The Unforgiving Servant

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 

²³ “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. ²⁵ Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶ “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

²⁸ “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

²⁹ “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

³⁰ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

[Matthew 18.21-35]

Today’s Gospel reading is all about forgiveness, and it’s an interesting subject to talk about because we think we know what we mean by forgiveness, but I’m not sure we get it right.

When you think about it, humans aren’t very good at forgiveness, and I want to illustrate my point with four words: Diego Maradona, Margaret Thatcher.

From the Daily Express, June 23, 2014, after Gary Lineker met with Maradona in an interview in Brazil:

Goalkeeper Peter Shilton refused to appear on the show after the Argentine said he wouldn't apologise for using his hand.

Last year Shilton admitted: "It riled me that a player of his stature couldn't openly admit his guilt. I blame the officials though. They failed to spot a few keys decisions that went against us in that quarter-final and it cost us dearly.

On the 25th anniversary of Maradona's cheat goal, former England star Chris Waddle said he also understood why the nation still hated the Argentine.

This from the Daily Telegraph on April 17, 2013:

While protesters in London encouraged demonstrators to turn out with whistles, banners and horns to disrupt the funeral in London, across the country banners and effigies of the former Prime Minister were hung in celebration.

In former mining communities in the north, where hatred of Lady Thatcher is still strongly felt, there were a number of parties to mark her death.

In Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire, pubs were decorated with banners and former miners gathered to hang an effigy of Lady Thatcher outside the Union Jack pub, with signs reading “Thatcher the milk snatcher”.

People dressed in National Coal Board clothing gathered outside the pub and several National Union of Mineworkers banners were displayed.

A coffin was also brought out to parade through the street before being set alight, and one house displayed a sign which read: “The Lady’s not for turning but tonight she’ll be for burning.”

I have my own experiences of failing to forgive.  I’m still aggrieved about being passed over for promotion, twice.

I know all the reasons for it happening: the guy in charge was young, inexperienced, and tended to let their emotions cloud their decisions; his family disliked my family, and he’d taken a personal dislike to me. So, someone else got the job, and then when they left another someone took over.

Now some people would say that it’s in the past and that I should forgive and forget, and that might be true, but I still feel the sting of rejection.

Other people might point out that I’ve gone on to bigger and better things, and I have, it was about six months after that second rejection that I left the Cubs and I’ve never looked back, but I know I would have made an excellent sixer.

So, with these three people in our minds, Maradona, Margaret Thatcher, and my Cub Scout leader, I want us to really look at forgiveness.

And there are two questions to answer: how and why?

First the how?

We all know the phrase “forgive and forget”, but is it Biblical?

Who thinks it’s in the Bible?

I checked the King James Version, the New Revised Standard Version (that’s the one we use every week), the New International, God’s Word, English Standard and the New American Standard Bible.  None of them use the phrase forgive and forget.

William Shakespeare uses the phrase in a couple of his plays, Miguel Cervantes uses it in Don Quixote, but the two earliest uses that I can find are in the Odyssey by Homer, and in

in Aesop’s fable, the Man and the Serpent.

 “A Countryman's son by accident trod upon a Serpent's tail, which turned and bit him so that he died. The father in a rage got his axe, and pursuing the Serpent, cut off part of its tail. So the Serpent in revenge began stinging several of the Farmer's cattle and caused him severe loss. Well, the Farmer thought it best to make it up with the Serpent, and brought food and honey to the mouth of its lair, and said to it: "Let's forget and forgive; perhaps you were right to punish my son, and take vengeance on my cattle, but surely I was right in trying to revenge him; now that we are both satisfied why should not we be friends again?"

"No, no," said the Serpent; "take away your gifts; you can never forget the death of your son, nor I the loss of my tail."

Injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten.”

So you can see here that Aesop basically tells us that you don’t forgive and forget.

And when you really think about it, that makes sense, we aren’t in charge of the things that we remember, or the things that we forget. If we were we’d never forget loved one’s birthdays, and we would all forget Timmy Mallett singing Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

Forgetting is something that happens outside of our control, but forgiving, that’s a conscious decision to let go of our hate and anger.

And here’s the important point: if we really, truly forgive, we don’t need to forget, because the memory of whatever grievance we held has no more power over us.

The second question is why?

Why should we forgive?

Well the simple answer is because we’re commanded to forgive. But that’s a bit of a cop out really, why are we commanded to forgive?

What does Jesus say immediately after teaching the disciples the Lords Prayer?

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

So we’re commanded to forgive other people, or else our sins, our trespasses, will be held against us.

Now I want to look at today’s reading, and especially at the numbers: if there are numbers in any Bible passage they usually mean something important.

…

And what about the Old Testament God, the one who gave the Israelites the commandments and the Levitical laws…?

The Old Testament mostly talks about God forgiving the Israelites, although in Proverbs we get an idea of the other side of forgiveness.

⁹       One who forgives an affront fosters friendship,

but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend. 

You see, it’s hard to be a Christian while bearing a grudge.  Imagine we see the person (who we haven’t yet forgiven) and they are in trouble, and they need help.  By helping them we could be an excellent witness for Christ, but by not helping them…

Now I know that it’s really easy to talk about forgiveness from the safety of a pulpit, because there’s no painful consequence, and some of you might think it’s okay to try and forgive someone who’s not committed a big sin, but the people I haven’t forgiven have committed some whoppers.

And that’s what I was talking about at the start, how we talk as though we understand forgiveness, but we don’t really get it.

Look at our legal system: there are laws, and if you break a law you get punished. If you steal something you get a fine, if you steal lots of somethings you get a big fine.  If you kill someone you get a prison sentence; if you kill someone by accident you get a shorter prison sentence.

We read in the papers that someone’s committed a crime, been given their punishment and we say, “What, they only got that, for that? Terrible. Where’s the justice?” By our reactions we show that in our heads we have a really clear picture of which crimes are big and which are small.

But God doesn’t see things that way. And he never has.

Look at the Ten Commandments (shortened version)

³ You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

⁷ You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

⁸ Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

¹² Honor your father and your mother.

¹³ You shall not murder.

¹⁴ You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ You shall not steal.

¹⁶ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 

But covet basically means want something.

Can you imagine being in court with God as the judge and He says “Right, you: committed murder: 15 years minimum. You, bore false witness and lied in court: 15 years. You, really wanted your neighbours ox: 15 years.”?

There’d be uproar. God’s got it wrong we’d say.

But He hasn’t: we have. We’ve got it wrong.

When Jesus died on the cross, he wiped the slate clean, forever. Past, present and future.  Which is great for us when we do something wrong because we know we’re forgiven.  But it’s not so easy to take when we realise that other people are forgiven too. So long as they repent, so long as they turn away from that sin, no amount of grievance from us will change that. They are forgiven.

I want to finish with part of a letter that a father wrote to his daughter after he found out she had an unplanned pregnancy.

Though I weep inside, I can’t condemn you, because I sin too. Your transgression here is no worse than mine. It’s just different. Even if my heart did not shout out to love and defend and protect you—as it does—the New Testament tells me I can’t take forgiveness myself and withhold it from others.

We think of sin as acts. But sin is a package, an attitude that expresses itself in different ways and to different degrees. But it all comes from the same sin package you inherited through us. Christ is the only difference.

God forgives this sin as well as others—really forgives and cleanses.

Satan has no doubt tried to tell you that this affects your standing before God. It doesn’t, but it will affect your relationship till you bring the whole matter to Him. There will be a coolness, a separation, an estrangement, until you open the problem by confessing and asking forgiveness.

While we can’t say that God causes failures, He does permit them, and I think it’s clear He uses them to build character and beauty that we’d never have without them. Remember, God’s love is in even this, maybe especially in this.

We’re glad that in a measure, at least, we can help the daughter we love so much. This is a day of testing, but hold our ground we must. God will give us the victory. That’s wonderful. We’re looking forward to your being at home. Love, Dad.

---

Walking on Water

²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

[Matthew 18.22-33]

Here we have another one of those Bible stories that everyone knows: Jesus walking on the water.

But how well do we really know this story?

As I read through this passage during the week a number of questions occurred to me:

Why did Jesus send the disciples away? He didn’t usually do that, he took Peter, James and John with him when he went on the mountain before the transfiguration, he even took them with him when he went to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, but now he sends them away.

Why did the disciples think that Jesus was a ghost? Okay, they were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, people didn’t usually come wandering up to boats. But what does it say about these big manly fishermen and tax collectors that they thought ‘ghost’ and were terrified.

Why does Peter get rebuked for lacking faith? Yes, he took his eye off the ball, yes he started to sink; but he was the only one who was brave enough to get out of the boat in the first place.  Why don’t we read Jesus saying, “and you lot needn’t laugh, sitting there in your nice comfy fishing boat, you come out here and see what it’s like.”

Why does the wind stop as soon as Jesus gets into the boat?

All these questions have been swimming around in my brain, and I’ve managed to get some answers to them that I think are pretty sound.  But there’s a bigger question, if the other questions are the trees, this question is the wood.

Did it really happen? Did Jesus really walk on water?

Does anyone want to be brave enough to put their hand in the air and say that they believe it did?

I have tended to be what is called a liberal Christian, that’s someone who believes in God, but needs to make the stuff in the Bible fit with ‘real life’, I look for lessons that make rational sense. It’s probably because I have a background in the social sciences, in psychology.

So with this story I would say, well, the human body is denser than water, therefore you can’t possibly stay on top of the water. So this probably didn’t happen as it’s written, there must be some kind of lesson here that’s buried in the story, like a parable.

That makes more sense, it’s more compatible with science, with the world as we know it. And it makes me feel more comfortable.

Incidentally, some scholars have argued that he probably walked ‘by’ the water, on the shore. But that makes absolutely no sense. What was Peter doing if that’s the case? Is he standing in the boat, sees Jesus on the shore and tries to walk on the water to Jesus? Or is he on the shore too, but starts sinking into the beach?  Either way it’s a stupid argument.

But suggesting that these stories are poetic rather than real is the start of a slippery slope. So Jesus didn’t walk on water. Did he turn water into wine? Did he raise Lazarus from the dead? Did he heal lepers and paralytics?  If science prevents him from having power over water, then surely it prevents him having power over death. So did Jesus really rise from the dead?

For what it’s worth, I’ve come to recognise that my need for things to make sense before I can accept them is just that: it’s my need.  And if I can’t accept these things, that doesn’t make them not true. That is me putting myself, my understanding, above God.

Today’s reading from Romans sums things up pretty well. In it, Paul is arguing that there are two kinds of righteousness, two ways for people to try and get right with God.  One is to obey the law, and do everything that Deuteronomy and Leviticus say to do, the other is to have faith.

The legal way puts the responsibility on you to do the right thing. The faith way gives it all to God. Well I know which I prefer. So verses 9-10 give us the instructions:

If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.  

That’s the basic rule of salvation and justification, and all it takes is faith.  Which by the way we are given instructions on that too, just two verses after this reading ends Paul says:

Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

If we want to be made right with God we must read the word of God regularly, not just once a week; we have to get to know God intimately through the Bible, and we absolutely must give up on putting the law above God, whether it’s the Deuteronomic-Levitical law, or the law of physics.

I’ve been getting today’s big question all wrong.  I’ve been asking the world-based question:

How could a 15 stone carpenter from Nazareth walk on water? I have no idea.

I should’ve been asking the faith-based question:

Could a 15 stone carpenter from Nazareth walk on water? If he’s God, yes.

The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

[Matthew 13.1-9,18-23]

                                                

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but almost all English Bibles have headings in them.  I don’t mean the names of the books, like Matthew, Mark, Genesis, Deuteronomy. I don’t mean the chapter and verses number either. I mean these extra heading that have been added in.

For example, in most Bibles today’s Old Testament reading – Genesis 25.19-34 – is given the heading Jacob and Esau. As if you couldn’t tell what it was about by reading it.

The epistle, Romans 8, is called Life in the Spirit in one translation, and Life Through the Spirit in an other. Disagreement, interesting.

At some point, someone decided that it would be helpful to put extra titles in the books of the Bible, for all us numbskulls who couldn’t work out what we were reading from the words.  And the strange thing is that most translators seem to agree that we need these titles, but they don’t always agree what the title should be.

Which brings me on to the Gospel reading.  It’s one that most of us will know fairly well. At least well enough that when the minister gets up to do the sermon, we can all nod along sagely. Certainly well enough that every minister who has to do a sermon it racks their brains trying to find something new.

So here’s a quick quiz. Who thinks they know what the heading for today’s Gospel reading is?

The Parable of the Sower.

Does you think it’s called anything else?

Well, I checked every translation of the Bible in our house, just to see.

King James Version (1884) – the Parable of the Sower

Revised Standard Version (1971) – the Parable of the Sower

Good News Bible (1985) – the Parable of the Sower

New International Version (2000) – the Parable of the Sower

Today’s New International Version (2005) – the Parable of the Sower

I have one undated King James Version that calls it the Parable of the Sower and the Seed.

So what does this tell us, apart from the fact that I have a lot of Bibles?

Well, I have another translation – the New Living Translation – and in that the title is the Parable of the Four Soils.

So, in all the other Bibles, the people who translated the story from Greek decided that the most important thing, the thing that should be focussed on is the sower, in the NLT, it’s the soil.

What’s the difference? And what does it matter?

Well, when we look at what these things represent, it makes a bit more sense.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.

So the seed is the word of the kingdom, it’s the Gospel message. Then the sower, must be the person who spreads the message: the minister in church, or the evangelist in the street or workplace.

That means that the soil really represents the condition, the state of the person who hears the message. In the first example, it’s people who just don’t get it, the seed, the word, doesn’t make an impact, at all.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.

The second type of soil, the second person is about someone who hears and understands the Gospel, so it starts to have an effect, but as Jesus says, at the first sign of trouble they fall away.  It’s people who don’t cultivate the message.

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.

This third type I recognise well, I see it in myself when I’ve planned to read the Bible, but something interesting comes on TV and I’m torn.  This is about people who don’t put the message first.

But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

The final type is the one we’re all supposed to aim for. The one that bears fruit.

We can see ourselves as the sower. We can put ourselves into the story and be the person sharing the Gospel message. If we do that the lesson is about realizing that we won’t always get through to people, but there’s hope because just one seed, just one well-placed word can have a huge impact.

Or we can see ourselves as the soil, we can recognize that there are times when our faith seems to be failing, instead of thriving. Then we can read this parable and use it to identify what’s wrong: is it that the cares of the world are getting too much?  Is it that we haven’t got deep enough roots? Are we so totally closed off that the message of the Gospel doesn’t even make an impact?

Most Bible translators think that the thing to focus on is the Sower, the messenger, but I like the way that the NLT balances that out, and reminds us that the soil is important too.

Last week in Sunday School I got the group to plant seeds, and I asked them to look after those seeds, while imagining that they represent faith in God.

Looking after a seed takes time, patience, but most of all it takes vigilance: it’s something that we cannot take our eyes off for even a short time, or else it can wither.

Tongue-tied at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ ¹³But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 
¹⁷ “In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams. 
¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy. 
¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 
²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 
²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

[Acts 2.1-21]

For those of you who’ve ever done the readings in church, I have a question. What’s the first thing you do when you know you a reading’s coming up? I suspect that for most of you the answer will be the same. Number one, check the length of the passage; and number two, scan it for foreign words. Depending on what you find when you check these two things, you’ll either breathe a sigh of relief: “It’s only ten lines and the hardest word to pronounce is Jerusalem.”

Or, you’ll have a good hard think about whether you really need to come to church on that Sunday.

But for those of you who have ever experienced that sinking feeling when you come across, Elimelech or Melchizedek, Shelumiel or Shephatiah, or my personal favourite: Pokereth-hazzebaim, take heart, you’re not alone.  An American church asked people to vote on the most unpronounceable Biblical names, and these are the top three:

In third place was Joseph’s Egyptian name from Genesis: Zaphenath-paneah
In second place was King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim
And in first place was Isaiah’s son Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

For centuries, English speaking Christians have tried to cope with ancient Hebrew names. And over those centuries a number of strategies have come up, and I’m going to share them with you now.

There are the mumblers: who speak loud and clear all the way through the reading until it comes to mentioning Pokereth-hazzebaim.  It’s not really the best method because the mumbling draws more attention to the difficult word.

There are the researchers: who get copies of audio Bibles and listen to the name being pronounced, and then write it out as it’s pronounced.  That works okay, but it’s a bit of a faff, and involves buying an audio Bible, which can be expensive.

Then there are the bluffers: those who argue that no-one really knows the pronunciation of a word from three or four thousand years ago, and so long as you say it with confidence, it doesn’t matter what you say.

There is another method.  One that we don’t use in church, which is funny because it the most Biblical method of all. In Matthew 10.19, Mark 13.11 and Luke 12.11 Jesus tells the disciples not to don’t worry about what to say in front of the authorities, because it isn’t them speaking, it’s the Holy Spirit.

And that’s exactly what happens in the Acts reading: the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, and you’ll notice it says that tongues of fire rested on them. The Greek word is ‘glossa’ and it means an actual tongue, and also a language, like the mother-tongue: Cumbrian.

So these tongues, rested on the disciples, and gave them the ability to speak in foreign languages.

They use this new ability to speak about ‘God’s deeds of power’, His wondrous works. And the question we have to ask is ‘why?’ Why do they get this amazing ability?

One thing is for certain, it wasn’t so that they could travel the world and tell everyone about God. Which I have to say I find a bit strange. The twelve men who followed Jesus every day, who knew him intimately, and would probably be the best possible witnesses, ended up in Jerusalem. When all the other believers left as the Jewish leaders started persecuting them, the twelve original believers stayed in Jerusalem. So it can’t be that.

There are a couple of possibilities.  One nice idea is that this is like the Tower of Babel in reverse.  In that story the people of the world were separated by language, they were suddenly confused because in their pride they thought they could build a tower high enough to reach Heaven, and here, the people are suddenly united by language: despite coming from across the Jewish world, Europe, Asia and Africa, everyone hears their own language.  The Spirit brings them together.

The other idea is that this is a foreshadowing, that although the disciples don’t themselves go out of Judea, the message of God will, and does, until the entire world knows about him.

The message that I want you take home today is a word of comfort, and a real challenge.

The comfort is that with God anything is possible: the disciples were able to stand in front of the authorities and speak about God’s majesty, they were able to communicate in languages that they’d never spoken in before, and we are able to stand at the lectern and read from Isaiah or Judges or Genesis without making fools of ourselves.

The challenge is that for God to help us, we need to trust him. We need to not rely on our own abilities, because when we do that, we can get in God’s way. To really take advantage of the gifts that God is offering, sometimes we need to step back and let him be in charge.