Day of Pentecost 2026

Sermon: Day of Pentecost 2026

Texts: Acts 2: 1-21; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 7:37-39

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In a time where divisions grow stronger, where suspicion of “the other” is increasing and those in power seek to harm them, I am always inspired by the fact that in this day of Pentecost in which we celebrate the Church’s inauguration so to speak, it begins with the miracle of inclusion. Indeed, beloved, to be included across differences can often be a miraculous power. For in the world, so many people are made to feel they do not belong. Often, even within the church people have been made to feel they do not belong. The reasons have been manufactured throughout the centuries, whether it is language, culture, gender, race, class, status, all these things have been used in the opposite direction of God’s Kingdom. Used to justify sin by imposing one’s dominion over others, instead of contributing to our mutual and inclusive liberation in Christ. But if we listen to the proclamation of the Gospel, we can literally see how the church, Christ’s body in the world, was always meant to be an open embrace. As Pope Francis once famously quipped: “la Iglesia es para todos, todos, todos” “The church is for everyone, everyone, everyone”. What does it mean for us not to innovate inclusion, but rather to rediscover this original “todos, todos, todos” of the church, demonstrated so clearly in Pentecost?

To rediscover the Pentecostal church within ourselves, then we must be open to the Holy Spirit in the same way the disciples were. It is so interesting how the writer of Acts centers language as a way to convey the far-reaching inclusion of the Gospel. Let me be clear, I love humanity’s rich diversity of languages. Yet, how often is language

used to keep people out! Keep people out of conversations, keep people out of a community, keep people out of belonging. Languages can be misused, and instead of promoting a dialogue that enriches in diversity, it can become a driver of conflictive differences. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we have heard of the story of the Tower of Babel, a story of human folly to assume the place of God, which was struck down by the confusion brought about by a sudden babble of languages. The lack of being able to understand, of communication, became the punishment for idolatry of power. But during Pentecost, in Christ, the Holy Spirit empowers the Church to communicate again! It’s no longer a confusion of languages, there is understanding. And it’s not about sameness! It’s not about speaking one language that brings unity. It is the One Spirit that resides and brings together a diversity of people from all over the world. It reminded me how in the age of empires and colonization, evangelization came hand in hand with the imposition of the language of the empire. It is not lost on the history of Puerto Rico, for example, how the Spaniards imposed the Spanish language on the Indigenous peoples and the African slaves as they also claimed that they did it for the conversion of their souls. And then 400 years later, the US sought to impose English as the only language of the island as they also tried to make the island Protestant instead of Roman Catholic. It goes to show how confused many Christians have been in spreading the Gospel! How different the model of the Early Church in our Scriptures. Notice how the Gospel is proclaimed in Acts not by imposing a language upon the different peoples. But rather it is heard in their own language! The disciples become more than just Galilean speakers of Aramaic. The Holy Spirit empowers them to communicate beyond their own borders. They are called in that moment to be

more than just where they came from. But like Paul says, that the Christian becomes all things to all peoples, if it means to gain them for liberation in Christ. The evangelizer does not expect for the other to become like oneself to relate. But rather the evangelizer is willing to shed away the constraints or the divisions, to gain a deeper relationship. A relationship of inclusive, universal, and diverse love, united in the One Lord of all.

So if the Gospel is to be heard, God has made it so that we need to shed away any pretense to supremacy. On the contrary, it is in humility, trust, and in dialogue among equals, that the Gospel can be proclaimed and be received. Coming back to Puerto Rico, the success of the early Protestant missions in the island depended almost exclusively in the inculturation of the Gospel in the Puerto Rican context, rather than imposing an American way of being a Protestant Christian. The early missionaries had to shed away their racial and linguistic prejudices and understand that the Gospel is meant for all, in equal fellowship. The Church ceases to be the Body of Christ when it insists in segregating itself. How incisive was the Civil Rights leader Malcom X, when he said that the most segregated hour in America was Sunday morning. The Church of Jesus Christ could not be complete and living until all brothers and sisters in faith sit and celebrate on the same table, from all walks of life. The Spirit of Pentecost disrupts our divisions, challenges us to expand our small belonging into a much greater and richer belonging, as Christ embraces the whole world, in every language and culture, each being enlivened by the Spirit of God’s eternal love for us.

Jesus says in John’s Gospel: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall

flow rivers of living water.'” That living water want to pour out from your hearts, beloved. And to unlock that stream, trust Jesus to lead you. Trust Jesus to take you beyond the confines. Trust Jesus to empower you to speak a new language of compassion. Trust Jesus to give you a new family of peoples from all walks of life. Become joyful when others say: wow, I didn’t know these folks could speak my language! Surprise the world with the spaciousness of your hearts in Christ Jesus. And God knows, that He is calling His Church in this land to think beyond the belonging of the term “American”, just as He calls me to think beyond the term “Puerto Rican”. God knows, that right now we are living at a time where people are behaving like Cain, saying “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God knows, that He has placed in the heart of the Church a heart to keep its siblings indeed. This Church that was birthed in that Upper Room, with all those ancestors praying and hoping for God’s action, wants to keep alive in us. The Holy Spirit is empowering us today, to continue the divine work of weaving together into one the diverse family of humanity, in mutual appreciation and recognition of each for their unique gifts, as Paul says, we were all made to drink of the same Spirit that activates each of those gifts. Do not be afraid of the world saying: “these Christians are filled with new wine”. Indeed, we have the new wine of Christ that breaks down the walls of division among us. Never be ashamed of the mission that Christ has given us, to be brothers and sisters to all in greatness of mercy, faith and love.

Isn’t it amazing to say, beloved, that in Christ, I have brothers and sisters everywhere? For indeed, God has delivered on that promise, that we have received a greater community beyond the closed one we were born into. “Todos, todos, todos”. The

Church is for everyone. Christ is for everyone. You are sent out, for the life of everyone. Thanks be to God, for this fire that is kindled in our hearts, a fire that burns bright with love for the whole of God’s people from every land and place. Thanks be to God, that no word of violence and hatred for those that God has given us to love has any power here. Let us forge our path as the Early Church did, broadening our own world, for the sake of this Gospel, for the sake of the people Jesus gives us, for the sake of the life of this world. Let us pray: