Sunday's Sermon

 

PENTECOST 2022

        Today is the feast of Pentecost, when the Spirit fell like fire and wind on the disciples, just as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel.

        “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to you in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave you with; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

        So, on this day, the Spirit came and the disciples, according to Acts, took the Spirit to the people and all who heard them, heard them in their own language.

        So, my question is: did the disciples speak in multiple tongues or did the Holy Spirit give all the people the power to hear in their own language?

        The Spirit is powerful.

        I remember a hymn from my childhood in the Pilgrim Holiness church that went like this: “Come on Holy Spirit, but don’t stay long. Come on Holy Spirit, but don’t stay long.”

        Pilgrim Holiness people did not speak in tongues, but, from time to time, someone in the congregation would be ‘slain in the Spirit’.

        I remember my fear and horror as people I knew fell to the floor as the Spirit touched them.

        That’s why they didn’t want the Holy Spirit to ‘stay long’. Everyone would have been on the floor!

        Today the Fire falls and the Wind blows in the area where we are.

        Don’t be ‘slain’, but do open your heart to receive the Spirit as it comes to our midst.

        The lesson from Genesis tells us of a time when all the people in the world spoke the same language.

        They built a city with a tower to be one with God.

        Yahweh was concerned about what all they might do, so God came down and confused their languages, so they could not communicate easily with each other.

God know that God did a good job!

There are hundreds of languages in the world and we have difficulty understanding each other.

Translators at the U.N. are often unable to accurately translate some of the words of one language into another. How would “pull the wool over your eyes” make sense in Chinese or Russian or the languages of Africa?

Can you imagine all the people of the world speaking the same language? I can’t.

But the Holy Spirit can come and give us ears to hear and hearts to understand.

Let the fire fall on you this day.

Let the wind blow through your soul.

Be still and know the Spirit in your heart and God within you.

Be still and know.

Amen.