5.19.24 "Suddenly from Heaven" - Pentecost Day = Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Acts 2.1-11; John 15.26-27; 16.12-15

It’s Pentecost Sunday … 

In our reading today, a Jewish Festival … a celebration of the first fruits … a harvest festival, a spring-time event … a time to kick up the heels and have a good time … giving thanks to God for a new season of life and prosperity.

Jerusalem is a madhouse … 

Tourists from all around the Roman world … every nation under heaven, says the Bible … a cacophony of tongues, clothing and cultures … sort of like downtown LA … food stalls, souvenirs, shouting children, and tired parents … 

The word, Pentecost, means 50 … 50 days … 50 days after Passover.

50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead … Jesus came to them and taught them for the first 40 days … 

Then, the ascension … with instructions: Wait for the Holy Spirit.

The disciples return to Jerusalem - to wait … they appoint a replacement for Judas, they devote themselves to prayer … they wait.

Wait for the LORD, says the Psalmist; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

The LORD is good to those who wait … 

For God along my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God.

When the Day of Pentecost arrives, the disciples are all together in one place … there is strength in the company of one another …

Suddenly from heaven … a sound of a rushing, violent, wind … flames above each head … and they begin to speak in other languages … 

Here is where the story opens up to a whole new chapter in God’s story … 

The Spirit has always been present … the Spirit hovers over the restless waters, in the darkness of the void … the Spirit comes to the prophets … the Spirit comes to Jesus in his baptism … 

And now the Spirit comes with the gift of language!

Everyone everywhere can hear the Good News of God’s love in their own language … their own tongue, their own culture … 

A tremendous affirmation … every language important to God … God, the creator, of every tongue … every accent, every form and shape of language … precious in the ears of God. 

Not so with us … we hop into an Uber driven by an immigrant, and we have difficulty communicating … in a doctor’s office … at a restaurant … maybe we’re impatient, frustrated, even angry.

It’s okay … patience is needed, and maybe we all can learn a few words from one another … but the point here is for the church, for it’s teachers and missionaries … learn the language of others … but more than just words … its feelings, attitudes, culture and music … a rich anthology of humanity in all of its diversity and creativity.

And if we can’t speak another language, maybe we can at least be mindful … maybe be can give the other person the benefit of our kindness, maybe we can appreciate how hard it is for them, too …

I remember the very first time I was in Europe … for several weeks of study, and how glad I was to return home, turn on the TV and hear English.

I remember my father’s parents, immigrants from the Netherlands … their heavy brogue … was it hard for them? I’m sure it was.

Yes, it’s hard … but the world is God’s world … and the world is a better place with a thousands tongues to sing God praise.

Just like the Bible … the Bible doesn’t speak with one voice; it speaks with many voices … all over the map … 

some see God this way, others see God some other way … 

those who love the laws of faith, and those who love the spirit of faith … 

those who are wary of the stranger, and those who welcome the stranger to the table … 

those who see the practical side of things, and those who dream the dreams … 

those who know how to pick up a shovel and get a job done, and those who quietly sit in prayer and meditation.

Like a choir - with all its voices: sopranos, altos, tenors, bases … a symphony, with all of its instruments; strings and brass, percussion and reeds … an organ with all of its ranks and stops and pipes … 

The best sounds are the sounds of many voices … 

An impossible dream?

Of course it’s impossible!

That’s why we dream dreams.

But think for a moment:  how many impossible dreams have come true because people dared to dream … 

And if not all the dream, then some of the dream … 

even a little of it is more than good … 

and every little bit, every time we realize any of it, the world is better, our souls are better, the light of goodness and happiness shines a little brighter.

It comes down to this: a man learns the language spoken by a woman, and the woman of the man … 

the people of the suburb learn the language spoken by a farmer, and the farmer learns the language of Wall Street … 

we all speak our own language, shaped by culture, race, color, gender, ethnicity, status, education, religion, experience, and work … 

rich and poor, rural and urban, north and south, east and west, gay and straight; the sad and the glad, the weary and the wondering … the hopeful and the distraught … we each and all have our own language.

But we can learn to listen … we can learn something of the other … we can learn how to learn from one another … 

and realize, the stranger over there is pretty much like me, and I’m pretty much like them … 

I get up in the morning with mussed hair and things on my mind … 

I sometimes see things clearly, and then I’m in a fog … 

I love deeply, yet there are times when darker thoughts and bitter feelings have play … 

we’re more alike than we are different … 

different we are, but at the core of our being: 

we want to love and be loved … 

we have great ideas and profound ambition … 

we want to be with friends, and have a decent meal … 

we want to lay down at night and feel safe … 

we want to get up in the morning, and have some toast and peanut butter.

What we do best is what we do in the strength and goodness of others … 

We’re stronger, together …  

Have you ever tried to tie a shoe with one hand?

How much better with two hands … together, we make the world better.

Suddenly from heaven …

The need for Pentecost … and we can help … 

we can help humanity tear down the walls and ease the tensions …  

when we make the faithful trek to this place, to worship the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ … 

and if we’re bedfast and homebound, if the flesh is no longer able, but the spirit is willing, we make the trip within ourselves … 

it’s the same trip … we walk with Christ in Galilee, we walk with him in the streets of Jerusalem, we sit at Table with Christ, and we hear his voice … and beside us, and all around us, the saints of bygone days, the angels of heaven, and the voices of the earth.

The church has done much good on all of this, but more is needed … more must be done … let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

Suddenly from heaven! 

Whatever happened that day, I’ll leave to your imagination …

Hallelujah and Amen!

June 12, 2011, "The Glory of Many Tongues" - Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2.1-11

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.

May 31, 2009 - "Pentecost"

Acts 2:1-21

Goooooood Morning Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Welcome to Pentecost!

Welcome to the deep work of God!
Creating the Church of Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the fire and the wind …

Welcome to Pentecost.

The fiftieth day after Passover … a harvest festival, a pilgrim festival, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead …

Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem … wait there … wait for the promise of the Father … wait for the Holy Spirit.

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to wait.
Do you find it hard to wait, too?

We do a lot of waiting in our lifetime …
A child waiting for Christmas … a child in the back seat on the way to gramma’s house – “are we there yet?”

I remember waiting for my 10th birthday … finally reaching double-digits – that was significant to me.

I remember turning 13 – a teenager, at last.
Then 16, to get my license …
18, registering for the draft …
And 21, to drink …

And so on and so forth … lots of waiting …

The disciples are waiting … a spiritual waiting … a positive, powerful, kind of waiting …
Waiting for the promise of the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit … a promise proclaimed by John the Baptist when he stood with Jesus in the Jordan River: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire [Luke 3:16].

Waiting is a vital part of our spiritual work …
We wait for God.
We discipline ourselves … we take a deep breath … we pray and we ponder, we wait and we watch, we stop and we sit … we put our burdens down, and we set aside our plans!
We resist the temptation to plunge ahead.
We wait for the LORD!

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD [Psalm 31:24].
Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him [Psalm 37:7].
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities [Psalm 130:5-8].

What would it look like for us to wait upon the LORD?
Are we inclined to wait upon the Lord?
I think American Christians are terribly impatient.
American Christianity is bustling and busy …
Full of books and methods …
Strategies and designs …
Meetings and marketing plans …

I wonder sometimes …
American Christianity seems frantic these days.
Evangelicals snarl and snap at one another over points of faith …
Liberals moan and groan about most everything …
And everyone counts numbers … how many in the pew this morning? How much in the offering plate? How tall the steeple; how big the program.

From Shakespeare [Macbeth, V.v.]:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
[wrote Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.v.]
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I get the uneasy feeling sometimes that God is waiting for us to slow down … God is waiting for us to wait for God!

Does God say, Okay, you think it’s up to you? Your strategies and your designs, your plans and your power? Your dreams and your reputation? Okay. Go for it. I’ll wait! I’ll wait until you’re so tired, that you can’t think anymore. I’ll wait until you’ve read all the books and exhaust all the possibilities … I’ll wait until you learn … to wait for my promise.

In reality, some congregations never learn to wait upon the LORD.
A church in Redford, Michigan just announced its closing …
10 years ago, they had a chance to merge with another church and create a vital ministry; all the details had been worked out … but one of their stalwart members stood up and announced at a congregational meeting, “I’d rather take my church to my grave than see it change.”
Well, she got her wish, didn’t she?
She took her church to the grave.
I wonder what would have happened had she learned to wait upon the LORD rather than catering to her own comfort.

I wonder what a waiting church looks like?
A church waiting for the Father’s promise …
Waiting for the Holy Spirit?

It’s not that the disciples were waiting around aimlessly … twitting their thumbs … oh no … far from it … listen to the Text:

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Devoted to prayer … together with one another …
I wonder what THAT looks like?

Are we devoted to prayer at Covenant?
What do you think?

If we were devoted to prayer, what would that look like?
Would we have prayer gatherings in our homes?
Would we open our meetings with 20 minutes of prayer? 30 minutes of prayer?
Would we have a Wednesday evening prayer service?

Would we have:
Extended periods of holy silence, when we wait together for the LORD to speak to our hearts … calm our minds, center our energies, reveal God’s will and purpose?
Extended periods of time - reading the Psalms aloud to one another, because the Psalms are mostly prayers …
Reading from prayer books … writing our own prayers … and just praying, as the Spirit leads … some praying with ease, because they’re comfortable with words; others praying hesitantly, because words flow slowly.
Are we devoted to prayer?

We are a prayerful church, that I know.
But can we kick it up a notch?
Are we minimalists?
I think a lot of congregations are sort of minimalist …
We do it all, but we do it perfunctorily …
We’ve done it a thousands times; we settle into the rut and sink into routine …
Are we minimalists here?

I love how the story unfolds …
They were all together in one place …
And then came the fire.
Tongues of flame above everyone’s head …
The anointing of the Holy Spirit …

The breath of God all over again … like the creation story of Genesis 2, when God took a handful of dirt and blew life into it, so the dirt become a living being …
God breathed a fresh breath of air on Pentecost day …
So the church could become a living being …

And they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

This is the clue – language!
The ability to speak … to the world.

Crowds gathered at the sound of it all …
Curious crowds …
Bewildered crowds …
Crowds from all over the Mediterranean world – they heard the disciples speaking in their own languages – how can this be? They asked. We hear their accent – they a rough and tumble bunch from Galilee, and they’re talking about God in our own language. What does this mean?
Some sneered, of course; they’ve been hitting ye’ olde wine bottle a little too early!

Were they drunk?
Or was it just the Holy Spirit …

Barriers came down that day.
Bridges were built!
Folks from all around the world heard the gospel in their own tongue!

Los Angeles is a gathering place for peoples of the world …
We ate in a Himalayan restaurant the other night, next door to a Turkish café, just down the block from a Brazilian bistro …
Everywhere a veritable melting pot - in our streets and schools, workplaces and neighborhoods – a wonderful mélange of sights and sounds – full of energy and creativity …
Just like Jerusalem … that fabled day of Pentecost …
The world at our doorstep …

Several months ago, we had some guests …
One of them spoke Spanish … someone else translated …
As I read the story of Pentecost this week … I kept thinking of that moment.

This past week, I was at a union hall in Hawthorne … with a group of folks who had just lost their jobs at the LAX Hilton … folks who had worked there 20 and 25 years, and now they were laid off …
Most of the meeting was in Spanish …
A very sweet lady came over and sat next to me, and translated quietly.
I was deeply moved.
I was honored to be there.

They invited me to speak, and I did.
Most of them understood me.
They’re bilingual; I’m not.

Language …
God speaks in all the languages of the world …
To the lost and to the found …
To the blind and to the sighted …

The disciples spoke that day in everyone’s language:
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
No one left out.
The message of God’s love for everyone!

So, what does Pentecost mean for us, right here, right now, Covenant on the Corner?

What do we learn from the Text?
From the story itself?

Have we learned the spiritual art of waiting upon the LORD?
Or are we likely to plunge ahead with our plans?
Are we a little bit frantic these days, or are confident in God’s purpose?
Do we use prayer to open and close meetings, or are we exploring the larger dimensions of prayer?
Are we a Pentecost church filled with the sound of God’s breath? … a sound that intrigues the world, and draws folks to see what’s happening?

We are growing in all of this … and there’s always more ahead of us …
We are asking good questions and probing the future …
Learning to speak the languages of our time …
We are the church of Jesus Christ …
A Pentecost church …
Spirit-breathed and Spirit-led.
Filled with the fire of faith!
We are, Covenant on the Corner …

Amen and Amen.