“THE WONDERFUL WORKS OF GOD: JESUS
Saint John 14: 23-31; Acts 2: 1-13
The Feast of Pentecost: 5 June Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
“The Spirit of The Lord filleth the world: Hallelujah!”
Pentecost is not the birthday of The Church. You all know that. The birthday-trope is something really dumb that boomers made up for VBS and/or CPH Sunday School feel goods.
The “12” along with all of Christ’s other disciples were in Jerusalem because HE told them to remain there. They as faithful and pious Israelites were celebrating The Feast of Weeks as they always had done. This was The Lord’s commanded Feast [c.f. Ex. 34.22 f.] to mark the late-Spring/early-Summer wheat harvest.
The Disciples, no longer cowering in the upper room, for fear of the Jews, were nonetheless gathered together: “were all with one accord in one place.” Does this not suggest, if not constrain YOUR behavior as to where you must be every Lord’s Day—like right now “gathered together?” Would you wish to miss out on the miracle that occurs at such gatherings?
Then the great miracle occurred. The manifestation of The Holy Ghost and the full-blown (full-winded) ordination of the “12.” The Third Person of The Trinity filled the house where they were sitting. The Same Spirit which hovered, blew, over the “face of the deep” [Gen. 1.2b]; “moved upon the face of the waters” [AV] rushed into the Jerusalem house where they were sitting. It was a “mighty” wind for God is omnipotent. The Paraclete, the great “stand-besider” did more than stand beside Peter and the rest, He “sat upon each of them” as “cloven tongues of fire.”
That’s a miracle. That miracle, not identical in effects, continues on, with, and in all of you—more in due course.
The Evangelist (St. Luke), who might very well have been there in person, gospels “they…began to speak (lalein-speaking with their mouths; ‘authoritatively’) with other tongues” (different languages is the literal Greek). Luke tells The Church, you, that they were speaking Parthian, Persian, Egyptian, Latin, Cretan, Arabic, and the other dialects. An impressive sign from heaven that God “opens our lips” that we might “show forth His praise” as we sing in Vespers.
But this philological phenomenon was not the real miracle. It was a means, a leading into the payoff. Even Star Trek back in the 1960’s posited the future day when there would be a computerized “universal translator;” who would have thought it would come as early as the 2020’s where the Japanese have developed a hand-held English to Japanese translator.
Note the sinful, mean-spirited, hard-hearted, cussed rejection of God’s great work—then, that day—and right now this day, in most places. The Church is blasphemed and attacked and Her ministers are mocked (at best; persecuted at worst) “…others mocking said, these men are full of new wine.” These rude, unsophisticated, illiterate, bumkin fishermen from “Galilee” (rural Mississippi; western Kansas) are drunk. No doubt the Pharisees thought that IF there was something supernatural going on it was with the power of Beelzebub.
What did The Lord do that day—this day? God restores his scattered and lost lambs to His one sheepfold, The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The sin of the builders of the Tower of Babel—the sin of pride, ego, and self-worship, has been reversed. All of those scattered unbelieving sinners at Babel, with their confused and non-communicating tongues…babel…din…noise…and resulting lack of unity, community, and family, is now healed and restored.
Because the miracle isn’t the numerous foreign languages but the content of the speaking. Those that were amazed at the miracle correctly wanted to know, as the Reformer would say: “what does this mean?” And thus, Luke reports “what meaneth this?”
The Word gives the answer: “…we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
This is where you all come in and are a daily, active, and eternal part of the story—His Story which is Truth, Life, and The Way.
You are + Baptized. You had The Holy Ghost’s Name (He Who is The Lord and Giver of Life) spoken over you and put upon you (along with The Name of The Father and The Son) in your washing of rebirth/regeneration. At the Holy Font the ancient language of Adam, the Chaldean tongue of Abram, the Egyptian of Moses, the Hebrew of Samuel, the Aramaic of Daniel and later of the Disciples, the Hebrew of Paul, the Greek of Saint Luke, the German of The Reformer, and all the other tongues were given to you in the New Testament language of Love and Mercy and Forgiveness and Salvation.
The “wonderful works of God” are Jesus—Jesus’ Person and Work. You confessed all of this in The Creed this morning…the “I believe” of The Church, of the gathering of the followers in the house—and later in the streets, city squares, schools, workplaces, and byways; Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light…being of one substance with The Father;” true Man “born of the Virgin Mary.” The wonderful works of God are the works Your Christ did in keeping the Commandments perfectly for you—crediting you as pure and obedient sons and daughters. The wonderful works of God are your Lord’s suffering and death at Calvary’s cross—His innocent Body giving itself and His precious Blood to buy you back from sin, death, and the power of Satan. The wonderful works of God are that all these gifts, all this Jesus is yours freely by Grace, without works on your part.
“The wonderful works of God?” They’re sitting in front of me right now. You keep His words and The Father loves you and We (The Trinity) will come to you and make our abode with you. The Comforter has come and has taught you all things. He has taught you Jesus and Jesus’ Word—The New Testament Word of Forgiveness in Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
Jesus: “Peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto you…let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And as Matthew records Jesus at the end of his Gospel “lo I AM with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
“Arise, let us go hence!”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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