Pentecost Sunday is coming. Some thoughts from NT Wright:

…when it comes to Pentecost it’s far more important that you’re out there in the wind, letting it sweep through your life, your heart, your imagination, your powers of speech, and transform you from a listless or lifeless believer into someone whose heart is on fire with the love of God.

And this:

The aim is not to give people a ‘spirituality’ which will make the things of earth irrelevant. The point is to transform earth with the power of heaven, starting with those parts of ‘earth’ which consist of the bodies, minds, hearts and lives of the followers of Jesus—as a community…

 Wright, T. (2008). Acts for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-12 (pp. 22–23). Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

I am not filled with the Spirit so the “stuff” of this life becomes unimportant. I am not Spirit-filled so I can ward off “demons of bug bites” or other trite matters. The Spirit has come so the transformational work of the Kingdom of God can continue in this world.

This is not about growing churches. It is about fulfilling the purpose of creation and be about the work given to humanity from the very beginning. Creation sustained and flourishing. Humanity stable and flourishing. It is the work of transformation.

Pentecost is meaningful and powerful, whether you, as a believer who is weirded out by that “tongues stuff,” acknowledge it or not. It’s better if you acknowledge it and get to the transformational work God has given you.