Acts 2:1-28
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues.....Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”
Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”
That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:
“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
to me, God, will be saved.”
“Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him.
[this is the third in a series of talks based on the hymn "Anthem," by Tom Conry]
It's a long reading today. Go back through it and notice how often these two words -- Sign and Wonder -- appear. Signs and wonders have always been part of any religious experience. Anytime we discuss religion we will find those words – but what do they really mean? Are they words we use so casually that they have lost their deep meaning? “Signs and wonders” -- we tend to use them as one run-together phrase – “signs-n-wonders.” But they are separate words and they have separate meanings and applications, so when we sing that “we are sign, we are wonder” what the heck are we claiming for ourselves?
There is a field of philosophy called Semiotics that deals with the area of Meaning-Making – how we make meaning of ourselves and everything around us. It provides fairly specific definitions of our two words that I think are helpful. We’ll take ‘wonder’ first - it’s the easiest.
Wonder: A feeling of amazement, awe, or admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. When we see some things or hear some things – a new-born child or Niagra Falls or a particularly spectacular sunset or a perfectly performed piece of music -- we feel something larger than we are – we respond to something beyond our ordinary power to put into words. That is wonder. According to our song, we are called to be wonder – in fact we ARE wonder. The thing about wonder is that sometimes it hits you right in the face and says, “here I am!” but often we have to take the time to truly look around us and notice things (and people) before we recognize wonder.
Sign: An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the presence or occurrence of something else. Suddenly seeing daffodils blooming everywhere is a sign that spring is near. Thunder is a sign that a storm is coming. As we are concerned with sign today, what signs indicate that God is about the place? In our reading, there were such things as wind and fire and the sudden speaking in other tongues. In the quotation from Joel things like dreams and visions, and the moon turning the color of blood are clearly signs of something well beyond the normal purview of humankind.
Many signs, like these, are supernatural. Many are “natural” – mountain tops, stars, ocean waves, things like this have long been seen as the homes of the gods -- somehow more sacred than other places. Some of our signs, though, are of human construction. An icon is one form of sign. For example, a traditional icon in the Byzantine style. People who aren’t from this tradition often mistakenly think people are praying to the icon, but that is not so. By meditating on the icon, one is led through the icon to that greater reality which is the true focus of one's desire. Anything can be this kind of sign if it has deep meaning for us – a candle flame, a scripture verse, a cross. It is less the object itself than what happens through the object.
Ok – now this is the important part. I said that a sign indicates something else. It’s all about that word indicate. When we listen carefully to the gospels we find that Jesus never says “look at me, worship me.” Instead, the people looked at him because of the things he did and the life he led, and then he consistently pointed them toward his father in heaven. Jesus lived his life as a sign of God’s love. Jesus was /is an indicator.
WE are called to be signs, indicators to the world that there is a something, a someone who calls us to that feeling of awe and wonder. Some entity – we happen to call it “God” – before whom we stand or fall to our knees in awe and wonder. An entity who we believe – beyond any rational reasoning – loves us beyond measure.
This is the heart of our message today. WE ARE CALLED TO BE SIGNS. We are called to live and be and do so that others seeing us, will see through US to the presence of God. Not because we are so special – not because we do everything so wonderfully well – but somehow because the love we know from God can be found somewhere, somehow, within us -- through us.
We live everyday in the midst of signs and wonders. I would like to suggest an exercise for you: stop awhile and write out a list of all the blessings, good things, hopes fulfilled, successes, good deeds done by you and – especially – the people who have loved you. Include everything and everyone you can think of. Take all week if you have to. Take the rest of your life.
What you have at the end of this exercise is a list of SIGNS – signs that God is in you and with you and all around you – signs that God loves you. Believe it. Memorize your list. Repeat it to yourself often. When you can see yourself in this list, you will see that YOU can be a sign to others – a sign of God’s love shining through you and all of us.
It's a long reading today. Go back through it and notice how often these two words -- Sign and Wonder -- appear. Signs and wonders have always been part of any religious experience. Anytime we discuss religion we will find those words – but what do they really mean? Are they words we use so casually that they have lost their deep meaning? “Signs and wonders” -- we tend to use them as one run-together phrase – “signs-n-wonders.” But they are separate words and they have separate meanings and applications, so when we sing that “we are sign, we are wonder” what the heck are we claiming for ourselves?
There is a field of philosophy called Semiotics that deals with the area of Meaning-Making – how we make meaning of ourselves and everything around us. It provides fairly specific definitions of our two words that I think are helpful. We’ll take ‘wonder’ first - it’s the easiest.
Wonder: A feeling of amazement, awe, or admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. When we see some things or hear some things – a new-born child or Niagra Falls or a particularly spectacular sunset or a perfectly performed piece of music -- we feel something larger than we are – we respond to something beyond our ordinary power to put into words. That is wonder. According to our song, we are called to be wonder – in fact we ARE wonder. The thing about wonder is that sometimes it hits you right in the face and says, “here I am!” but often we have to take the time to truly look around us and notice things (and people) before we recognize wonder.
Sign: An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the presence or occurrence of something else. Suddenly seeing daffodils blooming everywhere is a sign that spring is near. Thunder is a sign that a storm is coming. As we are concerned with sign today, what signs indicate that God is about the place? In our reading, there were such things as wind and fire and the sudden speaking in other tongues. In the quotation from Joel things like dreams and visions, and the moon turning the color of blood are clearly signs of something well beyond the normal purview of humankind.
Many signs, like these, are supernatural. Many are “natural” – mountain tops, stars, ocean waves, things like this have long been seen as the homes of the gods -- somehow more sacred than other places. Some of our signs, though, are of human construction. An icon is one form of sign. For example, a traditional icon in the Byzantine style. People who aren’t from this tradition often mistakenly think people are praying to the icon, but that is not so. By meditating on the icon, one is led through the icon to that greater reality which is the true focus of one's desire. Anything can be this kind of sign if it has deep meaning for us – a candle flame, a scripture verse, a cross. It is less the object itself than what happens through the object.
Ok – now this is the important part. I said that a sign indicates something else. It’s all about that word indicate. When we listen carefully to the gospels we find that Jesus never says “look at me, worship me.” Instead, the people looked at him because of the things he did and the life he led, and then he consistently pointed them toward his father in heaven. Jesus lived his life as a sign of God’s love. Jesus was /is an indicator.
WE are called to be signs, indicators to the world that there is a something, a someone who calls us to that feeling of awe and wonder. Some entity – we happen to call it “God” – before whom we stand or fall to our knees in awe and wonder. An entity who we believe – beyond any rational reasoning – loves us beyond measure.
This is the heart of our message today. WE ARE CALLED TO BE SIGNS. We are called to live and be and do so that others seeing us, will see through US to the presence of God. Not because we are so special – not because we do everything so wonderfully well – but somehow because the love we know from God can be found somewhere, somehow, within us -- through us.
We live everyday in the midst of signs and wonders. I would like to suggest an exercise for you: stop awhile and write out a list of all the blessings, good things, hopes fulfilled, successes, good deeds done by you and – especially – the people who have loved you. Include everything and everyone you can think of. Take all week if you have to. Take the rest of your life.
What you have at the end of this exercise is a list of SIGNS – signs that God is in you and with you and all around you – signs that God loves you. Believe it. Memorize your list. Repeat it to yourself often. When you can see yourself in this list, you will see that YOU can be a sign to others – a sign of God’s love shining through you and all of us.
RSS Feed