1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
Sermon: “Connection in the Midst of Conflict”
When I was doing my doctoral work in Chicago, I attended a number of African American worship services. It was there I learned the responsive call to worship, where the pastor would say, “God is good,” and the congregation would reply, “All the time.” (We can try that if you want: God is good. All the time.)
At one service I attended in Chicago, after this call to worship, the pastor said something like, “Now turn to your neighbor, and tell them one way God has been good to you this week.” (Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you try that right now. But it’s a good idea for future, isn’t it?)
I’ve got to admit that the “talk with your neighbor” thing kind of caught me off guard when he said it. I mean, it’s just not something that’s been part of my worship tradition. But I knew what the pastor was trying to do. He was trying to get his congregation to connect with each other and talk about the goodness of God.
Something similar is happening in our Scripture reading this morning. The followers of Jesus—along with devout Jewish people from all over the Roman Empire, had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. At the time, Pentecost was a harvest festival—“…one of three pilgrimage feasts when the entire household of Israel gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the goodness of God…” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. X, p. 53.) (Later, beginning in the second century of the common era, the festival evolved to also become a celebration of God giving the Torah to Moses.) (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shavuot)
But Pentecost this particular year turned out a little differently from all the years previous. This particular year, shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven, a miracle occurs. While the disciples are “all together in one place, suddenly 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 [of fire] rested on each of them. And they began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
Now, let me stop here for a moment and say that there are different interpretations and understandings of this Scripture reading. Some people take it literally; some metaphorically; and some see it as a combination of the two. The differences in interpretation come partly from recent scholarship that gives compelling evidence that the Book of Acts was written in the second century of the common era and was intended to be read more as metaphor, not as a factual, eye-witness account of the event. (https://www.westarinstitute.org/blog/when-was-acts-written-not-in-first-century/)
Regardless of whether we take this event literally or not, there are many things we can learn from it. One important thing I believe we can learn is that the Spirit of God enables communication and connection between people of very different backgrounds.
We’re told that people from all over the Roman empire—
—in their own languages they heard the disciples speaking about God’s deeds of power.
Now, this list of places from all over the Roman empire (that Sue read beautifully, despite the hard-to-pronounce names!) might not mean much to us now, since many of these geographic regions now go by different names, but it might mean something to us if we looked up and located on a map what these places are called today. So I Googled them. If the writer of Acts were writing today, his (or her) list of regions would have included what we now know today as Italy, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. Quite a list, wouldn’t you say?
And although these regions, at the time, were united under Roman rule, it didn’t mean that the people back then got along any better than they do today. In fact, even in Jesus’ day, many of these regions had been warring with each other for centuries! Yet, devout Jewish people from these sometimes hostile nations would come together once a year, for the Feast of Pentecost. They would gather to share their gratitude and celebrate the goodness of God. However, when they did so, we can assume that the groups from each nation, though united by a shared faith, would remain somewhat isolated from each other because, not only were their nations traditionally enemies, but also they were separated from each other by a language barrier.
Yet in breaks the power of the Holy Spirit of God, and suddenly a rag-tag group of Galilean fishermen and other unsavory characters can be heard speaking in the native language of every country—friend or foe--that was represented by the people gathered for the Feast.
And here’s a miracle: the Holy Spirit got people from warring countries talking with each other. Connection in the midst of conflict.
When I read this Scripture this week, I was aware, that conflict and wars are still going on, even centuries later, between the regions listed here--and, of course, between regions that are not listed in this passage. And, as we are all also painfully aware, conflicts are also going on within countries. All over the globe, including our own country, men, women and children—military and civilian--die by violent means every day, even when countries are not at war. It’s heart-breaking.
Doesn’t it make you yearn for a literal miracle, another literal in-breaking of the Holy Spirit, where enemies stop fighting and start talking? Where connection is made in the midst of conflict?
Now, my guess is that probably today there is not going to be another literal Pentecost miracle. Not that God is incapable of performing such a miracle, but chances are newspaper headlines for tomorrow will NOT be:
· Washington DC: National Cathedral shaken by Violent Wind
· Unexplained Tongues of Fire Appear above the Heads of Worshippers Worldwide
· Democrats and Republicans Actually Seen Talking Together
· Language Barriers Overcome
· Common Ground Identified on Several Important Issues
· World Peace Within Reach!
That would be awesome! but probably it won’t happen today.
But this doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit has stopped working. I think it means that we, current-day followers of God and Christ, regardless of geographical region or political persuasion have to be more actively engaged with the Spirit. We have to ask the Spirit to work through us as we step out and make connections with other people. We can’t just wait for leaders to fix the world for us. We too have to be actively involved to lay the groundwork for our leaders and the Holy Spirit to build upon.
I think this is what the African American preacher was trying to get us to do in the worship service that I talked about at the beginning of this sermon. When he said, “Turn to your neighbor and tell them how God has been good to you this week.” He was trying to get us to connect with each other. He wasn’t sending us to Iraq or Moscow or even across the aisle to connect with our enemies, he was trying to get us to first practice connecting with our brothers and sisters in the faith.
I think he was onto something. So often conversations in our society, even with people who sit next to us in the pew, are primarily superficial. “Hi, how’re ya doin?” “Fine, thanks, and you?” Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good start, but often it stops there. If we have trouble getting beyond surface-level conversation with people with whom we have a lot in common, how are we ever going to work up to talking to people who are very different from us?
I think this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. We can start by asking the Holy Spirit to be in our conversations as we begin to talk with people we know about the goodness of God.
In that African American service where the pastor said “turn to your neighbor and tell them how God has been good to you this week.” I confess that my first impulse, as an introvert, was to get up and run out of the sanctuary. But I was in the middle of a pew, so I stayed, and I turned to the woman next to me, whom I didn’t know, and she smiled, and she started telling me about how she was thankful that God had seen her through a recent illness. And as she spoke, I relaxed, and I was able to tell her about how God had helped me develop new friendships with people in my Doctoral Program. And when the pastor said, “All right everyone, stop talking, time to get back to worship,” I’ve got to tell you that none of us wanted to stop talking!
My friends, the Holy Spirit of God is still active and working in the world. May we allow the Spirit to work through us to help us form connections, even in the midst of conflict. One way we can begin to do that is by being aware of what we are thankful for. So, I invite you to take a minute now, and during our prayer time, to write down one thing you are thankful for on the sticker attached to your bulletin. And, if you want, after the prayer, when the offering plate is passed, you may put the sticker into the plate to become part of our Church Gratitude Book.
May we use our statements of gratitude as a basis for conversation this week, sharing what we are thankful for with our neighbors, as a way of making connections even in the midst of conflict.
God is good. All the time. Let us claim that promise.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA