2026-05-24 Holy Pentecost

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Last Sunday at confirmation we were talking about God’s presence with His people. When you read the Scriptures, you can see a definitive pattern emerging about this. Eden, the garden-temple that we talked about last Sunday, was the starting point. God was present in a very intense way with Adam and Eve. In a world without sin and death, you had a literal paradise. People were co-rulers with God, given the vocation of tending the garden. They were to grow and mature and “Eden-ize” the whole world.

But, we know what happened. They embraced death rather than life with God which resulted in them getting kicked out. They were expelled from the presence of God. Exiled. We often tend to view this as a punishment for sin but really it was a mercy. By expelling fallen humanity, God prevented crystallizing our fallen mortality. Then the Cherub with the flaming sword is placed there to block the fallen people from the tree of life. It was better to physically die than be eternally fixed in rebellion against God and His Kingdom.

Time goes on and sin begins to escalate. Everything becomes worse and worse, mankind is increasingly corrupted. Genesis 6:5 says “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Always evil, all the time. And then God decides to Baptize the world with an enormous flood, washing away iniquity and putting all that evil to death.

More time passes. Noah’s descendants repopulate the world. From his three sons come 70 nations. And “the whole earth had one language and the same words” (Gen 11:1). This is how we are introduced in the Scriptures to the Tower of Babel. Babylon. Literally, the “gate of the gods.” Genesis 11 describes the building of a city and a tower. But it’s not your average sky-scraper. It’s a ziggurat, a temple. The place where a god would dwell with the people. The place where heaven and earth are connected. But humanity isn’t trying to build a honkin’ tall tower to climb up to heaven. Rather, they intend to bring god down. St. Paul references this idea in Romans (10:6), about ascending to heaven to bring Christ down. But suffice it to say, the people have fallen back into their pre-flood idolatry and evil.

All of this happens on the heels of the flood, where God promised to not destroy humanity again. But the pattern of evil is being repeated. So what is God going to do? How is He going to respond to this. “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city” (Gen 11:6-8).

God responds with exile. God separates Himself from sinful humanity. Rather than them being able to pull God down and make Him do what they wanted, instead we see that God pulls back away and disperses them. So humanity is divided. Languages become barriers. The nations fall under compromised spiritual powers and false gods. The One True God and His presence is withdrawn from most of the world - except for His chosen people, the family line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

It is in this group that God continues to be present with His people. The Tabernacle and then afterwards the Temple, these were the ‘miniaturized Edens’ of God’s presence. The comparisons to Eden are quite striking. After the fall the garden was guarded by a cherubim angel with a flaming sword. The Tabernacle and Temple were likewise adorned with cherubim, marking the boundary of God’s holiness and presence. Eden had the tree of life in the midst of it. The Tabernacle had a menorah lampstand, shaped like a flowering tree with almond blossoms. The Temple likewise had palm trees and pomegranates and floral carvings everywhere. The whole inside was decked out like an orchard.

I could go on and on about this, but suffice it to say, these parallels reminded Israel - and us - of what was lost in Eden and pointed forward to God’s full restoration: Christ as the true Temple, the Church as living temples filled by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the ultimate new creation where God’s presence fills the entire cosmos. There will be no need for a temple in our heavenly home (Revelation 21:22).

All of this is the background to the great day of Holy Pentecost. The promised Holy Spirit arrives with a great reversal. You have Jews and proselytes from “every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). They were gathered together in one place - Jerusalem. The place where God had permanently dwelt with His people in the Temple. However, His glory hadn’t been seen since Solomon’s first Temple. The prophet Ezekiel (10-11) tells us that the glory of God’s presence departed the temple due to Israel’s persistent idolatry, abominations, and rejection of God’s covenant. That Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians a mere 6 years later.

But then, suddenly, a mighty rushing wind reveals the presence of God to His people once again. The house where the Disciples were is filled as tongues of fire rest on each of them! The fire of Sinai. The wind as the breath of life in Eden - the Divine presence of God is returning!

Instead of the confusion of the temple at Babel, the Apostles speak clearly and everyone hears about these mighty works of God in their own native language. The Spirit enables understanding despite the diversity of peoples and languages. Where once the peoples were scattered and dispersed, they have been gathered together in redemption. The 70 nations hear the Gospel that Christ is Risen and death is defeated. They begin to return to the One True God who loved them and gave Himself up for them, with 3,000 hearing the Gospel and being baptized that very day! A new humanity is being formed.

God comes to dwell and abide inside His people. Living temples of the Holy Spirit. No longer do people have to seek to pull God down to serve sinful empires. Instead we see God pouring out His Spirit in grace and mercy to transform and elevate humanity back to our original vocation as co-heirs and co-rulers with Christ our Lord, sent out to “Eden-ize” the world once again.

The Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter, the third person of the Holy Trinity. He takes the very things fractured at Babel — languages, nations, and human community — and redeems them. What sinful human pride divided, the Spirit unites together in holy purpose. The Church is born by the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Her mandate is accomplished through the water and the word of Holy Baptism. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (MT 28:19-20).

This is where Jesus has promised to be. St. Paul tells us plainly: “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (1Cor 6:19). You are now part of this great story. The same Holy Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, who filled the Tabernacle and the Temple, who descended in wind and fire on Pentecost, has now come to dwell in you. Through the water and the Word of your Baptism, the Lord has placed His Name upon you and made you a living temple.

Where once humanity tried to pull God down to serve our ambitions, God has lifted you up to serve Him in His Kingdom. Where once we were scattered and divided, you are now gathered into the one Body of Christ. Where once the nations walked in darkness under false gods, you have been called to carry the light of the Gospel of the true God into every corner of your world.

Live as temples of the living God. Let your life be a miniature Eden — a place where His presence is felt by everyone around you. Tend the garden He has given you: your family, your school, your workplace, your friendships. Speak the mighty works of God in the languages of your daily life. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Love as you have been loved. And never forget: the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives and works in you.

One day soon, the promise will be fully realized. There will be no more temple, no more separation, no more partial presence — only the fullness of God dwelling with His people forever in the new creation. Until that day, He is with you always, even to the end of the age. Go, therefore, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and Eden-ize the world for the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!