Ecumenical Service – June 12, 2011
Common Tongues, Uncommon Ears – Rev. David Mundy
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 Acts 2:1-21
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This is a truly auspicious
morning in the life of our family. Two weekends ago our son whose name is Isaac
was ordained as a United Church minister, representing the fourth generation of
pastors in our tribe.
Today is his first official
Sunday with his congregation in the Eastern Township of Quebec. How appropriate
that on Pentecost Sunday, often called the birthday of the Christian church, he
will be leading worship in his new congregation.
When Isaac applied for this
position one of the expectations was that he has the ability to speak in
tongues. If this doesn’t sound like a United Church to you, I hasten to add
that this was not the congregation’s desire that he be blessed with the gift of
the Holy Spirit which is sometimes called glossolalia. It was the practical
concern that in a community where 85% of the population is Francophone, he
would be conversant in both official languages. Fortunately he is, which
sometimes it perplexes and amazes his very unilingual parents.
While the congregation is
Anglophone, it realizes that they are choosing isolation if their spiritual
leader is unable to speak the language of the significant majority of the folk
in the town and the region. In fact, the English-speaking congregations of all
denominations are closing at an alarming rate, having been unwilling or unable
to adapt to a changing landscape.
It’s sad really, because all
of those congregations were established with the earnest desire to share the
Good News of Jesus the Christ, the one who brings abundant life and eternal
life to those who place their trust in him. Somehow, though, they missed the
challenge of speaking the language that people needed to hear, literally and
figuratively.
We have a number of
expressions in our English language about finding a common purpose which
include:
Rowing in the same direction
Reading from the same page
Singing from the same hymn
book
Speaking the same language
This morning is Pentecost
Sunday, a celebration of the birth of the church nearly two thousand years ago.
No doubt most of us are familiar with the story. Fifty days after the
resurrection of Jesus, a group of his followers is in Jerusalem during the
Jewish feast of the same name which one of the three great celebrations of that
faith. The Jewish Pentecost is still celebrated and Shavuot took place this
last week. In ancient times Jews from around the world came to the city of the
temple for this shared celebration even though they spoke a variety of
languages.
We get the impression from Acts that this was
not exactly a celebration for the followers of Jesus. They come across as a
rather uncertain and confused lot, who aren’t calling themselves Christians at
this point. They are still tentative about who their leaders are, and
essentially asking, “what next?”
The “what next” is mysterious
and glorious. We read about the sound of the rushing wind and the tongues of
fire as exciting manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Then the followers tumble
out of the safe confines of their room and begin communicating publicly in
languages other than their own.
In the Pentecost story we
move from what appears to outsiders as unholy chaos to Holy Communication,
which includes a sermon from Peter which is an eloquent and powerful invitation
to new life in Christ. Not bad for a fisherman!
Peter gets most of his
message right, although he made one crucial mistake right at the beginning. He
argues that they couldn’t be drunk because it is nine o’clock in the morning.
We live across the parking lot from a local tavern here in Bowmanville
and I can tell you from bitter experience that partiers can be inebriated in
the early morning hours.
What we might miss is that
this story is as much about hearing as much as it is about speaking. Not only
do they discover common tongues through which the gospel of Jesus Christ is
shared, they develop uncommon ears which allow them to actually hear one
another, and to hear the Good News of new life through the Risen Christ.
As we gather here together
from our various denominational tribes and nations, we can ask whether we have
received these gifts of the Holy Spirit. With two thousand years to get it
right, have we learned to hear in this truly uncommon way? In Paul’s letter to
the Asian church of Ephesus he says:
You were all called to
travel on the same road and in the same direction,
so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.
You have one Master, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who rules over all, works through all, and is present in
all.
Everything you are and
think and do is permeated with Oneness.
That is Eugene Peterson’s
paraphrase of these verses and it says it well.
Yet we do seem to be rather
tentative about where we are going as the broader community of Christ and
whether we can do so together. And it seems to me that one of the reasons that
a growing number of people in our culture tend to close their ears to us is
because we act as though Pentecost never happened. They don’t articulate it
that way, but all of us have had the conversations, perhaps with friends and
members of our families, who point out that Christians seem to be incapable of
getting along with one another, so why would they give us the time of day. They
figure we are back at the Tower of Babel with its arrogant and incoherent
cacophony of languages.
I have been to Israel a
number of times and on one of my first trips the guide, who became a friend, asked
some tactful questions which I realized was an attempt to find out what “brand”
of Christian I was. She was Jewish and had discovered that Christians could be
very different, including in the language of faith they used.
She was our guide on another
occasion and she confided to me that the most challenging groups for her to
guide were those made up of clergy from different denominations. They tended to
squabble with one another and talk past one another rather than really
listening with humility and openness. More than once these clergy groups went
through the whole trip without sharing communion or the Lord’s Supper because
they couldn’t agree on how it would unfold and what words would be used.
As she shared, I was
embarrassed that this was the rather negative Christian witness she had
observed. But we do know that it has always been a challenge for Christians to
get along. Even though Peter preached that powerful Pentecost sermon and many
believed, when we read on in Acts we discover that it takes a while before he
and the apostle Paul can hear the other.
It is possible, though, to
find our common language and to listen. It always requires us to repent of the
sinfulness of pride which masquerades as a virtue but it can happen and we have
seen it right here in our community.
This service is certainly an
example. One of the real privileges of ministry for me during this past year
has been involvement in The Gathering Place dinner which is sponsored by
our Bowmanville ministerial. We have managed to come
together in what is an important common purpose of feeding folk in body, mind,
in spirit.
It is really a joy to see the
spirit of cooperation and commitment amongst the volunteers, nearly all lay people
from nine different congregations. Even though there are a remarkable number of
volunteers for The Gathering Place with a Dutch heritage, we speak a
common language of compassion and offering a cup of cold water in Christ’s
name.
Not only have we developed
that spirit of cooperation amongst ourselves, we have been a witness in the
wider community. Two weeks ago I spoke with a couple who have started coming to
our church. They are relatively new to the community and saw one of the
newspaper articles about The Gathering Place. They sought us out because
they were impressed that our churches have come together to welcome those who
are vulnerable in our midst.
Today we can acknowledge that
through the gift of the Holy Spirit some speak in ecstatic tongues.
For all of us though, there
is the glorious possibility of a common voice and the uncommon ability to
listen because we belong to Christ and are redeemed in Christ.
When Peter preached he quoted
from the prophet Joel
In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
If the prophetic voice is
daring speech calling for bold action, then we will do what is necessary to
proclaim Christ together. There is a saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi
which is “whenever possible, preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.”
Like Peter and Paul we can be moved
to put aside some of our deeply held convictions and even our suspicions to
share that gospel which has changed our lives, through our living. The question “what next” can be one of
anticipation.
Have you noticed that even
when we come to this service we are inclined to play it safe and sit with those
we know? Sure we are here to worship together but we do tend to huddle with our
own gang!
So as a symbolic gesture, why don’t we all get up and find someone we don’t know. We might say, “the peace of Christ be with you.” If we would prefer something simpler, we can offer the word “shalom” which means peace. Speak and listen together.