Daily Devotion – May 17, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

Acts 2:1-21
2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
2:6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11 Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
2:12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
2:13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
2:15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
2:16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
2:21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

The disciples were gathered together with people from many different places who spoke many different languages. How these particular people happened to come together, precisely, is open to speculation. But suddenly, the sound of a rushing wind filled the air, and the Holy Spirit just poured into the room and filled up the disciples (and maybe the other people too, opening their ears to listen!), and the disciples spoke about Jesus, and people understood and believed.

It was a kind of community miracle, a moment none of them had experienced before or since. A rush of wind, the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them, and the ability to communicate with people who ordinarily wouldn’t have understood one another. Jesus had promised to send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. But I’m imagining they hadn’t expected it would feel like this. Imagine the power! The wind, the sense of the Spirit, and the ability to tell people from all corners of the earth the story you are longing to tell.

I wonder if such understanding, such a single shared message, could happen today, when we are so divided from one another. If we asked for the Holy Spirit to take part in our conversations, across boundaries of language or race or class, I wonder what wonders might happen.

Lord God of all, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for helping us listen and speak with our brothers and sisters. Help us by the power of the Spirit to connect with the people you are sending us to.   Amen.