Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost Sunday
June 8, 2025
Recently, while procrastinating on a work deadline by internet shopping, I bought a book to solve all my problems: The End of Procrastination: How to Stop Postponing and Live a Fulfilled Life by Peter Ludwig. But down this rabbit hole, the book spoke to me of Acts 2:1-21.
Ludwig writes about the power of personal and group vision to motivate action and foster change. “If the members of a group all have similar values and personal visions, it becomes much easier to found movements … If people come together to create a group vision, the result is very strong group motivation. [This motivation] has been one of the most important driving forces in human history — it has toppled dictators, launched revolutions, and initiated other changes that have transformed the world.”
Acts 2:1-21 doesn’t just tell the story of the church’s birth, it offers Christians a vision, an ideal around which we can and should organize our ministry. The miracle of Pentecost reveals a community that is both inclusive – “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (v.4) – and wildly diverse — “devout Jews from every nation under heaven.” (v.5) The text speaks of a people gifted with the ability to speak in new languages; hearing, understanding, and communicating in ways that promoted a sense of belonging. Acts 2 reverses the arrogance and divisiveness of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), revealing God’s true hope for humanity: a diverse community peacefully coexisting through mutual understanding and shared purpose.
Of course, there were doubters. Witnesses who could not grasp the heart of the scene, rationalizing the miracle away with sneers and snide comments, “These people must be drunk!”
But Peter wouldn’t let these accusations stand. Summarizing Peter’s sermon in his Feasting on the Word commentary, Michael Jinkins writes, “No, these people are not drunk. They are the living fulfillment of the long promise of God. God’s Word is being heard, God’s Spirit is being shared, and God’s communion is being brought into existence among humanity here and now.” Pentecost is a prophecy fulfilled, and God’s people are given a vision to guide and save.
This vision contrasts with the world we know today, one that feels like a return to Babel; arrogant, power-hungry leaders playing god and seeking to amass more power regardless of the cost.
Pentecost inspires what Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann names the “prophetic imagination,” helping us envision an alternative world, counter to the dominant reality. This holy imagination gives us a blueprint for building, which interfaith leader Eboo Patel says is what religion does best. In my 2023 interview with Patel, he said, “What religion does is articulate an ideal — the kingdom of God. And it builds institutions that seek to approximate the ideal. Every Presbyterian institution, every college, every hospital, every social services agency, every church is an attempt to approximate the kingdom of God and to move the world closer to it.”
Given the blueprint of Pentecost, we are to build communities that welcome and include in a world that excludes. We are to build institutions that prioritize and value diversity in a world that separates and segregates. We are to build relationships of mutual respect and understanding in a world full of people who talk over others, fail to listen, and dominate. We are to build a Pentecost alternative.
Clearly, the church does not always live into this ideal. But the vision itself is a powerful, motivating force. As Peter proves, it’ll preach, setting hearts aflame with a desire for more of what God promises and provides.
On this Pentecost Sunday, when it may feel to some like we are losing the battle against forces of greed and evil, let’s not underestimate the power of the Spirit’s gift of holy imagination. Like Peter and the prophet Joel, we too can prophesy, we too can see visions, we too can dream dreams, making us, as Ludwig writes, a “driving force” toppling dictators, launching revolutions, and initiating changes that can transform the world for good and for God.
Questions for reflection on Acts 2:1-21:
- When you read Acts 2:1-21, what does it inspire in you? What do you imagine as you read it?
- If you were starting from scratch, how would you build a church according to this Pentecost blueprint?
- Starting with your church as it is today, what might you change to align your community with this vision of Pentecost?
