The Rev. Dr. Darrel Barrow is District Superintendent of the Crossroads District, North Central United Methodist Conference 

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The Rev. Dr. Darrel Barrow is District Superintendent of the Crossroads District, North Central United Methodist Conference 

"THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE"

ACTS 2:1-21

Picture the very strange scene. The apostles were all hanging out in Jerusalem, baffled, bewildered, dumbfounded, stupefied, trying to develop a marketing strategy for God who allows God's own son to be crucified, and suddenly, from heaven comes a sound like the rush of wind and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues.

Now if I were Peter at this point, I think I'd be pretty angry at God. As if worshiping a crucified savior weren't enough, now they're supposed to go around speaking foreign languages sounding like they're crazy!

But God knew what God was doing, because the Jews from all over Jerusalem began to take notice. Now Jerusalem was a center of commerce, so folks from all over the world were in town, and when they heard the apostles speaking in tongues, they all understood each other in their native language.

It is impossible to explain what happened on that first Pentecost. All we know is that frightened people became courageous, stuttering tongues became eloquent, obscure people turned the world upside down and right side up! Luke simply says: "They spoke in other tongues."

The crowd tries to explain away this strange work of the Holy Spirit, figuring all the apostles must be drunk. Which, if we're being honest, sounds like a pretty logical conclusion?

But Peter stands up and sets the record straight. As he speaks to the crowds,
he does not try to explain away the oddities, he does not apologize, he does not say, "let me think about this, and I'll get back to you." He stands up and yells, "This was spoken to the prophet Joel" and he goes on to quote scripture off the top of his head. Then Peter quotes the psalms of King David.

Peter says this miracle of interpretation of tongues was all about God. He
ends his preaching with the climax, Therefore, let the whole world know that God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah.

If I witnessed a ragtag cultish group of strangers start spouting-off in foreign
languages, I'm pretty sure my first response would be to hightail it out of there, not to quote the Bible. But when the apostles were speaking in strange tongues, Peter immediately looks to scripture and explains how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together to the wonderful works of God.

We're called to live life through this same lens of giving glory to God for the
wonderful works of God. It's a lens that doesn't always lead to comfortable
situations, or to easy ones, but it's the holy path. So often, as the Epistle of James points out, our tongues show who and what we really are. Like Peter, "our speech betrays us." You see when we can so easily speak with a confusion of tongues, sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter; sometimes truthful, sometimes lying; sometimes placid, sometimes angry. When the Holy Spirit gives us utterance we speak in other tongues. Our speech is good and wholesome. Then our ready tongue makes haste to sing the glories and wonders of our God. When we speak like that the age-long miracle recurs and Pentecost happens to us.

We are told that every person heard them speaking in one's own language. This does not mean that they could understand all the actual words, since that would have made the apostolic platform a babble of tongues in which no message could be properly heard. It rather meant that through their words all the people, from all the nations, caught their enthusiasm, felt their love, experienced through their personalities the innermost meaning of the message. All could therefore understand. When we speak with other tongues, other languages under the direction of the Holy Spirit we employ the one language all people can understand; the universal language of love. The art of hearing this language of love does not require linguistic skill or endless perseverance. It requires only the willingness to commit ourselves to God and to open our hearts to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Then our hearts will be full of Christ and will long its glorious wonders to declare. We will speak with ease and eloquence and conviction for we would be speaking not only with our lips but in our lives. This is a language which people of every country can understand and one which will bring blessing to us all- this universal language of love.

Sometimes speaking this language of love is crying with your neighbor in grief, or shouting your troubles at the Lord in prayer, or putting your hands to work in the wake of natural disaster. A life of giving glory to God for this language of love is not somehow simple or straightforward, it's just faithful!

In fact, if you view your life through the lens of giving glory to God for God's wonderful works of love, people will call you crazy! The crowd thought Peter and the apostles were drunk; they sneered and said, 'They must be filled with new wine. '" And, indeed, giving glory to God in all things might get folks thinking you're under the influence. Funny thing is, Peter and the apostles in Acts are under the influence, they're under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who is the impetus of this love and that leads to some amazing experiences.

Our reading this morning stopped at verse 21, but we really cut Peter off in
mid-sermon, If we keep reading, we find that Peter continues preaching, quoting scripture, explaining the world through the lens of God's love and glory, and at the end of his sermon the crowd was baffled, taken aback, or as one translation puts it, "cut to the heart."

They believed, and wanted to know what to do, so Peter instructed the apostles to baptize them. And on that morning about 3,000 were baptized. That's why we celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the church! But the newly baptized didn't stop there, [listen to that friends] they didn't go back to their normal lives with the same lens for the living they held before [listen up]. Acts tells us that awe and wonder came upon them, and all who believed held all things in common, sold their goods and
possessions, and distributed the proceeds to the needy. This is crazy stuff!

But this is the beginning of the practice of the spiritual disciplines - of prayer, of sacrificial and consistent giving, of the reading and studying of scriptures, of attending to the needy among them and outside of them. It grew the church. You see friends it is in paying attention to spiritual growth and spiritual disciplines in the spirit of love that grows the church. This is crazy stuff, so some thought!

It's almost like they were drunk, making what seemed like irrational decisions-selling their possessions and giving the proceeds away, praying and reading the scriptures! Funny thing that giving glory to God's works of love, if you do it, truly do it, people will call you crazy!

I heard one of these crazies told his story on American radio some months ago. Each week on Story Corps, an everyday citizen tells a life story, and its broadcast on National Public Radio.

The Story Corps interview I'm remembering is one of our New Yorkers commuting home from work on the subway.

            Long story short, every day the man would leave the subway to eat at his favorite diner. A couple of months ago the man got off the train and had a knife pointed at him by a young man, who demanded his money. The man calmly gave the boy his wallet, then as the boy was leaving called out to him, "Wait up!" The assailant turned around and the man offered him his jacket as well. Shocked, the boy asked why and the man said, "if you need money so badly, I figured you might need my jacket as well. " The two struck up a
conversation, and then the man suggested to the boy that he should join him at his favorite diner, so they walked out of the subway and went to grab a bite to eat. After the meal was over, the young man shared his astonishment at the whole ordeal, to which the man replied, "You have to pay for this meal, because you took my wallet-I'm broke!" The would-be robber paid for the meal and gave the wallet back.

             Once outside the diner, the man took a $20 out of his wallet and offered it to
the young man, not as a gift, but as a purchase. "I know you need money," said the man, "so I want to buy your knife from you. " So the young man handed his knife over and took the money.

Crazy! You know the man was probably drunk and just wasn't thinking straight. Or ... this man with the soft heart just put to action, the old phrase,  "To the glory of God - for God's wonderful works of love!"

We will all give glory to God in our own particular ways. We can't all have
the gall to offer an assailant our jacket. But we could give to outreach missions in our community and in other places. We can serve one another with all that we are and all that we have to offer, and we all can, in our own ways, live this language of love to God's glory.

As Paul explains to the Corinthians, "Now there are a variety of gifts, but the
same Spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone."

May you find your spiritual gifts. May you discern your way to serve God,
even if folks think it's crazy! The Holy Spirit is ready to use us - are we ready to be used? And however it may be for you, may it all be to God's glory, now and forever.

Amen.

Prepared and preached by

The Rev Darryl R. Barrow

District Superintendent

Crossroads District