The familiar yet fantastic story of Pentecost is told by Luke in this week's text from Acts. Considerable scholarly ink has been spilled over precisely how Luke put together his account of this event much of it focusing on just where Luke got all the various components his version weaves together. Rather than investigate all the possible threads that Luke may have used, we encourage you to help your people view the completed tapestry Luke created to picture in living color the birthday of the church.

The first component in today's text recounts the actual descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. Luke begins by claiming that these still-faithful followers of Jesus were gathered "together in one place" (v.1) a reference that seems to suggest they were still closeted in some closed and se…