Can You Hear Me Now?

ACTS 2:1-21
Video: http://www.islandmonkey.de/jonny/jesus_morph_S01.mov

Rev. Rick Haverly
May 15, 2005

We hear again this morning the description of Pentecost found in the book of Acts. There are all sorts of action taking place here with the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the holiday. We see God’s Spirit coming, described as both wind, and then fire. But what struck me this year was the action of the disciples. First of all, after waiting in the room to receive the Holy Spirit, once it appears they go out into the crowds. In the midst of Jews from every nation they start speaking to them in their native language. This is the amazing moment of this story. It bewildered those in the crowd and the scripture implies, that the disciples were doing something extraordinary. Something that they probably didn’t think they were capable of. This didn’t occur after years of language study preparing them for the mission field. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak in a way that each in the crowd could understand. It wasn’t a universal language that the listeners had to change or be changed in order to understand. It was the disciples who changed in order to effectively communicate the message of Jesus.

When I watched the video of Jesus, I saw the different portrayals of Jesus. Each artist was presenting Jesus to their audience. They are all different, so which one is right. If truth be told, I would guess that none of them are. We don’t have any photographs of Jesus, and he is really not even described physically in the Bible. And all of these portrayals are probably a little to European to be accurate. But they all may be right because they all convey the person of Jesus as the artist perceives him and through that portrayal they communicate Jesus to their audience. The designer of the morph tried to fix the eyes as the focal point as the image changed from one to another. In portrayals of Jesus, visual, oral, or otherwise, there ought to be a common point that holds them together. We could go further with these images. We could show an African Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, an Eskimo Jesus, a Native American Jesus. While we may instantly say these portrayals are wrong because they don’t look like the Jesus that we saw hanging on the wall when we grew up, they would each be continuing the work of Pentecost. They would be translating the good news of Jesus into a culture in a way that they could understand. It is also a continuation of the Christmas, the incarnation, where we are told that God came to live among us in the person of Jesus and that God became like us. So each of these ethnic Jesus pictures shows God sending a Messiah who is like those in each ethnic group.

Simply put, our task, as the descendants of these first Disciples at Pentecost, is to present Jesus in ways that others may hear and understand him. Now in some cases that may mean translating the Bible and preaching into foreign languages. The International Bible Society and foreign missionaries continue this work. But messages may be communicated in other ways than words.

When our youth went to Mexico this past February, we had a great opportunity to interact with the members of the church in Mazatlan. They made a great attempt to help us understand by giving us each headphones for worship and having an interpreter who would speak in English so that we could understand. Beyond worship, some of our youth would speak to them in Spanish and some of their youth would speak to us in English. But when our knowledge of each others language was insufficient they found other ways to communicate. They might try hand gestures or other motions to show their point almost like a small game of charades. They might just participate in an activity that did not need words. But throughout the week, we found ways to communicate with each other that really made us feel connected.

Most of us don’t need to know a foreign language to fulfill the ministry we have been called to through Pentecost. But each of us does need to find ways to communicate the good news of Jesus effectively to those around us. Sometimes that may mean we say the right thing about Jesus that allows them to understand. But most of the time we will find other ways of communicating. We may participate in an Americares Work Day to show our faith calls us to help those in need because we serve a savior who came to help those in need and has helped us in our needs. We may just be with a friend at a particularly difficult time of their life. We may not even have words that are helpful, but we will be with them and offer ourselves to their care as they struggle. And with that we understand and may help them understand that God is present with us in our own struggles. The Stephen Ministers often fulfill this ministry in this way.

We each try to communicate through our lives and teaching, an understanding of the Christian Gospel, as we charge parents to do for their children in the baptismal vows. That is a task that we should all undertake for those we share life with. To do that we need to build relationships of trust and respect to be effective. Those relationships enable us to be heard. Imagine yourself going to work and having a stranger come up to you and tell you your hair is awful. You might think, “What a jerk!” But you hear it totally differently if your best friend pulls you aside and asks, “What happened to your hair? There’s something wrong?” It’s the same message but you hear it very differently. The relationship makes the difference.

I’ve become so used to cell phones now that it is often frustrating to be in an area where I come to a dead spot or where I receive no signal. I wish they would put more towers up so the signal could get through. It used to be I had no service in my home until they just added some new antennae a couple of months ago. We as Christians are God’s cell phone towers. We enable God’s message to reach people in throughout the world. You carry God’s message into your family. You carry God’s message into your workplace, into your school, into your group of friends. Without your work that message may never get through. But it doesn’t mean that you just start reading the Bible to everyone there. Like the first Disciples you have to find ways to bring that message in a way that they can understand, in their own language, in their own life. The Holy Spirit empowers us for that work and makes us effective. That is the miracle of Pentecost 2000 years ago and the miracle of Pentecost now. May we astonish those who witness our message and surprise ourselves in the work.