What Does This Mean? -- John 14:8-10, 16-17, 25-27; Acts 2:1-21 (Rev. Dvera Hadden, preaching) (Pentecost Sunday)

Photo credit: Engin Akyurt, used with permission via Unsplash

Our first reading from the Scriptures today comes from the 14th chapter of John. Last week we heard a passage from 17th chapter of John.  This week, like last week, we hear Jesus talking with his disciples on the night of the Last Supper, with his arrest leading to the crucifixion still to come. He is trying to prepare them for what lies ahead, especially after his resurrection and ascension, when he will no longer be with them in body because he has gone to the Father. I’ll note this week, as I did last week, that Jesus calls God, “Father.” Likely there are other ways, too, that Jesus addressed God which were not recorded in this Gospel. The writer of John concludes the gospel in chapter 21: 25 “25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

In this part of the conversation that Jesus holds with his disciples on that last night he was with them, Philip asks for some assurance of what the future will bring.  In John 14: 1-2, just prior to our reading Jesus said to them “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” The disciples aren’t certain what Jesus means.  In verse 5 Thomas says, “we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  

Then Philip responds, “show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” How many ways can the disciples show that they still don’t quite understand what is happening?  These are Jesus’ parting words, and they are trying so hard to make sense of life without him. They are looking into an uncertain future, and they are looking for assurances of what that future will bring without their friend and teacher present with them. 

Jesus assures them that he is not leaving them on their own. He says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, [Paraclete in the Biblical Greek- Παράκλητος- one who is called to come alongside, Παρά/para- meaning “with” or “alongside,” κλητος/kletos- meaning “called,” particularly as a legal term, an advocate, so Paraclete- the Advocate or Helper.] 

Jesus says to the disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And then, our reading for today from John ends with some of Jesus’ most beloved words of comfort, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” 

After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus disciples’ have his deeds and his words to hold onto as they try to make sense of a world without him. For seven weeks they continue to gather, to read scripture together, to pray, and, I imagine, they tell one another the stories of his deeds, and share again and again his words. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” “I will ask God to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit;” “Peace I leave with you.” 

Seven weeks after Passover, Jews gathered again in Jerusalem for Pentecost, or the Festival of Weeks- the celebration of the giving of the Law and the Commandments  to Moses and the early community of the Israelites. Those Jewish Jesus-followers who may have gone home to Bethany or Emmaus or Ephraim or other neighboring communities came back for the festival and gathered once again with those who had stayed in Jerusalem. They were all still wondering and waiting for what was to come.

Perhaps we are not so different from those early disciples.  We have heard Jesus’ words, we have read of his deeds, we wonder how he is or will be present with us when the world feels uncertain and the future of our life- particularly at this moment, our national life- holds many questions and maybe fears for us. 

And, here we are, gathered again, for Pentecost, not a Jewish community, but a community of Christ-followers, maybe asking some of the same questions- how are we to move into God’s future? how do we experience Christ among us? how will we find our way? how shall we live Christ’s peace?

Our good news is that the gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, has already come among us!  We remember and celebrate today that long ago Pentecost when the gift of the Spirit was given in a particular way to the gathered community of the disciples there in Jerusalem. It was a dramatic experience- you couldn’t miss it! Wind, and sound, and flame and the stories of God’s deeds of power spoken in every language known to all the Jews there in Jerusalem for the festival.  

As often happens when an extraordinary event occurs, people there started trying to figure out how it happened, how it happened that Gallileans were speaking in the native language of people from all around the know-to-them world. What does this mean, they asked? They must be drunk. But Peter had a different explanation. He reached back into scripture, to the prophet Joel (with a little tag from Ezekiel about the last days) to give meaning to this shared event of speaking and being heard.

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 shall see visions, and your old 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.

To prophesy in the context of the Hebrew Bible means to speak God’s word and covenant care in communities that need the reminder, rather than to tell the future, as we sometimes understand it. Peter is claiming the pouring out of God’s spirit on everyone, regardless of status, gender, age, or privilege- all are empowered to speak on God’s behalf. All are given vision and dreams of what God intends for the world, a world marked by care for the most vulnerable among us- those whose voices are silenced, whose presence is denied- a world lived not through structures of power-over but in power with and alongside one another.  The capacity to speak on God’s behalf about God’s care and intent for the world is no longer reserved for a few, but is given with overwhelming generosity for all. 

Peter continues: 

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.'

I don’t know about you, but I have long connected the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood to the “last days” that Peter quoted from Ezekiel, but in my reading this week, I learned that seasonal dust storms in the Middle East regularly turn the sun dark and the moon to blood, as we have experienced with thick wildfire smoke a few years ago. 

How do you hear this Pentecost passage differently if you consider this dramatic gifting of the Spirit set in the context, not of a one time event, but at a pivotal moment of seasonal change in the life of the first followers of Jesus? It was not only a seasonal change, but a sea change, perhaps, for the early followers of Jesus to be empowered to speak in ways that so many could hear. From this moment, the life of the Jesus movement moved out from behind locked doors into Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem along the Roman roads throughout the Empire and beyond.  The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost gave the timid Jesus-followers courage and inspiration to share the stories of God’s power lose in the world, power to live God’s intent for life in community, for care of the most vulnerable among us.  

The gift of the capacity to share God’s vision, to dream God’s dream of a world marked by grace and peace, shared abundance and equitable provision is our gift also.  In this season of change in our lives- whatever change each of us may be experiencing, we have the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to accompany us, to dream in us, to give us vision for the future God is creating even now, to remind us of all that Jesus said and did, to remind us that Jesus was speaking to us even when he said to his disciples “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” 

In troubling times it is hard not hold troubled hearts, and yet this is our call and our gift from the Spirit- to let peace guide our being and moving through our world, to release our fear and not be afraid, to share gladly and boldly with our speaking and our living out of God’s dream  of a world filled with love and care and embrace of one another.

How grateful I am for those first disciples of Jesus who were afraid of a future without Jesus among them!  Because here we are, centuries later, in our own time of uncertainty, and perhaps fear, hearing again Jesus’ assurance- the Advocate, the Holy Spirit will be with us forever to empower our lives, to inspire our speaking, and enable our hearing, to bring us peace.  Thanks be to God- Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer! Amen.

© 2025 Dvera Hadden