Reading Luke/Acts Together #55 – Pentecost Part 2
We usually think that what defined Pentecost, the big event that birthed a church, was the rush of the Holy Spirit. Actually, there were two big things – the second being the first Christian sermon. And a fairly long one, with no clever humor, no memorable anecdotes, no “illustrations.” Peter asked for quiet amidst the confusion and talked for a while. Were the other disciples, or the crowd surprised, unaccustomed as they were to anything resembling a “sermon”? And what a sermon: mostly a grab-bag of quotations from the Bible, some Psalms, the prophet Joel – and when he wasn’t citing Scripture verbatim, there were allusions. And of course, the story of Jesus too.
The response to history’s Sermon ? The people were “cut to the heart,” and about 3,000 were saved. As a young preacher, I tried this very sermon, verbatim. My people looked bored, and I don’t believe any were saved.
Sometimes people think of Pentecost as the “reversal of Babel.” In Genesis 11, just as suddenly, people couldn’t understand one another; at Pentecost they miraculously can understand one another. The underlying message of Pentecost isn’t that diversity is bad. There is understanding at Pentecost, not sameness. It’s not that everyone suddenly spoke Greek or Aramaic, and certainly not Latin, the language of empire! They kept their own tongues, and stories!
God clearly delights in diversity and understanding – which today doesn’t happen miraculously in an instant. Understanding, getting the hang of language, and cultures and ways – the Church’s business! – takes time, and is no less a miracle because of it! Willie Jennings speaks of Acts 2 as “the epicenter of the revolution,” “the revolution of the intimate.” God breaks everybody open so they can be a radical new, welcoming, fully engaged community. Notice it was no grand strategy on the disciples’ part. God just did this. It was uncontrollable – like the wind, with immense if unseen power.
Jennings wryly points out that they might have asked for the Holy Spirit – but not this! This is real grace, “untamed grace.” He hears an echo of Mary learning the Spirit had “overshadowed her.” The Spirit transforms not just the ears, but mouths and bodies. God is like “the lead dancer, taking hold of her partners, drawing them close and saying Step this way.”
Learning a new language (do you recall sitting nervously in language class?) is humbling – but so beautiful once you get the hang of it. You could learn someone else’s language to dominate them, and history has witnessed plenty of this – or the dominant people declaring “You must speak our language, not yours!” Learning a language though can be love, to be fully with others.
Thinking of the spread of the church, I recall Mark Noll’s great wisdom: “Christianity appears more and more as an essentially pluralistic and cross-cultural faith. It appeared first in Asia, then Africa and Europe. Immediately those who turned to Christ in these ‘new’ regions were at home in the faith. When they became believers, Christianity itself became Asian, European and African. Once Christianity is rooted in someplace new, the faith itself also takes on something from that new place. It also challenges, reforms and humanizes the cultural values of that place. The Gospel comes to each person and to all peoples exactly where they are. You do not have to stop being American, Japanese, German, or Terra del Fuegian in order to become a Christian. Instead, they all find rich resources in Christianity that are perfectly fitted for their own cultural situations. It is by its nature a religion of nearly infinite flexibility because it has been revealed in a person of absolutely infinite love.”
And Pentecost is learning whether to talk at all! Thomas Merton's thought intrigues me: “The mystery of speech and silence is resolved in Acts. Pentecost is the solution. The problem of language is the problem of sin. The problem of silence is also a problem of love. How can one really know whether to speak or not, and whether words and silence are for good or for evil, unless one understands Pentecost?” Communicating well, and understanding, are more a matter of silence than talking!