Sermon for June 9th, 2019

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Acts 2:1-13

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

Graduation Day

I'm just curious--how many of you, in the past two weeks have attended (or will attend sometime in the coming two weeks) a graduation ceremony? It's that time of year, right? Caps and gowns, fancy diplomas, pomp and circumstance, proud parents, lavish parties and presents... lots of crying and tearful goodbyes, unbelievable hopes, dreams, and ambitions for the future... and I'm just describing the kindergarten graduation I attended at our church preschool last week!

Graduation day is a big deal in our culture today, and for good reason. It's a celebration of education, of personal and family achievement; it's a transition from one phase of life to the next, both an ending and a beginning all rolled up in one. I want to talk to you today about graduation. And that may seem a little odd for Pentecost Sunday, when we just read the story from Acts that has often been described as the "birthday of the church" -- the day when God sent his Spirit down from heaven to fill the earliest disciples with power and boldness and fire...and the ability to share the gospel across barriers of language and nationality and ethnicity.


Genesis 11:1-9

1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.