Reflection for the Combined Service of Koonung Heights
and North Balwyn Uniting Churches

Pentecost, May 24, 2026

Acts 2:1-21
John 20:19-23

I want to begin this Reflection by thanking the members of Koonung Uniting Church for welcoming the members of North Balwyn Uniting Church here to worship with you. Pentecost is, of course, the best day for us to worship together. We celebrate Pentecost as the birth day of the one holy catholic and apostolic church and as the festival of the courage of that church. In the reading from the Book of Acts that we hear every year on this day, there are at least two miracles. The first is that everyone gathered in Jerusalem heard Jesus’ disciples speaking in their own heart languages, their mother tongues. The explanation of that miracle includes what I think is the funniest verse in the Bible: ‘Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.’ But the disciples speaking in other languages, as the Spirit gives them ability, is the lesser miracle. The greater miracle is that the disciples are speaking in public at all, as the Spirit gives them courage. From staying in ‘the room upstairs,’ presumably hiding from those who had killed Jesus, the disciples suddenly take a public stand with Peter raising his voice and addressing those of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem. Pentecost is the anniversary of the Holy Spirit pushing the disciples out from behind a locked door, down from an upper room, and into the world.

In comparison to the courage Peter and the others needed, two Uniting churches worshipping together may not seem to be brave, but it is. Most of us appreciate worshipping in ways and places that are familiar. We go to the usual building, sit in the same places, sing familiar hymns, pray in familiar language. Today, members of NBUC have come to a different building, joining with a congregation that worships in subtly different ways. Members of KHUC are welcoming strangers who may behave differently (they may even sit in someone else’s pew!) and are listening to an unfamiliar minister on Heather’s third-last Sunday here. By doing this, we are all in small ways practising living by the Spirit.

Having talked a little about the Book of Acts’ description of Pentecost, I want us to turn to the version we hear in the Gospel according to John. Today’s gospel reading also tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but with gentle breath rather than tongues of fire. It is ‘Pentecost’ for introverts rather than for extroverts. Quick note: the word ‘Pentecost’ is a version of the Greek word for ‘fiftieth,’ the fiftieth day after Passover, which is when Luke’s story of the coming of the Holy Spirit takes place. In Jesus’ time, the fiftieth day was a celebration of the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai; it was also called the ‘Festival of Weeks’ because it occurred a week of weeks, seven weeks, after Passover. Jews from all over the Mediterranean world came to Jerusalem to celebrate, which is why people of so many different languages and ethnicities are in the city when the disciples start to speak.

In contrast, the gospel’s story of the coming of the Holy Spirit takes place on the very day of Jesus’ resurrection. The disciples, who accompanied Jesus throughout his ministry, saw his miracles and learned from his teachings, have not yet come to complete faith. The author tells us that even after seeing the empty tomb, Peter and the Beloved Disciple had not understood that Jesus must rise from the dead. After they left, Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus who told her: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ She went and announced to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and told them what he had said to her.

We do not know whether the disciples believed Mary Magdalene when she, apostle to the apostles, announced the resurrection. Probably not, since in today’s reading, we find the disciples still gathered in fear behind locked doors. We are not told how many disciples are hiding, nor are we given any names. This frightened group represents every disciple of Jesus who has ever lived, including us. Into a scene of fear, Jesus enters and says: ‘Peace be with you’.

Jesus shows the disciples his hands and his side, and they rejoice. They see for themselves the risen Lord whose resurrection Mary had announced; whether they had believed her, they now know that Jesus has been raised from the dead. He enters the room that they are in, even though the doors are locked; the disciples can see that his resurrection has given Jesus victory over physical limitations. Yet when Jesus shows the disciples his hands and his side, they can see that the wounds of crucifixion are still open. The risen Christ remains the wounded one; the one whose death, in this gospel, is glory. It is this man, tortured and killed, who offers the disciples, hiding in fear, the greeting of peace. Death has turned into peace, and the disciples’ fear turns into joy.

Jesus breathes on the disciples, giving them the Holy Spirit, as God breathed into the nostrils of Adam to give him the breath of life at creation. New creation is brought about by the resurrection. With his breath, Jesus tells the disciples to ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’. God the Holy Spirit is as close to us as the breath in our lungs. This is why today’s story is Pentecost for introverts. The Holy Spirit is not coming in an extravaganza that leads onlookers to wonder whether the disciples are drunk. The Holy Spirit comes as quietly as our breath. It is no coincidence that every type and form of meditation and mindfulness tells its practitioners to begin by paying attention to our breathing. Be quiet, focus on your breathing, in and out. When we do that, we are not simply becoming attentive to the present moment; we are entering into the peace of God who gives us the breath of life.

‘Peace be with you,’ Jesus tells his disciples. Not peace as the world gives, but the peace that passes all understanding, being at peace with God and at peace with one another through God. This is why Christians so often greet each other with the sign of peace. By saying, ‘Peace be with you,’ we affirm that nothing can divide us before God. But Christ’s appearance not only brings the disciples joy and peace to enjoy within the Christian community. The disciples are also commissioned; Christ’s resurrection brings responsibility. Jesus’ death was a pouring out of love and compassion for the whole creation; now the resurrected Jesus calls on the disciples to share this love and compassion with the world. They are given a mission, and the gift of the Spirit is given so that they can be to the world what Jesus was in his own life and death. The disciples who were meeting behind locked doors in fear are being sent out to live with the same courage that Peter demonstrates speaking to the crowds in the Acts reading.

With this gift of the Spirit, the disciples are to do the work of God, including the forgiving and retaining of sins. That sounds strange: ‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ I do not believe that this means that the church has the power to refuse to pardon people’s individual transgressions. Instead, I think this saying means that the role of the Christian community, sent by Jesus as Jesus was sent by the Father, is to reveal the nature of God and God’s love to the world. The presence of the love and compassion of God will reveal sinfulness, illuminating all that is not godly in our lives and our world. Some people will embrace this revelation. Some people will refuse to enter a relationship with the God of limitless love, and so, as the author of this gospel wrote, ‘this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness’. Some will come to the light; some will turn away. The role of the church is to witness to and reveal the love of God in Jesus Christ, leaving the consequences of that revelation to God. The gift of the Spirit enables the community to live this life of witness, to carry out the commission that Jesus gives.

We, like those very first disciples, have been commissioned to share God’s self-sacrificial love and light with the world, not to stay frightened or rejoicing behind closed and locked doors. We have been called to make our faith public. This is not always easy in a country like Australia, which is only happy for people to be religious if that religion is kept behind closed doors. Too often, churches have accepted the Australian argument that we should stay in the private sphere. But today’s gospel story tells us that we have been commissioned by Jesus to publicly meddle. This often takes courage. There are always going to be people who, when Christians speak out for love and justice, will sneer and accuse us of being filled with the new wine of wowserism, do-gooding, or wokeness. We have seen how the current President of the United States, for instance, has responded to the Pope speaking up for peace.

Jesus did not chastise the disciples for hiding behind locked doors. He did not ask them why the empty tomb and the news brought by Mary Magdalene had not changed their behaviour. He came and stood among them despite the barriers of a locked door and their fear, and brought them a greeting of peace, before commissioning them, recreating them, and giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have been commissioned in the same way. And if we ever feel too scared to carry out that commission, if we are tempted to stay behind locked doors rather than challenging the powers and principalities of our day, we can be sure that Jesus will still come among us and say, ‘Peace be with you,’ and we will have peace. Amen.