In their own language

Acts 2:1-21; 20:19-23

Today we celebrate the Festival of Pentecost. The word Pentecost is from the Greek word for fiftieth. It has been 50 days since the resurrection.

Originally this was a Jewish harvest festival, called The Feast of Weeks but in later times it came to be called Shavuot. The Jewish festival celebrates the giving of the Torah as a gift to the people of Israel. Torah expresses the relationship between God and God’s people, which begins with God telling Abraham “you are blessed so you can be a blessing to others.” In many and various ways, this relationship has continued for thousands of years, all the way to us.

Because Jewish festivals meant – and still mean – family gatherings, there were always thousands of extra people in Jerusalem at festival time. These folks came from around the whole Mediterranean Sea. Many had lived so long in these foreign lands, they no longer spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. They all spoke their home languages as their first language.

Let’s put this language “thing” into context. While some of us are Americans with deep roots in our country, many other families came to the US more recently. Three of my four grandparents came here from Sweden in the early 1900s, so I am third generation American.

My grandparents were all determined to be American, and they worked hard to learn English, but they also continued to speak Swedish at home. My father and my uncle were both born in Minneapolis and spoke Swedish as their first language until they went to school and had to speak English.

By the time they were adults, their speech had no trace of Swedish, but my grandparents all spoke with that lovely Swedish accent. My parents spoke a bit of Swedish to say things they didn’t want me to understand, but otherwise, English was the language we all spoke. So, in just two generations, the language and culture of my heritage has been lost to me.

An important factor in the language we speak is cultural and regional. Even when we all speak English, we have different ways of expressing ourselves. Some of say, “She and I went to the Regal theater and watched a romantic comedy movie.” In contrast, others say, “Me and her saw a romcom.” 

In addition, every generation, every group, has its slang and its idioms, its figures of speech. Younger people write messages in emojis, a whole new language of pictures that carry their own meaning. Sometimes, that slang or idiom or emoji needs to be translated for people who aren’t in that group. There are so many variables to language, it’s not just the words in a dictionary that matter, it’s also the way the words are used.

… So, now, getting back to the story of Pentecost and all those languages. The story from Acts portrays Spirit causing a wild scene, with wind and noise and fire. And then, Spirit enables everyone in the plaza to understand what the disciples were saying. The disciples spoke Aramaic with a Galilean accent, yet people from Rome and Arabia and Egypt and Cyrene all understood what was being said. They all heard the message in their own language, their own slang, their own accent. We know they didn’t all believe what was told to them, but they all understood what was said.

…Whether it is American Sign Language, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, or emojis, if we are going to tell others about Jesus, we need to speak their language. I know this whole idea of telling others about Jesus frightens us. In the 1950s especially, people were taught that telling other folks about Jesus was for the professional ministers: the pastors and trained evangelists. Regular church people were taught that they didn’t have the skills to talk about Jesus, so they didn’t have to do it.  In fact, they shouldn’t do it! And, in the 1960s, we had people shoving Jesus down our throats. “Have you been saved?” Most of us aren’t professionally trained ministers, and we don’t want to shove Jesus down anyone’s throats. So, we are reluctant to talk about Jesus.

Except, this is exactly the opposite of what these two Bible passages today tell us. In John, on the evening of Easter Day, Jesus breathes on the disciples. Receive the Holy Spirit. We note that it’s not an option, it’s a command. “You, my beloved disciples, are getting my Spirit. I am breathing my Spirit into you and sending you out with a sufficient amount of my power so that you will carry on with my mission of forgiving people.”

In Acts, 50 days later, after Jesus has had time to teach the disciples more about how they are to continue his mission, the Holy Spirit is sent into thousands of people. Spirit descends, not just on the disciples, but on thousands of people.

And, now it is not just the trained disciples who have Jesus’ Spirit, but thousands of people, most of whom who are hearing about him for the first time. And what do you suppose they did? They believed and were baptized. And, they went and told their friends about Jesus and what happened that day. And the friends told other friends, who told other friends, who told other friends.

What it takes to share Jesus with others is a willingness to trust that Jesus’ Spirit will put words in our mouths, trust that the language we speak is the right one for the person we are talking with, and that through Spirit our speaking will be translated into hearing and understanding by the one with whom we are talking.

A speaker at a conference on prayer once said, “If you feel your heart pounding, and words coming into your mind, speak them. It is Spirit nudging you to say something.”

I know that you don’t have many opportunities to do this right now, so I ask you to pray that God will make you ready to speak. You can trust that God is right now filling you with the courage, the faith, and the recognition of someone who needs to hear the words that are filling your heart.

Let us not be afraid to tell the stories of Jesus that someone needs to hear. God will help break whatever language barrier there is. It is up to us to speak the words. It is up to Spirit to make sure the words get translated into a meaningful message. And don’t worry about immediate results. Some translations take time.

Amen