God is calling the whole world.

And another thing!

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.’ ”

Acts 2 describes the day of Pentecost, a brand-new day, with the words of the prophet Joel, spoken long before. The coming of the Holy Spirit is for everyone—young and ol

d, men and women, slave and free.

If I’d been quicker with my sermon yesterday, I would absolutely have referenced verse 20. While I was preaching, a storm rolled in, and the skies were absolutely turned to darkness. They cleared up again in a few minutes, but for that time, everyone’s attention was half on the windows. The coming of the Holy Spirit is a joyous thing, but it can also be frightening. God is shaking things up and grabbing our attention.

The idea that the Spirit is moving straight from one group to the whole world is definitely part of the point here. The men (and women) of the disciples are mostly from Galilee. They’re fishermen, blue-collar Jews of their time and place, with the occasional white-collar tax collector thrown in the mix. On Pentecost, their voices raise in accents from everywhere in the Mediterranean.

God is calling the whole world to be part of this movement. The God of Israel is the God of all places and peoples. That was true from the very beginning. Abraham and his family were blessed to be a blessing to all nations. It’s true on the day of Pentecost. The good news needs to be told in the languages of Pamphylia and Phrygia, Crete and Libya, the United States, Ecuador, and New Zealand.

If that was true on Pentecost, it’s true now. We are Zion, a missional outpost of God’s kingdom in Lexington, SC. We are in partnership with the places that speak God’s word in ways we don’t or can’t, whether they’re young adult ministries in the midlands, churches that speak in tongues, or missionaries to parts of the world that don’t have the Bible in their language yet. This is why we are connected with the South Carolina Synod, the ELCA, and the Lutheran World Federation. This is why the ELCA reaches out in ecumenical partnerships and dialogues with other the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church-USA, the AME Zion church, and others.

We are blessed to be a blessing, to all people, in all languages. No one is left out of the Spirit’s calling to share the good news of Christ in word and deed.

You, friend, may be having a week where you wonder if you’ve got what it takes. You might be wondering how you’re supposed to represent God Almighty to the world when you can’t even find matching socks. Fear not. God knows you and your weaknesses and your potential better than you know yourself. If God has called you to this work—and God has—then God will equip you for this work. Maybe what this world needs is a witness in mismatched socks (or no socks!). The church isn’t at its fullness without all of us—all races, all orientations, all heights, abilities, and nationalities. Even me. Even you.