Acts 2:1-21

Yesterday, in the nation’s capital, a memorial honoring all those who served in World War 2 was officially dedicated. Why such a memorial took so long to accomplish is something I’ll probably never understand, especially given the fact that this “greatest generation” of Americans – as Tom Brokaw describes them – not only sacrificed greatly to save the nation and world from tyranny, but then came home from Europe and the Pacific to build America into a great modern nation. All the beautiful things that America is and has been for me and those of the generations that followed are a gift – a legacy - shaped and formed by the hard-fought efforts of that “greatest generation.”

A girl who grew up in the first church I served sent me an email containing a few digital photographs of her dad marching in his town’s Memorial Day parade. Bob can still fit into his 1940-something Army uniform, which he wears with great pride, marching step-for-step alongside the young reservists and guardsmen now serving the nation. And what a striking contrast to think of these modern men and women marching along in their green camouflage, looking so young and innocent, and among them crusty old Bob Greene in his crisply pressed Army khaki’s with the sergeant’s stripes on the sleeves. It is a poignant image of the connection between the young and the old, the present and the past.

I hope those young men and women appreciated who they were marching with! And I hope that you and I today have a deep sense of the importance of that connection, too - between the young and the old, the present and the past, me and you, and WE with OTHERS! As the poet once wrote:

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all…No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a part of the continent...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

And these wise words of John Donne have been repeated and sung ever since.

No man – or woman – IS an island. The bell that tolls for one, tolls for all.

We are all connected together.

Another one of the million-and-one reasons I would become a Christian if I wasn’t one already, is because Jesus Christ calls us TOGETHER. Our faith so very distinctively recognizes that you can’t make it alone in life or faith. We NEED each other!

And that is why, after the resurrection of Jesus, the next most important event in the life of our faith is the gathering of a COMMUNITY – a community which came to be called the church, whose birthday we celebrate today.

Acts 2 tells us that, on the Jewish holiday called “Pentecost”, the disciples of Jesus – only about 120 in number at that point – “were all together in one accord.” Some say that’s a proof that automobiles are mentioned in the Bible. “They were all together in one Accord!”?

Now, that’s a nice thought, but it doesn’t quite grasp the snap-crackle-and-pop of the original Greek. The actual translation of Acts 2:1 should go something like this: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together… TOGETHER!”

And if I can adjust these words just a little bit more, we’d find even more meaning.

They were altogether TOGETHER!

A crucial part of making a commitment of your life to Jesus Christ, is making a commitment to being altogether TOGETHER!

When I went off to seminary, one of my professors used to provoke us with the question, “Can you be a Christian all alone?”

Well, of course you can be a Christian all alone, we brash young students responded. All it takes is believing in Jesus…and you’re a Christian!

Then our professor asked, “But can you live the Christian life alone? Can you love one another all alone?” Well, no.

“Pray for each other?” No. “Bear one another’s burdens?” No. “Forgive the person who sinned against you?” No. “Be forgiven?” No. “Love your enemies?” No. “Feed the hungry? Give water to the thirsty? Lift the lowly? Be a peacemaker? Preach the Good News? Visit the prisoners? Seek justice? Be merciful?”

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!!!!!!!

And in a gentle but firm way, this professor of ours led us on a journey through the Bible where we discovered on page after page that a crucial part of what it means “to believe in Jesus” is to commit one’s life to being altogether TOGETHER!

Now that I’m a bit older – and know a whole let less than I used to think I knew – I more deeply appreciate what this means. You know, the fact of the matter is that I’m not such a great person. I’m not even a very good Christian, let alone a good pastor. There are times when my life descends so deeply into despair that I wonder how there can even be a God. There are situations I run into in ministry that are so far over my head that I fear for your safety, the people I serve! When I was a boy, growing up at Adams Square Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, we used to recite a prayer of confession that went, in part, like this:

“Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”

Even as a kid, I wondered how in the world they included in our Pilgrim Hymnal a prayer of confession written specifically about me and my best friend Dennis Astrella!

And yet, despite my many flaws and failings, there were some people in my life who still saw me as a child of God, and reminded me of my value, and spoke to me of my worth, and claimed me for God. They were altogether TOGETHER with me! And through them, I experienced the redeeming love and transforming power of Jesus.

So there were the followers of Jesus, and they were altogether together. And a funny thing happened on the day of Pentecost. Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit.

Now, how would you know if the Holy Spirit came to you? Well, in Acts 2, we read that the wind started to blow inside the room where they were staying. Pretty freaky, huh? And then, there were the flames – sort of like St. Elmo’s fire, I guess – tongues of fire forming above the heads of each person there. I think at that point, I might have gone and joined the Unitarian Church. Only kidding!

But here’s what’s interesting to me about the story of Pentecost. The sign of the Spirit’s coming was not really the fact that the wind came up or the flames broke out. The real sign – according to the story – is that the disciples began to speak in languages that were not their native tongue. And the most amazing thing of all is that the people outside – who had come to Jerusalem for the holidays from many different nations – heard the Good News of Jesus being spoken in their own tongues!

And in that moment, the followers of Jesus became altogether TOGETHER with the world around them! And those people outside asked, “How is it that we hear about God’s amazing deeds, each of us, in our own native tongues? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and others?”

And many came into the faith of Jesus.

Why?

Well, because the Christian Way believes that faith is formed when people are altogether TOGETHER. There is something about the spiritual dynamic of a community that unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit. I see this all the time in my Sunday School class when people are given a chance just to talk, and ask questions, and think, and explore doubts, and express themselves in a safe group of people who are altogether TOGETHER with them. Something begins to happen! A Spirit seems to come alive. And people begin to grow.

Now Acts 2 describes this in terms of speaking the language of others. One of the powerful ways this Christian togetherness expresses itself is by the Spirit giving each of us the ability to communicate God’s love in and through the language of others. That’s a key part of the story of Pentecost. And do you know what? You, too, have been given this gift!

Now, you may be saying, “No, Marty, I have no idea how to speak Elamite, and I have not spoken a word of Parthian since I took it in high school. Or was that Latin?”

No, you may not know how to speak the language of the Parthians, Medes, or Elamites, but God has blessed you with the language of humanity.

Sandy and I have some special guests with us this weekend. They are very dear friends whose lives have brought a lot of God’s grace to our own. Fran and Joy were members of our last church in Massachusetts. Both of them are powerful witnesses for Jesus because they have learned to speak the language of others.

Fran has walked with two husbands through the ordeal of bone cancer. She has become fluent in the language of caregiving, and uncertainty about the future, and grief, and hope, and new beginnings! Fran was telling me the other night that she is considering becoming a Stephen Leader as her church begins that terrific program. And Fran will be wonderful at Stephen Ministry because she has come to speak the language of many all around us. She will be altogether TOGETHER with them. And the Spirit will come!

Joy lost her son Barry. We spent three weeks in an ICU waiting room as doctors struggled unsuccessfully to pull Barry through. Joy had to make decisions that no parent ever should have to make. And when Barry died, Joy’s life was snatched away from her. Parents are not supposed to outlive their children, you know.

Some time after that tragedy, another mother in our church lost her daughter in an accident. Norma didn’t know how she was going to go on. It was a dark night of the soul that seemed to go on forever. And then Mother’s Day came, and Norma didn’t know how in the world she was going to survive it.

When I think of the miracles I’ve witnessed since becoming a follower of Jesus, one of the most beautiful was the miracle of that Mother’s Day. No blind person regained their sight. No lame person got up and danced. No dead people were raised. It wasn’t anything loud and spectacular like that.

But when I stood in the pulpit and looked out over the congregation that Mother’s Day morning, there in one of the back rows of the sanctuary was my dear friend Joy – tears streaming down her face. And next to her was Norma. And with her arm around Norma as if they were speaking the same language, Joy was holding her tight, and helping her through!

Altogether TOGETHER.

You see, each of us has been given the gift of conveying God’s love through speaking the language of others of God’s children – the language of brokenhearted mothers and fathers, the language of loneliness, the language of doubt, the language of illness. And not just languages that are full of pain, but also those that are filled with joy and hope and faith.

Acts tells us that, “They were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the ability.”

They were altogether TOGETHER, not only with each other, but with the world all around them.

Oh, if we were looking for a picture of the Church at its best, I think this is the one I’d want to hang up for the world to see. This is the model I would pray for us to follow.

And if I could encourage the followers of Jesus to do just one thing of significance with their lives this week, it would be to connect themselves together with someone else in love, speaking their language as the Spirit gives you the ability.

No man – or woman – is an island.

When God created the world, he wired in the need for interconnectivity.

Younger generations need older generations, and older generations need younger ones. Doubters need believers, and believers need doubters. The world needs you, and you need the world.

They were altogether TOGETHER!

And the Spirit came!

Now, may that same Spirit come to you and me!