\u201cUse your words.\u201d That\u2019s a phrase we\u2019ve said to our grandchildren when they were at that between pointing at what they wanted and asking for it by name. Isn\u2019t language amazing? Think how language can change us, lift us up, cast us down. The Biblical story imagines God creating with language, creation by the Word. \u201cLet there be light\u2014and there was light.\u201d Now today, in this story where language and words are so important, it\u2019s clear that what God means to say is this: \u2018ahabak [Arabic}, W\u01d2 \u00e0i n\u01d0 [Chinese], te amo [Spanish] or in English: I love you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story we read in Acts invites us into a gathering of the first Christians after Jesus has left. It\u2019s Shavuot, a Jewish festival fifty days after Passover that celebrated the giving of the Torah as well as the wheat harvest in Israel. In the Christian story, it\u2019s also some time after the Ascension; we talked about that last week. Jesus had gathered his followers, told them to stay put until they received the Holy Spirit, and then was enfolded by a cloud and left them. So his followers have been doing what we do when we grieve: retreating, I imagine, but also gathering together at times, praying, healing. Now they are gathered together. Nothing in the text prepares us or them for what happens next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happens next, of course is amazing, incredible: tongues of fire! the sound of a rushing wind!\u2014remember that Spirit and Wind are the same word in Greek and Hebrew\u2014it all must have been amazing and stunning. Sometimes I\u2019ve been in worship when we\u2019ve tried to illustrate this. I remember one Sunday morning when we\u2019d brought in three big fans; some people who had hairdos blown around were not amused. And of course there are various things you can do with fire; and no, we\u2019re not going to do them here. This building is old, and I am not going to be the pastor who burned it down. But you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When was the last time you were amazed? Think of that moment, hold on to it for just a second. Here are these people still grieving, they\u2019ve come together, told stories of Jesus, probably sung some songs, and suddenly it\u2019s all blowing up. God has spoken. Like Genesis, the Spirit of the Lord is moving and making, and it is amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creation by the Word is always amazing and mysterious. I know this because I\u2019ve done it and so have many of you. You stand before your friends in a dress that cost more than anything in your closet and that you will probably never wear again; you put on a tux for the first time since prom. Someone speaks and asks if you will marry, if you promise to be married, and you say, \u201cI do!\u201d\u2014and just like that you\u2019ve created a new family, a married couple. You stand before a congregation you\u2019ve been attending for a while, a place that\u2019s helped you feel God\u2019s nearness and presence, and we speak the words of the church covenant together\u2014and just like that, you\u2019re a member of the church, we\u2019ve created a new moment in the church\u2019s history, no matter how old or young that church is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here is the Spirit, here is God, doing the same thing: creating something new. That something is us: the church. Pentecost is the moment Jesus\u2019 followers become the church, become his body in the world, caring for the world, as he cared. And of course they are so excited they can\u2019t keep it in the house, they go out in the street. There are things that have to be told and this is one of them. So we have this incredible scene of the first church members in the streets, speaking to people in a way they understand. This isn\u2019t \u201cspeaking in tongues\u201d, they way it\u2019s practiced in Pentecostal churches; they is speaking to people in a language they understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the Bible takes language seriously, and it tells the story of the Temple of Babel to explain why there are so many languages. Long ago, the story says, human beings were so full of pride they built a temple, imagining they could build it high enough to enter heaven through their own efforts. Taller than tall it reached until God saw their pride, saw the tower and cast it down and at the same time, created the variety of languages so that never again would humans cooperate in such a thing. At Pentecost, the speaking is a way of saying that ancient curse has been reversed: God is now speaking to all people in ways they understand. One writer said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nPentecost is a unification of the separated families of humanity. This unification isn\u2019t accomplished through the will and power of empires and their rulers, but through the sending of the Spirit of Christ, poured out like life-giving rain on the drought-ridden earth. In place of only one holy\u2014Hebrew\u2014tongue, the wonderful works of God are spoken in the languages and dialects of many peoples. The multitude of languages is preserved\u2014a sign of the goodness of human diversity\u2014and human unity is achieved, not in the dominance of a single human empire, or in the collapsing of cultural difference, but in the joyful worship of God.- <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n