Sermon On Pentecost

I felt pretty weak, scattered and vulnerable before preaching this.  I kept saying to myself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Then the message seemed to go well.  Afterward, people said they benefited from it.  The internal and the external are always so different in preaching — how I feel vs. what people hear.  I preached from notes.  This manuscript is probably close, though.

Translating the Gospel
Acts 2.1-21  (read it here)

Last week the Ascend praise band sang ‘A Mighty Fortress.’ The lyrics include these words:

Our God is a consuming fire,
A burning holy flame,
With glory and freedom.

God as fire. It’s an image you find all through the Bible. The very line ‘our God is a consuming fire’ comes right out of the Bible, and the imagery appears elsewhere. In the Book of Exodus, the people of Israel are led out of Egypt through the wilderness by a pillar of fire that represents God’s presence with them. God as fire.

Wind is another image for God in the Bible. A key place you see it is in the Book of Job. Poor Job, all those terrible things happen to him. He complains to God, “Where are You?!” Finally, at the end, God appears to him in the form of wind. God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind. God as wind.

Fire and wind are similar. They are powerful, unpredictable, dangerous. But if you can harness their energy, you can do great things.

Your car harnesses the power of fire. You put your key in the ignition switch because you are igniting little bits of fire in the cylinders. The pistons move, and the car moves – all through the power of fire. You think nothing of driving 60 miles per hour, but someone in early America couldn’t imagine going that fast. You have harnessed power in a way they couldn’t.

As for wind, have you ever seen a wind turbine? Looks like a giant, thin scarecrow with arms outstretched. Many of them together make up a wind farm. They harness the power of wind and put that energy to work.

Fire and wind – important forces in our lives. And important images of God for us. You see fire and wind in our scripture today.

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Our scripture is the story of Pentecost. The Spirit comes on the disciples in the form of fire and wind. The church is born for its mission in the world.

Our scripture falls neatly into three parts. There is an experience of God as fire and wind. Following this is an effect, the ability to speak in new languages. After this, there is an explanation – Peter stands and explains the experience and the effect by quoting a Hebrew prophet named Joel.

But I’m mostly intersted in the effect today, this ability to speak in new languages. The whole affair seems comical to me. Imagine being there on the day of Pentecost and going home that night to explain it.

“Honey, you won’t believe what happened today! First, we were having a prayer meeting, and a hurricane wind came through the room. Then, everyone’s hair was on fire (but not really). Then, I was speaking Chinese!”

“That’s nice, dear. Can I fix you a drink?”

It would have been hard to believe. Especially among the listeners. They said, “We hear them telling us about the mighty works of God in our own languages.” And you have that long list of places where they were from.

The ‘mighty works of God’ they were hearing were the events of Jesus’ life. How Jesus went around doing good, healing people and setting them free from the devil. How he was killed on the cross, and how on the third day God raised him from death.

The listeners were hearing the gospel message. The gospel was translating itself into new languages, languages that had never heard these things before. This was the miracle of Pentecost.

This kind of translation continues today. There are Bible translators around the world, including some old friends of mine. They live in Africa, where they have learned languages so they can translate the Bible into that language.

But I want to suggest to you that you can also translate the gospel into deeds and actions. It takes special skills to translate the gospel into another spoken language, or it takes a miracle from the Spirit. But anyone can translate the gospel into deeds and actions.

We are in the fourth week of a five part sermon series on the purpose of the church. In week 1 we looked at adoration – we praise God’s majesty, glory and love. In week 2 we looked at formation – we make faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Last week we looked at invitation – we offer the hope of Christ to the lost and hurting.

This week is demonstration – we serve human need in a spirit of compassion. We do this by translating the gospel into action that serves this need.

The gospel says Jesus is the bread of life; when we give bread to the hungry, we have translated the gospel into that need. The gospel says Jesus brings us peace with God; when we mediate a conflict, we have translated the gospel and brought peace. The gospel says Jesus gives us an eternal home; when we build homes for the homeless, we translate the gospel into that need.

Last week 40 of us listened to Pastor D speak about his trip to Vietnam. He was a part of a Habitat for Humanity crew that built homes for the homeless in Hanoi. We saw lots of pictures of that work, how they built that gray cinderblock home.

The Vietnamese government told them they couldn’t talk about religion. But their actions spoke for them. It’s hard to image the families receiving these homes didn’t understand the Christian impulse behind them. The builders translated the gospel into the language of bricks and mortar.

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But you don’t have to go around the world to southeast Asia to translate the gospel in this way. You can do it where you are, just by living a humane, merciful life.

A book called The Noticer tells the story about a charismatic old man named Jones. He drifts around a Gulf Coast town befriending people and talking to them. He literally saves lives, marriages and jobs by helping people gain a new perspective on things.

At one point he is sitting on a dock, talking to an old woman, a widow named Willow. She doesn’t feel like there is much point in her living anymore. Her children live away from her, and her husband has been gone many years. She feels like the world has passed her by.

Jones tells her about Norman Bourlag, a scientist who invented new farming techniques that were credited with saving the lives of 2 billion people by preventing famine. He received the Nobel prize at the age of 91.

But, Jones says, we shouldn’t give all the credit to Norman Bourlag. Henry Wallace, a former secretary of agriculture for FDR, gave Norman his job and a sphere of influence. So Henry saved 2 billion people.

But, Jones says, Henry as a boy was befriended by George Washington Carver, who shaped Henry’s life and put him on a path toward public service. So George Washington Carver saved 2 billion people.

But, Jones says, the credit really goes to Moses and Susan Carver. They adopted George when he was a baby, after his mother had been killed by the Klan. Moses and Susan saved 2 billion people, all by taking in a little baby.

Willow gets the point. Even the smallest action can have enormous power for good in the world. The point is to live a humane, compassionate life.

Our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a rushing wind. Our God is unpredictable and powerful.

Let God’s fire burn inside you. Let God’s wind rush through you. Let God’s enormous energy empower you to serve human need in a spirit of compassion. Whether your actions are big or small, believe they can change the world.