Tongue-Tied
Acts 2:1-18
Bloomfield KY Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
May 28, 2023
I love Pentecost Sunday. What I love most is the description of the Holy Spirit as “tongues of fire.” Tongues as in speaking. Speaking as in language. Language as in words. And since my I have a vocation that calls for using words effectively-- preaching, praying, writing, talking to people – all kinds of people – I’m all ears when Pentecost rolls around and the focus is on speaking with “tongues of fire” and the end result being that “everyone understands, each in their own language” (2:8).
This is to say I think the miracle of Pentecost was that there was effective communication. A roomful of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, nations and languages spoke to, listened to, and understood each other. They communicated!
The Scripture says on the Day of Pentecost Jesus' disciples spoke in other languages. Heaven-sent tongues of fire touched their tongues, enabling them "to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability" (2:4). Which led the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites and the rest of the United Nations to scratch their heads and ask, "Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is that we hear, each of us, in our own language?" (2:7,8) "What does this mean?" (2:12)
Good question! What does it mean that a handful of Galilean fishermen "spoke about God's deeds of power" (2:11) in other languages so that everyone understood them?
It means the indispensable tool for effective communication is the Holy Spirit. A case can be made, biblically-speaking, that to be able to speak well you’ve got to be tongue-tied: tongue tied to the Holy Spirit. Oh, it's entirely possible to talk unaided by the Holy Spirit, but the results will be less-than-desirable. Communication is fraught with pitfalls and potholes. It’s difficult! Think of the phrases we use to bemoan poor communication:
You’re talking at me, not with me.
You’re talking over my head.
You’re talking down to me.
We’re talking past one another.
You see, as far as the Bible is concerned, in the absence of the Holy Spirit communication gets all messed up. As a case in point, take the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Back then, "the whole earth had one language and the same words" (Gen 11:1). But then our ancestors decided to build a city. "Come,” they said, “let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). Hear the pronouns? Us. Ourselves. Us. Ourselves. Not a mention of God in the whole sentence. They built city and tower for themselves with no regard for God or anyone else and the end result was they could "no longer understand each other’s speech" (Genesis 11:7). They called the whole enterprise Babel. Which is the Bible's way of saying that when human pride and self-centeredness enter in communication breaks down.
Which is true, isn't it? When we use words to build monuments to ourselves—when it’s all about us-- communication breaks down. When we brag or boast or do all the talking and not allow the other person to get in a word edgewise, when it’s merely a “me monologue,” so much for communication. Reminds me of country music singer Toby Keith’s song years ago with the refrain:
“I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I,
Wanna talk about #1 oh me, oh my.
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.”
Someone said, “There is nothing so empty as people who are full of themselves.”
Of course, we can also build ourselves up by using language to put others down. Everything from name-calling on the playground to racial slurs to libel and slander to cutting remarks that denigrate others.
Bottom line: whether we use language to puff ourselves up or put others down the result is the same: Division. Confusion. Babble.
Thank goodness for the Day of Pentecost. The good news of the gospel is that today we’re reminded that God's grace has been poured out upon each and every one of us so that we can be tongue-tied to the Holy Spirit and be able to speak well. God has designs on all our tongues today. After all, the Scripture says “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven filled all the house. Tongues of fire rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:1-4). The words are all, all, each one, all. God’s Spirit has been given to us all so as to teach us a new language—call it Disciple dialect. Spirit speech.
You might be saying, “I don’t know about that. I’m not good at learning languages. All I know is oui in French, nein in German and Taco Bell in Spanish. I can’t learn a new language.”
To which I say “Baloney!” Look what happened to Peter on Pentecost. Last we heard from Peter prior to Acts 2 was on the night Jesus was arrested. A maid asked Peter, “Weren’t you with Jesus?” Peter swore, “I don’t know the man.” His tongue failed him! He couldn’t say Jesus in any language. What’s the matter Peter? Cat got your tongue? But that was then. This is now. Guess who’s got Peter’s tongue on Pentecost? The Holy Spirit! To the point that Peter spoke up with courage and conviction, saying, “Today God has poured out the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters, young men and old men, menservants and maidservants” (Acts 2:17).
The way I look at it, if it happened to Peter, it can happen to you and me. If the Spirit untied and unmuted Peter’s tongue, then we, too, can learn to speak aright. Communicate effectively. Repent of bad habits of speech. Say the right words when words are needed and keep quiet when they’re not. The wonder of Pentecost is in reminding us that all of us can become tongue-tied to the Spirit so as to be able to communicate the love and mighty acts of God in a language others can understand.
Having said that, let me ask you a question. Who is it you yearn to communicate with more effectively? Is there somebody, some subset of humanity that you want to be able to talk to better? In honor of Pentecost, we all ought to pray the miracle of Pentecost can happen in our lives so we, like the first disciples, can be tongue-tied to the Spirit and speak well to others – Spouses. Children. Parents. Friends. People of different races, nations, politics and backgrounds.
And I hasten to add this: let’s pray not only that we can talk better, but also listen better. Effective communication requires talking and listening. Somebody said God gave us two ears and one mouth to be used in that proportion. Do we listen twice as much as we talk? If we’re honest, we’ll admit that when it comes to listening, we’re all hard of hearing. Or maybe I should say we’re all “hard of listening.” Hearing is a physical process that has to do with sound waves striking ear drums; listening is a spiritual process that has to do with one soul’s desire to be fully receptive to another. Let’s fess up: we’re not always listening … or willing to listen … to others. I confess! I think of all the times Jennie is talking and, though I’m vaguely aware words are coming out of her mouth and striking my ear drum, I’m not listening until I hear, "Helloooo. Earth to David. You’re not listening to me."
If we don’t listen well to those we love and who love us, how are we going to listen to those who are saying things we don’t want to hear? Well, we don’t listen to them. It’s called selective listening. Hearing only what we want to hear. When our kids were growing up, I could say, "Wanna go get ice cream?" and they'd hear me three blocks away. But if Jennie said, "Clean up your rooms," they couldn’t hear her from three feet away. The same affliction plagues us in regard to God's word: We're all ears to the stuff we like. But when it comes to the hard sayings of the Bible – those that require sacrifice, change, repentance, and confession, or commandments to love our enemies, welcome the stranger, and forgive those who trespass against – we can't hear those words, or, hearing them, we refuse to listen.
It’s Pentecost Sunday! When I poured my coffee this morning, I remembered seeing a mug once that had on it the words Engage Brain before Using Mouth. The Scriptures take it one step further – Engage Holy Spirit before Using Mouth. Today the Holy Spirit touches tongues to improve speaking and opens ears to improve listening so that people from all sorts of backgrounds, races, ethnicities and nations can communicate with each other. Here’s to being tongue-tied and ears-opened to the Holy Spirit of the living God.
Let all God’s people say: Amen.
