May 28, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Pentecost"
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 104:24-35, I Corinthians 12:3-13, and John 7:37-39.)
Acts 2:1-21
The Coming of the Holy Spirit
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
Peter Addresses the Crowd
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16No, 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. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church. The word "Pentecost" means "fifty", and it came 50 days after Passover. So, it was originally a Jewish festival, and I daresay that most of today's Jewish community is not aware of that fact. Anyway, on that day the young church experienced one of its most meaningful experiences, and it's almost as if the breath of God breathed itself in some way on that gathering. At that time, there were three great Jewish festivals, Pentecost, Passover, and the Feast of Tabernacles. And every male who lived within 20 miles of Jerusalem was required to attend them. As many attended Pentecost as attended Passover, so that is why we get all those nationalities that we heard about: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and even residents of Mesopotamia. Although these people were Jews and knew Hebrew and perhaps Aramaic, which is what Jesus and his disciples spoke, the language that almost everybody knew was Greek.....sort of like English in today's world. That is why, by the way, that the New Testament is written in Greek: everybody knew it!
Although scholars believe that Acts was written by the same guy who wrote Luke, Luke was actually not in attendance at this point in Acts.....so he is reporting what others must have told him. You may recall that in the Tower of Babel story in Genesis, people started speaking different languages, and they couldn't understand each other. Today, however, when they spoke different languages, they COULD understand each other. What the writer is saying is that back in Genesis, God didn't want the people to understand each other. But today, by implication, God DOES want them to understand each other! And they do!
What happened that day is hard to explain, and maybe even a little uncomfortable for those of us who don't "speak in tongues" - the practice is called "glossolalia". And the Apostle Paul was not entirely comfortable with the idea, either, because he thought the Word should be preached so that everybody understood it. Also, Paul realized that one can "fake it": make unintelligible sounds while pretending to be in some sort of spiritual trance. While I do not speak in tongues, nor do I wish to, I am not going to criticize the practice simply because I don't understand it. Let us not limit God, even if we don't understand. There is a great line from Shakespeare which I have quoted before: "There is more to the universe than what is contained in your philosophy, Horatio." And Boy! Is that ever true! Simply because you and I don't understand something does not mean that it's not true. If you have paid attention to the news, you may recall certain stories about unidentified flying objects which our government can't explain! And neither can our physicists, either, because these things seem to defy our understanding of how things can fly and suddenly change directions! Don't get me wrong: I don't believe these unidentified flying things are from God, and I don't think the Second Coming is upon us! But I DO think it's possible that somebody or SOMETHING (Hee, hee, hah, hah!) has discovered a way of moving and changing direction, ways that our understanding of physics has yet to discover. Let us NOT be like the head of the U.S. Patent Office in the late 1800's who said the Patent Office should be closed because there is nothing new to invent! Can you actually believe that somebody said something like that? He DID, and within 10 years, the Wright brothers flew their airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina! Let us NOT be like that guy, or OTHER people who have claimed that since things didn't happen in THEIR experience, then they must be false. The world is BIGGER than that. The UNIVERSE is bigger than that. GOD is bigger than that - and let us never, ever try to limit GOD! You and I both know that God can do anything!
Before I move on to something else, I have heard it said that we do NOT understand how bees fly! They CANNOT, according to our understanding of how objects fly......and yet we all know that bees fly! We may not know how, but we know that they DO!
Another point in the Pentecost story - in fact, SEVERAL points made by a Lutheran pastor from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, by the name of Michael J. Woolman.... He says that on Pentecost, "Strangers became friends, food became a feast, and a pilgrimage became a home. And the Lord God did it all with a blast of wind, a touch of flame, and a sermon preached. It lasted a good while - at least a few weeks anyway. It included the healing of a beggar, a stirring sermon by Peter on Solomon's porch, which was followed by his arrest, which did nothing to slow the growth of the gathering. After that arrest, 5000 more were added to the church! It was all very, very good."
Pastor Woolman thinks all those newly-believing Christians would have stayed right there forever, and he says he would not have blamed them at all. "But", he says, "this is Luke's Gospel, remember that! And Luke's Jesus is not a 'stay here and build an empire' Jesus. Luke's Jesus is a 'Go, make disciples to the ends of the earth!' kind of Jesus. So, we need to embrace an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth: the sudden explosion of the first church was never intended to take over Jerusalem and stay put. It was intended to make missionaries and disciples to then go and change the world."
Woolman goes on to say that "staying put has never been the Christian mission. Christians go! That's what Jesus commissioned and commanded. Go, make, teach, baptize, love. Eat and drink, too, yes! And whenever you do, remember Jesus and Jesus will be there. But go, make, teach, baptize, love." Then the Rev. Mr. Woolman tells HIS version of the Tower of Babel story, and I think he is right on!
That story comes after the Flood in Genesis, and all the descendants of Noah were living in one place, and they became rather numerous. Woolman says, "They decided to build a tall tower to heaven. Maybe they had forgotten that God wasn't going to flood the earth again. Maybe they wanted to reach the top of the rainbow. Maybe they thought God would like the huge structure reaching up in praise. But that's not how the story goes. The story says that God confused their speech into a babel, so they had to abandon the building project and scatter around the world. It seems that if God created heaven and earth, no human structure would be all that important to God. ((Isn't that a great insight? Repeat!)) Humans are important to God - all humans, from the whole world, in all their languages, cultures, and colors. Stay and be the same? No. This is not what God is up to. Go, and tell the world that God loves it so much that he sent his only Son."
Isn't that great? That's ONE of the things that happened at Pentecost. The breath of God blew into that gathering and said GO, and be a light to the nations, as Isaiah quotes God as saying. Don't keep the knowledge of God to yourselves. You've a story to tell to the nations, as the hymn says! Amen!
Pastor Skip
