Jun 2, 2026 · 24 min · 7 segments
Listen in to the Bishop's sermon for the Day of Pentecost, preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark on June 6, 2026. To follow along with the lectionary readings that inspired this sermon, please…
My friends, I think I am on solid ground when I say that probably no one amongst us has ever gone on a huge bender before a foreign language exam with the idea that excessive alcohol makes one a linguistic savant, right? And yet, that is essentially what the crowd on that day we call Pentecost Sunday, the first Pentecost of the Christian church.
The disciples are suddenly speaking in languages they never learned, and the response of the people is, ah, yes, that makes sense because they're clearly drunk, right? So right away, we have learned something important about Pentecost.
People have always struggled to recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit.
We may call it a lot of things, coincidence, happenstance, any number of things, sheer lunacy.
The Holy Spirit, I would say, is probably the most misunderstood person of the Holy Trinity.
Now, if some of you are going, well, that's not true for me.
I am right there with you.
I cannot live my life without the Holy Spirit.
I am fully aligned with the Holy Spirit.
It took me much longer to come into that strong of relationship with the other two persons, but by and large, people struggle with putting words to what the Holy Spirit is and its function, movement, place, purpose within the fullness of God.
But the Holy Spirit, we often become sort of vague, cautious, or abstract.
It's a mystery, we might say.
And yet, Scripture is not vague in the least when it comes to speaking on the Holy Spirit.
From the beginning of creation, the Spirit moves over chaos and brings life.
The Spirit orders, orders chaos.
That's a definition, I think.
And when Jesus appears to the frightened disciples who are hiding behind locked doors after the resurrection, he breathes on them.
no longer having earthly breath, only divine breath.
When he breathes on them, he says, receive the Holy Spirit.
My friends, I think I am on solid ground when I say that probably no one amongst us has ever gone on a huge bender before a foreign language exam with the idea that excessive alcohol makes one a linguistic savant, right? And yet, that is essentially what the crowd on that day we call Pentecost Sunday, the first Pentecost of the Christian church.
The disciples are suddenly speaking in languages they never learned, and the response of the people is, ah, yes, that makes sense because they're clearly drunk, right? So right away, we have learned something important about Pentecost.
People have always struggled to recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit.
We may call it a lot of things, coincidence, happenstance, any number of things, sheer lunacy.
The Holy Spirit, I would say, is probably the most misunderstood person of the Holy Trinity.
Now, if some of you are going, well, that's not true for me.
I am right there with you.
I cannot live my life without the Holy Spirit.
I am fully aligned with the Holy Spirit.
It took me much longer to come into that strong of relationship with the other two persons, but by and large, people struggle with putting words to what the Holy Spirit is and its function, movement, place, purpose within the fullness of God.
But the Holy Spirit, we often become sort of vague, cautious, or abstract.
It's a mystery, we might say.
And yet, Scripture is not vague in the least when it comes to speaking on the Holy Spirit.
From the beginning of creation, the Spirit moves over chaos and brings life.
The Spirit orders, orders chaos.
That's a definition, I think.
And when Jesus appears to the frightened disciples who are hiding behind locked doors after the resurrection, he breathes on them.
no longer having earthly breath, only divine breath.
When he breathes on them, he says, receive the Holy Spirit.
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