Sunday, June 8, 2025

Today's Scripture
Acts 2:1–21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” (NRSV)

Reflection

There is more going on in the story of Pentecost than linguistic theatrics. There is hearing and being heard, understanding and being understood. Willie Jennings says, “When you speak a language you speak a people.” What is amazing to the crowd is that their language is being spoken, and by the Spirit of God.

Language is so much more than words, isn’t it? I’m married to someone who grew up in another country, speaking another language. There are parts of her personality that don’t come out in English.

So much of our humanity is contained in language: memory, community, family; language involves your body, the way the muscles of your mouth and the gestures of your hands and face all work together to convey meaning. Language is intimately connected to culture. Language is planted and grows out of the land.

Look at what God is doing here. God is connecting the church to practically the entire known world through language. This table of nations that gets name-checked here (Parthians, Medes, Elamites ...) is a table of contents for the rest of the story of Acts, and it establishes the church as irreducibly “catholic,” that is, global.

That is the miracle of Pentecost: not only that some Galileans could inexplicably speak in Mesopotamian and Egyptian, but that the Mesopotamians and Egyptians could hear themselves addressed by God in the language of their own land, their own people, their own bodies.

God does not disdain their language. Because God, in another terrific expression of Willie Jennings, “God speaks human. Fluently.” The miracle of Pentecost is the Spirit enabling the church to use peoples’ language to tell them the story of God, the story of their own life and salvation, a global, cosmic good news story.

The church that hears today the story of its inauguration at the festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem all those centuries ago still believes in the beauty and the dignity of all the languages — all of the memories, all of the land, all of the bodies — clamoring for recognition there today. Because God speaks all those languages, fluently.

Prayer

God our creator, earth has many languages, but your gospel proclaims your love to all nations in one heavenly tongue. Make us messengers of the good news that, through the power of your Spirit, all the world may unite in one song of praise; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

(from Book of Common Worship)

Reflection written by Rocky Supinger, Senior Associate Pastor