Sermon for SMHP, Year B, Pentecost, May 20, 2018
Acts 2:1-21
When the day
of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were
sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of
fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every
nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And
at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard
them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed
and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in
our own native language? 9Parthians,
Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and
Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both
Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans
and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of
power.” 12All were amazed and
perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are
filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven,
raised his voice and addressed them, “People of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you
suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the
prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days
it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
18Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven
above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and
the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’
According
to Genesis, Chapter 11, when people began spread across the earth, they spoke
one language. But they decided to settle
in “the land of Shinar”—in Mesopotamia—and to build a tower that reached up to
God. The tower came to be called the
Tower of Babel, because it was built on the site of Babylon.
God
was not pleased that the people were trying to build the tower and control
their destiny thusly, the story says, so God decided to “confuse their
language” in order that they wouldn’t
understand one another and wouldn’t be able to work together.
Explains
a lot, doesn’t it?
When
the day of Pentecost came, Jerusalem was filled with people…people from all
over the known world. They spoke all of
those different languages that God had laid on them back in Babylon. There were also these twelve guys—eleven of
the original disciples, plus Mathias, who had just been chosen by the casting
of lots to replace Judas Iscariot. They
spoke Aramaic, knew Hebrew. Matthew the
tax collector surely had some fluency with Greek. As far as we know, none of them spoke the
language of Phrygia or Pamphylia. But
those folks were there in Jerusalem that day.
In
London yesterday, a biracial American married a prince. Maybe you heard about it.
It
was a lot like that Pentecost day. The
people inside the room were mostly what you would expect—lots of British
aristocracy, with enough British and American celebrities to keep things
interesting. They spoke mostly
English. But outside the doors of the
cathedral is a community in which 250 languages are spoken. London is the most linguistically diverse
city in the world.
The
presider for the ceremony was, of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin
Welby. He speaks lovely British English.
The
preacher was an English-speaking Anglican too…but a different sort. Michael Curry is the first African-American Presiding
Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA. And
he can preach. Before he was presiding
bishop, I saw him at the Festival of Homiletics and was enthralled.
Yesterday,
the world was enthralled, by a sermon gifted by the Holy Spirit to a royal
couple and the rest of the world. Curry
set the tone by quoting from Martin Luther King:
"We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive
power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this whole world a new
world. But love, love is the only way."
It was a wedding sermon.
But more than that, it was a Pentecost sermon.
When the day of Pentecost had come,
there were some apostles, still all together in one place.
They were there because the last
words they heard from Jesus were a command to “remain in the city until you
have been clothed with power from on high.”
They were probably also afraid. Jesus told them to stay in the city. He didn’t tell them to lock the doors. But we get this wrong all the time. We stay where it is safe because we’ve been
told to stay together. But together in
the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean safe.
It should not mean safe.
They were locked up together,
awaiting the promised power, and fearful of the power of the Roman authorities
and the power of the Jewish authorities…
…and, I suspect, of the redemptive
and transforming power of love…the redemptive
and transforming power of love which Jesus had shown to them, and which Jesus
had charged them to share with the whole world.
They were locked up there in that room because they knew that when they
shared the gospel of God’s profound love for the whole world, it would change
their lives. It would change the world.
The gospel does that, right?
I think those apostles were holed up
in that room because they weren’t quite sure they wanted to change the
world. Changing the world is difficult
and even dangerous. Dr. King preached
about transformative love and nonviolence and it got him killed.
The apostles were rightly concerned
about what might happen to them if they went out there and did what Bishop
Curry did yesterday. Called the world into the redemptive power of love.
When that power came down, as Jesus
promised it would, there was no mistaking it.
There was no looking away from it.
There was no pretending that you didn’t hear it, or you heard something
else. Because it spoke directly to the
heart of every person there.
And then it spoke through the mouth
of The Rock.
“People of God,” he said, “this
is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17’In
the last days it will be,’ God declares, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’”
People
of God—God has called us to be prophets of love. Prophets of a love that redeems and
transforms the world. We can ignore that
calling. We can turn away, we can hide
away, we can throw away the calling which God has placed on our hearts, but
sooner or later, the Holy Spirit is going to get us.
Sooner
or later, we are must throw off whatever keeps us from prophesying in God’s
name and speak out for love.
Because
only the power of love—the redemptive, transformative power of love—is going to
carry us through this time of division and chaos, into the new day we all want.
And
we do want it, right?
We
do want to change the world, right?
Then
we must open our minds and our bodies to receive the Spirit, and to speak the
words of love God has given us.
We
must find a way to hear what others are saying, even when it sounds like a
different language.
And
we must find a way to speak so that we may be heard. Words of love, through the power of the Holy
Spirit.