(Delivered to Berowra Uniting Church on 23 May 2010 – Pentecost)
Language is a very strange thing
How is it that you understand what I am saying?
When you hear something in a language you don’t know, it makes no sense. It might as well be gibberish. But why is a language we know any different?
If I have a mental image – like a beautiful sunset over the sea – and make certain noises with my vocal chords (like I am doing right now), how does that make an image of a sunset over the sea appear in your mind?
How can mere sound convey meaning?
How can some ink on paper communicate anything?
But language is also very limited
Hard to imagine something for which we have no words e.g. wine tasting
My reflection on the Bible readings is about expressing the inexpressible
I’m going to follow a What, So What, Now What structure
What? – Acts 2:1-21
Jesus followers were gathered together 50 days after his death.
- Although many of them had seen Jesus alive again, and some had witnessed him disappearing again, they were still in a state of confusion about what would happen next.
- Rushing wind
- Tongues of fire resting on each one of them
- Filled with the Holy spirit
- Speaking in many languages that the intrigued but sceptical crowd could understand
The recount in Acts does not indicate what the disciples were saying in those varied languages.
I’m fascinated by the process of language translation, and have followed with great interest the progress in automated translation by computer.
- Russian translation of “The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”
- “The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten.”
So what? – John 14:8-27
Tower of Babel
- God deliberately restricted our ability to communicate
- The coming of the HS at Pentecost reverses it
- Nevertheless, we still commonly misunderstand each other, even when speaking the same language.
- After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the church board following the close of the service. The first man to arrive was a stranger. ‘You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board,” said the minister. ‘I know,” said the man, ‘but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, I’d like to meet him.”
For all the wonder of language, there are still many things that can’t be expressed in words
- Language is in fact very limited.
- Words are very poor at expressing emotions, which is why we rely far more on body language to sense and understand people’s feelings.
- Sunsets, waterfalls, light and darkness, fire and ice, music, art, colours and smells can all convey meaning in more deeply expressive ways than words.
- Our understanding of God is severely restricted by the lack of suitable words. There are no words to describe the nature of God and even though we might experience God in prayer, in rainbows, in the silence, in the power of thunder, we cannot translate that experience into words.
- To the Jews, the very name of God is unspeakable.
- Just later in Romans: “We do not know what to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Rom 6:26)
- Sometimes groans can express more than words
What’s the significance of fire in the events of Pentecost?
1. What does fire give us?
- Light
- Heat
2. Where else does the Bible mention fire?
- Refiners fire, purification
- Burning bush à holy ground
- Pillars of fire and cloud leading Israel out of Egypt
- Fiery chariot
- Fire of hell – punishment
The events in Acts fulfill what Jesus promised less than two months earlier
- v16: “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever”
- Pentecost is fundamentally about the coming of the promised HS to guide God’s people, both individually and as jointly as the Church.
Next week is Trinity Sunday, in which we emphasise the way the early Church tried to make sense to this expereince of God.
- Jesus words recorded in John need to be read against the background of Judaic monotheism. Jesus, the apostles and the readers of John’s Gospel believed there was but one God, the creator of all that is, visible and invisible.
- What would those people have made of Jesus repeated claim that “I am in the Father and that the Father is in me”? and “If you know me then you know the Father”?
- And how would they have understood “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”
- “I will send another Counsellor … the HS”; that is, a replacement for me.
- How could the early disciples make sense of this except by thinking that the one true God was made manifest in both Jesus, and in the HS who empowered them to speak in tongues at Pentecost?
- They knew the God of their ancestors. They experienced the man Jesus who claimed equality with God, whom he called “Father”. They experienced the fire and wind that was the HS.
- Although neither they nor we can explain the concept adequately, they became Trinitarians.
Now what? – Romans 8:14-17
The coming of the HS signifies a couple of things
- The start of the Church
- The on-going presence of Jesus
In the light of Pentecost, how do we then live?
We should live as though we are children of God by adoption
- Not only made by God in the first place, but chosen by God to join in the holy family
- V17: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ”
- We should live with pride and with hope.
- Another consequence of being in the family is that we can address the un-nameable God as Father. Paul goes even further and says we can call God “daddy”.
- As brothers and sisters of Jesus, we should expect both suffering and glory
- And according to the promise of Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit that appeared as fire on the heads of the first disciples will guide us in truth and bring us peace.