When the Church Was Born
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21; Joel 2:28-32; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15.
Theme: In Pentecost, Babel is overturned. The Holy Spirit brings people to Jesus and draws them together in unity, communion, and communication. We in the church and as individuals are relatively powerless until the Holy Spirit shows up.
June 8, 2014, Pentecost Sunday
It can be difficult to communicate with people who are from different places or who speak different languages. But then, it can also be difficult to communicate with people who live across the street or with those who sit at your dinner table. It is difficult to speak with anyone, if you must do so across any kind of barrier.
I can remember when I first became the pastor of this church in 1999; Marion Carey was a resident of Lewes Convalescent Center. She had Alzheimer disease. She couldn’t talk and she didn’t know who I was. The nurses and her husband Major Jim Carey encouraged me to keep going to see her. And after awhile I could tell that she recognized me as a familiar face. An occasional smile and her attempts to mutter a word or two confirmed that communication was taking place. When I conducted her funeral in November of that year, she was no longer a stranger to me. How was that possible under the circumstances?
Luke indicates that communication with all people is possible when the Holy Spirit takes control. Language, geography, and illness are not insurmountable barriers to the working of God’s will.
On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the old Jewish festival (Pentecost) as the birthday of the Christian Church. It is especially to be celebrated for the appearance of the Counselor promised by Jesus in our gospel lesson. The many workings of the Holy Spirit are discussed throughout the Bible. But in the Acts lesson which was just read, we have the story of the Holy Spirit’s first activity among the apostles and an indication of the Spirit’s capacity to reach beyond obstacles to bring people to faith.
Faith comes in this story, as it has done ever since, through hearing. At first, the people were “amazed and astonished” and “perplexed;” “have these men had too much to drink?” What was the explanation? Peter recognized the presence of the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised. Peter recalled the prediction of the Old Testament Prophet Joel who predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit.
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions…And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:28,32).
Reinforced with the knowledge of the Scripture passage from Joel and with the recent promises of Jesus to his Disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit, Peter stands up and boldly preaches the good news of Jesus; three thousand people come to believe that Jesus is the Christ and are added to the membership of the very first Christian congregation. And the Church was born.
Whatever their differences, and there were probably many (language and place of origin are indicated in the text); the Holy Spirit drew these different people together and made them one in faith. The gospel story is revealed to be a universal story of redemption (God saving us through Jesus); a story that communicates beyond human barriers. Galileans began speaking in other languages previously unknown to them as they became collaborators with God to spread good news of the kingdom of God. It is as amazing as me walking across my back yard and speaking a native Guatemalan language that my next door neighbors could readily comprehend; instead of the few words of broken Spanish, English, accompanied by numerous hand signals that we normally use.
There are a great many barriers that divide people. The most notable are national boundaries. But, geographical and cultural boundaries are not the greatest to overcome in order to communicate with other people. It is a great challenge, but a distinct joy, to learn another people’s language and acquire the capacity to converse with folks in their native languages. Those days in Spanish class during high school have been most helpful to local Sussex business people who must communicate with their Hispanic employees daily. Allison Burgos is a blessing to our Baby Pantry ministry because she is able to communicate with the Hispanic clients who come here for assistance. A sense of unity develops with people by engaging them in their language and sharing ideas in a common tongue. That is what amazed the witnesses at Pentecost. The entire known world was represented in the crowd. People gathered from every corner of the known world were astounded when they heard simple, untutored and un-traveled Galileans speaking in all their languages. There are greater barriers between people than geography and language. Ideology has been one of the most significant. The twentieth century saw tremendous wars, both hotly and coldly contested, that pitted peoples of vastly different ideologies against one another. Totalitarianism warred against free nations in the First and Second World Wars. Democracy versus Communism lay at the heart of the Korean Conflict, the War in Vietnam, and the many dangerous episodes of the Cold War. The century closed in clashes between terrorists and those who love freedom. Our century began with the same conflict turning to eerie violence in the skies over New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
It would not be difficult to list many additional kinds of barriers that keep people from understanding one another, especially on a more local scale: anger between spouses, mistrust between parents and children, festering grievances between colleagues, disappointment between friends, impatience with those of another generation, or unkind words spoken between neighbors. Each kind of division could be explored in detail simply by telling the stories of one’s own life or by noting the behaviors of those around us. God created us for community and fellowship; it is the human condition to drift apart at the slightest provocation. Isn’t it sad when people who are related no longer speak to each other? Life is too short to live like that folks. Refuse to do it!! If it means that you have to eat crow to patch things up, be adult enough to do so. The story of Babel is a story of distance and isolation. You will find this story in Genesis Chapter 11. At that time, just after Noah’s flood there was one spoken language on earth. The people got together and decided to exercise their knowledge and power and they built a tower reaching into the heavens. “Let’s go check on God today and find out what he is up to.” Because of their pride, the story goes; God dispersed people and confused their understanding by creating the languages of the world. Nations became icebergs, detached from the whole of human society, isolated by oceans of misunderstanding and distrust.
But, the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost with wind and fire and overturned what had happened at Babel. Suddenly, everyone could hear them speaking in their own language. God went the distance for people. God did not require the peoples to hear in Aramaic or Greek. God used the apostles to speak in other languages. Their isolation was overcome by a heavenly initiative. But, it was not merely their lack of communication that God overcame. God created the ultimate sense of community and communion. The dwellers of Jerusalem heard the good news of Jesus Christ, repented of their sins, were baptized, and were joined together with others who had the same faith in Christ. If Babel turned the world upside down, Pentecost turned it back aright. God’s Babel work has been reversed. God’s Pentecost work has begun, and it continues among us. We have joined ourselves to that first congregation. We are united with them in faith and take a share in their missionary work. What they have begun, we continue. But, we do not do so un-empowered. We have the same source of strength, the same wind and fire that they had. The Holy Spirit is moving among the inhabitants of the earth to convict them of their sinful nature and turn them toward the Savior. The Scripture and the Holy Spirit are the indispensable instruments by which the way of salvation is marked out for the Church.
Let us not be surprised when the Spirit shows up, blowing among us and burning its way into our hearts. Let us be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit so that it may use us to draw people into communion with God’s people and into the kingdom of heaven. It is our job to proclaim the Good News to all so that many will turn to Jesus and be saved for eternity.
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:28, 32).
Primary Resource: Adapted from Clayton J. Schmit, Pulpit Resource, June 4, 2004, Vol. 34, No. 2. p 45-48.
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