Advent Lutheran Church

"I Will Pour Out My Spirit Upon All Flesh"

Selam!!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Couple of weeks ago I was in western Kansas, Hays, to give a presentation at the Rotary club annual conference. My presentation was about the Rotary club in Ethiopia.

I was told by the organizer, after my presentation that there would be questions and answer time. As it was planned after my presentation, I took different kinds of questions and responded accordingly. During that time a guy who was about in his 70s surprised me by asking, “When was the last time that you had ZEGEN?” “ZEGEN” is a peculiar spicy food made from chopped beef, which is found in the Northern part of Ethiopia. Since he spoke the word like the natives, I felt it that he had deep connection with Ethiopia either in the past or present. I could not wait until I talked to him.

During our conversation I found out that this person was a retired military who once was deployed in Asmara, Eretrea, in an American military base called “kagnew” station. This was in the 70s during Emperor Haileselassie and while Eretrea was part of Ethiopia.

Who had imagined that I would be hearing a word in my native language in Western Kansas, in Hays?  Who had imagined that I would meet someone who spent years in Ethiopia? I am saying in western Kansas!  Hearing one Amharic word spoken clearly by a person who lives in western Kansas Hays, made me feel something that I could not express in words. For me it was a sign of how God can use someone’s life experience to create the connection and use our words as a means of receiving people.

How did I get all this? It was because someone spoke my language in the middle of nowhere in Western Kansas.  Do not get me wrong, I meant the middle of nowhere in terms of cultural connection.

Brothers and sisters language has a great power. It has power to kill or save. Everything what we do is connected with the language we use.  If you want to share my experience, go somewhere where English or American English is not spoken and find someone who speaks American English. I hope you will understand what I am trying to say.

What we see in Acts, Chapter two on Pentecost day, is the miracle of people speaking a language which was not their native language, and what that meant to the native people who were hearing.

If you followed the story carefully, you can see that something unusual was  happening in this place.  In human eyes, it seems craziness or drunkenness.  However, in God’s eye it was the birth of a new God’s people, or “the church.”  The birth of the church took place on one of the great festivals that gathered many nations from all over the place.  Pentecost is known as the Feast of Harvest.  It is not accidental, that the birth of the church occurred on this important festival. At this time it was not only a harvest of a crop but also a harvest of people.

Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Weeks.  Leviticus 23 requires Jews to observe the Feast of Weeks fifty days after the offering of the barley sheaf at the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  It says, "You shall count until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:16). 

The word "Pentecost" is a Greek word, meaning fifty, reflecting the fifty-day countdown. On Pentecost, all Jews living near Jerusalem were required to attend and Jews from other nations made pilgrimage, as they were able.

So what happened on this day?  God the Holy Spirit came down to the people in the most vivid and powerful way. The presence of God among the people was significant. There was sound like  the rush of a violent wind, divided tongues as of fire and  all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  Of all the signs and wonders, what did draw people’s attention? What amazed them? Was it the fire? No.  The sound?  No.  The place?  No.

Listen what verse 6 and 7 says, “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? 

The point is not about gaining the ability to speak a language. It is what we speak in that language. Do we speak often about ourselves or about God?

Again listen to verse 11&12 “ 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?"”  

I have asked the choir to come up with different languages saying, “praise the Lord,” so that we may have the feeling of Pentecost. (For those who are only reading this sermon, sorry that you will miss this part.)

Brothers and sisters, the first gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of speaking in different languages. The ability of speaking in other language is given by God so that we can speak about God’s deeds of power. 

These days, churches try different means to draw people’s attention. Some think beautiful buildings might work, others try great youth programs, music, social service, etc.  All these trails are good. However, what we learn from Pentecost is that the people were attracted because they heard about God’s deeds of power, in their native language, spoken by others. 

What is God’s deed of power?  It is the resurrection of Christ and the promise that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  God’s deeds of power is the fulfillment of the promise “to pour out God’s Spirit upon all flesh.” And all means all.

As people who are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit we have received the ability of speaking in other language. This language is not necessarily a literal language of one or other nation. It is the language of heart.

Have you ever heard of “broken English?”  If English is your second language sometimes it is expressed as a broken-English”. Recently I read story of a Vietnamese women in relation to “broken English”.  The Vietnamese woman was waiting her turn to be examined in a crowded hospital emergency room. She gradually became aware of a frustrating woman a few seats further. A nurse was trying to ask a new patient for some details on her illness. The patient spoke Spanish. The nurse did not.

 The Vietnamese woman listened for a minute then realized that while she didn’t speak Spanish she did understand the broken-English bits and phrases the Spanish patient offered as answers.

Because of her own experience of learning to communicate in “broken English,” the Vietnamese woman could hear the heart of what this Spanish woman was trying to say. The Vietnamese woman offered to “translate” the broken English of the Spanish speaker into something the nurse could understand. She was so successful at bridging the brokenness of their languages that eventually the Vietnamese woman was hired by the hospital as a kind of generic translator.

 

Brothers and sisters, as people who are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, we have received the ability of speaking the language of heart, to speak the good news to the broken world.

v  To speak the language of love of Christ for those who are broken by hatred.

v  To speak the language of hope of Christ’s forgiveness, for those who are broken by sin.

v  To speak the language of healing and the hope of resurrection, for those who are broken by illness and death.

v  To speak the language of faith for those who are broken by doubt.

v  To speak the language feeding for those who are broken by hunger.

v  To speak the language of clothing for those who are broken by nakedness.

v  To speak the language of  justice  for those who are broken by injustice

v  To speak the language of inclusiveness for those who are broken by exclusiveness.

v  To speak the language of unity for those who are broken by separation.

v   To speak the language of  diversity  for those who are broken by uniformity

 

Pentecost is about speaking the good news to the heart of the people in their language. That is what draws people to the church, and even we Lutherans are all Pentecostals!  May the Holy Spirit help us to live the reality of Pentecost every day.  Amen.