You Are the Voice of God (Don’t Panic!)
Because we know the story of Pentecost so well, it is all too easy to dismiss it. The tongues of fire descend on the apostles and they begin to proclaim the gospel in all the different languages of the multi-national and multi-ethnic group gathered in the city.
If we stop and think for a moment, however, we might question and wonder that this is the way in which the Holy Spirit chose to manifest.
Presumably the Holy Spirit could have come and empowered the disciples to do anything.
They could have been empowered to heal people or feed people, to do the same types of miracles that Jesus did.
But instead they were empowered to speak, not just speak, but communicate. What do you make of that?
Well, it says something about the nature of the work the disciples are called to do to birth the church. It must be primarily a task of communication, both speaking and teaching.
Deeds of power are useless without the words that explain them, that tell who is responsible for them and what they mean.
That’s why we have a sermon on Sunday morning.
The Eucharist is incredibly important, but if we didn’t have the opportunity to listen and speak and reflect on Scripture and the Eucharist and what they mean in our lives, we wouldn’t get very far in our Christian walk.
And the disciples wouldn’t have gotten very far in building the church if they did not have the ability to communicate the nature of the gospel.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost a breaking down of the barriers to communication that exist in our lives.
This has important implications for us in two ways. Continue reading