May 24, 2026 Pentecost, ALL at Grace SERMON
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 20:19-23
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O
God who manifests the Holy Spirit in our lives.
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” we are told in our
passage from Corinthians. Let’s hold onto that thought as we flesh out where and when we are
today.
Two weeks ago, the Gospel of John for May 10th, the Sixth Sunday after Easter, was the passage
that would have sequentially happened just before Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion during the Last
Supper. Jesus explained that soon they would not see him, but that they would not be
orphaned. It was then that Jesus told the disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit, an
advocate, a helper, the Spirit of Truth, to always be with them, who would abide with them and
in them. God would send the Spirit to teach them everything and remind them of all that Jesus
said to them.
Now today’s Gospel passage from John takes place on the evening of the day of the
Resurrection when Jesus appears to them in the upper room while the doors are locked. He
had previously appeared to the women, but this is the first time he is appearing to the others
and specifically to all of them together, except Thomas, whose story comes just after today’s
passage.
But here in today’s passage Jesus is breathing the Holy Spirit upon them, that they would
receive the Holy Spirit. And part of receiving the Holy Spirit is this ability regarding the
forgiveness of sins. Somehow receiving the Holy Spirit is tied to forgiving of sins, forgiving them
and retaining them. Noting that when Jesus was on the cross, he asked God to forgive even
those who were murdering him.
And we might also note that often when the Gospel of John talks about sin it is in regards to
belief or unbelief, so forgiving sins might also have to do with teaching, which is interesting
because just after this Gospel moment, we have the story of Thomas and his words refusing to
believe unless he sees the marks himself, and yet there is no judgement in Jesus’s words toward
Thomas for not believing and in fact Jesus takes the opportunity to bless all those who don’t see
but believe.
So chronologically, we have just before the crucifixion when Jesus is letting them know that God
will send them the Holy Spirit; just after the resurrection where Jesus is breathing the Holy Spirit
upon them; then the Ascension, 10 days ago, when Jesus rose up into the heavenlies, leaving
the disciples wondering, “what happens next?”
And now our Acts passage from today, fifty days for us and 50 days after the Resurrection of
Jesus, on the Feast of Weeks, when the Holy Spirit rushes in like a violent wind and all of them
are filled with the Holy Spirit! This is what we celebrate today with our Day of Pentecost, which
was also their celebration of Pentecost!
I would be remiss if I did not say, that also some consider this the birthday of the church, as this
is the day the disciples were empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach and spread the Gospel!
And preach they did, empowered by the Holy Spirit, preaching in multiple languages to all those
present from all the various nations and thousands were added to their number that very day.
So now that we have sped up the timeline to get us to Pentecost, I want to go forward about
twenty years to when Paul writes the First letter to the Corinthians and specifically, I want us to
think about how this passage from today applies to Pentecost and to us today.
On the day of Pentecost, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence was the disciples speaking
in languages that all the foreigners could understand. And here we have the same Spirit
showing up in different ways. Our text says gifts, but a better translation would be different
expressions or different manifestations.
But what each of these expressions have in common is that they are all for the common good.
And just like people today, each person has a different experience of the Holy Spirit. One has
the utterance of wisdom, one the utterance of knowledge, another faith, another gifts of
healing, another the working of miracles, another prophecy, another the discernment of spirits,
another various kinds of tongues, another the interpretation of tongues. All by the one Spirit,
who it says allots to each one individually as the Spirit chooses.
In some circles you might hear that these are specific expressions of the Holy Spirit that one
might have and if you don’t have any of these specific expressions you might feel left out
wondering if you have the Holy Spirit. And yes, it is true that some people manifest wisdom
well beyond their years. Some have gifts of healing, etc.
But I want to delve a bit deeper to what the text is saying. Verse 6 says, it is God who activates
all of them in everyone. This means that you too have been blessed by the Spirit in your life, in
ways you may or may not even be aware of. We are like instruments of God, waiting in each
moment to be played with the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps you can think back to times in your life where the Holy Spirit played an active role in
something you did, where you might wonder how that happened. Maybe you had super human
strength to do something you didn’t know you could do. Maybe words came to you when you
didn’t know what to say. Maybe a flow of creativity came over you.
Sometimes these manifestations are for the moment. Other times they might be for longer
periods of time, but we all have them. It is a matter of recognizing them and cultivating them to
allow the Spirit to flow. This is part of our calling, because these expressions, these
manifestations are part of how God uses us for the greater good. As part of God’s family, as
Christians, it is our responsibility to be available to God for God to do things in our lives for the
greater good. Each one of us has this invitation and collectively this is what we are called to as
God’s church.
©Darcey Mercier May 24,2026
Filed under: Sermons - The Reverend Darcey Mercier | Tagged: 1 Corintiahans, Acts 2, christianity, faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, John 20, Pentecost, Psalm 104 | Leave a comment »
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