FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Communion Meditation by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

 

Pentecost Sunday

May 27, 2007

 

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – SPEAKING IN TONGUES

 

Scripture:  Acts 2:1-13

 

INTRODUCTION

 

You may remember during the Lenten Season that we focused our attention on “The Gifts of the Spirit” which Paul commended to the Corinthian Christians.  They are found in the 11th, 12th and 13th chapters of the letter that the Apostle wrote to them from Ephesus sometime around 55 A.D. …and the gifts are these: hospitality, unity, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment and love.

 

To tell the truth, as I was planning the Lenten sermons last summer in Chautauqua, I faced a dilemma, which was that there are two more gifts of the Spirit listed in I Corinthians 12 – speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues – but there weren’t any more Sundays during Lent and Easter to include them.

 

No one in the congregation noticed that I had left those gifts out, but not wanting to play footloose with the Bible, I decided to postpone preaching about the gifts of tongues until Pentecost Sunday where they really belong.

 

So here we are, on that day in the church year when we remember and re-enact the dramatic moment described by Luke in the second chapter of Acts – how the power of the Holy Spirit descended upon those first century believers in Jerusalem like the rush of a mighty wind, appearing as tongues of fire as they began to speak in other languages when the Spirit was ignited among them.

 

I

 

Over the next twenty years, that same Spirit moved from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean world into Asia Minor and Greece.  No matter how hard the opponents of the new faith tried to stop it and stamp it out, the fire kept burning and would not, could not be extinguished.  It wasn’t a destructive fire like the raging flames in South Georgia that have hurt so many people and animals and property and produced the pervasive smoke all around us.  This was a good fire, a cleansing fire, a fire burning with the flames of faith.

 

The Apostle Paul was the missionary who led the way, and as he arrived in Corinth around 50 A.D., he helped to lay the foundation for a church in that city which began with great hope and expectation.  Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, was also Paul’s physician and friend who later joined him in the Corinthian ministry (Acts 20:1-6).

 

But something happened there, something went wrong in that Christian community.  It actually makes me think of Connie Lee’s children’s sermon this morning.  There was another minister who gave a Pentecost children’s moment in a different church.  He brought a birthday cake with a lot of candles.  The children gathered around and he said that the candles were like the tongues of fire from that first Pentecost.

 

He said to them, “I’m lighting these candles to remind us of this special day and I’d like you children to blow them out as you do on your own birthday.”  What the pastor didn’t tell them was that the candles were the kind that keep on burning, and he was prepared to make the point that the Holy Spirit was still aflame in our world and nothing could put it out.

 

Well, the children blew with all their might, only to discover that the light kept coming back.  When the pastor asked them what it meant, one little girl, with a frown on her face replied “It means there’s something wrong with these candles”!

 

Something went wrong in the Corinthian church and Paul tells us in his letter to them what it was.  Some of those Corinthians who had received the gift of speaking in tongues became far too proud of their spirituality.  Ignoring the gift of interpretation, they claimed to have reached the ecstasies of heaven while looking down at the others on the ground as if they were heathens.

 

It was a “holier than thou” kind of attitude which caused dissension and division in the congregation, and when Paul heard about it, he wrote them words of admonition.  You can read what he said in chapter 14, but the key verses for us today are found in chapters 12 and 13.

 

The apostle affirms the gifts of speaking in tongues and the interpretation of those tongues (12:10), and then he describes in chapter 13 how God’s gift of love could heal their divisions and bring them back together again:

 

          If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but have not love, I am like a noisy gong or a clanging symbol…Love is patient and kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude…Love does not insist on its own way…and does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right…And loves bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Corinthians 13:1, 4-7).

 

And just as those words were meant for the Corinthian church long ago, so they still speak to all of us today if we are willing to listen and to pay attention.

 

II

 

Presbyterians, for the most part, aren’t prone toward or known for speaking in tongues.  Kathleen Norris, the Presbyterian author, summarizes what has happened since that first Pentecost:

 

          “The miracle of this event is that it drew people from all parts of the world (together) – and while each person spoke in their native tongue, they understood each other…

          The word ‘Pentecostal’ is commonly used today to refer to Christian Denominations formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, notably the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ and the Charismatic Movement within the Roman Catholic Church.  Unfortunately, the marvelous understanding celebrated at the original Pentecost has faded into the background, and now the word ‘Pentecostal’ often signifies not Christian unity but sectarian differences.

          Many Pentecostals are conservative Christians who disdain those of more liberal persuasion.  And mainstream Christians often dismiss Pentecostals as looney tunes: anti-intellectual in their theology, over-emotional in their worship.

 

(From “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith” by Kathleen Norris, Riverhead Books, 1998, Pages 343-344).

 

Our good friend Dr. Fred Craddock ran into that same attitude some years ago.  He says:

 

          “I was on the West Coast to speak at a seminary.  Just before the lecture, one of the students stood up and said ‘Before you speak, I need to know if you are a Pentecostal.’

          The room grew silent…as the student quizzed me in front of everybody.  I was taken aback, so I said ‘Do you mean if I belong to the Pentecostal Church?’

          He said, ‘No, I mean are you a Pentecostal?’

          I said, ‘Are you asking if I am charismatic?’

          He said, ‘I want to know if you are Pentecostal.’

          I said, ‘I don’t know what your question is.’

          He said’ Then obviously you’re not Pentecostal.’  And he left.

          What are we talking about?  In spite of the fact that the church doesn’t know what the adjective means, the church insists that the word is an adjective.  The church is unwilling for the word simply to be a noun, to represent a date, a place, an event in the history of the church.”  (From “Craddock Stories” by Dr. Fred B. Craddock, Chalice Press, 2001, Page 22).

 

In other words, Pentecostalists and Charismatics may wonder if mainline church folks like us really have “The Spirit,” while we in turn tend to look at them as hot-gospel, holy-rollers who dance in the aisles, speak in tongues and have over-done “The Spirit.”

 

That’s what happened in the Corinthian church back in the first century, and sad to say, it is still happening in the Christian church today.  So what are we going to do about it?

 

III

 

In closing, I want to offer three suggestions which hopefully will lead us in the right direction, and the first is this:

 

Let’s stop judging other Christians when it comes to their faith convictions.  You’ve heard me tell the story about when I was ordained, left Princeton Seminary and went to the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.  It was 1972, and in that first year as youth minister I went to a youth ministry conference in Philadelphia.  About 200 people were there and the first night we got into small groups.  My group consisted of about eight people – a couple of Catholic nuns and several Baptists and a few others – and one man who introduced himself as Neil Chadwick from the Assemblies of God. 

 

Sitting in that circle of about eight people, I looked at him and I thought, “Stay clear.  This guy is a holy roller.”  And that attitude must have come through to him.  Because toward the end of the three-day conference, on the final night, we were gathered together again and we were giving gifts to one another.  Neil was the last one to speak and he came across that little circle, looked me in the eye and said, “George, it seems obvious that you don’t approve of me.  But I want you to know as your brother in Christ that I love you and I want to give you my card to remind you, if you are willing to keep it, that there is a Pentecostal charismatic out there who is praying for you.”

 

I have kept this card in my diary ever since, praying that I would not judge others and that God would forgive me for my attitude toward Neil Chadwick.  And like many, if not most of you, I am still working on it! 

 

Jesus said Judge not, lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1), and He meant it.  So let’s stop judging other Christians when it comes to their faith convictions.  God alone is our judge, and we are accountable ultimately to Him.

 

The second suggestion is this:  Let’s become more open to what can happen when the Spirit has spoken.  Speaking in tongues and the interpretation of those tongues is not all that common in a Presbyterian church like this one.  Neither was it done among the churches I grew up in which my father served as pastor.

 

But my mother attended a Sunday evening fellowship group in another congregation, where she received the gift of speaking in tongues.  When I found out, she assured me that she hadn’t gone crazy and that this was something that had greatly strengthened and deepened her walk with the Lord.

 

Toward the end of her life, when my mother was dying of cancer at the age of 51, those spiritual sounds and songs and prayers came not only from her mouth but from way down in her soul.  And because of that gift of the Spirit, my mother was at peace when she finally went home to heaven.

 

My peace I give to you (John 14:27) said Jesus, and He meant it.  So let’s become more open to what can happen when the Spirit has spoken.

 

And third – Let’s learn to love one another as sisters and brothers in the church.  Sometimes I think we say those words so easily without recognizing how much they really mean when loving others is difficult, especially in those times when conflict invades our lives.

 

During the Viet Nam War, as student protests erupted across this nation, a Presbyterian congregation in San Francisco was celebrating communion.  A young man from a nearby university showed up that Sunday wearing dirty blue jeans, a tie die tee shirt and had no shoes on his feet.

 

The pews were all full, so the student walked down the center aisle and sat on the floor close to the communion table.  As the sacrament began, an older man, who was a World War II veteran dressed in a suit with an American flag pin on his lapel, got up from his seat and he headed toward the chancel.  The pastor and the entire congregation held their breath, watching, hoping and praying that there wouldn’t be some kind of an altercation.

 

And then quietly, silently, without a word, that veteran sat down on the floor next to the student.  And when the bread and the cup were served, he shared it with his young and new found friend.

 

Years later, when that student was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, he testified that the old veteran had taught him a lesson which changed his life.  Do you know what it was?  It was something Jesus once said:  Love one another, as I have loved you (John 15:12), and He meant it.

 

CONCLUSION

 

On this Memorial Day weekend, as we remember all of those veterans – men and women who have given their lives in service to this nation – we are also here to remember on Pentecost Sunday that Jesus Christ gave His life for us.  His Holy Spirit is now at work in this world, and as we come to this table, let us never forget the sacrifice He made so that we can receive the gifts of His Spirit here today.

 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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