Christ United Presbyterian Church
May 19, 2013
Sermon: Are
You Listening?
Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8: 14-17; John 14:8-17; 25-27
Here's my sermon form this morning. If you want to read it the full text is below. If you'd like to hear it just click on this link:
I owe the Gospel and Grub folks an apology and all of you a clear
explanation. The reading from Acts says:
“When the day of Pentecost had come.” I
was asked what Jewish holiday “Pentecost” was.
I think I said it was the “Feast of the Tabernacles” and it celebrated the
planting. I was very wrong!
The festival that the people had come to Jerusalem to celebrate
is what’s called the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot. It includes the Festival of First Fruits in
which the people brought to the temple the seven products for which Israel was
famous: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives,
and dates (Deut. 8:8). The important thing is that the holiday
celebrates the occasion of God giving Moses the law, which is the day on which
Israel becomes a nation serving the Lord.
It is celebrated seven weeks after the second day of Passover. That’s why all those people were in
Jerusalem. In a sense they were there to
celebrate the birthday of Israel as God’s chosen people called to serve the
Lord.
There were a great many people from all over the eastern
Mediterranean world, Asia, and North Africa.
They spoke many different languages.
They had come to celebrate the birthday of the law and the covenant, and
they witnessed what sometimes we call the birthday of the Christian church.
We often imagine the scene described in Acts as a noisy
scene, filled with a cacophony of voices all speaking different languages. The older I get the more difficult it becomes
for me to pick out an individual voice in the midst of mixed sounds.
I remember the first time I bought a Rolling Stones
album. I won’t tell you the year but it
was a vinyl record! On the back of the
album cover the instructions were very clear:
“To get the most from this musical experience, play at loudest possible
volume.” I’ve probably done that a few
times too many in my life! The first
time I heard Jimi Hendrix play in person was in a small club and I was about 4
feet from his amplifier. It definitely
gets harder and harder to pick out individual voices from a mix of sounds.
Listening is something that I don’t do very well. It requires effort. It’s easier to say “I can’t hear you” than to
make the effort to really listen. Ask my
wife which I’m more likely to do.
So I’ve come to look at this Pentecost scene a little differently
over the years. I’m not sure of the
significance of the words that are being said, but I am sure of the
significance of the words that are being heard.
The scripture says: “each one heard them speaking in the native language
of each,” and “how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language,”
and then “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of
power.” In other words, “We are hearing
about God’s deeds of power in a language that each of us can understand.”
There is some miracle happening. No doubt about it. But is the miracle really this multiglot
outburst of different languages, or is the miracle that people listened and
heard the Word of God in a language that each one understood? Have you heard the Word of God in a language
that you can understand? Have you
listened for it?
In the Gospel lesson the apostles are back on a familiar
theme: “Lord, show us the Father, and we
will be satisfied.” Jesus responds,
haven’t you been listening. “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my
own: but the Father who dwells in me does His works.” Apparently they hadn’t been paying attention;
they hadn’t been listening. They hadn’t
heard the message in a language that they understood.
Have you heard the message of the Gospel? Are you listening?
God’s message, like all of God’s grace, is always waiting for
us to pay attention. Some of us don’t
want to listen. It’s a message of
freedom and personal responsibility worked out in love. In Romans Paul said: “you did not receive a
spirit of slavery to fall back in fear.”
We are not meant to be God’s mindless, obedient slaves. It’s just not that simple. We are condemned to forgiveness. We are condemned to freedom. We have been adopted in Christ’s family. When you listen for the Word of God you will
hear that you have been set free, not enslaved.
Listening for God’s Word in a language that we can each
understand is a dangerous proposition.
Some people don’t want to listen, and maybe they shouldn’t.
Some people say they are listening: “I know God’s Word and I believe. I am saved!”
Some people say they are listening and absolutely nothing changes in
their lives. They’re not listening. They haven’t really heard the Word. If you listen for it, your life will change.
If you really listen for God’s Word, you will be taken to a
place from which you will not return.
You will be taken to a place that you will never want to leave. If you really listen for God’s Word you will
be brought into the Kingdom where Christ reigns for all eternity.
So I guess when it comes to God the issue is no different
than the one that I sometimes invoke around home. It’s just so easy to say, “I can’t hear
you.” Perhaps we even sometimes add:
“You can’t have said what I thought you said!”
Well, God is still speaking.
It’s still up to us to silence our hearts and listen – or not. We may hear and say: “You can’t mean that.” That’s a choice we can make. But God’s message is said pretty clearly –
now, as clearly as it was on the day of Pentecost.
God is telling you that you are God’s beloved child. You!
I’ve probably got some scar tissue in my ears from some of
the “listening” that I’ve done over the years to very loud rock and roll. I’ve probably got some scar tissue wrapped
around my heart from listening to voices that were not from God. The voices of the world have forced my heart
to protect itself by hardening itself and keeping out hurtful messages, or
making me unmindful when I am hurtful to others.
But God’s voice is calling to us. It doesn’t matter what your native tongue
is. God’s voice has a message for us
that we desperately need to hear. It can
penetrate the scar tissue that we have used for self-protection if we just
stop and take the time to really listen.
But if you listen, it will change you. It’s your choice. Are you going to keep saying, “I can’t hear
you?” Or are you going to listen: God loves you. If you would love God then keep God’s
commandments. God will send the Holy
Spirit to you, to give you insight, strength and endurance.
The miracle of
Pentecost was not that the Apostles spoke in many languages. The miracle of Pentecost is that God is still
speaking to each one of us in a language that we can understand – but we have
to listen.
Amen.
Let us pray: Almighty
God, we carelessly call upon Your name, but we don’t listen when You
respond. Send Your Spirit to give us openness
and wisdom that we recognize Your message of love to us and respond by loving
You in all that we do. In Jesus’ name we
pray. Amen.
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