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The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007 Ordination of Louise Christensen
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
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The Day of Pentecost (C) There is something about Pentecost—the story that was just read to us, with all of these foreigners that are miraculously able to hear each other in the language of each—there’s something about this story that makes me realize how risky it is, in general, for people to speak. I mean, everyone knows the experience of being misunderstood. It is one of the most difficult things there is. And how vulnerable a person becomes who is actually willing to open their mouth and “speak their mind”…, or uncap a pen and put their “thoughts down on paper”. Listen to these telling phrases: “Speak your mind,” “thoughts down on paper” “to say it from your heart.” Often times, when we try to communicate, we are indeed putting a piece of ourselves out there for all to see. Oh, how painful it can be to be misunderstood, or worse yet… misrepresented, mocked, or ridiculed—all for being willing to risk being known. On the other hand, and we’ve all been on the other side of the coin: how frustrating it can be to not be able to understand someone or something that is said. “I don’t get where you’re coming from.” I wonder if this isn’t the main significance of the Pentecost event—the Pentecost story… The Holy Spirit enables the people to hear each other, and by "hearing" I think Luke (Scholars agree, by the way, that the writer of our 2nd Gospel “Luke” is also the author of Acts)—I think Luke is really getting at "understanding" rather than just hearing-- It's one thing to hear a foreign language, it's another to hear it in my own language...to understand it.
Although we don’t have a gathering of different languages here at
Pella, we do have a variety of different voices and groups of
voices. And how well do we really understand each other? I’m not
sure. The seniors: Can younger folks really understand the meaning
and significance behind the words you spoken out of an abundance of
experience? The youth group, do adults really understand what is
behind the words they speak? There’s even a new commercial out
based on the difficulty of communicating with a generation of text-messagers.
TM talk HT U-stand. Or have they mostly given up talking to us in
church? There are many such dichotomies separating Men/women;
married/single; young children/adults. How well do we understand
each other?
Brothers and Sisters, this is the key… This is the key Brothers
and Sisters. We have inherited this universal language of praise.
Because Christ has died for our sins, and because Christ has been
resurrected to reveal to us the redemption that God has in store for
us—we have become brothers and sisters. We have been given a common
heritage of faith. A Lens through which we been invited to look at
the world; a hope that unites us and is more important than anything
that might divide us. And it all begins with the universal language
of praise revealed to the Church at Pentecost. Finally, let me quote from a sermon by Jim Callahan, from the Christian Century, May 2000. Some call Pentecost the "birthday of the church." I disagree. I sense that the church was born on Good Friday when Jesus, "just hanging around," as Robert Capon stunningly puts it, asked the Father to forgive us, and a few bewildered, broken-hearted women and men wandered off wondering how they were going to live with that. Pentecost was the day they got their answer: with great joy, and with wind and fire and Spirit, making them look like a bunch of happy drunks in the midst of a numbingly sober and sour world. At last they knew that they were God’s -- every last one of them -- and that God was Love, not just in poetic theory but in palpable fact. They learned that in belonging to God they belonged also to each other. The joy derived from their trusting contained power, power not only to gladden but also to heal and redeem.
Here’s a true miracle of the Holy Spirit - that we should believe -
that we should hear this Good News - that we should become a part of
Jesus' mission of loving the world to the end. -------------------- Joshua W. Magyar, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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