Speaking New Languages

Opening Prayer

Note to leader: allow a moment of silence after the prelude before beginning this prayer.

Spirit of Pentecost,
we come from scattered places,
carrying the week’s noise,
speaking the languages of our worry and work.

Here we pause.
Here we let the sounds settle.
Here we remember that you meet us
not when we are fluent, but when we are open.

Some of us arrive confident in our words.
Some of us arrive uncertain what to say.
All of us arrive hungry
for a language that reaches across our divides.

Gather us in this holy hush.
Open our ears to hear one another.
Loosen our tongues to speak your truth.

Breathe on us now as you breathed on those first disciples—
not to make us the same,
but to make us one.

Through Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh among us.
Amen.

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Call to Worship

Based on Psalm 104
selected verses

When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all.

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they give drink to every wild animal.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation;
they sing among the branches.
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to use.
You make wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the heart.

When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created;
you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

Come, let us worship the God who breathes life into all creation.

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Hymn of Praise

O Spirit of the Living God, GTG #283

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Grace Spoken

Hear the good news:
The Spirit of God has been poured out on all flesh.
Christ breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Friends, the risen Christ stands among us,
breathing peace into our fear.
The Spirit gives us words we did not know we had.

The same Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation
hovers over us now.
The Spirit makes us new.

The barriers we build cannot contain God’s love.
The languages we speak cannot limit God’s grace.
In Christ, we are forgiven and set free.

Trusting in God’s grace and mercy, let us confess our sins and brokenness together.

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Responding to God’s Grace

Unison Prayer of Confession

God of Pentecost,
you filled the first disciples with your Spirit
and sent them out speaking words of life.
But we have kept silent when you called us to speak,
or spoken only to those who already understand us.

We have built walls of language and custom,
preferring the comfort of our own tongues
to the risk of your translation.
We have hoarded your good news
as if it belonged only to us.

We have feared difference more than we have trusted your Spirit.
We have let suspicion silence us
and let exhaustion excuse us.
Forgive us for forgetting that your fire falls on all flesh,
that your wind blows where it will.

Breathe into us again.
Give us courage to speak and ears to hear.
Make us a people who cross boundaries in your name.

(A time of silent prayer)

Through Jesus Christ, who breathed peace upon his fearful friends.
Amen.

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Sharing the Peace of Christ

An Embodied Sign of God’s Grace in Christ Jesus

Friends, we have been reminded that God’s grace extends to all. We have confessed our sins, knowing that the Spirit has gathered us as one body and sends us to speak life across every barrier.

In this spirit, let us share the peace of Christ.

The peace of Christ be with you.

And also with you.

(Share Christ’s peace in ways fitting to your community.)

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The Written Word

A Reading from the Early Church

From the Epistles

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Speaking New Languages

Hymn of Reflection

Breathe on Me, Breath of God, GTG #286

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Affirmation of Faith

Spoken together.

We believe in God,
who speaks and the world comes into being,
who breathes and the dead rise to life,
who scatters language like seed across the earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ,
who crossed every boundary to find us,
who breathed peace into locked rooms,
who sends us as the Father sent him.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
poured out on all flesh without exception,
translating the good news into every tongue,
uniting strangers into one body.

We believe the church exists
to speak words the world can understand,
to cross the borders fear has built,
to make God’s love heard in languages not yet learned.

We trust that Pentecost is not past
but present wherever the Spirit moves,
calling us beyond our comfort,
giving us words we did not know we had.

Amen.

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Prayers of the People

God who scatters fire and wind,
hear the prayers of your people.

For the whole earth and all who dwell upon it,
for languages we know and those we have yet to learn,
for the Spirit who moves across borders and through locked doors,
give us courage to speak words that heal rather than harm.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For nations torn by war and fear,
for refugees whose mother tongues are silenced,
for places where speech is dangerous and truth is costly,
send your Spirit like wind that cannot be contained.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For teachers and preachers,
for those who translate Scripture into new tongues,
for parents teaching children how to say “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you,”
grant them words that open hearts rather than close them.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For our own mouths and the words we carry,
for the conversations we avoid and the apologies we owe,
for the times we speak past each other instead of to each other,
fill our silence with your fire.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For those whose pain has stolen their voice,
for the grieving who cannot find words,
for bodies breaking down and minds losing language,
speak through us the comfort they need to hear.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For those whose accents mark them as outsiders,
for immigrants learning new words in lonely places,
for children who speak languages their parents cannot understand,
remind them they are known and named by you.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

For this community gathered in your name,
that we might learn to listen before we speak,
that our worship might equip us for witness,
that the world might hear good news in our words and deeds.
Holy Spirit, breathe through us:

Make us fluent in the language of love.

(pause)

(A time of silent prayer)

God of Pentecost,
you have heard the prayers we speak aloud
and the longings we cannot name.
By your Spirit, translate our stammering into praise,
our fear into faith,
our silence into song.
Through Christ who breathed peace upon his disciples,
Amen.

We pray together, saying:
(The Lord’s Prayer is prayed in the words familiar to the community.)

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Hymn of Sending

Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness, GTG #291

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Sending

Go now as Pentecost people,
speaking words that cross divides,
listening for languages you do not yet know.

Go trusting the Spirit moves ahead of you,
translating your stumbling speech into Good News,
making your witness comprehensible to strangers.

Go expecting to be surprised—
by who understands,
by what the Spirit does with your words,
by the church you did not know you were building.

Go knowing you are not alone:
the same breath that filled that upper room
fills your lungs now,
the same fire that split over those first disciples
burns in you.

And may the God who speaks all languages,
the Christ who breathed peace on frightened friends,
and the Spirit who gives bold words to uncertain mouths
go with you now and always.
Amen.

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Reflections for Later

Sharing God’s Word Together

For Newcomers

If you’re here today and the language of faith feels foreign to you—the prayers and creeds, the vocabulary of sin and grace—you’re not alone. Many of us who have been showing up for years still fumble with the words, still wonder what we really mean when we say them. The church has its own dialect, and it can feel like trying to join a conversation already in progress, in a language you never quite learned.

That’s what makes Pentecost such a remarkable story. The Spirit doesn’t require fluency before it speaks through us. It doesn’t wait for us to master the religious vocabulary or get our theology straight. Instead, the Spirit gives words—sometimes halting, sometimes inadequate, sometimes in languages we didn’t know we could speak—that somehow, mysteriously, communicate life. The claim of this story is that God is already at work in you, already translating divine love into the particular language of your life, whether you have names for it yet or not.

You may have come today out of curiosity, or obligation, or simply because someone invited you and you didn’t want to say no. You may not be sure what you believe about God, or Jesus, or any of this. That’s okay. You don’t need to have it figured out. The Spirit, this text suggests, is less interested in correct answers than in honest breath—the simple act of showing up, speaking what’s true for you, listening for what might be true beyond you.

You’re welcome to keep wondering. You’re welcome to keep showing up with your questions. You’re welcome here, not because you’ve arrived at belief, but because the Spirit has been breathing in you all along.

For Those Rooted in This Community

You’ve heard this story so many times that you know what’s coming. The rush of wind. The tongues of flame. The moment when frightened disciples become bold witnesses. You can recite the list of nations—Parthians, Medes, Elamites—and you know this is the birthday of the church. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: we who speak the language of faith most fluently are often the least willing to be understood by those outside our walls. We’ve learned to speak Christianese so well that we’ve forgotten how strange it sounds to everyone else. The Spirit didn’t descend so the disciples could preach more eloquently to each other. Pentecost happened so that strangers could hear good news in words that made sense to them.

The Spirit’s work on that day wasn’t about confirming what the faithful already knew. It was about crossing boundaries they’d spent lifetimes maintaining. It was about speaking to people they’d been taught to avoid, in languages they hadn’t bothered to learn. And the most dangerous thing about being rooted in this community is that we can become so comfortable with our own vocabulary, our own patterns, our own ways of being church, that we mistake fluency for faithfulness. We can pray beautiful prayers and sing familiar hymns and never once risk being misunderstood by someone who desperately needs to hear what we have to say.

So here’s the question that won’t let you go: When was the last time you tried to speak about your faith in words that someone outside these walls could actually hear? Not when did you invite someone to church—when did you risk your own comfort to translate the gospel into a language that crosses the boundaries you’ve spent years reinforcing?

For Churches Without a Pastor

Today’s story from Acts gives us the church at its most fundamental — not because someone stood up front and explained the Spirit, but because the Spirit showed up and every voice became necessary. The disciples didn’t wait for a single authorized interpreter. They spoke in languages they didn’t know, and the crowd heard in languages they hadn’t forgotten. The church began as a community where everybody’s voice mattered because the Spirit filled the whole room, not just the podium.

If your congregation is navigating life without a settled pastor, you know both the anxiety and the surprising gifts of this season. You’ve discovered that the Spirit doesn’t wait for professional credentials. You’ve learned that when one person can’t carry everything, the body has to figure out what it actually means that all are ministers. Today’s gospel shows the risen Christ breathing the Spirit on the disciples together — not on Peter alone, not on the one with the best seminary training, but on the community. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to all of them. The authority to speak good news, to pronounce forgiveness, to discern God’s presence — these aren’t reserved for the ordained. They belong to the baptized.

This doesn’t mean pastoral vacancy is easy or that you should romanticize the struggle. It means you already have what you need to be the church: the Word, the Table, each other, and the Spirit who blows where it will. When Paul writes to the Corinthians about the varieties of gifts, he’s writing to a messy congregation without a single strong leader — and he tells them that’s exactly how the Spirit works. Different gifts. Different voices. One body. You are living proof that the church is not a corporation that hired a CEO. You are a people called, gathered, and equipped by God. The Spirit that filled that first room on Pentecost is the same Spirit that fills yours.

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Rights and Use

© Church Commons. 2026

Written by Rev. Matthew J. Skolnik unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

These materials may be used and adapted for worship and educational purposes within Christian communities. They may not be sold or redistributed for commercial purposes without permission.

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Resource Details

Date: May 24, 2026

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

Theme: Speaking New Languages (Psalm 104, Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:3-13, John 20:19-23)

Lectionary: RCL Year A

Scripture on this page is from The Shared Word Translation (SWT), an ongoing translation project within ChurchCommons.org.