Sabbath Day Thoughts — “On All Flesh” Acts 2:1-18
People around the world are learning other languages with the help of Duolingo. The free downloadable app is best known for its mascot Duo, a bright green cartoon owl who flaps his wings and wiggles his tail feathers when you complete a particularly successful lesson. 103 million people use Duolingo monthly. 33 million people use it daily. The app combines short, engaging lessons with game-like elements to help users develop skills in 41 languages. Half of users practice English while others learn widely-spoken languages like Spanish and Chinese, as well as lesser-spoken languages, like Esperanto, Navajo, and even High Valyrian, a fictional language developed for HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
I began using Duolingo last year by learning Portuguese in anticipation of our walk on the Camino de Santiago. In a short amount of time, I knew some basic phrases that would allow me to greet others, order from a menu, and ask directions. In Portugal, my language efforts were sometimes met with puzzled stares or even gentle corrections. I eventually determined that the Portuguese I was learning with Duolingo was new-world Portuguese—Brazilian—which has decidedly different pronunciations and cadences from its old-world cousin. So much for my preparation.
Despite those new world – old world differences, my fledgling attempts to communicate were generally met with big smiles and enthusiastic efforts to respond. It was good for me to take the risk of learning another language, and it was good for others that an American would respect their culture and honor their ways by taking embarrassing baby steps in communication. Lately, I’ve been using Duolingo to brush up on my German skills, which I hope are a little more comprehensible than my Portuguese.
On Pentecost, the disciples learned the importance of speaking other languages. The Spirit of God moved among them with the rush of a violent wind and dancing tongues of flame. It was like God speaking out of the whirlwind to the frightened Job. It was like the Lord enveloping Moses on the mountaintop at Sinai with smoke and holy fire. It was like nothing they had imagined—terrifying, mystifying, and enlivening, all at the same time. The Spirit of God that filled them compelled them to get up and go out into the streets of the Jerusalem, to mingle with a diverse crowd of people who were on their way to the Temple for the Feast of Weeks.
The crowd that the disciples encountered reflected the diversity of first century Judaism. Those tongue-twisting nationalities that I read earlier were a legacy of diaspora. Other nations from the Egyptians to the Assyrians, from the Babylonians to the Persians, from Greece to Rome had conquered Israel over the eons and sent the Israelites to the far corners of their empires. The disciples would have encountered other differences in the crowd, too. Some, like the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes had fundamentally differing understandings of scripture. Others had vast political differences, like the Herodians, who supported the Roman-appointed monarchy, and the Zealots, who longed to tear it all down. Even before Pentecost, the disciples must have worried that the great challenge of taking the gospel out into the world would be communication. How would they meet people where they were at and bridge those profound differences in languages, opinions, and outlooks?
We are no strangers to diversity. We are first nations people, like the Haudenosaunee, who have always called this land home. We came seeking religious freedom or economic opportunity. We came fleeing persecution and ethnic cleansing. We were brought here against our will, enslaved and trafficked across the middle passage. We were imported from China to build a cross-continental railroad, but we weren’t allowed to bring our families. We are Christians and Jews, Hindus and Sikhs, Muslims and Atheists. We are the 99% and the 1%. We never made it through high school, we have a GED, we worked our way through college, we took on big debt for grad school. We are smalltown and big city. We run the ‘burbs and crave the wilderness. Our differences are a blessing.
Yet difference can be a challenge. We want everyone to be like us. We are threatened by different opinions. We think there isn’t enough room in our American dream for all people. We fear the stranger. We view one another as the enemy. Those on the left condescendingly label anyone who questions their views as ill-informed, ignorant, deplorables, Bible-thumpers, Trumpers, and gun nuts. Those on the right, sporting their own healthy dose of moral indignation, label anyone who questions their views as Dumocrats, libtards, elitists, extremists, commies, fringe, and un-American. Our differences become difficulty when we stop truly communicating. Clearly, we need to find some different ways to use language in our world today.
On Pentecost, the disciples, with the help of the Holy Spirit, learned to speak other languages. They were changed. Their focus shifted from the Upper Room to the world out there. And as the Spirit sent them out into the streets, they were enabled to communicate with others whom they had probably never associated with before, those whom they had looked past or ignored, those whom they had written off as “other.” Their minds were freed and their tongues were loosed to speak, to connect.
And as the Spirit loosed the tongues of the disciples, the Spirit opened the ears of those diverse listeners. On the tongues of strangers, they heard the sounds of home, long ago and far away. They felt the promise of acceptance and belonging. As they stopped and listened, they marveled that they were seen and sought out. They felt included and valued. They stopped feeling like strangers and resident aliens, and they began to feel like a community.
Peter, who so often misunderstood what Jesus was saying, finally got it. This blended community, this honoring of other cultures and other gifts, this acceptance of difference, it had been God’s plan all along. It was just like the vision of the Prophet Joel, who anticipated the coming of God’s Kingdom with the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon all flesh. Young and old, male and female, slaves and freeborn. All would know the indwelling of the Spirit and God’s best hope for the salvation and redemption of all people.
That’s when Peter got his preach on. Hearts were touched as he told the story of a Messiah who helped and healed and welcomed, who turned the other cheek and cared for the outcast, who gave his life as a sign of God’s love for all people. As Peter preached under the influence of the Spirit, divisions were overcome, love was known, and more than 3,000 people decided that they wanted to be part of that beautiful Kingdom where all people are united in God’s love and purpose.
Oh Pentecost! The Spirit falls upon us today, and we hear God’s wisdom for our world. We may be spending 30 minutes-a-day learning High Valyrian on Duolingo, but are we having the conversations that will bridge the divides in our communities and nation? If the disciples had stayed in their upper room enjoying growing language facility with one another, there never would have been change. There never would have been healing and growth. It’s easy for us to speak to the same people. It’s easy for us to view or read the same news sources, the ones that reinforce our world view and assure us of our rightness. But on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit might compel us otherwise, to leave the upper room, to step beyond the place of comfortable seclusion. The Spirit would invite us to engage that diverse world out there, to seek to speak the language of the other, to sincerely engage, and not simply insist upon the rightness of our own convictions.
Pentecost calls us to see that hate and division are not part of God’s plan for humanity. The rejection of others that has become endemic in our world today won’t build bridges. Can we dare to imagine that the Spirit can work in others even as it works in us? Can we remember the holy promise that the Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, all people—men and women, young and old, slave and free, rich and poor, broken and whole, sinners and saints, doubters and believers. If we can begin to accept that, then we must look for the moments that allow genuine engagement to happen.
We wonder, “What that could possibly look like?” With the Spirit’s influence, I suspect it will look a lot like Jesus. It will look like Jesus, who welcomed sinners and dined with Pharisees. It will look like Jesus, who taught women, blessed children, and included both zealots and tax collectors as his disciples. It will look like Jesus who taught that the Kingdom of God is always all around us, waiting to be realized. It will look like Jesus, who baptizes us in the Spirit.
It won’t be easy, my friends. Learning another language never is. It takes practice and discipline. Just ask the 33 million people who are practicing with Duolingo daily. But as we go forth to communicate in new and uncomfortable ways, we can trust that the Spirit who dwells within us will guide us. We’ll meet people where they are at. We’ll speak—and we’ll listen. We’ll find common ground, bridging differences in opinion and outlook. We’ll dream together of the beautiful Kingdom where we see that the Spirit dwells within all people—and the acceptance and love that Jesus showed us abounds for all. May it be so.
Resources:
Natalia Guerrero. “Good, free, fun: The simple formula that has made Duolingo a daily habit for millions” in BBC News: Worklife, Oct. 4, 2024. Accessed online at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20241004-the-simple-formula-that-made-duolingo-a-daily-habit-for-millions
David Curry. “Duolingo Revenue and Usage Statistics” in Business of Apps, April 20, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.businessofapps.com/data/duolingo-statistics/
Rebecca Dean. “Commentary on Acts 2:1-21” in Preaching This Week, May 24, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost/commentary-on-acts-21-21-19
Margaret Aymer. “Commentary on Acts 2:1-21” in Preaching This Week, June 8, 2025. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost-3/commentary-on-acts-21-21-18
Jeremy Williams. “Commentary on Acts 2:1-21” in Preaching This Week, May 28, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost/commentary-on-acts-21-21-16
Acts 2:1-18
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
Joann White 