Now You’re Talkin’!

There they were, all gathered in one place, for Pentecost. It was one of three Jewish festivals that everyone who lived within 20 miles was required to attend. The Feast of Tabernacles and Passover were the other two, but those happened at time of the year that weren’t as easy to travel. Pentecost fell in early June. And the law required that no one, not even servants, work on Pentecost. So, the Jerusalem streets were crowded. Because when you’ve traveled, you don’t sit in the hotel room. And the party was in full swing. Because if you and all of your family and friends are off on the same day, you get together.

And people came from all over…Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, even Medes. Now, the original readers of Acts would have known that including Medes meant that not only had they traveled hundreds of miles…but hundreds of years, too. Medes had disappeared from the annals of history. So, truly when Luke writes that they have gathered from ever nation under heaven, he means from north, south, east, and west…and from every time and every age. “The nations in attendance at Pentecost represented the ends of the earth geographically and historically.” (Williamson)

They had come to remember how God formed them as a community. Pentecost is the Jewish celebration of the gift of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. As the people escaped from Israel, they had no rules to live by, no guiding principles, no boundaries, no common understanding of what it meant to be the people of God. And the Ten Commandments shaped them into a community.

And as the community is gathered, God does a new thing. The Holy Spirit is not new. The Holy Spirit has revealed God’s truth and will to humanity in every age and generation. But on Pentecost, God does a new thing. God fills the apostles with the Holy Spirit, and now they are proclaiming God’s truth and God’s will. Peter, the Peter who denied Jesus three times, is now preaching.

Bishop Will Willimon says of the story, “We are listening to the account of something strange, beyond the bounds of imagination, miraculous, inscrutable, an origin which, as far as Luke is concerned, was the only way one could ‘explain’ the existence of the church.”

And I think it is significant that this story is nestled between the story of the apostles choosing Matthias and the story of the
everyday life of the early church. Just before Pentecost, the apostles filled the 12th slot. Jesus had chosen them. I can just imagine how they felt about what had happened with Judas. Angry. Hurt. Why did he? How could he? And now they need to choose another. How will they decide? What are the requirements? Who will be nominated? I can just imagine that session meeting.

On the other side of Pentecost is the story of the early church baptizing, taking in members, learning from the apostles, fellowship, communion, prayers, and caring for the poor among them. It is right in the middle of these stories…in the middle of church business meetings and worship, Christian education, fellowship, and service that God’s Holy Spirit fills them. God’s story is in the midst of the story of the church.

As you go to the picnic today, I hope you will notice some new pictures on the wall outside the church office. They are pictures of the people God has called to serve Farmington Presbyterian Church over these 40 years of journeying together as a community. And they serve as a kind of photo album there on the wall.

When Chris and I hadn’t been married very long, on one of our visits to his parents’ house, his mother and I sat down with a photo album from when he was a little boy. The pictures brought with them family stories, and now I know those stories and I can pass them down to my kids. As you look at the pictures on the wall, share your stories. Not just about the person in the picture, but about God working in and through Farmington. Stories of hurt and challenge, like the disciples would have told about Judas. Stories of long business meetings and times when you didn’t know how to best move forward, like the choosing of Matthias. Amazing stories of transformation that just cannot be explained, like the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And stories of life together, baptizing, taking in new members, learning together, fellowship and breaking bread, praying, serving, and praising God.

Rev. Dr. Tom Long, a Presbyterian pastor, told the story of Pentecost to a little girl in his church. He was just starting his ministry in a small church and announced that “Next Sunday morning at ten o’clock, I’m going to start a pastor’s church school class on the basics of the Christian faith. If you are new to the faith, or if you would like a refresher course in the faith, I invite you to join me next Sunday at ten.”

He says, “The next week, I went to my classroom expecting to greet a throng, and I was immediately disappointed. There were only three elementary school children, three little girls, waiting on me for the class. I tried to hide my disappointment and over the next few weeks to do the best I could to teach them about the Christian faith. The week before Pentecost Sunday, I said to them, “Do you girls know what Pentecost is?”

They didn’t. So, I said, “Well, Pentecost was when the church was seated in a circle and tongues of fire came down from heaven and landed on their heads and they spoke the gospel in all the languages of the world.”

Two of the little girls took that rather calmly, but one of them got her eyes as big as saucers. And when she could finally speak, she said, “Reverend Long, we must have been absent that Sunday!”

Could it happen here? Does it happen here? Is God’s story told? Does God’s Spirit live in us and give us the power and the courage to proclaim God’s truth and God’s will?

Yes. We have a story, a story that transforms, a story that the world needs to hear, and we have the power to tell that story. through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God! Amen.