Speaking … & Hearing
“…in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” The crowds gathered for the Pentecost celebration were overwhelmed with the surprise of God’s Spirit – tongues of flame and shouts of wind disturbed and enabled the disciples to speak God’s word for all to hear. The wonder of…
“…in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” The crowds gathered for the Pentecost celebration were overwhelmed with the surprise of God’s Spirit – tongues of flame and shouts of wind disturbed and enabled the disciples to speak God’s word for all to hear.
The wonder of that event is often constrained into the gifts of languages the disciples received, whereas Luke tells us that it is not just the speaking, but the hearing, which is inspired. All the world can hear the gospel!
When the disciples were together this time, it was in expectation, gathered for the purpose of God, not fearful as they had been. This wonderful renewal for the disciples follows soon after Jesus’ resurrection breath and blessing, where Thomas and the others are sent as Jesus was, into the world, living out forgiveness.
Is this how the renewal of the church appears? It is people able to hear the gospel in the language they know, to understand God’s word “in the language of the living room”; it’s the offer of forgiveness when we live in a world of apparent powerlessness and punishment; it’s real hope found in Christ, when hope has become trivialised to an aspiration for better luck or better weather.
It’s learning to hear God’s Spirit and offering that hope to others, with encouragement, or discernment, or blessing. It’s learning to trust that God speaks to each of us, perhaps in the wonder of prophecy and knowledge, or perhaps in the graciousness and wisdom of a friend. Perhaps Pentecost is revealed when we learn to forgive and be forgiven, or to speak up in justice for someone who has never heard God’s deeds of power.
We rely all too easily on our own strength, our own plans, our own sense of purpose. Pentecost reminds us that renewal is not one moment, but the constant promise of God’s Spirit within the Church and without it.
What will it mean for each of us to wait, to watch and to act within this promise – to trust that Pentecost is not one moment, but the intention of God for all of us?