2019-06-09

So for the last few semons I have been making a point of starting with something about Eve… Today is no different.

So we have a toddler at the moment. Last time I talked about her trying to be like us, but as I was preparing this service, I was forced to think about what it is like living with someone who doesn’t speak our language but who is becoming increasingly independant…

I’m pretty sure that she understands quite a bit now, but still only speaks in 1-2 words that we can understand. At the same time, she seems to rattle off big long sentences in her own babbling language, happy to talk to us, friends, birds and anyone else she meets.

But here is the thing. Not being able to be understood is a great source of frustration for her and sometimes for us… Being adults, we then have to try our best to understand what she wants, or try our best to help her understand what we need to do… Being a toddler, she will try her best… Then throw a tantrum if that doesn’t work… More than anything, our situation reminds me of the ability that we all have to offer hospitality to one another through the ways we communicate and how this is nothing other than a demonstration of our love for them.

Watching Eve learn language is also fascinating as it is clear that she is also learning our culture. In addition to learning about words, she is learning about the world around her and our place within it, she is learning about how we do things, how we see things… Habits, routines, practices. All of the things that she is trying to make sense of, learning to be part of, as she picks up the words that we use to communicate. It is a powerful reminder that to make the effort to learn and speak a language is a profound exercise in also learning some of the couture that goes with it, the ways of thinking, of seeing the world. Making this effort is a profound act of hospitality and love that we can offer to others.

Pentecost is often talked about as the birth of the church… It wasn’t just an administrative change, but a powerful expression of God’s Grace towards humanity. So let’s look at the passage.

Pentecost is often talked about as the birth of the church… It wasn’t just an administrative change, but a powerful expression of God’s Grace towards humanity.

So here we are, early in the book of Acts. Jesus has ascended back to heaven and the disciples have been told to go to Jerusalem and basically to “wait for what is next”

Acts 2:1–2 TEV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:1–3 TEV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.

Acts 2:3–4 TEV

3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Something supernational is happening here… Something that has started within the group of believers...

Acts 2:5–7 TEV

5 There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world. 6 When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language. 7 In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans!

Acts 2:5–6 TEV

5 There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world. 6 When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language.

We should note here that to be a Galilean wasn’t exactly a good thing.

Acts 2:8–11 TEV

8 How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? 9 We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia, 10 from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome, 11 both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”

There is an important point here that can be easy for us to miss...

What is happening in Pentecost is not the early Christians all receiving some divine language that shall is able to convey the truths of God in a special way. Pentecost is not the spirit of God working in the hearers and enabling them to understand this special language, that they need to teach people so that they can encounter God… Pentecost is an expression of God’s supernatural grace and hospitality, allowing those who were there to hear the message in their own language, for it to speak to them in the way that only a native language can…

Pick up a pew Bible… Have a look at it.. What language is it in? (English) It’s a translation called the “New Revised Standard”, a fairly academic translation of the Bible into English… But the text was originally Hebrew for the OT and Greek for the NT… I often hear people complain about different translations used in church, but I have never heard these same folk suggest that we just read the greek...

I’m not saying all translations are equal, but it is important to remember, especially today, that from the very beginning, the early church wasn’t interested in establishing a single sacred language that we would use to write about God, that we would use as we share in worship, that we would use in our songs, prayers, etc. All around the world, including here, the church continues to use language, songs, styles and forms present in our culture to help tell the story of Jesus so that people will understand.

Pentecost is an example of the transformative truths of God, the most important truths we can convey, being shared by the disciples in the every day languages of the people from all across the world who were there… The Bible, the story of Jesus, is written in the every day languages of every day people… We are to share the invitation into God’s family, the good news of the grace of Jesus, in ways that those we meet in ordinary life will understand…

As we hear this story about the birth of the church...

We should be reminded that we are only being the church when we seek to share the message of Jesus in a way that those who hear it will understand… It isn’t their job to learn our language, learn our culture, it is our job to learn theirs and to the translators… It is hard, it is awkward, it is risky… But as we look at God’s unfolding story of redemption, see it as one of radical hospitality, whether through entering into human experience in with Jesus born as one of us or the church being equipped and sent to bring God’s message to both their community and then all the world.

Acts 2:12–15 TEV

12 Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, “What does this mean?” 13 But others made fun of the believers, saying, “These people are drunk!” 14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine o’clock in the morning.

We are reminded that Pentecost wasn’t just an impressive party trick for the church, but a means through which they could share the story of Jesus.

Acts 2:16–21 TEV

16 Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about: 17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams. 18 Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message. 19 I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke; 20 the sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of the Lord comes. 21 And then, whoever calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.’

At Pentecost, we saw a miracle… We saw Israel’s hope becoming reality as God offered a decisive powerful act of redemption, one that fundamentally changed and expanded the scope of his work of renewal.

The Day of the Lord...

At Pentecost God’s spirit overcame language, culture and ethnicity, probably the most entrenched and chasm’s which device us from one another, and called out to all people to hear and know that they are welcome in his Kingdom...

At Pentecost, God’s spirit overcame language, culture and class, the most entrenched and chasm’s which device us from one another and called out to all people to hear and know that they are welcome in his Kingdom.

At Pentecost, the church was called and equipped to offer some of the most basic hospitality and love through the ways we communicate with those who are different to us...

The thing is that I would like to suggest that in this miracle at Pentecost, we see that the Holy Spirit does a powerful work in reminding God’s people of their shared identity. Only through the power of the Spirit can we be committed to understanding ourselves first and foremost as God’s people. Through the power of the spirit we can be reminded that our identity is not primarily rooted our ethnicity, nationality, social class, gender or even our Christian Denomination, whatever that means, but in our being God’s children. We don’t have a unity that downplays difference or depends on uniformity, we still all come from different places, have a different stories and might have preferences about style and practice, but none of these differences define who we are. At Pentecost, God’s spirit overcame language, culture and class, the most entrenched and chasm’s which device us from one another and called out to all people to hear and know that they are welcome in his Kingdom.

At Pentecost, the church was called and equipped to offer some of the most basic hospitality and love through the ways we communicate with those who are different to us...

The miracle of Pentecost is not just that these things happened once, but that God sent the Spirit so that they might continue to happen in and through us.

Offer hospitality to one another through the ways we communicate and how this is nothing other than a demonstration of our love for them.

May we as God’s people together continue to be both obedient and dependant on the Spirit as the means through which God grows, equips and binds his people together so that we may both see and embody something of the Kingdom of God.

Acts 2:1–2 TEV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:3–4 TEV

3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

2019-06-09

Intro - Living with a Toddler

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