When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2.1 – 4, NIV, emphasis mine)

We were in Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1970s when a tornado went right over our house. We were in the basement because of a tornado warning, but we weren’t expecting anything when WHOMP – we heard this awful noise and a brief shake of the whole house. It skipped over us and took down a large tree at the back of our lot. I don’t know why I’ve never associated Luke’s description of Pentecost with a tornado, but his language is clear:

When Luke is describing what happened on that first Pentecost Day in Acts 2, he chooses “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind” as his metaphor. The disciples heard a roar, probably like the sonic tumult made by a tornado, and the choice of the word “violent” or “strong” reveals the feeling he is seeking to convey—this is no light breeze we’re dealing with here! – Receive the Holy Spirit: A 70-Day Journey through the Scriptures by Dan Wilt

I shared this Annie Dillard quote over three years ago. It’s worth revisiting:

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ― Annie Dillard, “An Expedition to the Pole” from Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982)

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4.31, NIV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1.8, ESV)