Acts 2:1-21
“Speaking the Language of Love”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
Recently, I read about an embarrassing incident that took place during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
President Carter made a state visit to Poland, one which attracted a great deal of attention because the Cold War was still going on.
The eyes of the world were on the American President, and his efforts at international reconciliation.
President Carter began a major speech in Warsaw by saying, in Polish, “I have a lustful desire in my heart for the Polish people.”
What he meant to say was, “I have a great love for the Polish people.”
The problem was he was relying on a translator who didn’t know Polish very well, and whose real specialty was 19th Century Russian.
We all know about language barriers.
They can cause a lot of problems and conflict.
We live in a world of clashing cultures, rampant misunderstanding, of wars and famines that could easily be avoided, if only everyone could sit down together and talk the same language.
But, even when the language is supposedly the same, we all know there can be problems.
Winston Churchill said that England and the United States are “two countries divided by a common language.”
And how often is this true even within our most intimate relationships?
It’s so easy for a husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister to talk with one another for hours on end, both speaking English—yet neither one truly understanding the other on the deepest level.
It happens all the time, does it not?
And the results can be tragic!
If only we could learn to understand one another, and thus be---understanding!
As we see in our Scripture Passage, on the day of Pentecost, they didn’t need translators!
Everybody understood in their own language.
This may cause us to ask, “What language had they been expecting?”
At that time, all around the Mediterranean world, everybody’s second language was Greek.
Greek was, to much of that world, what English is for many in the world today.
The people who had traveled to Jerusalem were certainly able to get by in Greek, while probably speaking at least one other language, if not two or three.
But on the day of Pentecost they didn’t need to switch languages, or worry about translation.
It was all done for them by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This was the birth of the Church; the dawn of a new day and many persons came to know Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord!
And isn’t that what God wants?...
…to sweep away all barriers and to allow men, women, and children to truly hear one another?
This should be our goal as the Church.
We are to reach all people with the saving message of Christ!
For, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear…?”
Is this not a question we all wrestle with?
How do we convey the Good News of Jesus Christ in a way that all will be able to hear and understand?
We live in a community where there is literally a church on every corner.
And with modern technology, most anyone can hear a Christian preacher on television or radio just about any time of day.
Everyone, at least in America, has access to a Bible.
And if you want commentary on what it means, turn on your computer and “Google” it!
You can read about it or hear it in whatever language you choose.
But still, people do not understand it.
With all these amazing means of communicating with one another, we still have so many barriers.
And we are living in a time, when, arguably more persons than ever…
…in the history of the world…
…do not understand why the Church of Jesus Christ exists, or do not think it has any relevance to their lives.
What is wrong with this picture?
Why are we having such a hard time conveying the message of Christ?
Could it be that even we, are speaking in a language that persons do not understand?
If so, how do we change this?
The answer comes at Pentecost.
There is a language that nearly everyone can understand and it is the language that nearly everyone needs to hear and wants to hear!
And that is the language of God, which is the language of Love.
Jesus calls us to love our neighbor.
And, our love for God inescapably motivates us to love others.
But, of course, it’s hard to love everybody…
…as C.W. Vanderbergh once wrote, “To love the whole world for me is no chore. My only real problem is my neighbor next door.”
I remember, as a kid, we had a neighbor across the street who would not—for some reason—give us the time of day.
That didn’t stop my parents from cheerfully saying, “Hi!” every time our neighbor was in his yard.
One day I asked my parents, “Why do you bother to say ‘hi’ to that guy?
He never even looks your way.
He never says, ‘Hi’ back!”
My parents’ answer…very matter of fact…no explanations or complaints…but with a hint of surprise at my asking: “Because we are Christians.”
That stuck with me.
That impressed me.
And I wanted to know more about that language of love.
Rick Warren has written, “My dream is that thirty years from now, the church will be known more by what it is for than what it is against.
For some time now, the hands and feet of the Body of Christ have been amputated, and we’ve been pretty much reduced to a big mouth.
We talk far more than we do.
It’s time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the 21st Century.”
Of all places the church is the place where people need to know they are loved, and people want to be loved more than anything else in the world.
Charlie Brown, the leading character in the “Peanuts” comic strip series, wants so very much to be loved and treated with respect.
In one episode, Charlie Brown is lying down with his head resting on a stone as Lucy stands beside him.
Charlie looks up at Lucy and asks, “If I tell you something, will you promise not to laugh?”
Lucy replies, “I promise.”
“This is very personal and I don’t want you to laugh.”
Lucy responds, “I promise.”
Charlie then shares something very special to him: “Sometimes I lie awake at night listening for a voice that will cry, ‘We love you Charlie Brown!’”
Lucy bursts forth with a boisterous, “HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,” and Charlie Brown is bowled over from his reclining position.
I would imagine, that just about everyone in this world can relate, in one way or another, to what Charlie Brown was feeling.
In many ways, the entire world is lying awake at night listening for a voice that will cry, ‘I love you.”
We are to be that voice!
Now, we can tell others that we love them--that God loves them until we are blue in the face…
…but they will not understand our speech until it is put into action…
…until it is tangible…
…until it awakens in them, an understanding, a craving for what they need most!
A century ago, evangelists dreamed of “winning” the world for Christ in a generation.
Billy Graham has packed stadiums worldwide and satellites have beamed the Christian message almost everywhere on earth.
But the world has not been “won.”
Far from it.
Perhaps our calling as Holy Spirit filled Christians is not so much to “win” the world in the classic sense of that word.
Instead of just trying to talk people into thinking as we do, perhaps, our privilege is simply to love people with the Love of Christ!!!
The other day, I was driving downtown past the Salvation Army.
It was morning time, and I saw some folks walking away—out into the day—from the center.
And then a thought occurred to me.
Those people have just been fed and given a free cup of coffee in the Salvation Army café’.
I’ve been there with Jeanetta and Patty Emory and have watched as they serve.
When we serve others with no strings attached, that is when we are speaking the language of God—the language of Love!
And we live in a world where so many have never even heard this language…
…perhaps they have heard “of” it…
…But they have never really heard it.
And that was the experience of the apostles until Pentecost.
They had been with Jesus through thick and thin.
They had listened to His sermons, they had seen Him loving the unlovely, they had witnessed His miracles.
He had told them so many times, and in so many ways about the Love of God which dwelt in Him.
But they didn’t “get it” until the
Holy Spirit came down from heaven and touched them, and God came to live inside of them as well.
Only then were they able to speak, act and articulate the language of love in such a way that the Church was born and 3,000 people were added to their number that day!!!
It’s interesting that when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, they left the house in which they were sitting and went outside!
Is there a separation between the church and the neighborhood?
People who need the church the most should never be left sitting outside, waiting to feel worthy to come in.
We are ready and open enough, are we not, for the neighborhood kid who comes to Youth group for the first time without a Christian foundation to feel welcome and accepted?
And for the homeless men or women who really smell when they come to worship to know that Christ dwells in our hearts.
The petty stuff begins to lose its importance when we learn to speak God’s language of love.
Speaking the language of love means that people will know Christians are the ones who care for people unconditionally.
Christians are the people who gravitate toward the poor and who show compassion through generous action.
Christians are non-violent.
Christians are the people who will lay down their lives to protect the vulnerable from the violent.
Christians are the ones who care for the environment.
Christians are compassionate towards people who make mistakes, and they never consider themselves superior, and never judge.
And Christians build harmony among people, so that you will always know you are respected when you are around a Christian.
That is how we will “win” the world for Christ!!!
May it be so.
Amen.
