Day of Pentecost (Year C, RCL)

Theodore Hiebert’s deft reading elicits a fresh awareness of the legitimacy of the other in Genesis.

An incident in Germany reminded me who we all belong to.

Kate Ott looks at the moral implications of digital language.

God called all of them good. Humans are rapidly destroying them.

Poor Philip just needs a little more from God. I know how he feels.

Growing up, I never heard a word about God laughing, joking, or doing anything for fun.

The Spirit affirms our differences, speaking in ways that each of us can understand—yet also drawing us together.

Divisions mark our society—and our churches. What could possibly bring us together?

Forget the tower. The problem is that everyone "had the same words."

How can we overcome our anxiety? And should we even try?

I've experienced Pentecost as sweet, serious, or neither.

“According to Islam, Jesus always speaks the truth. The question is how we understand it.”

John 14:15–21

I see the people I'm protesting against when I get my mail, or sort my laundry.

Lutherans are trained to hear the scriptures as proclaiming either law or gospel. By "law" they mean not passages from the Old Testament but all of the Bible's bad news: the sins we commit, the misery we experience, the sorrows we inflict on one another, the death we anticipate, the distance from God that diminishes our lives. By "gospel" they mean not the final reading on Sunday morning but the good news of the mercy given by a loving God, wherever in the Bible it is proclaimed.

Those who heard the disciples preach on Pentecost comprehended the message in their own language. But that was only the beginning.

In Acts comes Luke’s imaginative way to build upon ancient stories. The tongues of fire are no longer seen from afar on top of God’s mountain. And the multiplicity of languages becomes God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to the entire world.