Pentecost Sunday, June 5 – “Sing a New Song in Changing Times”

View this recorded version of Pentecost Sunday from June 5, 2022.

Bible Verses

Bible verses: Psalm 137: 1-4 and Psalm 40: 1-2
Additional Reading: From Acts 2

Reflection: “Sing a New Song in Changing Times”

Snippets from the sermon by by Revs. Cheryl & Mark Goodman Morris

“I am in awe and in envy of this Pentecost story today, where a wind can simply blow through a room and suddenly everyone gathered there can speak another language, fluently.

This speaking in other languages is an incredibly important part of this story–for as the apostles rushed out into the streets of Jerusulem, with their hearts and their heads literally on fire, they found Jews gathered from all over the known world each speaking in their own languages–and yet everything the apostles had to say could be heard and understood by everyone in their own language. It was like Duo-Lingo on steroids!

In the midst of all this, Peter… stepped in front of a vast crowd and preached the sermon of his life, one that preachers ever since can only dream of.

Peter preached the story of Jesus in a first-person way–and it was so powerful and compelling that that very day 3,000 people heard, and believed, and were baptized.

Jesus’s resurrection sparked a movement that day that roared in like flames on a mighty wind.

That story then spread to the far reaches of the known world. And a new church, the Christian Church, was born.

On Pentecost we celebrate the birthday of The Church.

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In the midst of our troubled times, today Pentecost asks us which story are we going to tell; which song are we going to sing going forward–the world’s story or God’s story?

I don’t know about you, but today I want to tell God’s story. I want to learn to sing a new song or at least do my best humming it.”