Feast of Pentecost 

24th May 2026

Pentecost feels like a time of great anticipation, excitment,  and new opportunities. At Pentecost we should expect to be surprised!

Echoing the words of the prophet Joel, Pentecost is a time to ask each other ‘What dreams do you have? What is you vision for the future? 

Sometimes it feels as if all we want for the future is for things to continue as they are – that we can keep on with life as it is: the same type of shops in the high street, the same sorts of food for our meals, the same pattern of holidays – sun or snow in winter, sun and beaches in summer etc. Or maybe this is only so for those of us whose lives already feel comfortable. 

Or maybe we do want a different future but can’t imagine how it could become a reality. Maybe we dream of a world where everyone has enough to eat, where everyone has the safety and comfort of a home, where the health service delivers equally to all, where everyone can access a good education, where war is no more and know one lives in fear of violence.

Maybe our vision for the future is smaller, more local. A vision of wildlife friendly green space. A friendly cafe where friends and strangers can meet and chat. A church roof covered with solar panels. A community vegetable patch.

To have a vision or a dream may lead to a prophetic role as God urges us to speak out, to inspire others, to draw out the skills and resources that will make the dream a reality. 

Sometimes God summons us to take on a prophetic role that calls us to challenge those who say that a different future is impossible, to challenge those who cling to the status quo. God may gives us different ways of expressing that message – different tongues mean that more people will hear the message in the language or medium that they are most attuned to. 

In terms of action how do we have agency? 

Talking with and enthusing others to share the vision: the more who are committed to effecting change methods more likely it will happen. Share it with your church – perhaps your vision could  be part of your church’s Mission Action Plan.

Talking with and/ or writing to people in positions of power and authority – such as your MP, your local councillor, the CEO of relevant businesses etc.

Making changes in your own lifestyle which can influence others to do the same and be a means of exerting consumer power.

Take practical action. If you want less litter, do a litter pick. If you want more trees, plant some. 

Support other groups who similar aims. Make donations to relevant causes.

What ever the vision, what ever the message, those inspired by God’s Spirit will be enthused and enliven by that same Spirit. With all our differences, with our different modes of communication, with the different focus of our dream, if we can come together and work together like the parts of a body, we will be effective agents of growth in God’s kingdom here on Earth.  

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.’ “

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

26 Yonder is the great and wide sea
with its living things too many to number, *
creatures both small and great.

27 There move the ships,
and there is that Leviathan, *
which you have made for the sport of it.

28 All of them look to you *
to give them their food in due season.

29 You give it to them; they gather it; *
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.

30 You hide your face, and they are terrified; *
you take away their breath,
and they die and return to their dust.

31 You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; *
and so you renew the face of the earth.

32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; *
may the Lord rejoice in all his works.

33 He looks at the earth and it trembles; *
he touches the mountains and they smoke.

34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; *
I will praise my God while I have my being.

35 May these words of mine please him; *
I will rejoice in the Lord.

37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. *
Hallelujah!

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body– Jews or Greeks, slaves or free– and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

John 20:19-23

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”