I ,as Influent. The word for Pentecost today.
Footnotes to pentecost and today’s sermon at the Methodist church in Budapest,Feketeerő sor
Today I woke up with the feeling: this is the day, this must be the day, this is really the day that the Lord has made. Something will happen today. Somehting must happen today. Something powerful, Pentecost must come with wind,red, fire,power.Maybe even God will show up today, maybe this is the day when Jesus will return. What a good timing it would be! On the day when his people gather together, when life is renewed by the Spirit. I love it! I wanna feel sunshine on my skin, see people hugging each other, sharing meal. All christians in all congregations. I wanna see people amazed by us christians, when they realize: we have something they don’t have and we are willing to share it. And what a great thing it would be when they get shocked to look at them and recite Paul’s words:” Vegyétek ezt tudomásul” which in the Hungarian translation means: you better get use to it!You better get use to it this is what God made of us.
„ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his …..When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
People who were influenced will influence people.
Before the day of Pentecost came Jesus’ desciples were strong when he was with them, when people welcomed them.In those situations they felt balanced and strong. Sometimes they were weak heartened,confused,inferior when they were left alone, when they were rejected. When they stood in front of influential people they chickened out.They were influenced by the people,events surrounding them. You cannot condemn them. They are just like you and me. Have you ever felt that you change when certain people are around you? When you wanted to stick to something, but you change your opinion, behavior , your words or how you say it when it comes time to do it?And you don’t like it.You don’t wanna be influenced, blowing with the wind.You want to be strong, self conscious, balanced.
If so, you need the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord comes and people who were afraid to be themselves got enpowered and strengthen. They stand up no matter what people might think, what people might do to them, what consequences they acts might bring upon them. They do, say what they know is right . They get their spine back. They stand up, straighten up and lift their heads up.
If you need it as I do just ask. Just ask and it will be given to you. Pray and wait and be a part of a church. We are just like they were. If God gave his Spirit to them, why would he hold it back from us? Why would he hold it back from you? You really think God does not love you this much? Be sure: He does.
„ And people heard them talking in their mother tongue”
As the pastor said today there is a much deeper meaning in these words than we might think first. They heard these words about Jesus not just on the way they understood it. They all shared the knowledge of Aram, but this was not the way how God wanted to reach them.They heard them talking on their Mother tongue. The language which is the closest to their hearts. When the words reach not only their minds, but their hearts, as well. How they feel and taste the words. We sometimes say that the two people speak each other’s language. We know what we mean. Not that there are no language barriers, but we know that they know how to talk to each other in the way the other will clearly understand what the other want to share.
And this is how it works when the Spirit comes. When we want to share something about ourselves, our life ,our faith. if we ask the Spirit and we live in the Sprit people won’t twist our words, they won’t misunderstand us. We will reach them and they will reach back. The Spirit helps us to find the way to each other. This is how the Spirit makes us one. One church.
We need you, oh, Spirit! We need you to be ourselves. We need you heal us as people and us a family. We want to dance , be strong,love each other . We want to taste and see how good you are oh,Lord,more than we do now. Thank you for finding ways to us always,you find words to reach us. You find our mother tongue language in which you speak to our hearts. Thank you for the moments when we feel we are really one family. We ar grateful for those moments when we hardly found words, but we were understood.We thank you that you always understand us.
*I dream about a day when on pentecost day we go to refugee camps and read the gospel and the pentecost story in their mother tongue language and we share the eucharist. I run out of words when I think about this : what a powerful, spiritful time it would be.
