Foretaste of the Sermon to Come
A little nibble of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Sunday’s scriptures are 1 Corinthians 12:1-13, Acts 2:1-21
You might be asking, “Where is the Gospel?” Sunday’s Gospel is according to St. Luke from the Book of Acts, as Acts is really Luke’s Gospel Part II. Part I of his Gospel is about God the Father as revealed by God the Son, along with the Son’s story and its significance. In Part II of his Gospel, Luke tells of the acts of God the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.
We will celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, the gifting of the promised Holy Spirit first to the 11 Apostles and then to a multitude of people from all nations, each hearing the Galilean Apostles’ voices in their own tongue. This is a fiery, whooshing Spirit, God once accessible only by the high priest in the Holy of Holies, suddenly on the loose, taking flight through the Temple’s torn curtain and poured out on all people.
That’s how the Spirit works. It’s like a champagne tower at a wedding. The champagne is poured into the top coupe and it flows into each layer of glasses until all the glasses in the tower are filled. In the same way, the Spirit filled the Apostles, then the multitudes who heard them speak, and then all hearers of God’s Word through all time. This means that YOU, full of the Spirit that was poured into you at your baptism and that fills your coupe each time you hear the Word proclaimed, will fill the next one’s champagne glass when you proclaim the Good News of Jesus through speech and action.
In Manna Bible Study this week one of our group made the most profound statement about tongues. She said, “I wonder what language my daughter needs to hear so that she will know Jesus.” I’m going to let that sit for a minute because…wow.
I speak Spanish and when traveling in Europe, especially in the Latin world, my first question in a non-Spanish-speaking country was not, “Do you speak English?” I would ask, “Do you speak Spanish?” Americans can have such a bad reputation as self-centered travelers, so I wanted to start with a question that that wasn’t designed for my comfort. And if the person spoke neither Spanish nor English, we could communicate much better with my Spanish and their Italian or Portuguese for example than with my English and their Latin-based mother tongue.
Maybe a key to having a meaningful conversation with someone about Jesus is to ask the kind of question that reveals the language they speak. Do they have kids? What fulfills them? What scares them? Are they lonely? Overwhelmed? Sick? How were they raised? What is their experience with the spiritual? What is important to them? Any one of these questions and others you think of can kick off a wonderful listening conversation where you begin to learn the language a person speaks and that the Spirit can use to bring them Jesus.
Holy Spirit, thank you for fulfilling your promise to pour into all people, beginning with the Apostles’ cups and overflowing through time into ours. Open our ears to listen for the other’s language before you loosen our tongues. Enliven us to speak in their way rather than the way that makes us comfortable. And when we do speak, help us to know when to quiet down and start listening again. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
