Confused?

Text: Acts 2:1-21

Focus: Pentecost

Function: to help people see the unifying nature of the Holy Spirit

2:¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷‘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.
¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
        and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above
    and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Today, we say, Happy Birthday Church.

I once lived in a town where the largest church was the traditional Pentecostal Church. And I loved their pastor as a colleague whenever we were planning joint worship services for the entire community. He was as flamboyant as a Pentecostal preacher can be, but he was sincere. And every year at Pentecost, they were not to be undone. It was an huge celebration for them as they brought back to remembrance just what it means to them to be saved.

I get the feeling, without judgment of them, that what it means to them, is the sense of personal empowerment, strength, hope and joy of the Holy Spirit inside of them. They know that the Spirit of God living inside of them makes them special people.

And I agree. God loves the entire world equally. God does not play favorites with humankind. But being part of the Church means that we are people who are part of the family of God here on earth. We have the privilege of calling God our Father and knowing that God cares for us more than we probably realize.

The day of Pentecost, at 9:00 AM must have seemed odd to them. It was bewildering, or as I titled the sermon, it was Confusing.

I preach a lot about equality of the races. I believe that overcoming racism in our culture is a primary challenge facing the church today.

And I had a disagreement with a man who held a literal interpretation of scripture. For me, the problem with that is that at times the scriptures are speaking symbolically and not literally, so the best and most accurate dividing of the word takes that into account. I would be abusing my authority as preacher to take a scripture out of context by making a symbolic passage literal.

Anyway, this man -whose theology was based on a white supremacist interpretation of the scriptures- stated that at the tower of Babel, God separated the races and that racism was given to us by God and we should not fight it.

So look at the story of the tower of Babel from Genesis 11:¹Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²and as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. ⁴Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” ⁵The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. ⁶And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

He said this supported racism.

On a few occasions, I have reminded you the the baptismal vows of the early church included the statement: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, Male nor Female, Slave or Free, but all are one in Christ.” It meant that there was no race, no class, and no gender more important than the other but we are all one in Christ. Being part of the Church meant that we acknowledged this kind of equality.

On the day of Pentecost, we see the power of the Holy Spirit unleashed on the Church so that God can build the church.

And the movement was the movement of the message of Jesus and the one that Jesus commanded us to proclaim; “The kingdom of God is here, now.” It was/is an appeal to join the Kingdom of God and to do things God’s way and not the way of the world.

And we have seen that simply put, the way we do that is to care for others with as much dignity and love that we expect for ourselves.

They killed Jesus because His message was directed against the societal barriers that kept people in bondage.

And now we see the beautiful symbolism inherent in the miracle of speaking in tongues on the birthday of the Church.

I am not against speaking in tongues. I pray in the tongues of the Holy Spirit regularly because I believe it brings the wisdom of God and my passion into the problem as we answer in prayer.

But the focus of this miracle at Pentecost is not the miracle of the tongues but what it symbolized.

The white supremacist who justified his racism with the tower of babel missed the point of the symbolism.

The different languages were still there, but God was communicating to them the message of salvation to them through these people who had no previous knowledge of the language they were speaking in.

The barrier that God had set up was now broken down by the power of God’s Holy Spirit inside of them.

The Spirit of God overcomes the barriers between people who once were enemies.

God is using us to break down the barriers between the races, the genders, the nations and the world.

The tribalism that keeps us motivated so that “our side wins” is defeated by the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us.

Praise God that the Spirit of God is what drives and motivates the church.