|
Dr. George A. Purnell
May 23, 2010
“Finding the Right Words”
Acts 2:1-21
Some of us have difficulty giving voice to our faith when we are beyond the walls of the church. Since we are with fellow believers when we are in church, this is a safe place for us to be open about and discuss our faith.
But outside the church it is not nearly as easy to talk to people about our faith. One reason for this is that public figures say and do things that create a public relations problem for Christians. And sometimes the church embarrasses itself.
Our desire to keep from being identified with public people whose faith pronouncements are objectionable to us…and our embarrassment over some things the church is guilty of itself…are not the only reasons many of us keep quiet, however.
So it becomes both easier and more acceptable to stay silent about our faith. (People who know that we are Christians and church goers can interpret our silence to mean that our faith and connection to the church are unimportant to us, however, and this would reinforce the feelings many people outside the church have about the efficacy of faith.)
This reticence to speak of our faith is not new. Think about the earliest followers of Jesus. From Easter morning until this Day of Pentecost, fifty days have passed, and these friends of Jesus have remained silent…
Now granted, in the closing scene in Luke’s gospel Jesus told them: “You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (24:48, 49). And in the verses of Acts, Jesus “ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father,” adding: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:4, 8)
Even with those instructions, however, it seems odd that they were able to keep quiet for 50 days. After all, the resurrected Jesus had appeared to them Easter evening! He had broken bread with them. They had been allowed to touch him and feel his wounds, to verify that it was really him. They had gone to the mountain where he directed them, and had heard him tell them that they were to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything” that Jesus had commanded them (Matthew 28:16, 19, 20).
How could you keep quiet about these things? I think I would have been out talking, to show others how important I was because of my intimate relationship with Jesus.
But they were quiet. As long as they “were all together in one place” it was easy for them to speak of Jesus and of their experiences of him. But if they went out and witnessed to their faith and spoke of their experiences, they risked being jailed and martyred themselves; or run out of town; or laughed at behind their backs as fools.
All this changed on the Day of Pentecost, when “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.” The time for silence was now over, as “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
Religious Jews were expected to make the pilgrimage to observe the festival of Pentecost, so Jerusalem was filled with Jews from neighboring nations. (Originally an agricultural festival which offered thanks for the first harvest, the annual sign of God’s continuing faithfulness, Pentecost had largely lost its association with the harvest and become known as the commemoration of God having given the law to Moses by Jesus’ day.)
When these Galilean men went down into the streets of Jerusalem and were able to speak in a language that the “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” were able to understand in their native tongue, some “sneered” and said they were drunk. So, the public relations problem for Christian believers is not new. Talking about faith in Jesus is not fashionable, or easy to do, so we stay quiet about our faith.
(Or, at the other extreme, some people feel the need to act more “religious” when in the presence of a “religious” person. I often feel that people are self-conscious when I am around in a non church or social setting. I sense that they act different than they would if I was not present. Even though it is a social situation, they may talk about faith and the Bible a lot more than I suspect is normal or natural for them.
Or, they may be very guarded about the words they use. Diane and I were at someone’s home for a dinner party last summer, and while this was not a church member’s home, everyone present knew that I was a pastor here. There were several couples present, and as we were outside having appetizers and beverages and waiting for the charcoal to get hot, I came inside to get something. As I passed by the kitchen I heard the hostess, who was taking a dish out of the stove, say a bad word. When she saw me she was horrified. I looked very serious and signed the cross on my chest and told her it would be our secret. When she realized I was kidding, she relaxed and we had a good laugh.)
Hearing people speak about their faith here in the church does not usually make us nervous. I say usually, because many of us are uncomfortable with spontaneous and emotional expressions of faith. If someone became filled with the Holy Spirit during this worship service…and if this found expression in involuntary movements…and if this person began speaking aloud in ways we could not interpret or understand…we would not know how to react. We have a scheduled order of worship printed in the bulletin. Unless a change is announced from the pulpit, we follow this order.
Oh, we know that Pentecost is a part, even an important part of the story of the church’s history. Once a year, on the 50th day following Easter, we go up to the attic and drag out the Pentecost banner and hang it on the sanctuary wall. The paraments draping the pulpit and lectern are changed to red, and choir and I wear red stoles over the shoulders of our robes. (I love to wear the red stole I have for Pentecost! It is so pretty and I only get to wear it one Sunday a year. The fact that it is only worn this one Sunday is indicative of how special this day is, however, because no other liturgical color is worn only once.).
Then, following worship, we pack Pentecost away in the storage closet until next year.
There is a lot of noise and confusion and emotion in this Pentecost story. The text uses these words to describe the response of the crowd gathered that day to what they saw and heard: “bewildered,” “amazed,” “astonished,” “perplexed,” and “sneered.”
So there is good reason for us to pack Pentecost back up and put it away in seasonal storage after today is over. Worship demands certain decorum, after all...
Yes, we know that Pentecost is a part, even an important part of the story of the church’s history. We recognize this as the day when the good news of Jesus began to be told and faith in him began to spread rapidly, which gave rise to the church. In verses 37-42 of this same chapter we read where 3,000 people repented, were baptized and received the Holy Spirit that very day, and they shared fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers.
We know it is an important day in our faith, but we are uncomfortable with it too. We don’t want to get carried away and be accused of being a fanatic about our faith. It isn’t that we don’t celebrate holy days. Christmas and Easter – now there are a couple of holy days (holidays) we enjoy!
Hallmark has cards for Christmas and Easter. In fact, Hallmark has cards for every occasion…mother’s day, father’s day, grandparents day, administrative assistant’s day, valentine’s day, graduation…but I have never seen a Hallmark card for Pentecost. Tongues as of fire and a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind don’t have the consumer appeal that these other days have.
Yet we gather today in Christian worship because of what happened on this day in the first century. Had the Holy Spirit not come, Jesus’ death would have been just another example of a reformer being executed because his vision of the world was too far ahead of his time and the causes he championed too threatening to the existing power structures.
As Jesus promised, though, the Holy Spirit did come that day to believers gathered in Jerusalem. And something began that day that has continued over the centuries.
Many of us here today have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit in our lives, or we likely would not be here in worship. Its touch has been unsettling to us in ways, in part because we cannot control it and in part because we cannot explain it. What we do know from experience is that it will change us…and this is scary because change is hard…
How do I put the Holy Spirit into words that I can understand? And how do I find the right words to describe this important ingredient of my faith to others? The affirmation of faith that I grew up as a Christian reciting (#885 in our hymnal) gives me those words: “We believe in the Holy Spirit as the divine presence in our lives, whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ, and find strength and help in time of need.”
Amen.
|
||||
 |
||||