27 May 2012 at Saint Mark the Evangelist in Norman, OK
Act 2: 1-11 + Psalm 104 + Galations 5: 16-25 + John 15: 26,27 & 16:12-15
That reading from Acts of the Apostles says that the apostles when filled with the spirit began to speak in “foreign tongues.” Another translation says they began to speak “strange languages.” We like the drama of this scene, and we easily want to imagine that there was some great wonder taking place as though I might stand here speaking Mandarin and you would suddenly clearly understand what I was saying to you.
Ou peut-être si je parle français et ceux d’entre vous qui ne parlent pas français soudain sais ce que je veux dire ….
O tal vez si hablo español y aquellos de ustedes que no hablan español repente sé lo que estoy diciendo ….
I am not at all certain that this is what Luke intends to suggest to us. The thought occurs to me that what Luke might be suggesting is that apostles when filled with the spirit began to talk about things no one else was talking about; using words that no one was using; speaking of things no one had considered before.
How many times have you sat and listened to someone speaking perfectly good English and wondered what in the world they were talking about. It happens to me all the time. Imagine sitting in on an astro/physics lecture most of us would not get one idea of what was going on even though the lecture might be in English.
I want to suggest to you that perhaps words like grace, forgiveness, and mercy were just not words anyone was using in those days. Given all that had been going on in Jerusalem, we have reason to suspect that these things, these words, were not much thought about. The langauge of the day was: “crucify him”, “away with him”. Revenge was a word they understood, but mercy? I doubt think so. Perhaps what was really going on was that the apostles were suddenly using words these people simply did not use, and expressing ideas they simply never entertained.
Once they got the idea across, it caused a lot of excitement: these words, these ideas about forgiveness, and grace, and mercy sound pretty good.
It puzzels me that today’s Pentecost atmosphere instead of being filled with excitment about something new is just another repetition of the same old thing. That old saying about familiarity breeding contempt might just as well say the familiarity breeds boredom. Our Christian vocabulay is worn out. We have heard these words before. We have heard these words so often that they hardly excite us, and we seem pretty sure we know what they mean. But maybe we don’t.
We use these words so often that they have lost their force, and we ought to be wondering how to restore their power to excite and draw people together. Perhaps one way is to use them less often and practice them more consistently. The word, “Peace” has become nothing but a cliche while peacemakers are wildly prophetic. “Combating poverty” is a slogan these days becasue poverty, just like combat has become an abstraction; something we don’t see. The Gospel never says much about “poverty” but it sure says a lot about the poor. In the end, the Gospel only makes sense to those who are committed to living it. To others, it is simply a curious piece of literature.
When you only read the words of the Gospel, it is like looking at the score of a Mozart Concerto instead of playing it or listening to it. That’s a lot better than just looking at notes on a piece of paper. The real wonder of Pentecost, and the surest sign of the Holy Spirit among us is a people doing the Word of God not just reading it. The most convincing sign of the Holy Spirit among us is a people who practice what they preach; who turn the word mercy into an experience never to be forgotten; who forgive as quickly as they seek forgiveness, whose lives are so full of grace that everyone wants to be around them.
A long time ago there was a French worker priest preaching on a street to an indefferent crowd of workers near the docks of Marseilles. Someone in the crowd shouted that he wanted to hear less about Christianity but was very interesed in meeting a real Christian. That is the essence of evangelization. It is what happened in Jerusalem. The speach of the apostles was not nearly as important, as convincing, or as persuasive as was the apostles themselves. The work of the Spirit in us must make us into something new, change us into something exciting, give us credibility because we live the Gospel, not just quote, read it, and study it.