit is at work among us anyway. For it is a New Day.
The Apostle Paul ran into this notion that there was only one gift that the Spirit gave—speaking in other languages. So in his first letter to the church at Corinth he says something that should sound somewhat familiar to you (we read part of this every time we ordain and install our officers). Paul says, “Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” He continues, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. [Gifts like: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, healing, working powerful deeds, prophecy, discernment—being apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, those who offer assistance, those who practice leadership].”
Did you hear yourself in that list? How about if I make it longer? Gifts like: making music; taking great photographs; helping to feed the hungry; being a prayer warrior; faithful devotion to God and others; sharing a kind word, a bright smile, a beautiful card; interested in learning more about God; providing meals and desserts; running tech; watering our new tree or planting pretty flowers; organizing things; the list could go on and on. These things are gifts of the Spirit. Some come naturally. Some we have to practice. All are given to us not just to revel in what God has given us (apart from the world). They are meant to be shared. They are meant to push us into the world. Not to puff ourselves up. But to tell about the glory of God. To witness, in our own way, of God’s love and God’s grace and God’s care for our world.
It reminds me of that beautiful prayer of Saint Teresa (that we sang a few Sundays ago)-- “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks, compassionately on this earth. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, You are His body. Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.”
I hear the same message in our gospel reading from the gospel of John. “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “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.’”
We are offered water to quench our thirst. We are offered bread to feed our bodies and our souls. But that isn’t the end. We are sent from the font, from the table, into our needy world. “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” I have never realized that the living water Jesus talks about with the Samaritan woman wasn’t just HIS living water. It is the living water of life, the living water of the Spirit, that we have in abundance, so much so, that we should allow it to flow to others, to our world. Everything that God gives to us, is meant to flow through us to help, to teach, to feed, to touch, to do God’s work, to praise God’s name.
A New Day! Pentecost. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day, This is the hour, This is the minute, when we can recommit to recognizing our God-given gifts. And in recognizing them, to redouble our effort to use those gifts for the benefit of all. That is why Pentecost changes the world. Because Pentecost changes us, and calls us to step out with boldness. To dream dreams and see visions and work together to bring them into being—and to God be the glory!
May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.
