**sermon art: Pentecost by Mark Wiggin

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 24, 2026

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; see the other two at the end of the sermon]

John 20:19-23 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Acts 2:1-12 When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] 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.
¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”

[sermon begins]

Three weeks ago, it was standing room only in The Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of Altagracia, known by the locals as Basílica Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia. Omar, our cabbie, had dropped me off at mass and took Rob and the Trussell sprouts to the local market. The first Sunday of the month is a pilgrimage day, so Dominicans came from all over the country. Cars, vans, and coach buses filled the parking lot. Amid the heat and humidity, I stood packed in the sanctuary entrance, sharing air with the folks who’d also missed out on getting a seat among the over 3,000 of us there. My Spanish is as rudimentary as it is earnest, but the liturgy was comforting and familiar. Some of the responses I was able to say in broken Spanish and the rest of it I quietly spoke in English when I could tell where we were.

Very few times in my life has my skin color not been the main one in the group around me. I can count those situations on two hands, including my high school that was 89% Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). During the Basilica mass, I saw two other people that looked like me. Mostly, I was left to my own thoughts and experience except for during the sharing of the peace—el compartir la paz. The elderly gentleman in front of me turned, took my upper arms as I held his elbows and we said, “Paz.” His friends then shared it with me, clasping my arms and I theirs. Turning to my right, the young people and I did the same. I was moved to tears during this timeless, intimate ritual of reconciliation and Christian friendship as we shared Christ’s peace.

In John’s gospel, Jesus announced peace to his friends and showed them his wounds on his hands and his side. They rejoiced as had the women at the tomb who were the first witnesses of the resurrection. There was a lot to be relieved and happy about. Jesus was alive! Then he gave them the Spirit in a deeply intimate exchange of breath.

The disciples were locked in a room in Jerusalem in the three days after their friend and teacher was executed on a cross. Of course, they were afraid and hiding, not knowing who to trust. Jesus showed up in the midst of their fear. We all know what it’s like to feel afraid as the disciples did. Some of us more than others feel the fear of letting go of this life. Some of us feel the fear of political events beyond our control and wonder who to trust. Some of us feel fear closer to home as we simply survive. It’s into this fear and the way that it holds us captive that Jesus announces his peace and breathes the Spirit into us to send us out in peace. He said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jesus simultaneously comforts with a word of peace and challenges as he sends them on their way to serve others as he served in his earthly ministry.

The John reading is as intimate and personal as the Acts reading is wondrous and communal while both stories are extraordinary experiences of the Spirit. In Acts, the first century church received the Spirit in a blaze of glory. The long list of peoples pronounced for us during the reading spoke languages from lands across the Mediterranean Sea, east of the Caspian Sea, and south of the Persian Gulf. Places we know today as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Spirit of Jesus poured out in a new way over this multiethnic group of folks without regard for position and rank.[1] The Spirit moved through the young, the old, the men, the women, and the slaves. The Spirit lit them up with prophesies, visions, and dreams.

No wonder other people thought they were drunk. Pentecost fire had a moment with the people and left them changed to become the church they were sent to be. They are part of who we are because we exist as a congregation, a small corner of God’s whole church, the meaning of the church catholic with a little “c.” But their ecstatic moment was not forever. Their euphoria and wonder quieted.

Life in the faith became challenging almost immediately as the twists and turns of history subdued their Pentecostal fervor through the twists and turns of history. But, for a moment, there was an experience of unity that amazed and perplexed the people. They heard their own language and couldn’t fathom how it could be, so they wrote it off as drunken babble. And then Peter began to preach.

Preaching is an act that has little to do with the preacher and everything to do with the Holy Spirit – a stark and humbling truth for a preacher. Many a preacher has had the experience of people hearing something in the sermon that the preacher didn’t say but was something that that person dearly needed to hear. Lutheran Christians believe that through preaching the Holy Spirit calls us by the gospel, the good news of Jesus, and fills us with faith. I had that experience through the words of a preacher and the power of the Holy Spirit. I was amazed and perplexed week after week hearing about grace, forgiveness, mercy, beauty, and hope while receiving faith through that same preaching. The message of being unconditionally beloved and created good as the first act of God was new to my adult ears. That God’s breath of the Spirit created wonder and life and, as we heard in the Psalm today, even joy as the Leviathan of the sea sported in chaos of the deep.[2]

God does not leave us swirling in the chaos but brings us to new life – to the life of the Spirit’s imagination and, thankfully, not our own. Often, what we can imagine fits into specific limits of good and bad, order and chaos, black and white, and so on. What we can imagine is limited by the languages we speak and the kinds of people we know. From those limits we make decisions both conscious and unconscious about how we think the world works.

Someone who is fluent in eight different languages recently said that when you speak another language you are a slightly different version of yourself in that language because language strongly impacts our thinking and interactions. It’s astonishing to watch as we did our daughter’s bilingual fluency in Spanish. She was our translator in the Dominican Republic. Watching someone respond to her with either relief or respect as she crossed the barrier of language, culture, and thinking, added to my own experience of how language works across difference. And led me to wonder what it means to understand and be understood as a feature of the gospel by the power of the Spirit.

Thankfully, the Spirit blows through our assumptions and sends us into the world with something different. We’re sent as specific individuals with what makes us ourselves and we’re sent with something quite global that is deeper than color, culture, or protocol and builds multiethnic community unified by the Spirit over and against the uniformity of our limited experience. Unity is not uniform. As on the first Pentecost, unity functions through difference to amaze and perplex us as well as to challenge our assumptions about meaning by pausing long enough to ask the question, “What does this mean?” More than an academic question, this is a faithful question to ask ourselves.

The earliest Christians were led by the Holy Spirit to cross culturally defined boundaries including ethnicities. Their experience makes we wonder how we attain fluencies to be aware of ourselves and others so that channels are opened between us. This isn’t about learning Spanish. Although by all means go for it. This is about the Spirit opening us to an understanding greater than ourselves for the good of each other and for the sake of the world. Ecstatic experience of the Spirit inspires and deepens our peace to encounter the other as connected to us by the gospel and love of God. May the Spirit fill us with the fire of faith as we share Christ’s peace among us and as we’re sent out to do the same. Alleluia and amen.

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[1] Matthew Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary. Sermon Brainwave for Pentecost, May 31, 2020. https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=1267

[2] Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary. Sermon Brainwave for Pentecost, May 31, 2020. https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=1267

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Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, great and wide;
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
²⁶ There go the ships
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
²⁷ These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
²⁸ when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
³⁰ When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
³² who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

**sermon art: Felicia Bond, Illustrator for the book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Joffe Numeroff, 2011.

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church, Denver, February 8, 2026

[sermon begins after the Bible reading; there are two more Bible readings from Isaiah and 1 Corinthains at the end of the sermon.]

Matthew 5:13-20  [Jesus said:] ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

[sermon begins]

If you give a mouse a cookie, what’s he going to do?[2] … … … Riiight, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. And if you give him a glass of milk? … … …yup, he’ll ask for a napkin and a straw to avoid a milk moustache. This cheeky children’s book imagines a generous child being led by a mouse’s expanding list of needs illustrating the adage, “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.” It’s a caution about not giving that inch. But what if we want to give an inch?[3] Or, what if we don’t want to give that inch but that’s what’s in front of us to do? And if it’s in front of us to do, are we inclined to talk ourselves out of who Jesus says we are so that we don’t have to do it?

Jesus says that his followers are salt and light. We are salt and light. We are simply salt and light that reveals Emmanuel, God with us. Not to prove anything but to be something. Salt makes the world a better place. Salt becomes obvious when it’s missing. Salt, when applied properly, works with food to make it better.[4] Light is similar. Light brightens what already exists to help us perceive the world around us.[5]

When Jesus calls his followers “salt” and “light,” he is calling them “salt” and “light” as a group. We’ve talked before about how our Southern friends do better translating the Greek plural “you,” as in “y’all,” or “all y’all” for emphasis. As the stepdaughter of a southerner, it was used regularly in our home. Here’s a quick example. Continuous with the Bible reading from last Sunday on the Beatitudes to today’s reading, we hear Jesus say to his disciples:

All y’all are the salt of the earth…all y’all are the light of the world…let all y’all’s light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” [Matthew 5:13-14, 16]

Notice that Jesus isn’t telling them what to do. He’s describing something, not prescribing it.[6] Jesus is telling them what they already are – salt and light. There were no refrigerators in the first century. Salt preserved meat to be eaten later. AND salt made life better. Jesus calls you salty. The good kind of salty that brightens experiences and preserves life. Jesus is taking liberties as a preacher. It’s completely unscientific for salt to lose its saltiness just like no one would hide a flame under a bushel basket because the basket would burst into flames.[7] While the metaphors are comedic, Jesus means don’t hide your light. Let your light shine and, in doing so, the good works that come from the light will point to God. It’s a subtle point but it’s an important one.

We talk in Lutheran Christian circles about God’s movement to us. God showing up in Jesus. We don’t build a ladder to God. God brings God’s self to us. When we hear this, more than a few of us might be thinking, “Huh, I don’t think I’m salt and light, God must have missed me with the saltshaker because I can be a real jerk.” This may be good news for you because of course we can be jerks. But God calls us back by our baptisms, over and over, to remind us that we are salt and light and that we are free to be salt and light. We, the church, all y’all, are salt and light together. Being salt and light is a group experience that leads to group projects. The church word for group projects is ministry. We work together to figure out what ministry looks like, who we advocate with, and how we spend our time. Ministry can get bogged down in fear or worry about being taken advantage of, about giving an inch and someone taking a mile.

That’s why Jesus’ speech about the law and commandments follow the salt and light comments. Not as a way to lord righteousness over our neighbors or as a performance to get their attention. [8] Rather, commandments are given to us as a way to live well with our neighbors, to be who God says we are in relationship with our neighbors. To give that inch. Inches become miles as we live into the law as salt and light, preserving life and brightening experience.

The Gospel of Matthew can be tricky because it appears that there was stress within the 1^st century Matthean community between Jews and Jewish Christians. As we continue this year’s journey through the Gospel of Matthew, it matters how we talk and think about our Jewish cousins in the faith. Some readings like ours today are an example of that 1^st century stress and can be misconstrued to be anti-Jew or anti-law, as if somehow Jesus found the Jewish tradition lacking and in need of an overhaul.[9] The verses about following the law connect Jesus’ teaching with Moses as an expansion of the covenant.[10] The expression, “cousins in the faith” acknowledges that both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism grew like branches from the trunk of the Hebrew Bible that Christians call the Old Testament. Rabbinic Judaism grew like one branch while Christianity grew like another branch at about the same time during the 1^st century.[11]

Long before rabbinic Judaism, the prophet Isaiah said that feeding the hungry, covering the naked, and loosening the bonds of injustice by freeing the oppressed shall break forth your light like the dawn. At the time Isaiah wrote this, Jerusalem was a mess as returning exiles tried to rebuild society with those who were already there.[12] There was cynicism and power grabs. Isaiah’s admonition was to be open-hearted and generous, to rebuild the ruins and make the city a safe place to live for everyone.[13] The prophets had long challenged our Jewish cousins in the faith to live into their God-given light-filled dawn. It’s what the biblical prophets were all about. This is the justice to which God calls us. Feeding, clothing, and freeing. Giving an inch like we’re doing on Undie Sunday with personal care kits for refugees and collecting underwear and socks for children. Small inches that become miles.

“All ya’ll are salt and light,” Jesus said. Together as the church, we dip back into this baptismal promise on a daily, sometimes minute-to-minute, basis–resting not on human wisdom but on the power of God made vulnerable in Christ Jesus and him crucified.[14] Salt does not exist for itself, it enhances other things.[15] The gospel is personal, but not private. It is individual, but not individualistic. There are dark nights of the soul and body when individual faith is sustaining. But faith unified in the church is for the sake of the world.

In a minute we’ll sing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” We sing it together even though we say, “mine.” It’s a together thing because it gets at what Jesus announces to his disciples. We are public followers who shine, we don’t tuck faith away.[16] We are a people infused with the characteristics of God—gracious and merciful.[17] We don’t claim perfection. We point to the One who is with us.

The light of Christ shining through the cross is not permission to do whatever we want when we want. Being salty and shiny moves us by inches that add up to miles. Christ’s light shines the transforming power of faith through our congregation, through all y’all, as we let our lights shine.

Thanks be to God and amen.

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[1] “Salty” is a word used as urban slang to mean bitter or upset. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/salty#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Online%20Etymology%20Dictionary%2C%20the%20U.S.,as%20%22looking%20stupid%E2%80%A6%20because%20of%20something%20you%20did%22.

[2] Laura Numeroff, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (New York City: Scholastic, 2011).

[3] Taryn Trussell, personal conversation and art montage of the question made of wood, cloth, and metal, 2026. What if I want to give an inch?

[4] Melanie A. Howard, Associate Professor and Program Director of Biblical and Theological Studies, Fresno Pacific University, CA. Commentary on Matthew 5:13-20 for Workingpreacher.org. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-513-20-5

[5] Ibid.

[6] Howard, Ibid.

[7] Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Podcast on the lectionary readings for February 8, 2026. #1067: Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 8, 2026 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[8] Ibid.

[9] Howard, Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Rabbi Brian Field, Denver, CO. Founding and Former Rabbi of Judaism Your Way.

[12] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Podcast on the lectionary readings for February 8, 2026. #1067: Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 8, 2026 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[13] Ibid.

[14] 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

[15] Karoline Lewish, Professor of Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Podcast on the lectionary readings for February 8, 2026. #1067: Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 8, 2026 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[16] Jacobson, Ibid.

[17] Lewis, Ibid.

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Isaiah 58:1-12

Shout out; do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.
³ “Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
and oppress all your workers.
⁴ You fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
^9a Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”
[

^9b If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
¹⁰ if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your needs in parched places
and make your bones strong,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
¹² Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴ My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed. ⁷ But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
¹⁰ God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.