Pentecost - The Holy Spirit Comes

Ready or not, the Holy Spirit is here! Join Pastor Katie, David, and Keith as the explore the story of the Holy Spirit showing up in the community of believers at Pentecost and how this story impacts our faith lives today.

Reading: Acts 2:1-24

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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

And welcome to this Pentecost edition of Facets of Faith, where we hear the, let's be honest, the wild story of Pentecost. And when I say wild, I mean wild. There is blowing wind and tongues of fire and a cacophony of languages. And yet, through it all, we hear how this story is inviting us to become not people who just hear the story of Jesus, but people who live the story of Jesus. I hope you enjoy this conversation as we reflect on not only this text in Scripture, but also this text in our daily lives.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

From Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard the sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't all these who were speaking Galileans? And how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, What does this mean? Some, however, made fun of them and said, They have had too much wine. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Thank you. So we shifted our standard practice. We've been reading from the Gospel of the Sunday since we began this podcast. But in this coming Sunday, we are celebrating the festival of Pentecost. And in Pentecost, that story is all about this story out of Acts. And so there's so, so much here. Um, there is a lot of connections to Jewish practices of the times, there is a lot of weird and crazy names, there is a lot of Holy Spirit, there is a lot of confusion and bewilderment, and so I have no doubt that this reading will offer us a lot of fodder for conversation, for consideration, and ultimately for the Holy Spirit to move in and through us as we hear and explore this word of God and how it connects to our own facets of faith.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

After they heard the wind and the fire, they started talking in tongues. What were they saying? Like they never we never talk about what they were saying. And of course, it's like we're spec we would be speculating. Are they talking about Jesus? Are they just did they just were they already in conversation and then they just started speaking in a different language? Like so I like I'm kind of I've always been curious to know well what what was being said in these other languages that obviously then started to compel larger crowds to come and listen in the first place. Other than the fact that they're speaking in different languages, what were they saying that, you know, like, hey, this is interesting, I can hear what they're you know, I understand what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

I think that would be a fascinating creative writing prompt. Imagine you are hearing the apostles at the Pentecost. What did you hear them say? And basically what you're asking someone to do is write down what do you think is the core of the gospel message as we know it in Jesus Christ? Because I assume that's what they're talking about. They are talking about Jesus Christ came, lived among us as one of us, but was God's word incarnate, um, died, rose from the dead, ascended, and offered, offers forgiveness for all and and reconnection with God for all, um, and just kind of teaching and proclaiming that good news, that forgiveness of all, that mercy for all. Um but that would be a that would be a neat creative writing prompt to have someone actually compose out, you know, 200 words, not long. Something short. Because obviously, if you're a teacher if you're just like yelling into a crowd, it's not gonna be some long discourse. These are probably something short, pithy, elevator speech approaches to the gospel. And that's something to look back a couple weeks at the uh 1 Peter reading from not too long ago, where it said, uh be ready to defend or explain that which gives you hope. Like having that elevator speech that you could see being told at Acts is something that we should all kind of have in our pockets on some level, because that's the core, that's what we take out into the world and say, this is the good news that I know, and I want to tell you about what I have experienced.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

And I wonder if the apostles understood each other. Like if all of a sudden you start speaking in Russian and I start speaking in Chinese, would would we understand each other if we're saying the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Well, and that's the neat thing with the way this text is composed. Um, it's not necessarily clear where the spirit is translating things. Um it's not Could it be in the listener's ear?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

It could be in the listener's ear. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Because that actually fits within some um other Jewish scriptures and um Jewish interpretation of scriptures, wherein it's kind of thought that people hear what they are able to hear from God. Um, or and God enables us to hear as we are intended to hear and that kind of stuff. And so then the Pentecost, when these people are hearing in their native tongues and their idioms and their dialects and all this stuff, they are hearing what the message God has for them that day. And it's not, um who knows, maybe the disciples didn't even know what they were saying. Or maybe they thought they were speaking in uh Aramaic and everyone was hearing it in whatever language they knew. I mean, there's this sense that no one was left out of understanding, however, that happened.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Um, whether they all suddenly spoke like you were speaking Russian and you were hearing Russian, and that was awesome, but I, as I'm speaking Italian, I can understand Russian just fine. I don't who knows. Um, but it's that's part of the mystery of the event, and the coolness of it is that everyone can be brought together in unity without uniformity.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

You know, if anything, I wish we would just go from 22 to 24 as well. I mean, because that part of the message was probably like Keith, you were asking about what it was it that they said. Or Pastor, you were saying what kind of um elevator speech this would have been the text that they would have been saying. Yeah, go ahead and read it. Fellow Israelites, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of the wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

We can have that decision.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I mean, that really kind of just ties it together. That's in my mind, I that's almost like what all the apostles were were preaching. Saying, hey, you guys, remember the story? This is who this guy is. This is who this guy is. Yeah, and right, I guess, right. Because ending, I mean, with the Joel quote, it just didn't make it for me. But continuing on the next paragraph kind of ties it together.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah, it puts it all together. Yeah, but I mean, to that point then, I mean, that is that is exactly right. That kind of does bookend everything very nicely. That is the well, that is a very good elevator speech, right? In what, three three verses? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

So I'm thinking sermon now. Okay. Um in our on your mark gets set, go, red light, yellow light, green light. But also creating that elevator speech that we were just talking about is that getting ready. And so by having this in there of like, now you can't use this one, no copying at the teacher here. But um, but using this as kind of that kickoff, and maybe that's the whole theory, the whole theme of the Pentecost sermon, is that you're going to be sent. How are you preparing? Like, let's get ready. Um, and then part of that getting ready is thinking about how do you proclaim the message? What will you say when you go out there? Or what are you saying while you're in here that is proclaiming the message here too.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah, because those three verses, I mean, tie up the whole three years of Jesus in in three sentences. And the the finale is yes, now he was raised from the dead. So it is impossible for death to keep its hold on him, just as it is for us. I think also something that both of you were saying, I was thinking to the listener of this podcast, they would probably have to say to themselves, or at least I think the assignment is, find what that is in your life. What is that touch point in your life that draws you to Christ? And then also, when you find that, ask yourself, how would you share that with the person that you meet next? What would what would be the way that you could do uh you you're using the uh the elevate your speech kind of thing, but what is the simplest way that you could uh convey that touch point in you to try to draw someone else to Jesus? That's really hard.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Really hard.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

And I think I think that's what this this whole reading tells me is is here's where the the basic is. This is the basis. I mean, we can have all that history, we can we can have all the knowledge and and book learning and things like that, but here's the basics, and this is where it touches me.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

And to think about all of our listeners, um, I know there are some listeners for whom their answer is I don't know, and it's because they're still asking the questions to get to know Christ, and they're still not even sure what this whole thing's about. And so maybe the question isn't necessarily isn't necessarily what compels you to participate in this life of faith, but what is it that compels you to be curious about this life of faith? What is it that compels you? Maybe we're not the apostles in this story, maybe we're the ones listening. What are what is compelling us to stay in that space and hear the good news? What are we hoping to hear? Or what is it that's causing us to dwell in this thing that really makes no sense? Um, because uh the Pentecost makes no sense, they're all bewildered and perplexed and just lost. And sometimes when we look at faith and we talk about, you know, here is bread and wine, and we say this is Jesus' real presence, on the base level, that doesn't make sense. Right. But in faith, in our relationship with God, it is true. And so there's, I think, something of that shift that compels us to stay and dwell in this space so that we can experience the truth of this good news.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And a few weeks ago, we talked about how having doubts or asking questions actually gives us the opportunity to grow in faith. And I think that's exactly what draws me here. That's what draws me more into faith and more into discovery of who this Jesus is and what this faith is all about.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

So maybe the prompt isn't the creative writing prompt isn't write down what you think they said, like what would be your preaching moment. Maybe the prompt is write down what you wish you had heard them say.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Very good. Or what did you hear?

unknown 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, I mean, it's the same, same thing, a little bit different. Yeah, yeah. Because then that flips it to the preaching side. Or ask, what would you want to hear? What do you need to hear? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I as as you two have been chatting, I'm I'm seeing that I'm seeing like a like a parallel of actual language and words being spoken to to people listening, as well as, you know, David, you mentioned the touch point. And everybody's touch point is their own language, like air quotes language, right? So your touch, you know, as past well, Pastor said, you know, forgiveness is a is the touch point for some people, and the well, you're better at giving the examples than I am, but like you gave a couple, three or four different examples of various people may enter into the relationship with God in radically different ways. I have my own, you have your own, and that's a different language. And we interface with the Bible, the word, a different way. My favorite verses are different than yours, and which is different than somebody else's. And it's it's very it's very parallel to the actual text where the apostles are speaking and hearing different languages, right? And I'm not suggesting that they're saying things different from one another. Maybe they are literally saying the same thing in the just different languages, but I do think that you can draw a parallel there to say, okay, well, how do we all come into this relationship with Christ? It's not the same way, not all of us enter the same way.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Yeah, and there's a um a blog writer, her name is Danielle Schroyer. I hope I'm saying that correctly, but she quotes, without Pentecost, we would just be people who tell Jesus story. With Pentecost, we are people who live into Jesus' story. And I think that's the same idea of we have our touch points that draw us into this story, and at Pentecost, we we cease to be just listeners and we become we become participants in this story through those touch points that then inspire where then the Holy Spirit inspires us and moves us into being able to be the person who then tells the story.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Um well both. Right. Because uh David mentioned something about like do you are you listening or are you preaching? And I think you can I can I think you can go, but I think you can flex both ways. There are times like in my recent memory where on a Saturday I may be the preacher preaching to a confirmation class, and then on a Sunday I'm listening to a a sermon from the pastor that challenges my my belief structure. So I'm listening and and versus preaching, right? And it's you can move in and out of listener preacher depending on this depending on the situation.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Well, and even in the same situation, I'm I'm kind of reflecting back on my own preaching. Um and when you said you can be both, I I had a moment of panic of like, oh, I don't listen enough. But actually, you know what, I think I I do listen, I do absolutely listen. Um I listen to the wisdom that surprises me from people throughout the week and whatnot. But then also as I'm preaching, um, I typically preach without notes. That's for a couple of reasons. One is I feel like I can um like I feel like people connect better and it's it's a little bit more of a it's more intimate. It's a more intimate way of preaching, and I feel like especially in a smaller congregation, that works well. Um in a massive space, I wouldn't necessarily be the same way. And um, but the other reason, and perhaps the biggest reason, is because when I'm preaching, I'm looking at faces. And if someone gives me a look that's like a what'd you just say? I will, if I catch it, and if I'm re if I am nimble enough in the moment, I will try to rephrase what I just said in another way to try to help people get back online with what I'm saying. Um, or if people are like nodding along, um I might take that path a little further. Or if people are looking at, I mean, looking at their phones or writing on their bulletins and like, all right, we need to shift into a different gear and I need to get their attention back. Um, and so this idea of preaching is a conversation and it's not just a thing that happens, it's not a speech I give every week. And I think when we think about this kind of preaching that they're doing here, maybe it's that same concept. It's a conversation that they're having with the people. In which case, then when we get into being sent out next week finally, the the goal is you all now go and preach, but don't preach in the 21st century way of understanding the word. Go and preach in this conversational, relatable way that connects with your people. So I want to go back to what you said of like, I don't think I could come up with that elevator speech. I'm just gonna pull one little pastor line. You can't, but with the help of the Holy Spirit. You can cut that out. I just have to slide that in. Okay, yeah. Um because that's I mean, but that that that is what's happening here. Like the disciples, and maybe that I mean there's something with there with Peter too. Like Peter, there's this I said light bulb moment earlier, and I don't think it's the tongue of fire. Like that is literally a light bulb. Um, he didn't get anything, like he was lost, he was misunderstanding, whatever. And then with the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit fills him in this moment at Pentecost, that's when he's able to preach. He's not able to preach because he finally, you know, studied hard enough and got the right answers. He's able to preach because he took a back seat and let the Holy Spirit take over. And I think that's the same thing for us too when we talk about our faith. We don't have the language, we don't have the technical verbiage and jargon to explain faith, but when we let the Holy Spirit move in and through us, then we might be able to say something.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

As you were talking, I think that is the answer to the elevator speech question. The I am convinced, I am more convinced, I'm gonna go anti-pastor statement, there's no way that if I tried to force an elevator speech, I'd be able to do it on my own. There's there's just no way. But I am convinced that if I was put in a position where I literally did need to give an elevator speech. Like if like if I was on an elevator and somebody reached out, you know, whatever, I don't, I don't know what that circumstance would look like, but I would have what I need at that moment in time to give that person whatever they need. Because I don't have anything prepared. I would respond as a hum as a faithful human. And if I stop short there, just through the response of a faithful human, a faithful Christian, God will do the rest. I just get out of the way. God will make my mouth work and do the rest. And that's the speech.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Maybe it's a personality difference too. Because I have been asked that question, and you know what my response was? As a pastor? Uh like it was like I don't even know where to begin. Um and and I was fumbling for where it was. Not a good experience for either one of us in that particular case. And so since then, that's when I've started to think like I need to have, even if it's not a memorized 150-word speech, like I need to know what is the core of the good news for me, so that when someone says, Why do you do this? I might not know the exact language I'm gonna use, I might not know exactly what words are gonna come out of my mouth, but I know what I want to get across. Um and that's how I do that's how I approach sermons too. Like I don't I don't have specific words. When I have specific words, then I need my manuscripts because I don't memorize anything. I'm terrible at memorizing, in case you haven't figured that out yet. But I know what I want people to walk away with. And so that's when I trust the Holy Spirit to say, how can I get this through? And then I get in the Holy Spirit's way sometimes, but that's a different issue.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

I think we all do that, you know. And I think that would I would be like you. Um, I I would be fumbling around, and I would pray that I could be more like you, Keith, where I could just open my mouth and trust that the Holy Spirit will bring words to my mouth. But I think I would probably get in my way.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yeah, don't misunderstand. I'm not I'm not I am certainly not suggesting, as I sit here in a church, that I have had that experience in a very and a very positive one. I have also stumbled quite mightily. But I but I am convinced. I I mean I will double down on that. I am convinced if I was really put in a in a position where a fellow human being was really like kind of again, air quotes, on their knees, and I was put in that position, there's there's no there's no way that I'm given the wrong answer. There I there can't be. Like why would be in that why would we be in that position? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

True.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Maybe the situation just wasn't as divine, right? Like though those, okay, yeah, and maybe I swung and missed, and that's bad. Maybe I should have a canned response.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

I I think you said a phrase there that is key. You won't say the wrong answer. Um because when we dwell in faith, when we dwell in God's presence, we're not going to suddenly accidentally say, um, I go to church because mom told me to. Um when we are actively living in faith, that's not gonna be an answer that comes to us. Um and I think when we think about when someone says, What is the reason you go to church? I don't know. Because there's five million of them, and I don't know which one to pick in this moment, and so when I when I have that standard response of, I believe in Jesus Christ because I believe in the power of life in the face of death, joy in the face of grief, and comfort in the face of sorrow, and all those kinds of things that I tie together, um, that gives me kind of the kickoff point. And it's like now I can tell you where I experience that and how I experienced that. But if I don't have that concept ready, it's like, well, is it is it is it because of the grace? Is it because of the cool connections with the Hebrew scriptures? Is it because of forgiveness? Is it because of love? Is it because of the compelling push towards justice? Is it because uh Jesus fed people? I think that's really cool. Uh like um and I I personally, when I don't have kind of the, we're gonna start here, I personally struggle. And so that's where the elevator speech helps me, is just the you can start here, and it's it's just a beginning. We hope you enjoyed this conversation of a facet of faith as much as we enjoyed having it. We invite you to like and share this podcast with others so that we can continue to have this conversation beyond just this one moment. You are invited to send us a message with your own comments and questions and the ways that this is impacting your own journey of faith. Let us pray. Oh God, on this day, you open the hearts of your faithful people by sending into us your Holy Spirit. Direct us by the light of that spirit that we may have a right judgment in all things and rejoice at all times in your peace through Jesus Christ, your Son, and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Be sure to tune in next week for a new episode of Facets of Faith.