Acts 2:1-6
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is one of those special days, like Palm Sunday and Easter, that can drive me to a moment or two of despair because they come round every year, not just once every three-years … and after 10 or 15 years I begin to feel like I really have said it all...several times. This is a story we all know – we’ve read the scripture, heard the sermons. What on earth am I supposed to say that’s new and different? So this year I stumbled – by luck or divine guidance -- on a past Pentecost message, one from 2016, which still speaks to me, strongly and lovingly and I decided to share it with you again, this year.
This past message reminds me that this is God’s story, not mine. This is the church’s story, not mine. And this is Luke’s story, not mine, and I think we need to begin there. Luke’s gospel and its continuation in the book of Acts is dated as having been written between 60 and 80 years after the Easter event when historical memory might be getting a little shaky, to say the least.
But Luke is never about historical facticity - Luke’s narrative is a record of how the emerging church felt as a result of the events he describes. He isn’t necessarily describing something as it literally happened. He describes the event’s effect on believers and on their future perceptions. He’s writing the bone-deep truth rather than the fact of his story.
And so back to Pentecost. Since Jesus’ departure the Jesus community has been pretty quiet. They don’t appear to have done anything much but they are doing something – they are praying, and they are waiting for God to act ..... and then a wind begins to blow. A wind just like the wind that blew over the waters of chaos in the very first moment of creation – the wind of the Spirit of God….. The similarity here is no coincidence. Jesus had promised a “new thing” was coming and Luke is making it crystal clear – to those with ears to hear – that here is that new thing that is happening with the winds of Pentecost – a “new thing” that is very like the original “new” thing of the first creation.
Sixty to eighty years after the fact, when the emerging church looked back at the first Pentecost day, this is the story Luke wrote about how it felt to be there – to be part of it all. Is it a factual story? Luke doesn’t care, and neither should we. This is the story the church had to tell about how it all began. This is what it felt like to them when the Spirit was in their midst and moved among them.
Something had changed them, and they were emboldened to speak freely and tell the story they knew – the story of God’s great gift to the world through Jesus and the Spirit. Suddenly the people were on fire with God’s word. So on fire that they somehow made themselves understood by others around them and the story they had to share moved like wildfire through the whole world.
As I read this today, I was reminded of some meetings I regularly attend as a member. This is our region’s Ministries Council, where leaders from many different affinity groups gather to share our unique experiences and challenges. Hilary, my husband and fellow church pastor are the representatives from one such group. This particular meeting came at the the beginning of a new term and so half the people there were returning, like Hilary and I were, and half were new to the council – including the new Chair – so he asked us to go around and each tell briefly what it is we represent there and what we are doing in our group. As I listened, I realized that this was a perfect Pentecost story playing out in a small room in a suburban business office.
When we read the Luke story of that first Pentecost, probably the thing that catches the most attention is the whole “speaking in tongues” thing. What is assumed, but never stated outright, is that whatever language it was that came out of their mouths, they spoke or were heard speaking the same story – but each in a different tongue.
What I realized I was hearing, at this particular Council meeting was the church telling it’s story – each of us speaking a different language – but telling the very same story of love for others and service to others and a striving to be Jesus’ hands and voice in this world. Some of us spoke a language of Camp and the work this group of folks do to shape places – most often in the midst of God’s beautiful creation – places and opportunities for youth and families to grow and learn and love God. Some of us spoke a language of Reconciliation, working in our communities to eradicate racism and bring justice to all God’s people together.
We heard from those whose calling is to foster and nurture New Church development, supporting brand new churches that were forming themselves to join us in that larger community we call “Church.” We heard about the Men’s Ministry cluster and the things they have planned to minister specifically to the needs of men and boys today. Likewise, we have Women’s Ministry, shaped to speak to women’s desires for a church that, among other things, listens to them and offers opportunities for them to be in leadership.
My husband and I were there to speak for small, out-of-the-mainstream, Off-the-Center congregations – those who are located out away from the urban centers with no sister churches close by where we often feel alone -- and the challenges we face in being active in the wider church, as well as the blessings to be discovered in this particular kind of small group ministry and outreach to the immediate community, however small.
There are other groups represented, as well. We don’t have time for them all. But at this particular meeting each representative was there because they passionately love the specific work they are doing – and we all love to hear the language they speak in and to the larger church when they speak of that work.
The point is that we all are, back in 2016, and still today, in our own ways telling the same story of service and love in community but telling it in different languages so that our story is understood by those with whom we are speaking.
Many of you here do this same sort of outreach everyday but you may not think of it that way. For the people you meet, God’s story that you tell often sounds like a kind word, a sandwich, a warm coat, a listening ear and heart. Some of you stack cans at a food pantry to tell your story. Some care for deeply sick people. The languages are limitless. When we let that wind blow through us and let it fan the sparks into a flame of action and speech, we are telling the same story the early disciples told on the long-ago day, in all kinds of different languages - the story that we are loved and called to love in return.
We may never know who and how many are impacted by our story - whatever language we speak. All we have to do is allow the Spirit to move in us, to use us. When we let the Spirit flow, lives are changed. Let us continue to speak out in our many and various tongues and let us tell our story – the church’s story – the age old, ever new story, that death and fear are defeated, that the reign of God is here and now within our midst. The story that says that love will always – always – win.
Holy Spirit, come today. Fill us with your fire that we may continue to speak your love in all the languages of the human heart -- in all the languages of the world. Amen.
This past message reminds me that this is God’s story, not mine. This is the church’s story, not mine. And this is Luke’s story, not mine, and I think we need to begin there. Luke’s gospel and its continuation in the book of Acts is dated as having been written between 60 and 80 years after the Easter event when historical memory might be getting a little shaky, to say the least.
But Luke is never about historical facticity - Luke’s narrative is a record of how the emerging church felt as a result of the events he describes. He isn’t necessarily describing something as it literally happened. He describes the event’s effect on believers and on their future perceptions. He’s writing the bone-deep truth rather than the fact of his story.
And so back to Pentecost. Since Jesus’ departure the Jesus community has been pretty quiet. They don’t appear to have done anything much but they are doing something – they are praying, and they are waiting for God to act ..... and then a wind begins to blow. A wind just like the wind that blew over the waters of chaos in the very first moment of creation – the wind of the Spirit of God….. The similarity here is no coincidence. Jesus had promised a “new thing” was coming and Luke is making it crystal clear – to those with ears to hear – that here is that new thing that is happening with the winds of Pentecost – a “new thing” that is very like the original “new” thing of the first creation.
Sixty to eighty years after the fact, when the emerging church looked back at the first Pentecost day, this is the story Luke wrote about how it felt to be there – to be part of it all. Is it a factual story? Luke doesn’t care, and neither should we. This is the story the church had to tell about how it all began. This is what it felt like to them when the Spirit was in their midst and moved among them.
Something had changed them, and they were emboldened to speak freely and tell the story they knew – the story of God’s great gift to the world through Jesus and the Spirit. Suddenly the people were on fire with God’s word. So on fire that they somehow made themselves understood by others around them and the story they had to share moved like wildfire through the whole world.
As I read this today, I was reminded of some meetings I regularly attend as a member. This is our region’s Ministries Council, where leaders from many different affinity groups gather to share our unique experiences and challenges. Hilary, my husband and fellow church pastor are the representatives from one such group. This particular meeting came at the the beginning of a new term and so half the people there were returning, like Hilary and I were, and half were new to the council – including the new Chair – so he asked us to go around and each tell briefly what it is we represent there and what we are doing in our group. As I listened, I realized that this was a perfect Pentecost story playing out in a small room in a suburban business office.
When we read the Luke story of that first Pentecost, probably the thing that catches the most attention is the whole “speaking in tongues” thing. What is assumed, but never stated outright, is that whatever language it was that came out of their mouths, they spoke or were heard speaking the same story – but each in a different tongue.
What I realized I was hearing, at this particular Council meeting was the church telling it’s story – each of us speaking a different language – but telling the very same story of love for others and service to others and a striving to be Jesus’ hands and voice in this world. Some of us spoke a language of Camp and the work this group of folks do to shape places – most often in the midst of God’s beautiful creation – places and opportunities for youth and families to grow and learn and love God. Some of us spoke a language of Reconciliation, working in our communities to eradicate racism and bring justice to all God’s people together.
We heard from those whose calling is to foster and nurture New Church development, supporting brand new churches that were forming themselves to join us in that larger community we call “Church.” We heard about the Men’s Ministry cluster and the things they have planned to minister specifically to the needs of men and boys today. Likewise, we have Women’s Ministry, shaped to speak to women’s desires for a church that, among other things, listens to them and offers opportunities for them to be in leadership.
My husband and I were there to speak for small, out-of-the-mainstream, Off-the-Center congregations – those who are located out away from the urban centers with no sister churches close by where we often feel alone -- and the challenges we face in being active in the wider church, as well as the blessings to be discovered in this particular kind of small group ministry and outreach to the immediate community, however small.
There are other groups represented, as well. We don’t have time for them all. But at this particular meeting each representative was there because they passionately love the specific work they are doing – and we all love to hear the language they speak in and to the larger church when they speak of that work.
The point is that we all are, back in 2016, and still today, in our own ways telling the same story of service and love in community but telling it in different languages so that our story is understood by those with whom we are speaking.
Many of you here do this same sort of outreach everyday but you may not think of it that way. For the people you meet, God’s story that you tell often sounds like a kind word, a sandwich, a warm coat, a listening ear and heart. Some of you stack cans at a food pantry to tell your story. Some care for deeply sick people. The languages are limitless. When we let that wind blow through us and let it fan the sparks into a flame of action and speech, we are telling the same story the early disciples told on the long-ago day, in all kinds of different languages - the story that we are loved and called to love in return.
We may never know who and how many are impacted by our story - whatever language we speak. All we have to do is allow the Spirit to move in us, to use us. When we let the Spirit flow, lives are changed. Let us continue to speak out in our many and various tongues and let us tell our story – the church’s story – the age old, ever new story, that death and fear are defeated, that the reign of God is here and now within our midst. The story that says that love will always – always – win.
Holy Spirit, come today. Fill us with your fire that we may continue to speak your love in all the languages of the human heart -- in all the languages of the world. Amen.
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