Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
You have three ways to hear his weekly message:
- Read Pastor Jack's GODblog.
- Listen now to an audio of the scripture reading and Pastor Jack's sermon.
- Listen anytime. You choose the time and place. Download Pastor Jack's GODcast to your MP3 player.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
God's Grand Reversal
Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
No recording of this week's message, or last week's either, due to -- how you say? -- "technical difficulties." Brand new sound system, broken old tape deck. Argh.
Even so, here's a slice of my sermon on the great miracle of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
_______________
The unthinkable happened in the first of Christopher Reeve's Superman movies... Lois Lane died!
If memory serves me right, Superman got distracted and delayed in his flight to save Lois from dastardly Lex Luthor. Something about a superhuman effort to hold the Golden Gate Bridge together in the middle of an earthquake Luthor had somehow created. And so -- she died.
What's a poor superhero to do?!
What this one did was fly up, up, and away into space, then speed around the earth faster and faster in the opposite direction from its rotation. The planet slowed, stopped, and then reversed its motion. Superman rewound time far enough that he could descend again, resume his flight, and -- rescue Lois just in the nick of time. Yay!
The Bible story of Pentecost (Acts 2) says God did something like that when the Holy Spirit showed up with three dramatic miraculous signs.
Fifty days after Passover, pilgrims filled Jerusalem for another holy festival. From all over the Roman world they came, mingling with the locals in this remote outpost of the Empire. Then suddenly there appeared --
The sound of a mighty rushing wind...
Tongues of fire on the heads of Jesus' disciples...
Foreign languages from their mouths, preaching the gospel....
The crowds were amazed to hear these yokels speaking so eloquently in their own languages. And they listened carefully to find out just what was going on, and why.
Peter spoke up and made it clear as could be that God was sealing and delivering on the gospel promises he'd made in Jesus Christ.
This was something new and different for Peter, too. Up till now he was famous for sticking his foot in his mouth when talking about spiritual things. This time, when he got to the "amen" of his sermon, 3,000 people were converted on the spot.
So, where's the Superman connection?
Well, let's look at Genesis 11...
The peoples of the world all spoke one language, lived close to one another in Babel (cf. Babylonia), and decided to consolidate their power for mutual safety -- "lest we be scattered." Their crowning monument to this unification would be a tower "reaching up to heaven." Some things never seem to change...
God had another idea.
"Look at that, would you? This is just the beginning of what they'll do, given half the chance. Let's confuse their language and scatter them across the world."
And that's just what happened.
Now, the stories of Genesis 1-11 are more about "why" than about "how" the world got to be the way it is. And this one is a great commentary on our "failure to communicate" at all levels of human society.
"Babel" translates into English as "babble," meaningless verbal noise. The movie Babel dramatically reveals the tragic consequences of miscommunication and dislocation between individuals, cultures, and countries.
Have you ever tried to get through to someone who has no English? You use one-syllable words, you gesture, smile, and grimace. Anything. And nothing works. So what do you do? You speak more s-l-o-w-l-y. And you speak LOUDER. Of course you do. All for nothing.
That's what happens way too often in our relationships, too. Friends, lovers, parents, children, workers, bosses. Pastors and church members? You bet. We're all prone to misspeak, misunderstand, miss each other in passing.
But our gospel faith says God has reversed the world, undone the damage of Babel by the miracles of Pentecost...
Wind -- The life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit.
Fire -- Illumination and purification of the believing mind.
Tongues -- Clear meaning, purpose, and intention in plain language.
The Holy Spirit brings alive within us the transforming power of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again into abundant everlasting life. So all of us Clark Kents and Lois Lanes now have superhuman gifts, if we could only learn how to use them for God's good purposes.
For example, God is able to transform our Babel babblings into "speaking the truth with love" (Ephesians 4:15). If only we'll slow down, speak clearly, and listen carefully to each other.
Emphasizing the truth at the expense of love leads to crankiness. Trying for love at the expense of the truth leads to sentimentality. Putting them together in spiritual balance is, well, priceless!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:37 AM
<< Home
|
|
 |
|
|
