The Languages of the Spirit
Pastor Mathew Magera – 5/15/16 – Sermon 165
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I
read a story this week about a man who was traveling in Eastern Europe. Hopping
off the train in a random town he headed to a nicely decorated restaurant
nearby for lunch. Not knowing too much of the language, he used the universal
point, smile and nod method to order his lunch. No problems. The problem
started when he wanted to order a drink. You might think that in a restaurant a
drink order would not be too difficult seeing as how his food had arrived and
there was no glass of anything on the table. A drink was the logical next step,
right? So while he can't speak many different languages, he knew how to say
"wine" in quite a few. But, after exhausting his European vocabulary
the waitress stood there with a puzzled and slightly panicked deer in the headlights
kind of look. Having no menu to point to, he raised his hands into the shape of
a goblet and began to mime the drinking action, lifting, looking, swirling,
sniffing and sipping. Quickly the waitress beamed with understanding. Finding
something red on the table he tried to communicate the rough style of wine he
was looking for. The waitress nodded and walked away. The man sat back
confident in his new-found communication skills. Soon the waitress returned but
had no bottle or glass in her hand. Her smile turned a bit hesitant but she
triumphantly presented the man his order: the largest bowl of freshly chopped
tomatoes you've ever seen.[1]
It's
not always easy communicating with someone who speaks a different language.
Have you ever been in a situation like that? Today, on Pentecost Sunday, we see
how this might become an easier task. The languages of the Spirit. I want to
highlight only two verses in our Acts reading today, verse four which says,
"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues as the Spirit enabled them" and verse eight which echoes the voice
of the hearers and questions, "Then how is it that each of us hears them
in our own native languages?" Two points of view, the speaker and the hearer.
Something extraordinary happened to each of them in the sharing of the Gospel.
First
off, the speakers had been given the ability, by God, to speak in a language
other than their first language. The apostles were communicating to the people
in a language that was not traditional to them, that may not have been
comfortable or even known. It was something new for them. Second, the hearers,
everyone present were able to hear the Gospel in their own language. Now, a
word about that. During this time period, though Rome was the empire in power
at the time, everyone, for the most part spoke Greek. Greek was the language of
commerce and it is likely the language that the Gospel would have first been
preached in. So, when it says the people were able to hear the Gospel spoken in
their own language, it meant the language that is deeper within them, something
that can resonate with more because it is their mother tongue. Everyone present
was able to hear the Gospel in their own language, which was especially rare in
a centralized trading area such as Jerusalem. But, these two extraordinary
things were happening as a result of the Holy Spirit.
When
Lane and I were in Tanzania 7 years ago, one of the experiences we were able to
witness was an ordination service of about 5 individuals who had completed
their seminary education. The service was to take place on a Sunday morning and
it happened to be that a few days before the service we met with the Tanzanian
bishop for some question and answer time. One of the things that our group had
asked was if there would be Communion at the service. The bishop had said no
because the service would take too long. However, because we had specifically
asked for it, he would see what he could do to make it possible. Before the
weekend came, we were informed that yes there would be Communion at the
ordination service, except that the Communion would take place the day before,
on Saturday evening. Now, we arrived thinking that it would just be our group
coming to have a small private Communion service with the bishop. We were
wrong. There were many other people there as well. And if you are going to have
Communion, you have to have liturgy. If you have liturgy, you might as well
have some hymns. If you have hymns you might as well have a sermon. Needless to
say, two and a half hours later, we had received Communion. The next day was
the continuation of the service. There was a lot of people there. So much so
that they had many others sitting outside watching the service on TV screens.
Now, since we were there for an ordination, it might be best to have a sermon.
If there was a sermon, you might as well have liturgy. If you had liturgy you
might as well have hymns. Needless to say, four hours later, the candidates
were ordained and the service was over. Six and a half hours over two days.
Now,
if you ever go to Africa and go to worship, you'll soon learn that worship
there takes longer than it does here. However, one of the reasons that this
event took as long as it did was because each part of it was spoken in Swahili
and then in English. Now, we were clearly a minority for this. There were 10 of
us and a few hundred of them. They were not obligated to alter their practice
of worship to include us, a mere 5% or so of those gathered, but they did so in
order that we might hear the Good News. We were sitting there like the people
gathered on the day of Pentecost and we were able to hear them in our own
language. No doubt they were minorities in Jerusalem judging by the fact that
the Bible says they came from so many different places, the only clear language
that should have been used would have been Greek. But, great care was taken by
God so that each would hear in their own language.
What
a selfless act of generosity for those who were there to be able to be preached
to in a way that they would understand. What an act of courage for the speakers
to be able to confidently communicate the words in a language that was not
their native language. So, two miracles of the day of Pentecost for us are that,
as disciples of Jesus, we are given power through the Holy Spirit to proclaim
the good news in different languages and as a result as a hearer of the good
news, we are able to hear the good news in our own language. Now, obviously I'm
taking this beyond languages like English, Spanish, German, Greek, French,
Chinese and Danish. I'm talking about other languages that we speak. Some of us
here speak car. Some speak tractor. Some speak plane. Some speak engineering.
Some speak history. Some speak music. Some speak sports. There are so many
languages that we live our lives in the midst of that there is a way for us to
talk about Jesus in these languages. We have been given power through the Holy
Spirit to do so. What would it take for us to use other languages to communicate
the risen Christ?
The
day of Pentecost is a freeing event. It frees us to be able to communicate the
risen Son of God in everything that we do. Not only does it amaze us as
speakers but it amazes us as hearers too. Can Jesus be communicated to me in something
I enjoy? Yes! Can Jesus be spoken in such a way that it not only reminds me of
his love for me but also of the passion he gave me for this special language
that I know? Yes! God has given the ability through the Holy Spirit for us to
hear the love of God in all the many things we enjoy in our lives. It's
incredible that God would find a way to speak to us and be close to us in the
things we enjoy.
I
would challenge you to live into this freedom a bit and consider how you can
help share the Gospel through a language that you might not be comfortable with
for the sake of someone who needs to hear it. Take heart, we are qualified to
do this. The apostles were given the ability to do it by the power of the
Spirit and so are we because the Holy Spirit is with us. From our Baptism, like
Amber's today, the Holy Spirit is a gift given to us and gives us the power to
know Jesus and to share him in many new and different ways. Just think about
the ways in which we worship, the ways in which we already share and live out
our faith. What might it look like if we dared to speak that in other
languages, in a way that someone else needs to hear the Gospel in? What
language can you sense is being yearned to be spoken in Trufant or even in our
own congregation? What changes might need to be made to allow the Spirit to
speak to someone? Would you make that sacrifice for that one person? For that
minority? How can we be the apostles in such a way that we sacrifice that
comfortable language and speak that of the community in the same way that Jesus
sacrificed himself for our sake? Jesus sacrificed himself for one person. You.
You were in the minority, plagued by sin and Jesus knew you and rescued you.
What would it take for us to do the same in Christ’s name for someone else? It
may not be easy, but we have help and we have to trust that the Spirit is
guiding us in order to build up the kingdom of God.
The
Holy Spirit did not come to find one universal language of the church but it
came to identify and meet the people where they are using the languages they
can understand so that the Gospel could be shared all around the world. Amber's
Baptism today was made possible in part by the Day of Pentecost. I may sound
like a TV ad but it's true. Without the languages of the Spirit, Amber would
not have heard that call. Had the Holy Spirit not come upon those apostles
giving them the ability to speak in such a way, the message of Christianity
might well have died. That’s why Pentecost Sunday is known as the birthday of
the Christian Church because it was then that the power was given, that the
lights were turned on, that the voice was given! Without the Spirit we cannot
grow the kingdom, but with the Spirit we are given power. We are given a voice.
We need not worry about using our hands to order a glass of wine and receive
only a bowl of tomatoes because we have been given the voice with which to
convey the message clearly to one another, in a language which they can
understand. You have that voice. I have that voice. That voice has grown the
Kingdom by at least one person today but there are more out there waiting to
hear it. Let's dare to use it. Let's dare to use that power, that pure gift, to
grow the kingdom with the languages of the Spirit. To God be the glory now and
always. Amen.