Today is Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2:1-11

2 On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the Lord’s followers were together in one place. ² Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind! It filled the house where they were meeting. ³ Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. ⁴ The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.

⁵ Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And when they heard this noise, a crowd gathered. But they were surprised, because they were hearing everything in their own languages. ⁷ They were excited and amazed, and said:

Don’t all these who are speaking come from Galilee? ⁸ Then why do we hear them speaking our very own languages? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam. Others are from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, ¹¹ Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others of us have chosen to be Jews. Yet we all hear them using our own languages to tell the wonderful things God has done.

http://preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/VSS-2.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY8fDjBN1LU

Pentecost, the birth of the church

It's been a party party week-end. Yesterday we celebrated the 70th birthday of a friend at a fabulous surprise event at Hyde Park restaurant carefully planned by her husband and daughters, and today we celebrate the birth of the Christian church. And I would certainly recommend that restaurant--great food and staff.

And today, another birthday party--the church.  We Christians call this day Pentecost (Greek for 50th day) and it's the third of the three big ones--Jesus' birth, his resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles to establish the church Jesus had talked about. It is celebrated by Christians all over the world 50 days after Easter, and marks the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles while they were cowering and hiding behind locked doors following Jesus’ resurrection. It falls on a Jewish feast day because it's virtually impossible to understand Christianity if you don't know the basics.

Jesus said to Peter the apostle whose name means rock, "Upon this rock I will build my church." There are all sorts of interpretations of this, just pick one. It's one of the reasons there are 35,000 protestant denominations, Bible and non-denominational churches. And people who claim to read the Bible literally, jump through hoops to say Jesus didn't mean Peter.

But he did established the church as he promised. So guys and gals, let's stop cowering and hiding and celebrate.