When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] 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.
—Acts 2:1–4
This Sunday, we celebrate the third great festival of the church year—Pentecost—following Christmas and Easter. There may be no wrapped presents or pastel eggs, but Pentecost brings its own dramatic gifts: wind that shakes the house, fire that dances on heads, and voices erupting in every known language. Jesus’ promise is fulfilled—the Holy Spirit is poured out on his followers.
Some see Pentecost as a reversal of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. There, humanity’s pride led them to build a tower to heaven, and in response, God confused their language and scattered them. But if Pentecost were a simple reversal, everyone would suddenly speak the same language. That’s not what happens.
Instead, Pentecost affirms the diversity of human language. The Spirit empowers the disciples not to speak one heavenly tongue, but to speak every earthly one. The miracle is not uniformity but translation. The good news is proclaimed in all the languages of the world. From the beginning, the church is a multilingual, multicultural body—a community where difference is not erased, but embraced and transformed by love.
Diversity is not a challenge to the church; it is part of its calling, its very DNA.
Pentecost signals the breaking in of God’s purpose for all people: to restore the unity that was lost, not by eliminating our differences, but by creating understanding amid them. If Genesis 1 tells us we were created in the image of God, and Babel shows what happens when we lose trust in that truth, then Pentecost proclaims that our fractured humanity has been restored in Christ. We are no longer scattered strangers—we are Spirit-filled witnesses.
Which raises a question for us today: What language do we need to speak, here and now?
How might those outside our walls hear the gospel in their own tongue—and recognize it as good news for them?
In Atlanta, that might literally mean more world languages as our city grows more diverse. But communication takes many forms now—texting, memes, music, digital images, or the language of science and reason. Perhaps the gospel needs to be sung or danced or coded or painted.
Whatever the form, the Pentecost challenge remains: to speak in ways that reach people where they are. To trust that the Spirit still gifts us with languages—old and new—to connect, to translate, and to welcome.
As we imagine a renewed ministry of Evangelism and Mission Development, may we be bold enough to ask the Spirit to give us fluency in the languages our neighbors understand. So that all may hear the gospel as if it were spoken directly to them.
