How big is God?
We used to play a little game with Josh …
We’d ask, “How big is Josh?” and he’d raise his hands as high as he could, and we’d say, “Sooooo big!”
How big is God?
God is “soooooo big” …
Big ideas …
And big risks.
When God announced to the heavenly creatures God’s plan to create the universe, I believe there was immediate applause and cheering … it’s a big idea, and heaven was ready for it.
And then God announced the creation of a very unique creature – a creature in God’s own image – a strange amalgam of dirt and spirit … a mortal with divinity in its DNA … a critter with its feet on the ground and its head in the sky.
And when God made that announcement, I think heaven held its breath … this was going to be a big risk! … can dirt hold divinity; can divinity be embodied in dirt?
Can there be a creature that walks on the face of the earth and holds it’s head high, high enough to see heaven?
I think the angels held their breath.
They knew it was going to be risky.
But God is very creative.
God is soooo big.
Big ideas.
Big risks.
Well, it wasn’t long before heaven’s worst fears came to pass.
Adam and Eve plucked the apple and walked away from God.
And God walked right along with them.
God walked them out of the garden, and God made clothing for them …
They’d need good clothing.
It was going to be a long journey.
From here to eternity.
God walked with them all the way.
But things went from bad to worse.
Violence and war, murder and greed.
This little creature, with divinity in it’s DNA, made all the wrong choices …
And God said, Maybe I made a mistake.
So let it rain.
Rain and rain and rain some more.
Gonna wash them right outta my hair.
But there’s one man – Noah.
Noah, build me an ark.
Take some animals, two-by-two.
Because I wanna start over.
And you and I and the animals in the ark will start a new world.
Well, we all know how that worked.
After the flood, Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine and gets flat-out drunk and passes out in his tent, buck-naked – an embarrassment to the family.
And things only get worse.
In the turning of a few pages, the descendents of Noah become rich and powerful …
They speak one language … and God knew, then and there, that one language wouldn’t work … one language creates power, but the wrong kind of power …power to build towers to heaven.
From the beginning, God wanted humankind to spread out upon the earth … care for God’s Big Garden, nurture it, protect its creatures, enjoy it.
But, here they are, speaking one language and building a tower to heaven.
So God confuses their language.
Humankind is capable of many sounds … the human mouth, the larynx, the lungs and throat … there’s no end to the sounds we can make.
Like someone’s iPod playlist … from Rachmaninoff to rap … from Beethoven to the Beatles …
The Wycliffe Bible Translators have identified nearly 7000 languages …
That day, on the plains of Shinar, God decided that humankind would do better with a confusion of tongues: many languages, many sounds, to give full expression to the glory of language.
One language can no more express the wonder of life than one form of music can express the musical scale. Praise the LORD with trumpet and harp and tambourine and dancing and cymbals …
Praise the LORD with many languages, many tongues, many sounds.
All of this to match the wonder and glory of God.
God’s big ideas.
How big is God?
Sooooo big.
Big enough to love the whole wide world.
When God called Abraham and Sarah, God called them for the sake of the whole wide world.
To be a blessing to all of humankind.
To undo the damages of sin.
To rebuild human community.
To restore creation and make it safe for all of God’s creatures.
Genesis 12 – the Big Idea.
The Big Plan.
The Big Risk.
Abraham and Sarah.
Blessed to be a blessing.
For the entire world.
God is satisfied with nothing less than the whole wide world, every creature, great and small – the far-flung stars and you and me who bear God’s image.
When Jesus is born in Bethlehem, God initiates a new strategy … but it’s the same Big Idea … full of Big Risk, and full of world-sized love.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians …
Paul’s letter to the Romans …
The mystery and the music of the Book of Revelation … it’s the world that God loves, and wants … to make it new … to make it good … nothing lost, and no one left behind.
God hasn’t given up the Big Idea.
And God won’t give up.
God won’t give up until the day is won and creation healed.
Jesus initiates a new chapter in God’s Big Idea … and it’s a Big Risk that Jesus takes … a risk big enough to cost him his life on the cross … to prove to the world that love is greater than all of Rome’s military might, that love is better than all the religion humankind can create … that love alone can save.
On Pentecost Day, the city of Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims … from throughout the Mediterranean World, many tongues and languages and sounds.
I imagine the streets of Jerusalem that day.
Like Brooklyn, New York.
Or downtown LA.
A dozen blocks, a dozen languages and dialects.
When the Holy Spirit came to the faithful … with tongues of flame for all of them … they were empowered with the mystery of language.
They went out and proclaimed a message of hope, that in Jesus the Messiah, God had initiated a new chapter for all of humanity … a message for everyone … in their own tongue.
On Pentecost Day, God affirms the glory of many tongues.
The pilgrims in Jerusalem heard the gospel in their own language.
God didn’t create a new language for Pentecost.
Nor did God use a single language that day – it would have been quite a miracle if everyone had understood the gospel in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin.
But that would have been a small miracle.
No, the real miracle is a big miracle - everyone heard the gospel in his or her own tongue.
I think of missionaries – and Bible translators – who endeavor to translate the Bible into everyone’s language.
As of 2005, at least one book of the Bible has been translated into 2,400 languages … but there are nearly 7000 languages in the world, so there’s lots of work ahead of us.
God thinks big.
God loves language.
After all, it was the power of language by which God created the heavens and the earth.
And Jesus is called, the Word of God.
For centuries, the church of Jesus Christ used Latin as the language of worship and for translating the Bible.
But one language is too small.
When the Reformation came, Christians rediscovered God’s love of language … people began to worship in their own tongue; the Bible was translated into many languages.
No doubt, many languages are a challenge.
One language makes things easier.
But one language is too small.
The lesson of Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, helps us understand some of God’s purpose … God decides, then and there, on the Plain of Shinar, that we’d do better with many tongues …
And on this Pentecost Day, here at Calvary, we celebrate the glory of many tongues.
We use English as our “mother tongue.”
Of course.
This is America.
But we celebrate the diversity of language.
And culture and style, too.
How we sing, the clothes we wear, the foods we love.
God is the source of diversity.
God creates the ox, and God creates the butterfly.
God creates you, and God creates me.
God speaks and loves every language of the world.
Several weeks ago here, Ann Marie said Good Morning in four or five different languages.
Today, we heard the LORD's Prayer in variety of tongues … but we all felt the beat: it’s the same prayer, and it’s the same God, and it’s the same message of hope and compassion.
On Pentecost Day, the church of Jesus Christ was given the opportunity to show the world a better way … a celebration of diversity … culture … language … for this is real power of real love … big love … to love one another as God loves us … God comes to us and speaks our own language!
And that’s the miracle of Pentecost!
Calvary Presbyterian Church is Pentecost Church.
Blessed with many tongues and cultures.
Because God thinks big and God takes big risks.
God has given something wonderful to us.
God entrusts us with something mighty big.
Sure, diversity challenges us.
We don’t always understand one another.
We bring different gifts to the Table.
Different styles, different ways of praying.
But we all love the LORD.
And it’s the LORD whom we seek to honor.
Here in this place.
Calvary Presbyterian Church.
Calvary on the Boulevard.
We show the world a different way.
A better way.
A bigger way.
God’s way.
It takes a lot of work.
And a lot of patience.
And a lot of prayer.
But we are blessed today.
Blessed by God.
Who thinks big.
And takes big risks.
A God of many tongues.
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
Amen and Amen.
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