06-05-2022 Passion, Promise and Prophesy

Thomas J Parlette
“Passion, Promise and Prophesy”
Acts 2: 1-21, Pentecost
6/5/22

        Let me ask you a question this morning – how many of you are bilingual? Anybody trilingual, speak languages? If so, were you raised speaking something other than English, or did you learn that second language as an adult?
       There is a Federal agency called the Foreign Service Institute that trains diplomats to operate in other countries. The folks at FSI also provide advanced language training in over 65 languages.
       Sometime back, they ranked all the major languages according to how difficult they were to learn. They discovered that among the easier languages for English-speaking people to learn are Swedish, Spanish and French. You might be able to guess the harder ones to learn – Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.(1) Of course, some of us who speak only English have a  difficult time getting it right.
       It reminds me of a story I once heard, told by Rev. J. Barrie Shepherd. Shepherd is a pretty well- known Presbyterian pastor who has served church all over the country. Rev. Shepherd is originally from Scotland. He came to the US to study at Yale Divinity school- a close second to Princeton Seminary, of course. After he had been in this country for a couple of weeks, he needed to catch a cab to the local Department of Motor Vehicles.
       The cab driver heard his thick Scottish accent and asked how long he had been in the country.
       Shepherd said two weeks.
       The cabbie said – Well you sure did learn the language fast!(2) I guess that cab driver didn’t realize that they do speak English in Scotland.
       If you are looking for a new challenge, though, and have some time on your hands, you might want to consider learning another language – especially if you have any travel plans coming up. You never know when it might come in handy.
       For instance, during the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo, there was a wonderful scene which a Japanese surfer lost an event to a Brazilian surfer. The Japanese surfer handled his defeat with grace, however.
       In an interview after the competition, a reporter asked the Brazilian surfer a question in Japanese. The Japanese surfer spoke Japanese, English and some Portuguese, and he realized that his rival spoke only Portuguese – so he graciously stepped in and translated for him. Fortunately, the interview went off seamlessly much to the relief of all. A true example of the Olympic spirit.(3)
       That’s a great example to keep in mind as we approach this well-worn scripture passage for today as we celebrate Pentecost. That is, of course, the day when the Holy Spirit was given to ordinary men and women and they found they had the ability to share the message of Jesus in multiple languages. In this way, they were able to fulfill the promise and commission Jesus gave them to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
       Our story begins like this – “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” “They” refers to about 120 people, followers of Jesus, both men and women, who were waiting for the baptism that Jesus had promised them just before he ascended into heaven. For now, let’s focus on the last part of that verse – “they were all together in one place.”
       The actual Greek word used here is a compound word, two separate words, actually, mashed together to create a new word. The word – “hom-oth-oo-mad-on” is used only twelve times in the Bible, and ten of those twelve occur in the Book of Acts. The two words separately mean “to rush along” and “in unison.” To rush along in unison. It’s a good word to apply to a  close-knit sports team, or even a professional orchestra. In the Book of Acts, it refers to a group of people who have one mind, or one passion.(4)
       If we want to understand the story and miracle of Pentecost, then we must understand how it began. The blessing of Pentecost began with a shared passion. The idea of a group of people rushing along in unison, operating with one mind or one passion is a powerful thing. And that passion was to talk about Jesus and what he meant in a time and place where telling that story could get them into serious trouble, possibly imprisoned or even killed.
       When I think of the power of a shared passion, I think of the life of Frank Laubach, a missionary to the Philippines from 1915 to the late 1950’s.
       There were few people who could read or write in the remote Philippine communities where Frank Laubach served, so he developed a simple literacy method that employed charts linking pictures with words and syllables. His instructional method was so effective that it was easily adapted into a worldwide system for teaching literacy, in any language.
       But then Frank Laubach’s funding was reduced, and he couldn’t hire and train enough teachers to meet the needs of his community. When he told a local community leader about the problem, the man replied that he should encourage every new learner to teach someone else. They adopted the slogan “Each One, Teach One,” and they encouraged new learners to pass on their skills to others in their community. It didn’t take much encouragement because the new learners were so overjoyed and empowered by their newly acquired ability to read and write in their own language. And they were passionate about sharing the gift of literacy with friends and neighbors.
       Since it was developed in the 1930’s, Frank Laubach’s “Each One, Teach One” system has been used to teach 60 million people around the world to read in their own language. You might be interested to know that Frank Laubach is the only missionary in the US to have a postage stamp issued in his honor.
       Frank Laubach once wrote of his passion for this mission of literacy – “Every person we ever meet is God’s opportunity.”(5) I like that. Every person we ever meet is God’s opportunity.
       So let’s return to our passage. As the believers were joined together with one mind, one passion, waiting for Jesus’ promise to be fulfilled, the Holy Spirit came from heaven with a sound like a violent wind and something like tongues of flame resting on everyone’s head, And suddenly, each one of the 120 believers could speak in other languages. And verse 11 tells us they were “declaring the wonders of God.”
       So, the first blessing of Pentecost was a shared passion. That shared passion resulted in the second blessing of Pentecost - an outbreak of praise.
       In World War II, sisters Corrie and Betsie ten Boom were imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. In the evenings, after the two sisters had finished their hard labor, they led a worship service in the women’s barracks. The women knew that if the guards caught them worshipping together, they could be beaten or killed. Still, the risk was worth it to them. They gathered around a Bible that someone had smuggled into the camp. They began each service by singing hymns so softly that they were almost a whisper. And then Corrie or Betsie would read something from their smuggled Bible.
       There were women from various countries in the concentration camp, and they all spoke different languages. So Corrie and Betsie would read the Bible in their native Dutch, then translate it into German. Then other women would translate from German into French, Polish, Russian and Czech. In waves of whispers, the women ensured that every person in the barracks heard the word of God in their own language,
       As Corrie would later write of these secret worship services, “They were little previews of heaven…”(6) Or perhaps little models of Pentecost.
       In Revelation, chapter 7, John writes about a vision of what heaven would look like. He says he sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” They are gathered to sing their praises to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. So Pentecost was a preview of this explosion of praise that naturally flows from God’s people.
       Every time Jesus-followers get together to worship and pray and sing, study the Bible or engage in mission work – there should be an outbreak of praise.
       The final blessing of Pentecost is a call to prophesy. That may sound a little intimidating. Not many of us think we have the gifts to prophesy. But don’t let that word “prophesy” scare you. Prophets are simply truth-tellers. They are chosen by God to share the message of God. Sometimes it’s a message of warning – but it can also be a message of hope. In verse 21 of our passage we read, “All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is the truth we are called to tell, to prophesy. We share that message with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers… everyone we meet. Share it with our words. Share it with our actions. Share it with our lives.
       God didn’t pour out the Holy Spirit so we could keep God’s glory, power, love and truth inside these four walls. A Franciscan friar from the 14th century once said, “There is little good in filling churches with people who go out exactly the same as they came in; the call of the church is not to fill churches but to fill heaven.”(7) I like that too. The call of the Church is not to fill churches but to fill heaven.
       A woman named Helen shares her story of how a moment of truth-telling brought her to God. Helen and her husband were having marital problems, and they had separated. While separated, Helen’s husband returned to their home country of Russia to get his citizenship papers straightened out. He ran into an old friend who invited him to church. And Helen’s husband was so impressed by the change he saw in his old friends life that he agreed to go with him. When he got back to the United States, he began reading his Bible and attending church. He even got baptized, and he and Helen reconciled.
       However, Helen wanted nothing to do with her husband’s new-found faith. A few months later, some friends invited the two of them to church. Helen was resistant, until her husband said, “Honey, I love you. You’re beautiful, kind and smart. You are the love of my life. But you’re dead inside without God.” A tough bit of truth-telling to be sure. And then he said, “I believe it’s time for you to go and learn the truth about yourself.”
       So, Helen started attending church, and reading the Bible for herself. As she was reading through the Gospels, Helen suddenly realized that she believed in Jesus. She went to her husband and said, “I want what this Jesus offers.” And her life was changed for good.
       We heard Peter quote Joel saying, “And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” That’s what Helen found out. As Helen says about her faith journey, “You have to love somebody enough to tell them the truth.”(8)
       Pentecost was a world-changing moment. It was the moment when the Spirit of Jesus was poured out on ordinary people, men and women from every tribe and nation and tongue for the purpose of accomplishing the work of Jesus all over the world, until the day Jesus returns. It began with a shared passion. It resulted in an outbreak of praise. And it left behind a calling for us to prophesy, to tell the truth, to share the awesome grace of a God who promises that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
       And for that, May God be praised. Amen.

1.              Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, p 29.
2.              Ibid… p 29
3.              Ibid… p 29
4.              Ibid… p 30.
5.              Ibid… p 30
6.              Ibid… p 30-31.
7.              Ibid… p 32.