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| What Tongue Do You Speak (Acts 2:1-21) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you … The story of the Day of Pentecost is almost as well known as the events surrounding the discovery of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. It used to get a lot more recognition in the church than just changing the parament’s color to red. (As you may have read in our worship notes) In medieval churches, rose pedals were dropped from the rafters to commemorate the tongues of fire that appeared above the heads of the Jesus’ followers. A replica of a dove or even a real dove was let loose in the church to remind worshippers of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit on this day. And trumpets were used to simulate the sound of His Coming. Now, not quite that far back… I can recall the artwork on my Sunday School materials always picturing this event… the Tongues of fire … the gift of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus, in our Gospel for today tells us that the Holy Spirit is with us to be our counselor, our guide into all truth. Peter in our reading from the Book of Acts repeats the Prophecy of Joel describing the effect of the Holy Spirit as He would come upon God’s people. And so this is not an insignificant day … We see God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, coming and dwelling in all His believers in a way the world had never seen before. One could argue that as the church celebrates the coming of God in Christ Jesus at Christmas … it could celebrate with almost as much vigor the Coming of God as the Holy Spirit into the hearts of men and women, since this Day of Pentecost. It is certainly a RED day on the church’s calendar. One of the things that’s traditional in our churches on this day is that our first reading comes from the Book of Genesis … the 11th chapter, as we hear the account of the tower of Babel. There we hear how God confused the languages of the people at that time and caused them to disperse across the face of the earth. But on the Day of Pentecost, God, the author of this language barrier, deals with it in a unique way. After the tongues of fire … we see the apostles, and perhaps others of faith, speaking to those who were gathered in Jerusalem in the languages that were spoken in the part of the world from which they came. The biblical record goes to listing many of them to give us a flavor of the diversity of those who were present. Now, a lot of times, we just pass that over all that, in order to get on to talking about the whole concept of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But let’s not pass this over today. This language thing is really significant. You notice from the account that it really caught the attention of those present that day. We don’t hear them talking about the other manifestation of the Spirit, saying “Oh, look! There are little tongues of flame above those people’s heads.” No, what we hear instead is that they are amazed by what they hear. A lot of which they didn’t understand, because it was in languages they were not familiar with … So, some said it sounded to them like the speakers had had too much wine … Well, try this… walk through Heathrow Airport sometime. Believe me, it sounds a lot like what the crowds were hearing this first Pentecost in Jerusalem. Now. This is the interesting part. Most people of Jewish origin in those days spoke Aramaic … it was like speaking Hebrew. And so, if God wanted to speak to Jewish people about Himself and His love for them in Jesus Christ, Aramaic would have been a good choice. However the message of God’s love wasn’t just for those of Jewish origin. It was also for all those who were converts … and even Gentiles. And so in that case, a good language choice to get the message out would have been Greek. Everyone spoke or was familiar with Greek in Jesus’ day. It was the language of commerce throughout the Mediterranean. The entire New Testament was written by the Apostles in Greek. In fact, 200 years before Jesus was born, the Old Testament had been translated from Hebrew into Greek to make the Scriptures accessible to those whose native tongue was not Hebrew or Aramaic. So Greek would have been the perfect choice to expound the mighty works of God so that all could hear and understand on the Day of Pentecost. But instead, what happened? God enabled the message bearers to speak to the people in their own native tongues … Why? Well, if the message bearers had all spoken in Greek … what happened might have been just a “oh, hum” experience. The message bearers would have been seen as just a group of people thumping their own agenda in a language they already knew… But… when they saw and heard unschooled Galileans speaking clearly in languages they had never spoken before … that was news. Suddenly, the means and the message took on “godly” significance. Why? Because the people could not explain what was happening other than they are seeing God at work. God, who was the author of all the different languages in the first place. And so … on this first Pentecost…God was demonstrating what the Holy Spirit could and would do in the Church … The Holy Spirit would make it possible to reach all languages and nations with the message of God’s love through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, it would be easy for us to just write this off, this speaking to people in their own languages, as a First-Pentecost-Only event. But, we might contend that what we are seeing here is really a pattern that God would use in the future, even in our day, as He grows His kingdom here on Earth … He does so by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the message of the Gospel, which is proclaimed by His Children. And yes, each one of us fits that category, if indeed we do have the Holy Spirit in our Hearts. We are His children… we are God’s messengers of the Gospel in our own day. Did you know that that’s your role? To spread the Gospel? We may sometimes say to ourselves, “Well, I contribute to the church so that we can pay the pastor and our missionaries overseas so that trained preachers can take the gospel to those who yet have not heard. So, I’m doing my part.” And all that is true, sacrificial giving by God’s children does make it possible for the Gospel to be preached. But … of the 2.3 Million members of our denomination of God’s church, the LCMS, how many are full-time, church supported preachers? Roughly 5000 pastors and 800 missionaries … but they make up less than one third of one percent of the total membership (.27%) You think that would be the sum total of God’s plan… Let the pro’s do it? The passage called the “Great Commission” was meant for all 2.3 Million of us. As His Children, God wants His Spirit in all of us to tell of His Might Works… especially the mightiest of all … His conquering of sin and death on the cross. Now, let’s think about this in the context of Pentecost. Did you know that you speak a language other than English? And we’re not talking about German or Spanish or French or Japanese, or whatever else you may have picked up along the way besides your native tongue. Back to our Sermon Title for this morning. What Tongue do you speak? Having just spent many hours in a hospital… you medical professionals have to know, that to most of us, you speak another language. Like most vocational languages today, it is full of wonderful three letter acronyms … Like ICU, which we non-medical professionals are told means Intensive Care Unit. But then you professionals use the short-hand “PRN” which means “take it when you needed it”. But, we find out that those letters PRN aren’t an English Acronym at all, they come from the Latin Phrase Pro re nata that literally means "for the thing born". Not quite Greek to us today, but pretty close. And so … let’s not even get started with IT, Information Technology Language … or Real Estate-eese… When it comes to some things, there are those of you who are in the know … and those of us who haven’t got a clue. But how different is that, then, than the gathering at the first Pentecost? We all speak English, like back then, everyone spoke Greek. But here today we have gathered … not as Parthians, Medes and Elamites … but Medical people, pilots, active service military and veterans, teachers, accountants, attorneys, artists, … even moms and dads and children … Yes, those are legitimate, blessed–by-God vocations as well, and they do have their own languages. So, what happens when you’re not here in church, but back in your profession, your calling? God has gifted you with His Spirit … and with the message of His Might works. He has gifted you with your calling which puts you in a place of trust … and in a place of knowing a language that marks those outside of your calling … as aliens and foreigners. God’s given you, or put you, in a corner of His Kingdom to which you relate and which finds it easy to relate to you. Honestly, if all 2.3 million of us in the LCMS were pastors … who would we talk to? Our Job, we pastors, is to enable and encourage each of us to have a relationship with God in Jesus Christ… in which you will experience God working through you by the power of His Holy Spirit… … so that you can, and will, bloom where you are planted. So that God will work through you to reach those whom He will call. Now, that’s a mouthful. But God’s Spirit at work in and through each of us is the theme for the next six months of the church year. The Pentecost Season, as it is called. And as we move on into it, it maybe helpful to keep this picture in your mind … a picture of you in Jerusalem at Pentecost … and by the power of the Holy Spirit … you proclaiming the mighty works of God … to those who understand YOUR language. That Joy of being a faithful servant be yours today … and always, In Him … Amen. |