Year A Pentecost, 24 May 2026
St George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg, VA
“Some Words for Pentecost 2026”
Collect: Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Numbers 11:24-30
Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that
was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested
on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!" But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!" And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
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. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`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.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "
John 7:37-39
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.’” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Friends, today is the birthday of the Church. While St Paul makes the metaphor that the Church is the Body of Christ, and John the Revelator the Bride of Christ, it has also been said that “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” (Archbishop William Temple) We are here on Pentecost, at a time when, if the Church were ever needed, it is today.
The world is hurting; it is hurting all over. Hearing from my friends overseas, it is not just here. I was speaking with my adult daughter this last week, and I told her if someone had told me 20 years ago the state of the world today I would not have believed it. I would have laughed because the plausibility of the state we are in would have been laughable. If a scriptwriter tried to pitch today’s headlines to Hollywood for a movie, it would not have been believable for a plot. Friends, if the world ever needed the Church it is today.
We have baptisms today, just as they did on the first Pentecost. We have 4 (at the 10 o’clock service), and we celebrate that there are people choosing to join in the work we have set out before us. But because of the worry and anxiety and rage that I have heard about, and the frustration about “them,” whoever them is, I think I need to hear a sermon today that looks at Pentecost 2026, and maybe some steps to take in the days to come.
For us to go on, Christ’s Church needs to have Hope, especially when the world seems pretty hopeless. Friends, we are encouraged by St Peter:
Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (I Peter 3:15b-16a)
When the world asks why on earth we have not become hopeless like they are, we need to have a response.
What might you say? If someone stopped you as you were coming in today why you were walking into St George’s what would come to mind? You might say, “I know how the story ends. Our team wins!” Or you could say, “It is always darkest before the dawn. This place has light!” For me, though, I would have to agree with Karl Barth. If you are not familiar with the theologian, he was a prolific (and voluminous) writer. He wrote 13 volumes of his “Church Dogmatics.” Once a student asked Barth to summarize his massive theological life's work in a single sentence.
Barth paused, smiled, and reportedly replied:
"Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother's knee: 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"
As many things as he could have said, that basic hope from his childhood was the truth he held onto. Me, too.
Friends, know this. We have a hope because Jesus is our Hope. He overcame sin, for us. He overcame the grave, to show that our greatest fear is gone. He took hold of all that was drowning us and set us free so that we can walk boldly into tomorrow, and even more so into the eternal when we are ushered into the very presence of God. There’s your Hope. Don’t let the Hopeless ever convince you of anything other. And you can share that Hope, even if they don’t believe it. Share the feeling of Hope, we all need it these days.
Stephen Colbert has been in the news and social media a lot this week and I saw a quote I just loved. “"Be kind to people. Not because they're nice, but because you are.” And we, the Church of Jesus Christ, share Hope with people. Not because they have it, but you do.
Now all the things I just mentioned earlier about why we have Hope, they are statements of Faith, and that is the second thing we need, dear friends. We need our Faith. Faith comes more easily to some, and less to others. Like the father who was asked if he would like his son healed, he responded, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) Maybe you are there, somewhere between the two. Faith in one hand and doubt in another. I get it. I really get it. We have faith, but we live in a culture that celebrates being self-reliant and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. That is not Faith.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.” (Hebrews 11:1) We need to have Faith when others are stumbling in the dark. If you know the way when the lights go dark, you lead those around you. We are living in dark times, when people are struggling and grasping in the dark.
A story is told of a house fire at night and a child is trapped on the second floor. He makes it to a window and hears the voice of his father from the ground below. “Jump, son, I’ll catch you!” He says it firmly but filled with nothing but assuring love, praying the son will jump. The son wants to obey, but with the smoke and dark he cries out, “But I can’t see you!” The father responds, “Don’t worry, I can see you. Jump!” And he did. That is Faith, my friends.
When we are trapped in the dark, those who can see can save. The God who is with us and loves us, will guide our steps, even in the darkest of times. God has in the past, and will in these days, and also in the days to come.
But there is one more thing. Faith may guide our steps. Hope may encourage our hearts. But the main thing is needed more than anything else. Friends, we have to have Love. Love is all. For God so loved the world that he sent Jesus. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. All we need is Love. We sing it in our songs, and it is our deepest truth and strongest drive.
We have to find ways to love even the unlovable, to care for even the careless, to turn the other cheek when we are struck.
In Jesus’ most basic teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, he says as much. These radical simplicities and simple radicalizations changed the world. They still can. The world needs a wake-up call and loving them through it is the only thing that we can do. As Jesus taught us:
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Matthew 6:27-31)
If we who call ourselves the Church did those things each and every day, consistently, the world could and would change. Slowly hardened hearts would see the difference that is in us and want what we have. It converted the Roman Empire, watching people feed the hungry, watching people serve lepers even when it could be fatal. When early Christians were fed to the beasts in the stadiums of the Empire, they went with faith in Christ, holding onto the Hope in him, and loving their persecutors enough to pray for them and ask for their forgiveness for what they were doing. May it never come to that, but may we have that type of faith, hope, and love like they did, and may we share it with this dark and hurting world.
As we come to the end, I remind you of St Paul’s words that conclude I Corinthians 13. They fit, and are as true today as when he penned them:
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Amen.
