My friends, we are soon entering my favorite season of the liturgical calendar: Pentecost!

Oh, I know that probably doesn’t sound very Lutheran of me. After all, as a protestant denomination, we are pretty Christ-centered. And deservedly so!

But I’ve always loved the Holy Spirit. It’s the one expression of our celebrated Triune God that I understand on a very intimate basis.

God? … Too infinite and vast for me to wrap my head around.

Jesus? While I’m forever grateful of his sacrifice for me and for all people, and also for the model he provided as to how to live an inclusive, faithful life, I don’t find myself talking to Christ as much.

But the Holy Spirit? … Now, there is an expression of the Godhead that I can dig!

Omnipresent; always pushing and nudging us toward a more faithful life. Active, engaged, the provocateur that shakes up this earthly living.

That I get! That I feel in my bones! That is how I ended up in seminary and was convinced to stop running from my call after 25 years.

And Pentecost is where it all begins!

Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, for too many Christian denominations, Pentecost is an afterthought. Once a year, we give the Spirit a nod on Pentecost, and maybe occasionally we’ll call on the Spirit in a prayer.

But to me Pentecost is where the church took root, a festival that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon a room full of a great many varied faithful people who were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Book of Acts 2:1-31.

If this introduction doesn’t give you chills, well I wonder what will!

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they 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.”

That’s the power of the Holy Spirit: To bring together “devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem” and astonish them to such an extent that they ask, “And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

And that is the promise of church that makes my heart soar!

This upcoming Pentecost I pray that you are filled with the wonder of what is possible when we allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to hear others in their own language, which is such a lovely metaphor. Happy Pentecost everyone! Amen.

— Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.